But Man is not made for defeat, he could be destroyed but not defeated.- O’Henry

Jack of Many Trades

I was told by many of my friends, colleagues and even my family members that I always try to do many things at one go and should master only one to get success in life. Infact few of them even have candidly called me Jack of All Trades. However, I don’t agree with them completely but I would rather use the term “Jack of Many Trades” instead. I gladly accept the fact that I do many things at the same time and if I am able to do them with reasonable consistency and enjoy them simultaneously then why shouldn’t I? Sorry for sounding a bit rude, but I need to emphasize an important point here.

In India there is a philosophy that we all should work and concentrate only on one kind of work to get success in life. But let me site you a simple exam, don’t we go through many subjects in schools and colleges at the same time. Then in this case also aren’t we doing many trades (so many different subjects) at the same time and is this wrong? No because those all subjects gave you a broader horizon to think and decide your future.

There are examples of successful people who have developed multiple skill sets in their life time and were good at many of them. For example Bill Gates, ex-chairman of Microsoft is a computer geek, an expert poker player and philanthropist, and I am pretty sure that he has got many other talents also. Isn’t he a Jack of Many Trades?

 Richard Branson, a well trained swimmer, a well known writer, columnist, a giant business man etc. He is a man who has done and achive so much that somebody can’t even think. He is a Jack of Many Trades.

What ever we do in any field we need to maintain two very important things:

1. Passion and

2. Balance.

If you don’t have any passion within you then you can’t achieve big things in life. However, if your passion is not balanced and directed in right direction then you can traverse to wrong path.

 I am firm believer in concept of Jack of Many Trades and for that we need to adopt following qualities in ourselves:

1. Be flexible in life and keep your arms wide open for new things.

2. Make learning a continuous process rather than a final destination.

3. Show genuine interest in people while talking to them.

4. Don’t wait