If you consider yourself a generalist, here’s the good news: doing great work in the future will require the skills of a generalist, especially if you work independently or on a small team.
And more and more of us are working independently these days. 40% of American workers will be freelancers by 2020 (and according to Freelancer’s Union, 33% of us already are) and freelancers need to be generalists to be successful. You have to know a little bit of everything.
Company founders need to be generalists too. Running a business requires wearing so many hats!
But here’s the problem: you can’t afford to just be a generalist. People get hired for a specialty or a small set of deep skills. Products get purchased for the specific problem they solve. Businesses get built on concrete expertise.
If you’ve been wearing the generalist title proudly, you’re making your life hard. I know because I used to carefully craft my resume to paint myself as a jack of all trades. When I decided to brand myself first as a software developer, then as a project manager, and later as the traffic guy when I went on my own, that’s when things got good and everything became possible.
Where does a generalist apply for a position on the job boards? Where is the “generalist needed” section in Craigslist? How does a founder with only shallow skills get her first prototype off the ground?
The motivation for being a generalist is understandable. It’s fun to learn new things. It’s great to know a little about a lot. The rush of diving into a new topic is something you can count on.
But this is also a cop-out. The easiest learning comes in the first 20 hours. You can learn a lot when something is fresh and exciting. But can you learn a skill that’s sellable in 20 hours?
Becoming a generalist happens to people like us who get really excited about a new thing and can’t help but learn everything we can… until we get bored and move on to the next thing.
Being a specialist is about discipline, and generalists find this kind of discipline hard to come by.
But you have to be an expert in something, or a handful of things, if you expect to charge top rates, land the coveted jobs, or create the next hot product.
Gary Vaynerchuk dropped this little gem yesterday: Stop Asking Me About Your Personal Brand, and Start Doing Some Work. Generalists have the right idea: you need to know about a lot of things to succeed in this world. But you have to start doing the work it takes to be an expert and a generalist at the same time.
Otherwise it’s all branding and no skills. An inch deep and a mile wide.
Forcing yourself to be solely a specialist isn’t the answer either. Specialists have to rely on other people too much and bear too much risk that the market might change.
The intersection of the two is where the magic happens. Become an expert and a generalist at the same time, and you’ll be unstoppable.
And here’s the ironic part: once you become an expert at something, your generalist skills will be more valuable than ever. The expertise gets your foot in the door. It makes you valuable and opens opportunities. Once you land the opportunities, you can embrace your generalist nature all you want.
The trick is figuring out what to become an expert at, and how to find the discipline you need to stick with it.
Those are the two questions you should be asking yourself. Instead of “what should I learn next” ask yourself: “what skill is valuable and interesting enough for me to become one of the world’s best at?” Then ask yourself where you’ll find the motivation and create the habits to follow through.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share your take on being a generalist in the comments below.
“You have to start doing the work it takes to be an expert and a generalist at the same time.”
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The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
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This post is awesome and honestly right on time. I do have a question though.
I was just creating a Google Doc with the skills to be a better “Digital Marketer”. After some research I listed out 8 non-coder/designer skills that are relevant. My current role allows me to apply some of these skills but I’d like to be well rounded.
My original plan was to pick 1 skill every three weeks, learn as much as I could about it through research, writing and application, then move on to the next skill while still applying what I had previously learned. Any thoughts on this method?
Hey Chris – being an expert marketer can be a very valuable thing, and I think your plan of systematically learning different areas within digital marketing is fine.
However, if you’re going to work for other businesses, don’t forget to consider where you can specialize within marketing overall. How will you stand out against all the other digital marketers? What will you know better than anyone? Why should someone hire you instead of the 1000s of others who claim to be good at marketing?
And on the other hand, if you plan to work for yourself, you need to become an expert in the thing you’re marketing, not just marketing itself.
Thank you for the insight!
I currently work at a marketing firm doing B2B copywriting but am still fairly new to it, 1 year in. I would enjoy/think it would be beneficial to focus on incremental growth in every aspect of digital copywriting (blogging, email, social, etc.). Do you believe this approach would be the proper application to your suggestion?
