The Perks of Being a Jack of All Trades, Master of None

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Some of us had an idea, stuck with it, and who they imagined themselves growing up to be became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For everyone else there’s Master Card – and an ever-present cloud of existential dread supported by a preoccupied mind of career identity crisis.

But don’t worry, you can still become whatever you want to be, didn’t you hear?
You just need 10,000 hours. Wow! That’s all it takes, just time… Yup, Time.
You know, that thing you are running out of on a daily basis and had a surplus of as a kid – before responsibilities and hard earned comfort slowly crept into your life.

Hate to break it to you Mr. Gladwell, thanks for the 10,000 hours tip, but to be honest…
Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!

Opportunity Beats Mastery
Be your best at everything that comes your way in life and you will be satisfied.
You can’t be the best at everything, and if you’re like me, you may not be ‘the best’ at any one thing.

Say ‘Yes’ to things you don’t know how to do – and quickly figure out how to do them behind the scenes.
Life is too short to have the mindset of “I don’t do that because I am a master of this.”

The Mystery of Mastery
If you still feel the need to have mastery at something, but don’t know what to invest your efforts into, don’t worry, life will present it to you because there is no shortage of problems and problems will find you.
If you take on the tasks of attempting to solve these problems you will start noticing a pattern. Therein lies the clues to your mastery.

However, you only see how the dots connect later. You have to take on a variety of problems over the course of your life and only when you look back you’ll see what it is you’ve mastered.

An Interesting Frankenstein’s Monster is an Interested Frankenstein’s Monster
Mastery is overrated, but continued learning never goes out of style.
Existence is interesting and has many interests for you to pursue. Don’t be overwhelmed, try a little bit of everything. It’s what makes you unique. Eventually you’ll be able to piece together all the skills and interests you’ve acquired in order to create a beautiful unique monster that only you can provide.

So when the world is looking for something new and unique you can proudly present your monster and shout “It’s ALIVE! It’s ALIVE!”

Meanwhile the people obsessed with Mastery will be having a pissing contest and fighting each other to the death for lowest bidder in order to do work for a client who has many options of so proclaimed ‘masters’ to choose from.

I’ll take Monsters over Masters, please.