Should you become a generalist or specialist? Well, let’s see from world-famous examples… Generalist: In 1972 Steve Jobs took a Calligraphy class at Reed College taught by a Trappist monk and used this skill to create different style fonts for Apple computers. It’s thanks to Jobs that we now have different style fonts on our PCs. Jo Malone left school with no qualifications, but through learning different skills along the way such as selling paintings at the local market and creating homemade beauty products for herself, she was able to launch her perfume brand Jo Malone. It has since grown to become one of the most popular perfume brands globally. Elon Musk is perhaps the most famous example. He has continuously applied his knowledge of physics and first principles thinking to achieve phenomenal success with Tesla, Paypal, Space X, and many more. Musk has proven that by acquiring the key skills & knowledge needed in a particular field you can outwit the competition and become successful. Specialist: Warren Buffett is proof that you’re never too young to specialize. At 11 years old, Buffett had gone through most of the books on the topic of Investing at the local library. When he reached 15 years old, he got a job as a newspaper delivery boy, saved up his earnings, and started investing in local farmland. Through his success with Berkshire Hathaway, he is considered by many to be the best fundamental investor of all time. At age six, J.K. Rowling wrote her first novel titled “Rabbit”. She would go on to write many books in her spare time, but it wasn’t until she came up with the idea of Harry Porter in 1990 that things began to change. The first book of the Harry Porter series was published in 1997 and became an instant hit. J.K. Rowling spent over 20 years sharpening her writing skills before she saw success. Up-skilling is important now more than ever. I think knowing how to combine two highly valuable skills is the key. For example, if you know how to design and develop software then you could combine the two skills, as they are more powerful together.
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Interior Designer | Applied Data Science, MSc in Computer Science
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