With that said, as an entrepreneur, you’ll absolutely need to wear many hats to succeed–even if you decide to outsource some things later. Being informed about what you’re outsourcing makes it more likely that you’ll get what you need from those you’re subcontracting.

However, I’m a big proponent of finding a solid niche for your business, since it makes your business more profitable–and therefore less stressful.

For example, there are a lot of people–tens or hundreds of thousands of people, probably–with my skillset (which is mostly Microsoft SQL and VBA). However, rather than compete in that general niche, I’m in a pretty tiny niche where I’m able to charge DOUBLE or TRIPLE what I could in the general niche. Not only is my business more profitable, but I have to do less marketing, and can work less to make the same amount.

As a result, I’ve QUADRUPLED my former day-job salary, work less, and have a lot more flexibility.

I talk more about finding a profitable niche on my blog, where I have a 2-part series about the how-to as well as why it’s important.

Greg Miliates
http://www.StartMyConsultingBusiness.com

“Hey guys, I think it’s cool to try all kinds of food.”
“No, just eat hamburgers.”

I’m not trying to make light of the career-philosophy debate. Of COURSE there are major dissenting opinions here- I mean, just look at the economy. Specialist-advocates makes total sense, considering that specializing has distinct advantages in the current job market that jacks-of-all-trades can’t compete with- same way a mere human being can’t compete with a crazy machine built to operate on only one function. Hell, if I were doing hard hiring for corporate jobs I’d look for specialists, too. But Emilie isn’t knocking industrial jobs. She’s speaking specifically to ‘entrepreneurial pursuits.’ So why all the defensiveness?

What I see here in the comments are a lot of hard-working people trying to make a case for their own way of working, which I respect. Emilie, on the other hand, is speaking on behalf of not only herself as an entrepreneur, but for all the multi-passionate entrepreneurs she’s coached and encouraged and sees out there, struggling, because no one’s given them a real voice. I mean, if your view is ‘I specialize because it’s the only way I can pay the bills and I’ve never made a dime off my creative hobbies,’ then say so! Your reality is your own. No one’s gonna make fun of you. (Though you might want to check out Emilie’s latest book, Renaissance Business, which helps people do exactly that – make a practical career out of *everything* they love. Her above post isn’t random philosophizing- there’s actually a lot of research and strategy holding her ideas up.)

If you take a look at puttylike.com, no one there cares about knocking specialists- they’re simply interested in pursuing what they love in life and supporting oneanother doing the same – and isn’t that the point?

Unfortunately, the readership here seems intent on knocking oneanother’s ‘Hows’ rather than speaking to the underlying ‘Why’ of why we even work in the first place… Sorry, but I don’t see a lot of things Brazen about this narrowminded approach to careers.

If you know enough about the industry or a situation you find yourself in then you should be able to make a judgement as to whether $50,000/hour is the going rate. It may be.. but you may also be able to tell if that person is not qualified or lacks the experience to recommend or perform such work. In the building trade they are called cowboys, at least in the UK are.. but same applies to all industries, just to make the deal.

“Fast, Good or Cheap. You’ll only get two out of the three, no matter what.”

I’m sorry to hear you feel our stuff on Brazen is unbelievable. What sort of content would you like to see?

Specialists get paid. Generalists are the ones with the money to pay.

What do you think most management is? it’s being a generalist, with enough background knowledge to herd specialists. Ditto politics, VCing, starting a business, project management etc.

Additionally, you’ve got to be wary of being a niche player, if you’re the only guy in the company who can do a particular thing, well you’ve got a job, but you’re not going up the ladder either.

I just looked at you profile, You have done: Assembly, QA, packaging, receiving & inventory (From Goodwill). You probably have distribution experience as well right? That’s a lot of parts of an supply chain.

Group your skills into 3-4 specialization you have & use that as your selling point.
Assembly line job are decreasing … but people are still need to work with the plants in other countries. Most of the problem with outsourced manufacturing is quality … you can be a solution for that.
why not be the mediator/facilitator or implement/consult quality control processes?

Here are some suggestion of focus: Quality control, process improvement for manufacturing, supervising & training new method/process ….
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Bringing back to the post of applying generalist experience.
What you might be able to bring to the table is applying experiences in manufacturing process from one industry & applying it to another to provide the more efficient & higher quality process.

I am a consultant and prescribe to Tom Peter’s idea that “The most effective professionals know their own turf cold, to be sure. But their special added value, for clients and colleagues, is their ability to draw upon analogous ideas from disparate fields to form analyses about problems closer to home.”

If you want to specialize, be sure you really like your specialty. An internship, summer job, or even interviewing someone in the industry is helpful. Don’t be afraid to change your mind. If you like what you do, you are probably good at it, and the best are the ones that stay when the axe falls.

Technical expertise only gets you so far. Even if you work in a large corporation, you will need to know how to negotiate, sell, organize, write, and market yourself, among other things.

Learn new things but keep the old. Make sure to keep up with the latest opportunities to gain experience in new specialties, but don’t throw away the old textbooks. There are lots of old systems around that need your expertise.

Your job is always to make the customer happy. The more you are able to do, the more opportunities you have to make someone happy. Never be afraid to learn something new!

So, I’m busting chops at the moment to find a very deep specialization (or two) with lasting value. Like, had I chosen to specialize in Linux kernel development 12-13 years ago when I had the opportunity to get in early, right now I guarantee you I would in the water at Ocean Beach on this stupendously beautiful day… instead of digging through taxonomy display code.

I don’t think specialization is overrated. A person might not be specialized, but the business would be specialized. In general, people pay more for things they can’t do (well), right?
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“Jack of all trade”s is definitely needed to get a small business running. Even in any company, a person that know multiple sides of a business is very advantageous because you can bring multiple perspective & provide better answers or solutions to problems.

I was a person that knew most of the business processes & functionality for the new IT system in my last role. When a problem occur, it allowed me to determine the real impact of the problem for each specific department in a minute, which allow me to find a solution that fit each of the impacted departments. (As a whole, I am specialized in the specific IT system)

I agree that there is a huge value in being a person with multiple strength.
With our multiple interests … why not aim for multiple specialization, instead of jack of all trade?

That said, you’re right: we need both. Of course, the Africanized honey bees are also specialists as a species. And within the hive every bee is a specialist. We, on the other hand, can take any of a number of approaches. But outside the startup world, where do the generalists really fit in? I’ve spent a lot of energy trying to understand this, and I can’t quite make it click. I hear about plenty of job openings for people with one niche or another, but the opportunities that clearly suit generalists seem to be far more rare.

And that’s what I think about when people bemoan their perception of specialization. I wish people would stop knocking it – it’s not that bad. If being “diverse” is the aim of being a generalist, then we need a “diverse” group of people who are more than happy to specialize and those who simply don’t want to.

Besides, if you think about, some of the greatest pieces of art (music, television, cinema, novels) were created by specialists, not generalists. Specializing in something can cause you to excel and be the best in that field. You can produce amazing pieces of anything, really, by focusing all your attention and energy and focus onto that one thing.

I really wish people would stop highlighting generalists over specialists (re: we’re not insects!) and yet we need insects to do exactly what they’re designed to do. Why do you think people are frantic over the lose of the European honey bees? So – get over yourself. Seriously – each has their pros and cons. And it really boils down to personality – some people want to be generalists and others want to be specialists. As a culture, we need both.