Here are two ways you can consider getting ahead in life – being very good at one thing, or being pretty good at many things.
You’re probably more familiar with the former. This path is the one of specialisation, where you choose a particular job, skill or profession and dedicate yourself to creating as much value as you can.
The second path is commonly referred to as “talent stacking”. It’s the concept that you may consider yourself above-average on one particular skill, but if you were to compete on that skill alone you wouldn’t produce a lot of value. However, if you were above-average on a range of skills, you could become very valuable if you combined them.
The cool thing about talent stacking is that your value can increase significantly as you keep adding above-average skills to the mix. Let’s say you have a great stack of talents and you’ll become a greater standout if you learnt French – you don’t have to master French, you just have to hold a basic conversation in French.
It also means that your unique value proposition will be heightened by how seemingly unrelated your above-average skills may be. This means you can combine personal interests with your professional skills to create value in areas you really love.
It doesn’t matter if you choose to specialise or stack. The key is appreciating how you can create value in a way that matters most to you.