Diversify Yourself

It’s not enough to know yourself. You have to become resilient in the post-full time employment, post-career, post-factory era. How do you become resilient? Diversify.

Diversify yourself to become a professional. Here are five points to keep in mind:

Don’t Choose Hobbies

“HOBBYIST: Will never become a professional. He’s too wrapped up in his cocoon, he believes in safety, despite people telling him how good he is. It’s a personal leap of faith to professionalism, and he’s not willing to make it.” Bob Lefsetz, Hobbyist/Professional

Hobbies are things we start knowing they won’t take center stage. They are diversions—not main courses. Hobbies are cool little things we do on the side—knowing they won’t go anywhere . Knowing we will only get so good—subconsciously knowing we won’t try to get any better at a certain point.

Hobbies are the way we can remain novices, blame our failures on a lack of talent, and hide behind when they start getting hard. Strumming a guitar as a hobby takes a different context than starting a touring band. Hobbies are a great way to experiment—but they are a passing fancy.

We’ve become painfully aware of choices we make to support hobbies.

Hobbies we start take time away from the craft we can become professional at. These are mutually exclusive—we can’t be a professional in our work and have a ton of hobbies at home. You can be diversified—but there’s a limit. In the amount of hours in a day, the amount of decisions we can make, the space in our house.

Hobbies are a are a cursory look, they don’t reinforce how you want to diversify. They don’t help you to grow as a professional. We have to be serious in how we want to diversify.

Give Yourself Three Years

“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you’ll need later.” —Seth Godin, Advice to Authors

When you diversify—give yourself enough time to grow and become a journeyman. This is the subtext of Four Hour Chef—we want to accelerate apprenticeship so we can improve as journeymen. The sooner we make the first leap, the better the second leap into becoming professionals.

If you choose to diversify—define your end state first. That will help you determine if you’re really invested, or just passing through. Godin’s rule is three years—take three years to make that new talent or hobby a cornerstone of how you’ll succeed as a professional. Are you a teacher looking to become an artist? Combine the two communities—and envision where you will be after three years of making art. Are you a taxi driver who loves bluegrass? What stories can you build during your shift into the songs you sing at the bar.

If you don’t want to invest three years—why invest one hour?

Right now—I’m investing in UX for the next three years. I believe UX is part of what I’m meant to do—and how I can provide my best art to the world. But I need to define the discipline for myself—which will take time. But over the next three years—I intend to become a pretty good designer.

Treat your life like a career capital portfolio—short-term trading your diversity will leave you depleted. Play long—persevere through deep work.

Decide on Your Legacy

—What will you rejoice leaving as a legacy at the end of your life? —Pam Slim, Body of Work

When you build up your diversity in three year shifts—you’ll have about 15 shifts to come to bear on whatever your master craft will be. If you want to be a writer—how will you compound those 15 shifts to become the best writer possible?

True musicians (not pop artists) get this—they reinvent themselves and their sound. But there’s something unmistakable at their foundation. There’s still the love of music, the devotion to the craft. Stephen King can write almost any genre—to the point where his voice is unrecognizable in other works. But he’s still honing his craft—he’s still growing as a writer.

You have to think of what you want to be remembered for.

What legacy your work will build up towards. Will you be a great architect? How about a great teacher? Or dare I say it—a noted financier. If you’re a programmer—what will you be able to leave behind as testament to your achievement?

Those 15 shifts shouldn’t be sporadic—they should all feedback to a theme. A singular role. Yes—even the Snoop Lion shift makes sense when you think of Snoop as a musician first, not a rapper.

Depending on your craft—certain hobbies will fall away. They won’t fit—they won’t push your forward—they won’t lead to a shift.

Clean out the Garage

You are the piles you haven’t touched in years. You are the boxes stacked in your garage. Do yourself a favor and dump all of that stuff out this weekend. Put it in your calendar, tap a keg, and have a clearing out party.

Professionals don’t have garages.

As I said before “if you don’t even have a garage and this is the art you do on the road, in a dive bar, with your friends, for crowds big and small, when no one is looking, and it’s all you care about—you’re a professional.” Similar to stopping worthless hobbies—it’s time to clear out the trinkets and tools of hobbies long since past.

You won’t get back into those jeans—and if you do (congratulations), would you really want to wear them again? Those old kids toys are worthless now—take a picture and get rid of the rest. Go make your charitable donation of the year by getting rid of those excessive boxes.

When you clean out your garage—you can focus on taking better steps to diversify yourself. Better actions to master your craft. Bigger risks in becoming a professional.

Find Fascination

Fascination is Inspiration. You won’t find it in what’s behind you—but it what you want that’s ahead.

Professionals continue to find fascination in their art. They find more questions than answers In their exploration—they find the right opportunities to diversify. What may seem like a niche and esoteric is the opening towards awe. Those of us stuck in our hobbies, piles, and boxes don’t see it because we aren’t open to it.

You should be able to find fascination everyday. If not—you aren’t looking hard enough. Or you aren’t in the environment that fascinates you. Whichever the cause—make the move towards fascination. Diversity isn’t hard—becoming a professional is. And once you’ve taken that challenge, your fascination will naturally lead you to diversify.

Reconciling Diversity and Professionalism

Diversity isn’t about divestment, but about investment. Diversity is our ability to continue to invest in your craft and uniqueness. It’s our ability to reinvent ourselves and continue becoming professional at our chosen craft.

Diversity and becoming professional are complimentary—it’s when we don’t use them that way we dissipate our energy and reinforce mediocrity.

To be a professional—you have to diversify yourself. You have to expand the definition of your craft. You have to see more, try more, fail more—so you can become more.

How will you diversify? How can you take on a shift or a challenge that will create long-term, lasting change in your craft?

*Garage photo by Sonia “PongAccia” via Flickr