Specialize or Generalize - Niche or Broad - What to do when picking a field
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มี.ค. 2020
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Do you want to be a Generalist or a Specialist?
Not since the days of debating the Chicken and Egg have people struggled with what steps to take first in order to develop a successful career. In this clip, Chris settles once and for all whether you should have a well rounded set of skills or a small highly specialized focus in a specific area. And his answer might surprise you.
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Not sure if there's an advantage to being a generalist vs. specialist? Should you specialize? What are you giving up by choosing one area of focus?
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Yesterday I got a phone call for my first job and before discuss anything I told them x amount of money per year I am looking for if you can pay then we discuss my skills and job roles otherwise I don't want to waste mine and your time...then they told me to come for an interview and I did my interview and today I got my joining letter and a msg from HR " I like your confidence in my 10 years of the selection process I never see a fresher candidate who told me first about how much money he is looking for and everything after that"
and I was like FULL CREDIT GOES TO THE FUTUR
Thank You (Sorry for my English)
This is the kind of stories that motivates me to keep going :)
Out of curiosity, where did you get all that info about this level of confidence?
Shivam Tiwari what segment was this piece they spoke on cos I want to watch it
@@howlbeast Watch Melinda Livsey series and in thefutur there are 100s of videos about money and value pricing
@@xamlevin Watch Melinda Livsey series and in the future there are 100s of videos about money and value pricing
Great job
People may be confused by how he means to specialize. To specialize doesn't mean going into one thing and ignoring everything else. That actually would be pretty much impossible. Could you imagine if all typography was black and white because no one who knows typography knows good color theory? Your niche is like a tree. People are looking for that great big oak! But you need roots to support that tree. And if those roots are big and strong it can even be a selling point for the tree. Have you ever went "Wow this tree has some cool looking roots. All twisty and woven together"?
great explanation.
The T rule
Thanks so much 🤗
wow!
such a good analogy...
This. It really surprises me why there's a specialize vs general question when it's actually very simple. Specialize in one or two things, BUT don't neglect the broader field you're working in. Some jobs need to be super specialized like being an athlete, but in most cases, specializing with strong general skills and knowledge is where it is at. You need to be both to be great.
I believe the Quote "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." will help clarify and put things in perspective.
The perfect balance is be a T person, wide knowledge through different topics and one deep specialization
Why not multi-specialist? Getting tired of this assumption that someone can't sufficiently specialize in a variety of topics, as if it's some super-human impossible thing
@@thebrunoserge Well you absolutely can be a multi-specialist. You are limited in time, so you have to pick your topics. Just pick multiple topics that don't have much depth to them and master them. Voila! You are now a multi-specialist.
Just make sure you are not picking a topic that is very deep, like 3D design, (quantum) physics, biology, psychology, sports,... etc that take half a lifetime to master.
@@Slava-om1sz I really recomend the book of Robert Greene, Mastery, A lot of historical people differ with the idea about being trapped in an alone way which you are bound to be the best, it isn't the real Mastery mindset, absolutely not(you can find it at the final of book)
@@thebrunoserge Of course, but it really set a lot of questions, I spend the double or triple of the time learning that could have been spent take care of my family, knowing new people, setting up a business about that field, become a mastery in the field, take care of my self, enjoy things that I love to do too,...?
I know that we need to set priorities to rise up to the peak that we really want to, but the freedom that bring only study one field of the knowledge is so appealing
I love that. Spot on!
generalist is like having a lockpick, specialist is having the key
nice!
The thing is, that the lockpick fits every lock!
Yeah...to one lock.
Why not have a key AND lockpick🤦🏽♂️
False. The generalist is the master key. The specialist is the lock pick. We open more doors for specialists when they run out of ideas.
@@messagedeleted3526 i like that!
You’re such an amazing teacher Chris! When you said Creatives are addicted to ‘New’ so true! It took years for me to narrow down into a niche and I’m still refining as I go. Love your teaching style. It just ‘clicks’ in my brain.
Thank you
OK. I now realize that we have a love-hate relationship: I love what you’re teaching and I hate that you’re right!
