People who develop many different skills are more successful than people who focus on one skill only.
We live in a world where knowledge is accumulated exponentially and at the same time become more and more specialized. Therefore, to be professional in a certain field today becomes gradually important. However, on no account should we ignore the status of people who possess different skills.
Specialists, who we all know are excel in one aspect such as science, art, sports and literature. There is no doubt that these people are supposed to concentrate on a subject rather than develop many other interests. Take NBA star Kobe Bryant as an example. Influenced by his father, Kobe started to play basketball when he was four years old and he showed a striking talent on it. After senior high school, in order to develop his basketball career, Kobe abandoned college life. During his 17 years career, he didn't try to learn something other but work hard every day. As he said:" you want to know why I am successful? I almost know about the look of LA every day.” he spared no effort to train, to play, and to win. He focused on only one skill but vastly amplified it. Until now, he is so successful that he has been wined 5 championship rings, which achieved by few person.
In another hand, there is increasing demand for generalists of our society. Lots of positions, especially administrators or managers need to be familiar with all aspects and develop many skills. It is conceivable that they don't have to learn a certain skill so deeply as specialists; all they need is to master it on shallow level. For instance, Steve Jobs, the former CEO of APPLE, is an outstanding manager. He knows some knowledge about electric principle, which are not as much as Wozniack did, he was familiar with art, from which he could design beautiful outlook of PC and telephone, and he understood how to manage and organize others' works. Based on such different skills, he could perform his ability in the area of IT and finally made a so great success---" have changed the world" as he claimed.
Nowadays, so many people have been successful depending on one certain skill and so many people also achieved their final goals as versatility generalists that we cannot judge which way is better. What we should do is to find out who we are. If you are a person who can concentrated on a subject but not likely to develop many skills, maybe you should go toward specialization and do your utmost to make a breakthrough. Probably you prefer to study some kinds of skill, and then you will be an excellent administrator. To sum up, as one of famous philosophers once said " Every man has its price", as long as you find out a suitable way, you will be succeed in the future.
|