But what is going to be the niche that you will target with your digital copywriting? And, deeper down, which industry? You will need application of your digital copywriting skills.
I’ll be honest Terence, I didn’t love hearing this response at first but it was perfect. Thank you for the insight and willingness to help! I have a few ideas on industries I’d like to pursue expertise thanks to it.
Great article. It’s always yin and yang. So many find themselves in the ‘new economy’, not wanting to be a drone in a meaningless corporate plan which commoditises them. Instead, they pursue an entrepreneurial journey, which naturally demands a broad skill set. The challenge surely is to define your true interest, and which also happens to be what people will pay for.
For me it has got to be based on ‘your why that makes you cry’, your driving purpose. Finding that is one thing that will give you drive to become an expert. The second part of making a business model that will sustain it, now that is a learning curve, right there.
Anaïs of bullshitelimination.com has a powerful graphic on this.
http://bullshitelimination.com/purpose-driven-career/
Best of luck finding that overlap y’all :)
I’m a multipassionista. I love lots of things and I love knowing a bit about everything. I am a serial learner. This post has come at the right time for me. I have been verging on having to make some large decisions as I have become exhausted and a little disenchanted with what I have created. I am spreading myself far too thin. I’ve finally made the decision to run with my passion, with what I am good at and simply specialise. It doesn’t mean that my knowledge of online marketing etc is wasted – it will all come in useful one way or another. This post has really given me the nod that I am doing the right thing for me and my business. Thanks!
I would certainly consider myself a generalist. Always have been. When I was younger, I was in a band. I was the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and songwriter. But I also recorded the music, wrote the drum parts, the bass parts, the keyboard parts (i even designed our website and booked our shows).
Now that I run my own online business, I do everything myself. I write, I design, I film, I podcast. I have all the technical and creative skills that most people would kill to have.
Now that I bragged about myself, I want to make my point. I don’t think you need to be a specialist, but a really exceptional generalist.
I know a lot of people who would consider themselves a jack of all trades, but they’re a shitty jack. Just because they CAN do everything, doesn’t mean they should. I think the real skill is understanding when you’re not cut out for the job. Like, in my case, I make a really bad text editor. I try and I fail and I try again. I understand that someone else needs to do this besides me.
I’m really bad at selling myself. Again, I’ve tried several times and failed. I need to let go and give this job to someone who is better than me. They can be a generalist, but as long as they are better at sales than me.
I think you nailed it here. The future jobs will need a hell lot of generalist skills as the ability to work with diverse teams and diverse jobs will be immense. At the same time, unless you can craft an identity of your own, you’ll just be another manager of projects.
Create your brand which is built on disciplined efforts and be known for that one thing which you are a specialist at! Then leverage that to find markets where that specialization can be used in ways the world hasn’t even thought of yet! Use your generalist skills to market your specialization and create powerful breakthroughs :)
Thanks for writing this awesome post! Kudos!
-Nik
I’ve struggled with this through the years, I though putting myself into one bucket, meant ignoring the other skills in my toolbox because that is mainly the psychology of recruiters, looking for keywords on your resume.
So a timely reminder, and lesson worth meditating on, because, without doing so, your struggle remains.
As someone said once, you don’t take your car or yourself to a generalist, when you need help, you always go to the go-to guy, the specialist.
Thanks
Tony
Such an awesome point! I’ve been a fitness coach for over 5 years now and I remember I wanted to be everyones trainer. Trainer to lose weight, bodybuilding, group instructor but it didn’t get me very far. Until I admitted to myself that I can’t please everyone and stick to things I’m an expert in like Kettlebells and Martial Arts, that’s when I found the most success both in my brick and mortar business and building my blog. Awesome post!
That’s really insightful. The only successful specialists know how to wear the generalist hat when it’s necessary, and the most successful generalists are specialists in something.
