Posted on June 4, 2008 - by Jeffrey

Jack of All Trades, Master of None?

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This statement used to make sense to me, but lately I feel it only applies to certain parts of life and business. The basic idea (if it wasn’t obvious) is that if you spend your time trying to learn everything, you will be moderately good at most of the things..but never a master of one of them. I have a different approach to this. My feeling is that if you have a reasonably high IQ and pretty good street smarts, you can be a master of three (3), not just one. Say master one thing, then expand to a new subject while concentrating on the other still, then eventually incorporating a third.

Managing it All

This isn’t an easy process and concentrating on up to three projects at once can get a little “hairy”, but if you are a die hard capitalist then this will probably fit right into your current schedule. I have to stress that when I am working on three (projects, ideas, companies) things at once I usually don’t even think of doing anything else. I may come across a niche idea and do an hour or two of research on it, but it will take a lot of compelling information to make me drop something I am currently working on.

Choosing Your Three “things”

Let’s not think about the three things as completely separate. True, they can all be completely different, but then again they can all be similar or related. I try to budget things by the time involved to handle all three during a given week. One may require a few hours, another forty hours, it’s all relevant to what you’re doing.

Switching or Dropping

As we all experience, there are things we start and are awesome and their are things we start then end up not being into anymore or they are not profitable enough. It’s important to be constantly evaluating your current situation to make sure you are working on the things that make sense to you. I have a projects where I don’t make any money, but in those cases, I do them because I enjoy working on them or I’m in it to learn something. Profit can be realized in many different ways as well. Knowledge, Experience among others are all things I consider to be profit to me. As a person, my stock valuation increases with these.

Change It Up

At times I bump things down to two or even one “thing” at a time. For me, this all comes down to the time load. When something does well, I want to to concentrate on that “thing” as much as possible to ensure it’s success. Then maybe when things slow down or it’s finished/sold, ramp things up again. When I feel something is dying or has past a point I am willing to go with it, I will seriously evaluate dropping that “thing” before I do. If I do decide to drop it, I am very careful when picking up something new.

Value Your Time

My time is important to me and so is yours. True I may lounge around and do nothing with it at times, but it is still my time and I will do with it what I please. Think about it, time is one of the one things you will never get back no matter how much money you have. Value it and budget it. Sometimes you just need a break and we all unwind differently. Make sure you keep your sanity.. So to summarize, being a Jack of All Trades does not necessarily mean you are a Master of None..

If handled correctly, you may just end up a master of two or three!