Are you a generalist or a specialist? These two disparate learning systems can define your journey and your career, so it’s a good idea to find out which one will help you become a successful entrepreneur.
As we have discussed before, the school years only correspond to the first level on the Ladder of Wealth. We go to school to learn how to be good employees. As we move through the higher years at school, we become more and more specialised. This enables us to be very good at doing a specific job or playing a role inside a company.
The problem with specialisation is that, eventually, you could run out of work! The world changes, and you might find yourself rather quickly out of favour if you can no longer learn new things and ‘pivot’. To keep up with progress, you need to be good at what is known as prognostication – being able to prophesy future events; to do this, you must be able to look forwards by first looking backwards in your life, in order to be able to identify trends.
Think about the past 4-5 years. Can you identify any trajectories in your life or career and see what direction you’re going because you have been following this path? Then do the same for your business. What has changed in the last few years, and where do you think these changes might lead?
Scarcity v Abundance
The economy may often teach us scarcity, but technology teaches us abundance. Imagine the world as an ocean of opportunity. The question is, will you go to the ocean with a teaspoon, a bucket, or will you build a pipeline?
When people think of the world in terms of scarcity, everyone believes that there’s not enough to go around. People are upset when others make money because, automatically, they think there’s not going to be enough left for them.
On the other hand, an abundance mindset teaches us that the more we build, the more abundance we create. As your business grows, other companies will grow alongside you: your providers, your clients, and – indirectly – other companies that do business with them.
Let’s say you own a restaurant and hire three people to wash dishes. As you grow your business, you decide to buy a dishwasher to cut costs, and subsequently fire two employees. A person with a scarcity mindset will only see that two people have lost their jobs. If you have an abundance mindset, you’ll see two people who can now go out there, with the experience and good references from the role they had at your place, learn new skills, and get better jobs.
Leadership: Generalist v Specialist
Gone are the days when a leader was the most intelligent person in the room. You no longer need to be the strongest or best in your field to be considered successful. Now, a leader is the person who knows enough about each business area to gather together the best specialists in the same company and make it possible for them to work collaboratively and build a better future for all.
Generalist leaders know enough about the different business areas to be able to build something great. They focus more on the big picture and don’t know as much (or care as much) about all the details.
Start to understand the 30X mentality, which is most definitely an abundance mentality. You want to leverage — to learn how to divide to multiply: do the work once and get paid forever. It’s hard work to learn and master this new way of doing business and seeing the world, but once you’ve got it, you’re ready to live the extraordinary life you’ve been dreaming of and desiring.
To help you better understand the difference in leadership between a generalist and a specialist, I’ll use Brad Sugars’ train-boat metaphor.
If you only learn to become a specialist, you’re like a train. You’re always on track. Your speed might vary, obstacles might show up on your way, but you’ll always be on the same route.
A generalist leader is on a boat. You can adjust to the tide changes and make your boat go where you want to go. You are able to pursue your dreams and take advantage of – and harness – the wind and waves. In this scenario, you do have to overcome storms and days when there are no winds blowing, but nonetheless you will get to your destination.
In the beginning, it might look like nothing is happening. Then, boom! Your business can grow all of a sudden. You will see the same pattern every time someone launches a new product, service, or business model which ends up being successful. Think of the first smartphones, or how many people had Facebook when the platform was first launched.
It feels like nothing’s happening, but it is. And then, all of a sudden, you hit that point called critical mass.
Learn to Be a Generalist and Take Action
Start by understanding how the laws of attraction work and how you can build attraction between yourself and your goal. If you want your dream to become a reality, you need to keep improving your skills and gathering more knowledge.
As a generalist, you will learn that you can do anything and you will learn to be present – present in the here and now.
A person who lives in the future always comes with ideas. They talk about what they will do, but they don’t take any actions. Yes, you do want to be a person who thinks about the future, but you should also be learning from the past and always aim to be more present.
To do that, you need to cut the anchor to the past by learning the lessons on offer and moving forwards again. Then, write a plan to avoid being stuck in the future. Become an abundant thinker and work on designing the big picture, while focusing on the action you need to be taking in the present.
What Is Precession and Why Does It Matter?
Precession is the motion and the process of you becoming the best person you can be. If you simply chase goals, nothing will happen. But if you actively do the things that will bring you what you want, your dreams and goals become a reality.
You need to plan the future, then focus on creating the actions that will generate the results you want. Instead of chasing dreams, you want to act in such a way that the goal comes to you.
The “law of vacuum” says that everything will grow to fill the space available. (If you find it hard to believe, think about what you keep in your garage!) If you aren’t growing, it’s very possibly because you have no room to grow.
Proactively create space for things to show up in your life. If you want more money, don’t always let your hands be busy counting or holding money. It is always important to stay healthy and in good shape, and that way you will be able to gather more knowledge and create powerful vibrations. You want to achieve more and create more for other people as well as yourself. Build an amazing you, then go and add value to the world! If you create a world where people will do better, you will be rewarded too by receiving the level of abundance you desire.
What’s Next?
Start by noticing the abundance you already have in your life. Any time you see something that makes you think about the world in terms of abundance, write it down. Make notes in a journal and build a habit of noticing the wealth around you.
The more you see abundance, the more you will receive abundance.
