Imagine you want to become the world’s best basketball player. Most of the bests are the ones who started their carrier very early in their life, with countless years of deliberate practice in shooting, passing, dribbling, rebounding and had done everything that bring on success in becoming the best.
Some other factors would be based on the place they were born, people around them, timing, circumstances, some genetic gifts, or more luck or a combination of both decides the person they are now.
Elon musk built his first software program, a space game called Blastar and sold it for $500 when he was 12 years old. Bill gates started at age 13, and Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 8. Only fewer than one in a thousand will make it to the pros.
To become the top 1% would put you in a situation to compete with a huge number of people who are more committed to the same skill. There will always be someone working harder to outperform another.
Trying to be the best at one thing is not the smartest way to success, especially in the knowledge-driven economy. Instead, putting efforts into mastering a combination of skills would increase one’s odds of success.
“It’s easier and more effective to be in the top 10% in several different skills your stack than it is to be in the top 1% in any one skill.”
The solution is skill stacking, a concept popularized by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert is famously known for his office comics and illustrations. Scott is not the world’s greatest cartoonist, neither a great writer like J. K. Rowling nor a famous comedian like Kevin Hart.
But being a little bit funny, having good persuasive writing skills, and being good at drawing combined made him unique and eventually created a path to build Dilbert cartoon, now worth more than 50 million dollars. Scott builts his specific knowledge by combining various skills and becoming irreplaceable.
To replace Scott, it would take three or more skills to create a single comic, more than he found his specific knowledge by genuinely following his intellectual curiosity. The work that he does is looks like play to him but work to others.
Here is Scott’s formula to success: You can raise your market value by merely being good at not extraordinary and more than one skill.
Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.
I write short stories about Business, Tech, Psychology, Science.
Check out my website to learn more: ashokwrites.com
