Specialist or Jack-of-All-Trades? The Answer’s Obvious to Me

I believe there is one that will help your business far more.

When deciding who to hire, it often comes down to the decision of jack of all trades or specialist. I believe there is one that will help your business far more, and that’s jack of all trades.

Let me explain.

I run a five hundred person agency called VaynerMedia, where we take a lot of things into consideration when hiring (here are a few). When you have a company that has grown so large so quickly, it is of course important to balance all the different types of people who work there. You need to have specialists but you also need the jack of all trades. When you strike a balance within the company, it’s beneficial for the task at hand. Both personality types work. I’m not denying that.

But I never think that you should focus on one particular skill. Never limit yourself to that.

Many people would argue that if you try to know a little bit of everything, you’ll never get to the point of mastering anything. My argument? Bullshit. I don’t buy it. I don’t believe in trying to strengthen weaknesses, but I do believe in working hard to be good at many things. In life you will be required to take on many different tasks. You might be really good at something now, but don’t let that stop you from finding out what else you can dominate. Because I know it’s not just one thing. You’re better than that.

We adapt and evolve our skill-sets depending on our particular situation in life. We do it all the time, so to consider yourself a specialist is limiting. And no excuses. When I hear people make the excuse that they can’t do other things because they’ve gone so deep in one focus, it bothers me.

There’s always room to get better in as many things as possible. Expand your arsenal because you’ll never know when you’ll need to tap into more than one skill. It’ll speak to your agility and your ability to offer a number of benefits to a certain situation when the time calls for it. You can always get better. Start moving. I know you can do this.

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