I’ve been at this “entrepreneur gig” for about seven months now. I haven’t even scratched the surface of things to learn about forging your own path in business, but I have learned that being a dabbler is an asset when you’re just trying to survive long enough to get your business(es) moving.
What makes me a “dabbler”? Well, let’s take a look at my current work configuration: marketing agency owner and…Pilates instructor? Then there’s the hundreds of times over the course of my life that friends, family, and co-workers have asked me about random things because they have a hunch that I’ll know the answer – or at least be able to tell them where to find it. They ask me what books to read, where to take classes in photography or Italian, what camera or phone or printer to buy, where to eat dinner, how to network their way into a job, how to format their resume, how to build a new website, where in Shanghai they might find the best knock-off Prada bags. Oh, and my favorite: where they might be able to buy their boyfriend a gift certificate for piano lessons (I knew, by the way).
The idea of dabbling conjures negative images for some. Unfocused. Noncommittal. Unreliable. Jack of all trades but master of none. Right? (Or, in my case, jack of all trades and master of a couple.) We as a society tend to value expertise in a specific subject area over general knowledge in lots of subjects. We love to quote experts in our magazine and newspaper articles and in our nightly newscasts. These experts have, presumably, spent their lives focused on one thing and one thing only which means they must be doing it right, right?
I’m all about experts in certain fields: medicine, architecture, engineering, psychology, for example. I don’t want someone messing with my body, office building, bridge, or head if they don’t damn well know what they’re doing and know every detail about what they’re doing. But what makes a good doctor doesn’t necessarily make a good entrepreneur. Having broad knowledge about lots of things allows you to be a connector, bringing disciplines or people together into a cohesive whole. In my short time as an entrepreneur, I’m thinking that dabbling is what it’s all about. Being a dabbler makes me supremely adaptable. And what’s entrepreneurship if not survival via creative problem-solving and adaptation?
What do you think? As an entrepreneur, is it better to be a dabbler or an expert?
