The truth is, work culture is harsh to people like us. Specialization is usually the key to sustained success.
Want to make money as a doctor? Don't be a general practitioner—become a surgeon who only
performs achilles tendon operations.
Want to argue before the Supreme Court? Don't
spend years toiling as an nameless associate—become an expert on water rights.
If
you become "the" person on any given topic—unless it's poetry—you are the first call in
everyone's rolodex whenever that issue comes up, and you can charge big money for the
privilege of your time. I often dream about a career as an "expert witness."
Simply know a ton of information about a specific, often-litigated topic, and with
enough bona fides, people will pay you to show up in court every six months and
talk. The dream.
But my life, my interests, and my behaviors have never allowed me to be a specialist. I like too many things, and I'm too passionate about them to devote my life to one pursuit.
To name a few, I was: a signed, touring musician; a pipeline environmental inspector; a clerk at a 70,000-film video store; a film-festival programmer; a film producer; a tech at a plant-pathology lab; a big-firm legal associate; writer/performer of a one-man show about Ghost Rider; a reporter for Magic: The Gathering; a script reader; a death-row advocate for a domestic-abuse survivor who shot her husband; a reality-show developer and producer at the WWE; and a farmhand in New Zealand. Oh, and I was this close to pursuing a doctorate in paleobiology (the study of extinct environments).
Just writing all that down makes me cringe. I have to work so hard to convince anyone that I will be an asset to them or their company once they know all this information. I have incredible cocktail conversations and awkward job interviews.
It's no different now as a game publisher. Despite a life spent playing board games and over a decade of paystubs from Magic: The Gathering, I'm entering the world of party-card games for the non-enfranchised gamer. If you're not a gaming specialist, these might seem closely related. But they really aren't. And in our stratified culture of niche interests, and instinct to gatekeep those seen as "infiltrators," it's yet another uphill battle into a new field.
But in my years of generalism, I've become, well, a bit of an expert at it. And you can too. Here are some ways that I've taken my Swiss Army knife and turned it into a legitimate steak knife, a hammer, and a screwdriver.
Leverage Your Network
If you're a multi-hyphenate, you know a lot of people. There's no way you could've succeeded in multiple fields without building up swaths of people you know, or can know. And what do a lot of those people become? Specialists. So now you can become a specialist by proxy, or a person who connects specialists together.
Much success comes from doing this, if you master the "lukewarm call." It's not a cold call, but maybe I haven't talked to the person in a few years. Or maybe we never went to the bar after work like we always talked about doing. If this sounds like death to you, I've got some bad news: You've got to learn to live with it.
I hated networking for the longest time. I am a generally extroverted person, but I talk to people because I love learning about them, not because I have some ulterior motive, and am looking for something to gain. The idea that I should talk to people for success and profit is anathema to me. I thought that's all networking was. Maybe it is for some people, but life in Los Angeles (the "post-networking city") taught how to approach meeting new people in my field or not my field, that didn't leave me feeling skeezy, and is honest to who I am.
People in business know that the more people you know, the better it is for your livelihood. People tend to like their livelihood. Because you know so many different people, when you talk with them, you are never selling yourself, you are looking to help them solve whatever problem they have. You probably can't even do it, you're just a dumb generalist; but maybe one of the many specialists you know can! Now you make that connection, and the person you met both has their problem solved, and comes away thinking of you as the problem-solver.
For me, this mentality bridged the divide between networking and just having a conversation. Because I'm not selling myself and I'm looking to help the person. Even if I ultimately can't, I don't walk away feeling like a scumbag. And now whenever I have a problem, I have more people who will take my call to help solve it.
Lean on Your Work Ethic
In addition to knowing people, you're probably also a hard worker. Swapping fields requires matching people who haven't, so you have a handle on catching up quick. Businesses love hard-working, busy people.
I've gotten a few positions I had no earthly claim to solely because I worked really, really hard. Lean on that whenever you can. It won't always succeed, but it will give you the edge at unexpected times.
I got my job at Magic: The Gathering because of persistence (I just kept showing up), but I kept it for so long because I turned in clean copy, on time, every time. There were people who wrote better than me, who understood the game better, hell, people whose entire being was dedicated to Magic: The Gathering. But I offered to reliably show up early, do the work diligently, and turn in that work on time and right. Just fully knowing the tasks required and doing them competently without prodding from your supervisor will take you incredibly far.
This skill isn't just great on the job, it's great in the interview process too. Have stories about your work ethic prepped and ready, because you're going to have to explain away why your last position wasn't remotely similar to this one.
During my time at the video store in Austin, my wonderfully lazy co-workers called me a "carpet bagger"—because I was from out of town, actually cleaned the store, talked up customers, and was generally bright and warm. At the time I was really insulted. Not anymore.
Understand Exactly What You Don't Know and Learn It
So much of my successes came from a combination of brash optimism and withering self-critique. My college mentor once said to me, "Your critical skills are so highly advanced, I'm surprised you write anything at all." My mentor said that. And years ago I stopped seeing my therapist because he said I set myself up to be unhappy by explaining away all compliments, while internalizing any critiques, and I'd need to change that to be happy. I told him I wasn't ready to change it, so he dumped me as a client.
It took me decades to learn how to accept compliments, and to learn how to understand what I'm good at (this article is proof of my progress). But I look back on my astute self-critiquing as a key skill that I now wield as a cudgel.
Though I still have plenty of self doubt, I can now pith exactly what someone knows or does better than I do. And I eventually turned that into a tool by gleaning whether it was relevant for me to know. This is integral to catch up with more experienced co-workers and job candidates, and to become a part of whatever community you enter.
This leads back to the first point of leveraging your network. If you should get better at something, learn it—maybe from the exact person who's better than you! If it's not worth it to learn, remember what that person is good at, and add them to your network. Regardless, this starts with you talking to them, and listening more than you talk. Which segues perfectly into the most important advice I know ...
For the Love of God, Be Nice
Specialists can afford to be jerks. If they are someone's first call, the person calling likely needs them and not the other way around. Generalists don't have that luxury. As a generalist you always need to be someone others want to be around.
I will admit, it mostly comes natural to me. Mostly, I am nice. That doesn't mean I'm "good"—I have done plenty of things I regret, and being "good" and being better is something we strive for our entire lives. But I look people in the eye; I remember names; I call and text people when I think about them; I listen.
Though, not all my "nice skills" are natural. I tend to talk too much, put my foot in my mouth, and sometimes forget names at the least convenient times. This has rightly put people off, and made them dislike me. But these all factor into the point above about knowing what you don't know. Not everyone can become "good", but anyone can become nice. And that is the single most important skill for a generalist to possess.
If you are nice, you can network better. If you are nice, people want to work with you, so your work ethic can shine. If you are nice, people will want to teach you what you don't know. And if you are nice, you will be happier—which, in the end, should be the goal of all this anyway.
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Being called "multi-hyphenate" still irks me greatly. I try to take pride that capitalism has failed to put me in an easy box yet, but it's made my work life a constant struggle. But I've found a way to stay true to who I am, and find success again and again.
Not bad for a dude with a poetry degree from a third-tier university.
Thanks for reading.