Jack of all trades, master of none?

JACK OF ALL TRADES OR MASTER OF ONE?

Simple Definition of jack–of–all–trades

·    : a person who has many skills : a person who can do many different jobs

Full Definition of jack–of–all–trades

plural

jacks–of–all–trades

1. :  a person who can do passable work at various tasks :  a handy versatile person

Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

You've probably heard the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none." It implies that by acquiring many skills, you give up mastery of any of them. But I beg to differ, the fact that has many skills, doesn’t mean they can’t be masters in anything.

There are four levels to making money, legit money. You could be an employee; you could be self-employed; you could be a business systems owner (set up a company); and finally you could be an investor in smart people’s businesses.

I like to think that a start-up business should have a leader (or owner) that knows a bit of everything. Let’s say hypothetically, I want to run a fashion outfit in this technologically driven age and I’m a start-up so I don’t have enough financing as to hiring one or two staff. I would have to learn many things. I would have to know about fabrics, would know how to draft patterns for cutting the fabrics, would have to know how to measure, how to mix materials, how to sew, how to take pictures for advertising and how to use social media and the web as a tool for acquiring clients.

In the above scenario, I have a “jack of all trades”. She’s the fashion designer, she’s the fashion illustrator, fabric technologist, pattern maker, seamstress, photographer, social media marketer, accountant and CEO. When she needs to expand and hire people into the fields, I believe that it would be easier for her to hire the best of staff than someone who didn’t acquire all the skills she has. Like we said in one of our earlier posts, the ability to hire effective people useful to your organization is a skill required to succeed in the business world. If you ask me, the master of one works for the jack of all trades.

Especially in this country of ours where staff only respect their ‘bosses’ when they know he/she is skilled in what they’ve hired them for.

“Jack of all trades, master of none,

though oftentimes better than master of one”

However, different strokes work for different folks, being a master in a field sets you apart from being a rookie, you are respected and trusted in what you do. If you are successful at what you do, then no pressure competing with Jack. At the end of the day, Jack (if he’s smart) really can’t go on without the master.

Also Jack won’t do himself any good if he can’t master at least one of his skills. Burnout is also a real challenge for a Jack of All Trades. When there are so many different things you want to do, you forget that you only have so much time and energy to take things on with. Stay realistic and remember that being a Jack of All Trades doesn’t make you a superhero. Just because you want to know how to do a lot of things doesn’t mean you can just start learning how to do them all at once. Take your time, pick a couple things to focus on, and be mindful of your personal well-being.

At the end of the day, they go hand in hand but I still think an entrepreneur should be vast in skills even though they won’t be doing the job themselves. We would like to know what your thoughts are. Would you rather be a jack of all trades or a master of one?