How Your Skill List Increases Your Chances of a Successful Career

Why one skill may not be enough

It is generally accepted that to be successful in your career you need to be a master at one thing. In our society, winners are admired and glorified. We set ourselves the example of billionaires, champions and gold medalists. Of course, they have a lot to learn. But at the same time, their stories discourage them from trying. Let's be honest: not everyone wants to spend 10 or 20 thousand hours to master one thing. After all, besides this, there are other values in life: family, friends, hobbies, health.

Therefore, books about geniuses and outsiders may be inspiring, but from a practical point of view, the advice they describe is useless. Not because the average reader will not be able to apply them, but because they will not want to.

A more realistic approach is needed. As Bob Dylan said, a person is successful if he gets up in the morning, goes to bed in the evening, and in between does what he wants. Based on this definition, two things are needed: a stable career and sufficient income.

You don't have to be the world's best professional or billionaire to be successful. You just need a set of valuable skills.

How Skill List Affects Success

I have been working since I was 17 and tried myself in different fields. He studied business and marketing, and in 2010 opened his first business. Over the years, I have acquired many skills. This is what my own list looks like now:

Productivity and Time Management;
Belief;
Web design;
Writing skills;
Accounting;
Painting;
Project management;
Marketing;
Public performance;
Teaching.

I am not a master in any of these areas. For example, I'm pretty bad at drawing, moderately versed in web design and marketing, and have a fairly good command of productivity and writing skills. But when I put it all together and started my blog, it was successful.

I realized the reason when I read Scott Adams' The Theory of Luck. He calls this concept "talent stacking," but I don't like the word "talent" because it suggests an innate quality. I prefer "skill".

It is more important for success to be good at two complementary skills than to be excellent at just one.

Scott Adams writer, author of Dilbert comics

Each acquired skill doubles your chances. According to Adams, unique talent and a manic obsession with developing mastery is just one approach to achieving success, the most difficult. When it comes to skills, quantity is more important than quality.

If you've only learned to do one thing, your options are limited. If you have many qualifications, your value goes up. And career success comes down to her.

What skills will make you more valuable

This is literally a million dollar question. After all, the more skills you have, the more useful you can create. This means that the more reward you will receive. Over the course of his entire career, the amount will clearly be more than a million.

Conduct a thought experiment. Imagine that you own a business and you need to hire someone to run it. What kind of person would you hire? Write down what qualities and skills he should have. And then become that person by developing them in yourself.

Here are some examples that will be useful to everyone:

Productivity … If you know how to cope with business, you will always find a way out of the situation. With a high level of productivity, you can learn anything and it will help develop everything else.
Writing skills … The ability to formulate your thoughts into words makes it easier to work in any field. Try to write simply and clearly.
Psychology … A basic understanding of human behavior will help you understand yourself and others. You don't have to become a psychotherapist. To better communicate with people, the basics of this science are enough.
Belief … It is the ability to speak in a way that resonates. Such an ability will improve the skills of leadership, sales, negotiation, public speaking and everything related to influencing people.
Financial management … We rarely think about spending and saving, and as we approach retirement, we begin to regret that we did not start monitoring our finances earlier. Don't delay and do it today.

You need friends to be successful in your career. But you need to choose them correctly

One best friend for life is good, but eight friends are better. Close friendships at work are beneficial for employees (literally Do work relationships matter? Characteristics of workplace interactions that enhance or detract from employee perceptions of well-being and health behaviors for health) and beneficial to employers.