Monday, July 23, 2007

Jack of All Trades


Ever hear the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none?” How do you feel about this phrase? The person it represents is the one whom probably comes from a background where mastery of a scholastic or trade skill was paramount to earning a good living and being successful in life. Instead, have you ever heard of the story of the young M.B.A. recruited into the large corporation; instead of being placed in a single department or discipline for his or her career there, they were shuffled around between departments as if they were being groomed for something bigger?

Throughout history the work environment in which most people reside has changed at points of major technological changes. In the United States, hours worked in the nineteenth century—around the time the Industrial Revolution made its way here—were easily “first light to dark” until legislation was enacted. The trend in the 1900s would move the average hours worked by an American from 55 hours per week to 37 hours by the beginning of the 21ST century. The shift in the hours resulted in technological revolutions: The Industrial Revolution shifting to the Information Revolution via the assembly line. What’s more, one hundred years ago no less than 85 percent of the population were entrepreneurs of some sort—shopkeepers or independent farmers. The shift in technology has brought about the ability to have more leisure time and develop a specialized skill set in a modern economy.

So, the “jack of all trades, master of none” comment finds its origins here: As the generations that came home from two world wars went to work in specialized professions—doctors, lawyers, engineers, artisans, or in some other trade skill. When you were young, chances are that your parents and teachers wanted you to “get good grades, get into a good college, and get a well-paying job.” Doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and the like: We’re conditioned to fit into a mold that is supposed to result in living the “American Dream” with the white picket fence, 1.54 children, pets, and a green lawn.

The person that popularized the aforementioned phrase was in the working class: Either middle class or poor; my money is on the middle class person. While many may be perfectly happy in the role of the middle class family, I think that many people are selling themselves short, so to speak. If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a hundred times more: Money is like oxygen—the more you have, the easier it is to breathe. Success, while it means many things to many people, is often fueled by a person’s financial picture: Financial success allows you more freedom in your life to determine which path you want to take, and not necessarily the one you need to take to keep the lights on, a roof over your head, and food on your table. Money buys you options.

Financial success is achieved not necessarily by one skill, but by myriad skills that fit together and work together towards an end of leading and executing. Just like the CEO that needs to be sufficiently familiar with the functional areas of the enterprise, or the general that needs to understand the concepts of combined arms in order to be able to employ resources effectively towards the cause that works towards his or her vision.

Each person has at least one gift that accentuates and somewhat defines their being. One of my backgrounds being in human resources, I have become somewhat adept at categorizing people into occupational fields & disciplines due to what I perceive is their particular skill set. Good with numbers and like to reconcile things? You’ll likely get categorized as an “accountant” in my head; different skill sets to different occupational specialties. Business would classify these skills that we could do second nature and employ best in any given situation “core competencies.” Just as core competencies are critical to our ability to earn an income, I recall hearing a saying once that went “people are often just one skill away from success.” Think about it. A profound statement, isn’t it? A medical doctor, for instance, usually attends 4 years of undergraduate school, 4 more years of graduate school, 3-7 years of a residency program, and (under some circumstances) a fellowship program that could last 1-3 years in a particular sub-specialty. A recent study found that physicians across multiple specialties in 2002 earned a median annual salary of $228,615.50. Despite this high level of income, what is the price paid to get into this time-honored professional occupation?

Despite the fact that doctors are among the best-paid professionals in the country, some worry debt and other financial considerations could affect career decisions made at the end of residency…A 2000 Contemporary Issues in Medical Education (CIME) report raised a red flag, stating that "at a $150,000 level of borrowing, a borrower's career decisions such as whether or not to pursue a fellowship program, to subspecialize, to practice in an underserved area, and other practice location decisions may be adversely impacted by their level of educational debt...’It used to be horrible for us to see a student whose debt surpassed $100,000,’[Pamela Nyiri, director of financial aid at Yale University School of Medicine for the past 20 years] said.’"Now it is horrible to see a student whose debt surpasses $200,000.’"

And none of this even touches the spending habits of individuals who have typically needed to put off any degree of luxury spending for at least a decade.

The same can be found for other specialty and professional occupations as well. Take attorneys, for example:

About 80 percent of law school students obtain loans to pay for law school, and the average loan debt is $76,763 for private law school graduates and $48,910 for public school graduates.

What is the way to get ahead? In his book “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing,” Robert T. Kiyosaki explains the concept of learning to be a business owner and investor over the path of becoming someone who works in a “job” or starts working for themselves as a “solo professional.” In the latter two options, your destiny is tied directly to a routine of “go to work every day” or your income will suffer. They are both based on earned income—that is, income that you must tend to on a regular basis in order to maintain. It is the type of “work” that a person must be tied to in order for it to succeed. As a worker, you are tied to the whims of an employer; and often as someone working as a solo professional, your destiny is tied to the professional skill which you bring to your business concern. In a business entity you allow others to manage the day-to-day affairs of the business (if you choose) and work to gain you wealth; you are investing in people and materials and reaping a return on your investment equal to the productivity of each individual within this business organization. The investor, then, is one who transcends normal paradigms and is able to move money and other assets around into various investments and reap the passive income-generating benefits that are offered by them. In the first alternatives: Worker and professional, you must play a very active role in order to reap the rewards—you trade your labor for financial benefit. In the business owner and investor you instead work your mind, using your intelligence, experience, and other resources to make time work harder for you, instead of you working harder with your time.

This sort of paradigm is not necessarily achieved by means of sitting in a single occupation or industry for several decades and comfortably accumulating wealth; instead it arises from a broad skill set manifest of experience and education—both self-education and formal education. Instead of sticking with one skill set, you don’t take jobs or offer your expertise for things that will necessarily make you money; instead, you find job opportunities to expand your amount of skill sets—increasing your core competencies—and thus offer you a broad level of experience that is deep in several fields. This offers you a background that allows you to look at life’s multitude of opportunities in a creative manner: One that allows you to spot opportunity more readily than others and apply the resource pool, the mental box of tools which you’ve constantly been expanding, which you have to exploit the opportunity at hand.

So, instead of becoming a “master of one trade,” become a “jack of many,” and be able to hire “masters” for those trades which you want work done in.

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