All this time as a freelance artist, I believed that being a generalist, promoting my “diverse skill sets”, as I like to say, was helping me get noticed. Though, this mindset has actually been crippling my art biz because I am all over the place. It’s no wonder I attract very few high-end jobs. Thx for your help!
Great content, and don't forget, there are many ways to specialize. You can either specialize by
· What you know (logo design, website design, accountant)
· Who you work with (restaurants, ecommerces, hospitality businesses)
You can obviously combine both (for example, I am a marketing mentor for ecommerces), but be carefull to not super limit your potential audience
Yeah, specialization can happen along many axis:
- function (marketing, sales, design, etc)
- product (logo design, website design, education, etc)
- industry (e-commerce, hospitality, etc)
- size (startups, mid-size, corporations)
- channels (social media, direct sales, etc)
They are many other factors that "specialize" you. So what you do is only part of the business game.
I've been working for a few years in the food and beverage industry mainly focusing on packaging needs, brand identity, but being in house you work on random small jobs like laying out brand catalogs, presentations etc. I'm self taught as far as digital and want to go more towards web/ landing page type of stuff. But nobody will give me a chance. I sort of pigeonholed myself with packaging and its not like packaging jobs are readily available all the time. This is also the worst time to be looking for work. ugh..I'm starting to rethink my whole design career.
pooky they are people that work on packaging and have a lot of work. How are you publishing and sharing your work?, are you participating in any community sharing what you do?, have you tried solving a big packaging problem and sending a proposal?
this is a nice insight. thanks. I've been thinking about this a lot. I can't really pick one specialty so I decided to go for graphic design + ui/ux. and decided to put my photography as a hobby. since I can't pick one, I decided to pick a client niche, the one "who you work with" and I'm currently going for musicians and record labels. it's a weird niche but I'd like to try it. I'd like to make posters, album covers, websites, branding, art direction for them. But still, I'm also open to anything.
This is really interesting. I am 100% sold on niching, I think it's inevitable if you want to build a sustainable business. But I've never seen the external/internal comparison before. This should totally put to bed the concerns people have about niching down. Stay curious and try new things, but only sell the ONE thing. Use all your learnings on the stuff you do behind the scenes to make the ONE thing even better. Very inspiring!
I was once told by a Creative Director during an interview that they were a bit confused about my portfolio because I was trying to sell myself as a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, and Art Director. Sometimes the pressure of choosing which specialization pays better or which has more demand, which one will earn you more respect from people in the industry, and how processes change over the years with AI and UI/UX confuses me more, and I end up not mastering everything. I struggled for years to find what I'm good at and what personal, unique style I have in art. Sometimes I feel that it's too late to specialize. But it's good to learn the basics of everything you desire to do creatively and focus on your strengths and master that. You will know what your strength is because people around you will notice it and give you praise on a regular basis compared to the other skills you have.
This is so timely. I've been procrastinating on redoing my portfolio and finding my niche because I just feel so lost. The more I researched..the more I get confused. After watching this everything finally made sense! Thank you! 🥺
Glad to hear
And suddenly it 'clicked', big thank you for this explanation! As someone who always seemed to search for the exact answer on what to choose, being a specialist or generalist, this video finally gave me the needed insights. This video also confirmed that I'm doing great and that I subconsciouly already chose that exact path without even knowing it.
I came out of Uni a generalist Graphic Designer in 2009, I felt my way through industry jobs to see how they 'valued' me. Most of that value seemed to be from Motion Graphics. So I doubled down on Motion Graphics the following year.. plus it was double the pay as a junior graphic designer. Feel your way through your industry to know the most value you can bring to people than double down.
Wow, Chris...
"If you suck at one thing, they assume you suck at everything.." and vice versa.
What a point!!!!!!❤❤❤❤
This is the question I've been looking for answer for past 6 months and by watching this video it helped me in figuring it out in someway
Glad to hear
This is one of the best arguments I've heard for specializing. The halo bias really puts it into perspective. TY!
