1 Mastered Skill vs. 3 Average Skills

Robert Herjavec, Dilbert and Scott Adams

In my continuing quest to reach my potential, be productive and live my best life, I'm constantly absorbing self-improvement books, videos, blogs and podcasts. 

One of my favorite self-improvement leaders is Robin Sharma. I've been following his advice for years and even paid for some of his material.

So it was interesting when the YouTube algorithm brought my attention to a motivational video of Robert Herjavec. I don't watch Shark Tank so I'd never heard of him before. The title of the video was "It Will Make You Rich" so of course I watched it.



My ears perked up when Herjavec said, "Nobody makes you wealthy because you're OK at something. The world does not reward mediocrity nor does it reward average. It only rewards exceptional. So you got to find that one thing that you're good at and you've got to become great at it."

What struck me about that opinion is that it's similar to Sharma who talks a lot about becoming "world-class."

But what also struck me about it is that it's in contradiction to the opinion of Dilbert creator Scott Adams. In his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams explains his success formula: Good + Good > Excellent. Adams explains that each skill you acquire doubles your odds of success and that with a few exceptions (like athletes and entertainers, for example). He presents himself as an example of "the power of leveraging multiple mediocre skills." 

And the essential aspect of Adams's belief is that by you simply believing that each new skill will double your odds of success, you trick your brain to be more proactive about acquiring the new skills.

My opinion is that both approaches are valuable depending on the person. The master approach works for those people who have a gift that they can then improve upon: Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, Quentin Tarantino, etc. 

The skills combination approach, however, I think is better for us mere mortals. For example, I have moderate drawing skills, moderate graphic design skills and moderate storytelling skills. It makes sense for my success to combine those skills to create something of value instead of trying to be the next Glen Keane.

For those of us whose goals include creating animated films and comics, consider taking several of your average skills and see how you can combine them to create excellence.

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