I definitely needed this, thank you
Great, pointed motivational piece. As a journalist focusing on global business, I find myself being too proud of the fact that I know a little bit about a lot. But what good is that other than for starting conversations at parties? I’ve found myself wanting to invest real time in my rudimentary language skills (part of my generalist cred) and double-down on my long-form writing abilities. Hopefully that’s not too much of a shotgun approach.
Generalist = Commodity
Specialist = Lynchpin (see Seth Godin)
There’s a law of Skill Economics that is similar to its financial cousin, and is based on supply and demand. Find something you love and there’s a market for, put in your 10k (give or take) hours, and you’re super valuable.
Caveat… keep an eye on the industry, be a constant learner, and be prepared to shift. For example, typesetters in the 80’s were a highly specialized group, but lost jobs overnight when the Mac came on the scene. They had to shift their expertise to a new platform to stay relevant (but the same core skillset).
Another way to become a specialist is to not necessarily be the world’s best at one particular skill, but to create a unique combination of skills in which you are above average but the sum of which creates something totally unique and valuable. This, in essence, is how Scott Adams created his success. He wasn’t a particularly great cartoonist, a comedian or a business mind, but the combination of the three enabled him to find (create) a niche that only he could fulfill.
This is a great thought on becoming a specialist. The idea of combining general skills into a unique specialization is very interesting.
This is an awesome thought, I read it and mind was yelling “that’s me, that’s me!” with my business. Well put!
Oh, one more thing… there’s a word for Generalist + Leadership Skills… that’s CEO. So if you like being a generalist and know a just enough about a lot of areas, and have leadership skills and emotional intelligence, you are the makings of a great entrepreneur who can lead a team. (Really, you are a specialist at your core skillset, which is leadership.) Well rounded leaders like this are also super valuable!
Yeah guys, awesome. I specialize in turning everything out there into awesome.
Every remark, thought, belief, habit, fear, feeling i am able to reverse in something sustainably awesome. Aw Yeah.
i am a generalist in searching for the secrets of awesome lives out there, in trying to figure online business strategies that work, in designing my website, in deciding whether to use SEO actively or just to follow my heart, in designing new products and services, in testing landingpages etc.
And I don’t mind being a generalist as well. I know my Purpose will give my enough energy to deal with these tasks as well. My Purpose is to create as many awesome lives as I can together with a community. By raising the 2% positive Mindset there is in the world into 4%. So, just join.
Sometimes it is hard because the one and only thing I wanna do is to create and connect. The other stuff makes that possible. Sometime it just takes to long. Where are the customers, where are the connections, where are the one that love to read my blog posts. Each day I write another one…. With all the love I have. See you at the other end….. paulricken.nl
Had to speak up on this one.
I struggled with earning more than $10k my first year as a freelance writer because I was told to just “try things out” as I could get jobs since the market was so competitive. I got paid maybe $50 per 500-word blog post, $400 for a decent magazine article.
However, it wasn’t until this past year that I decided to start delving specifically into online video (and online business) that I started to get companies inquiring after my services. They were willing to pay me $250 per 500-word blog post! That’s a 500% increase in potential income (meaning if I wasn’t writing for Tubefilter, I could hypothetically earn $50,000 just from freelance writing about online video).
Specialist for the win.
Thank you for sharing this! Adds a bit more clarity for my own writing.
I know that this post is 5 months old, and by internet time long forgotten, but it seemed like you didn’t find success until you stopped being a specialist. forgive if I’m misunderstanding but from what i read, you were writing about anything and everything.
Now given, a generalist can have a vague title but you still need some sort of specification. It’s very rare when you need a handy man to come over, clean your gutters, unclog your sink, install a new graphics card in your computer, and then cook dinner for your kids cause he’s babysitting the whole time he does everything else. as ridiculous (and awesome) that would be, you have to have some specialization in your generalization.
At first it seemed you specialized in writing but with nothing in depth to write about. When that generalist side focused in a bit (in this instance, online video and business) you truly found success.
once again I may be wrong in my interpretation but all in all, I’d say it wasn’t a win for specialization. I’d say it was a win for finding that perfect middle ground.
