Jack Of All Trades, Can't Focus On One. Perhaps Better Than A Master Of None?

Jack of all trades has become somewhat of an insult, but it didn’t begin as one. The phrase was originally used to describe a playwright who was always hanging around the theatres. He would help with the stage, the set and the costumes. He would remember lines and try directing. This so-called jack of all trades was in fact William Shakespeare. The full phrase is “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” It was a compliment. — Source: Forbes)

Growing up, my mom would often tell me to focus,

"Focus on one, don't think of doing too many things at the same time. Otherwise, there would be nothing that you're good at."

I have multiple passions and even more interests and hobbies that excite me (trust me, the list is so long). I am a jack of all trades.

I have trouble finding a dream job and a niche for my Medium blog. Only in recent years have I started to embrace this fact. This is something that I've always loved about me and took pride in but have been unable to embrace since we live in a world that encourages specialization. From choosing a dream job, college degree course, niche for our blog, to many more. We have either no answers or have way too many answers to any of those. It can be difficult for someone like me, alongside many others who are facing the same problem.

But William Shakespeare, from the quote above, was a Jack of all trades. If the great William Shakespeare 'made it' as one of us, what does it mean for us generalists? Let me explain.

I'm sorry in advance to the people named Jack reading this.

Problems Jacks (I'm sorry, Jacks reading this article) run into and how to know you're one of us:

## #1: We aren't a master of any one skill

The other half of this quote says it all, master of none. Because we are interested in learning so many things, we don't wholeheartedly focus on one thing until we're masters at it. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 10,000-hour rule Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in his book, Outliers.

Having that 10,000 hours and our attention divided across more than one skill, it's hard for us to truly master anything. We just really want to learn and be decent at everything that we're interested in. Being good isn't our goal. Achieving our learning goals, or until something else more interesting comes along, is.

#2: Which makes it hard for us to compete professionally in specialized jobs

Because we live in a world that encourages specialization, we're often up against people who are masters at their craft. Especially in the arts, in my experience, where the level of artistic skill is more important than anything else (besides networking connections). It's hard to compete, get gigs and opportunities when you often feel like you're not good enough for it. We're just decent, not great at it.

#3: Imposter Syndrome really sucks

To be honest, I'm not especially interested in the mastery of anything. Simply because I feel that that same time could be used to learn multiple other things too. But because we're not good at any of the things we enjoy, imposter syndrome can kick in. I can dance, I'm a musician, I write, and I'm so many other things too. But there's nothing I can say that I'm good at, just that I've been doing them much longer than others. There are masters and professionals in each of these fields that are so much better than me. So when I'm in professional settings with the other professionals in any field, I may feel intimidated, like...damn, they're ALL good. Bye, I don't belong here.

#4: Our life goal is to explore many different things instead of sticking to one (well, at least not for long)

Personally, I have a note in my workspace and note app that says 'ultimate goals'. This contains a list of all the things I want to learn and the professional goals that I want to achieve. Some of them are unrelated, like latte art and rock climbing. Others, like dance and music, each contain multiple genres that I wish to dabble into. My goal in life is to check them all off. Especially since most of these have been interests of mine for a while now. There were more, but this list is still so long.

#5: Monotony is torturous, we're easily distracted by the next shiny thing, but we can't help it.

We can't stick to one thing for too long. We get bored and easily distracted. Whether in the presence or lack of other interests to complement it, we can't last. I'm a classical pianist who started out learning pop but have always wanted to learn jazz. I started out as a Chinese dancer who later dabbled into hip hop and now 'specializes' in Latin but secretly seeks to learn contemporary modern dance someday. Seeing the exhaustive list of skills to check off sometimes makes me feel, well, a little exhausted but hopeful. I have way too many life goals.

Solutions/Advantages to being one of the Jacks:

Reason #1: Ability to juggle multiple skillsets at once

In your career, you would most likely be asked to wear multiple hats. Just take entrepreneurship as an example. It requires you to learn beyond skills that help create your product. Skills like social media marketing, graphic design, dealing with clients, tracking finances, and more are part of the job.

This can shape us into versatile and valuable assets as employees, especially in startups. We're able to juggle the different skill sets required for various tasks and projects, and we're (hopefully) great at managing our time.

Reason #2: Life long learner & Fast learner

We're always learning. We're lifelong students who have way too many things we wish to learn. Our life goal is to check 'em all off. Because of this, we're not afraid to start over as a beginner. But at the same time, having learned multiple skillsets leaves us with many transferrable skills. This helps us in the learning process, whether re-learning something familiar or completely new to us. We're able to make connections and analogies from the multiple things we're already familiar with.

Reason #3: Being able to hold conversations on a wide array of topics

I take pride in this. I can converse about the wide range of things I'm interested in -- from music to calligraphy to badminton and graphic design. I'm more inclined towards the creative disciplines. But when I was talking about graphic cards with my friend the other day, I was told I was surprisingly knowledgeable. So, I don't know?

Reason #4: A hobby or interest may lead to an opportunity

Many of us are writers here on Medium. Many of that stemmed from our love of writing. This leads us to somehow discover Medium and be on a platform that pays us for publishing our works. Some of us also go onto or have already expanded our writing endeavors by going freelance, writing guests posts, or writing on other sites like Vocal. What turned out to be an interest or passion may just ultimately lead us to an opportunity.

Reasons #5: Get to meet many friends

Because I'm a musician, dancer, writer, I've met many friends in each field. And I'm grateful for everyone I meet.

Final Thoughts

Being a jack of all trades can be difficult for us. Facing these common problems and the negative connotation of the infamous quote. But it sure serves us advantages that we can work with as well. In my experience, being a jack of all trades makes life much more interesting, with the wide range of experiences that we're willing to try and dabble into. It's not a bad thing. It makes us very versatile team members and employees. Constantly learning and picking up new skills may serve as a practice to learn how to learn better too. So, I guess we're masters at learning? Perhaps, that's the one thing we're good at.

What do you think? Are you a fellow jack of all trades or a specialist? Both have complementing advantages, and none is better than the other. Looking forward to reading your takes on this!

This article was originally posted on Medium at https://medium.com/fuck-niches/jack-of-all-trades-cant-focus-on-one-perhaps-better-than-a-master-of-none-6b5dbeb8b65d