Iterate until you get paid
Everything appears to be “useless” until they see that you’re the only one that can do it. Then it becomes apparent to them that this skillset can generate a lot of money. When you’re the only one that’s capable of solving a certain problem, the value and price you command is undeniably high. The only way to do this is to iterate on skill until you’re really really good at it.
How to pick what skill?
I’ve heard two consensus answer: something you’re passionate in or an area in which there are few competitors. Sounds simple enough right?
Let’s define “passion” a little more. For me, passion is doing something that doesn’t feel like work. It’s enjoyable and you want to keep doing it for long as possible and as much as possible. You enter a flow-like state in which you’re so engrossed in the activity. You want to learn all you can about this subject and it’s the most fascinating thing you’ve ever done so far in your life.
We often hear adults tell children that whatever they’re doing is just “a waste of time”. For example, a child that’s obsessed with basketball might be “wasting” his time with the sport because the NBA (National Basketball Association) is an improbable dream. Here are the stats to back it up:
How hard is it to make it to the NBA? Making the NBA is every basketball player’s dream, the odds of this dream are 3 out of 10,000 high school athletes fulfill this dream. Around 1200 athletes play Division 1 college basketball each year with around 50 being drafted out of 60 spots in the NBA draft. This doesn’t even guarantee that a player will play a single game in the NBA. (Source: basketball word)
Adults want to think they have the best intention but is often judging the goal post by its face front. Of course the ultimate end goal is to end up in the NBA, but there are other routes the child could take: skills trainer, coach, equipment manager, general manager, and more. There are many routes that can lead you to be around basketball. For that child, it may beat being “stuck” at an office and leading a less fulfilling life than being around basketball. It’s like that old saying of aiming for the stars and even if you miss you’ll hit the moon.
Instead of stifling a passion, why don’t we encourage them to work hard towards that goal and see where it leads? Use it as an opportunity to teach resiliency and hard work. Sometimes, they just need someone to believe in them.1
The next option of picking an area where there are few competitors is a challenge for many people. There are competition in every domain so separating ourselves from others becomes a challenge. How do we become so uniquely valuable that it’s hard to duplicate? Notice I said valuable AND unique, not one or the other. I believe the key is in combining and mixing multiple relevant skills.
One of my favorite examples is Steve Jobs because he knew what his strengths were and played to them. Would he be as successful if he focused on coding or mechanical engineering? Probably or probably not. Instead he focused on combining his skills in marketing and product design. He knew what customers would want and then mastermind how the world should view apple products. He made us excited for every function this world-changing device had to offer, and it soon became a part of our every day life. Of course, you may make the counter offer of Steve Jobs being one in a million. You’re not wrong, but the skills he mixed together are attainable. It’s not easy but it is doable.
Suppose you’re wondering what skills should I mix? I think we should look inwards to see what makes us unique. It sounds incredibly cliché, but you have to know what you’re good at to have a basepoint. If you’re a technical person with lots of knowledge with technology, perhaps another valuable skill would be to learn how to speak well. You can define well as the being persuasive or simply learning to talk in public. If you can speak well, now you’re definitely more valuable than someone that just has that technical experience. What would happen if you would add another skill like sales? Now you’re someone that knows the back end and the front end of a product. My point is we should continue to keep adding transitive skills that can not only complement each other but also make you unique valuable i.e. being one of the few person that can do that, better yet, the only one.
Some transitive skills can be public speaking, coding, product design, writing, leadership, and more. I recommend trying all types of combinations that matches you. But don’t give up on learning a skill if you don’t like it. Ask yourself if I added this skill to my repertoire, would it make me uniquely valuable? Would it make me one of the few people that can do this? It’s like being a Doctor that can speak multiple languages, now more options are open to you.
Start small
Every journey begins with one step at a time. Start with something you enjoy doing. For many of us, when we start with something we don’t like, the chances that we will continue with that activity is very low. Let’s get some “successes” under our belts, some mini-wins. Then you start to convince yourself that it’s doable and then you tackle the more challenging skills. If you wanted to speak confidently in class, it’s a more of an advantage to practice with friends and family than strangers. Once you feel comfortable in your pond, then we can move on to a bigger one.
You also want to make this habit easily accessible and make it rewarding every time you do it2. We don’t have as much motivation as we think we do. I’ve seen friends not go for runs simply because they had to get their shoes out of their car. To them, it was another hurdle to climb. Instead, they should’ve left their shoes by their door so they could just put it on and then go. For some individuals, the intrinsic reward is enough, but for others, they need an extra push. Imagine if you worked out consistently but you saw no progress. Would that push you to continue? It might be good enough to see yourself get better, but if you needed a friend or family to give you compliments, make it happen. Whatever you need to give you that feeling of satisfaction after the task, you need to discover if all you need is intrinsic or extrinsic.
At the end of it all, whether you get paid for it or not, it’s best to see how far you can take your passions and skills. Discover what happens when you mix and match your talents, then apply it in a way that allows you to make a living off of it. Even if you don’t, you’ll still end up with skills that will help you with your personal and professional life. See what happens in 10, or even 20 years of focus and hard work. You may not catch your break that quickly, but with consistency, you’ll be much better off than someone that didn’t even try.
In a way, you aren’t forced to “grow up”, there’s a chance of getting paid for the same things you’ve done as a kid. Get after it.
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I wrote an article about this: why we need to believe in others
I recommend James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, for more information on building habits.