(but either way, in the end, congrats on being a homemade success story! :D)
Being a generalist assumes being mediocre at everything.
Baseline competence as we say at Simplifilm.
There is no value there.
There is no need for that guy.
Someone that can work WordPress? Dime a dozen. They know it because they add the 3% paypal fee onto your invoice, or put a footer on the bottom of your site.
However, the best people I work with are GREAT at many things.
They are great visual artists, communicators, hustlers, all in one. So I don’t know – I don’t want to discourage people from being limited to one area.
There is no market for a ‘generalist.’ There is inexhaustible demand for someone who is generally excellent.
This reminds me of the easiest visual model I’ve seen, and it’s the Toyota Production System’s “T-type leaders” model. Imagine the letter T… it’s deep in one area, and then broad across the top once you’ve mastered something. Love the post!
Great post as always.
Totally agree with you btw, but what I do love, and what has allowed me to actually begin to flourish in my chosen areas (writing/coaching) is that it is not an either/or proposition. As your Venn diagram clearly shows, it is the intersections between specialism and generalism where ‘the magic is’.
Now, I, and probably plenty of other people who are working to create trully awesome lives for themselves, get super bored doing one single thing. The idea of become such a specialist that I was typecast and without the freedom to maneoveur scares the hell out of me.
However, I now know that any business is multifaceted and there is always room to find the things you love, learn the hell out of them, and come out with some incredibly valuable skills. And, as a bootstrapper, most people will have to do a lot of things as they start their business. Do them! Don’t outsource it all at the start. Learning what your business is all about makes you, 1. Better able to understand your business and the component parts, 2. Know what you need, what you are bad at, and how to pass it off to someone else who loves it, and 3. By doing ‘everything’ at the start, those passions, the areas of your business that light you up, will become ever more obvious.
I believe that to become a specialist, you need to develop a deep love for those skills and knowledge base. Trial and error is going to sort that out. My advice to myself is always, “Don’t push it, let it happen”, seems to work :-)
Thanks for a great post, incredible insights and valuable info as usual
-S
One of our specialties at KatzAbosch is helping nonprofits fulfill their missions in the communities they serve. Crucial components to nonprofit law at the state and federal level are the procedures around disclosure. Wealth Management CPA
Corbett, in a talk we once had, I can’t believe I remember, you mentioned two words. These words were secret sauce. I was going on about how I wanted to be more or less a generalist for technical support to everyone…and at the time was struggling to be specific about anything on my homepage, or go deep any one direction.
This post hits home for me because I so clearly see the value in being specific, niche, deep, specialized… secret sauced now years later. You need to provide the meat in a burrito, but why do people keep coming back? … because of that special combination, or that one thing done really really well, and the reliability you can do lots of other related stuff too.
So I love this topic, and implore those reading to paint themselves into a corner with their business, the more specific the better and the faster you’ll find out what works and doesn’t. aka – hats for dogs with three legs
You can be more generalized after you dive into being specialized and go deep is another way to say it. It’s so hard to see that and practice it though, especially so in some sectors. I still struggle alot! … but I’ve built my own tactics around having seasons of very specific endeavors for very specific people. Cheers
I started out my business as an animal artist taking commissions from lizards to cats and even cars!! (I know it not even an animal!) but in the beginning I was a yes woman I said yes to all work coming my way. It helped build my name and showed I could really draw and paint any subject out there but I was not focussing on one area. I am not a canine and equine art specialist. I have people coming from every crack and corner of the world wanting me to paint their dog or horse. I would say I am more a canine art specialist now than equine but I love horses and don’t like to turn away these customers. People are also more inclined to spend more too as they feel confident you really know what your doing. Def helped my business by narrowing down my subject matter finding my own niche (Mostly show dogs) Great article :)
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Great post, Corbett. Know something about everything (generalist), and everything about something (specialist).