Your video content is plucked straight from the questions I ask myself. Best channel out there
Ironically been watching this scene in loop for the past couple of days. Like you guys read my mind 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
The best piece of advice for me right now, as in career and Individual
Its so ironic that a lot of people struggle in life (we all do) bumping into many obstacles not knowing what they're doing and some 10min can change radically the way you look at things and help you move towards the direction you want.
Keep at it guys, I've been watching your content since last summer (or even before) really good!
Your analogy of specialist and generalist makes me smile, so mind-blowing. You are so amazing.
Thanks
As always, time well spent. Love the internal/external solution, and halo bias - good stuff.
I really wish I heard this advice about 25 years ago when I finished my first degree in engineering. I was too afraid to specialize further and I ended up generalizing more. Asa result, my degree ended up failing to produce meaningful results. I would have also had time to spend on other interests. So I'm middle age now, doesn't mean I can't apply this information now. I always thought keeping my options open was a good idea and to some degree it is but there's a point where you have to put limits on it. I had no limits. There's a Russian proverb, "Chase two rabbits and you'll go hungry."
5:53 "God he's ugly, he must be bad at everything."
Damn that hurt.
it can.
🤣
I actually have been feeling VERY down about my generalizing tendancies, as I struggle to go deep in ONE area and tend to stay broad. I thought I was just sucking at everything or too lazy, but learning that it is a creative people thing cheers me up a bit. Thanks for this video ! It motivates me to fight that back and go deeper purposefully
Extremely , i wasted 25 years being a generalist too and still broke i got tired now i'm looking to be a specialist now. and learn how to outsorce and delegate my generalist activity .
Great topic and discussion - Ive always had this "issue" of having many varied creative interests and pursuits which is a blessing and a curse as Im a swiss army knife, a one man band able to handle a great many projects as a one stop shop which is cost effective, one point of contact efficiency for clients but on the other side im forever studying, researching multiple disciplines and keeping up to date with all these skills is a job in itself.
I wish I could "pick a lane" and focus and go deep and what holds me back are two things - fear of doing same thing over and over stuck doing just one thing and also that by focusing on one area say 3D only or photography only and creating seperate sites and portfolios around those, that clients may not want that -
I face the same problem. One way to go about it is to pick one main area and a platform for content. share 80% about that niche and 20% about your other interests. same way on some other niche platform, post 80% content on it of that niche and 20% of this former one. its like slightly blending two aspects while also keeping them separate. Hope it helps
@@aymena6029Exactly my worry but with a different take.
If I love photography +, motion graphics - naturally they may not connect unless I find some style to merge them together.
But, yeah, I wanna mix 'em to keep myself interested, working both of my talents Yet, also because probably during winter time- photography slows down so you gotta offer other talents to keep the money flow ( also motion graphics don't demand a lot of production or being dependent on people's schedules).
How to handle both of these fields? I have no clue.... 😊
I've been looking for a video or just information about this for so long. It really stuck when you said become a specialist externally and a generalist internally, you unlocked it! 🔑🙏
Glad it was helpful!
This video is so amazing. So valuable and so helpful. Thank you so much for collecting best parts of this original video 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Oh.... my..... days....
the life changing video I was looking for!
Love you! Forever grateful ❤️❤️❤️🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
I started listening to this guy for the past week and I am always fascinated by the things he talk about...
WAIT thats crazy I just realized that I have not gotten a single AD on thefuturs videos although i have been watching for days now... WOW
May you all stay blessed and loved...
And thank you!
i love the way you present your content, its so refreshing. keep up the great work.
Thank you
Excellent advice, the reason I am tuned in to this channel!
There, someone said it. The big elephant in the room! Thanks for tackling this topic TheFutur team. This was also very helpful in all other aspects of expertise.
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Mind blown by this example. I love it. Thank you for this.
I like the clothes Chris wears here, great style
Thanks
What strongholds can stop us from specializing and narrow down our path? Just want to share some from my own bitter experience:
1. FOMO... If I chose this field I will miss out on opportunities on "that" field"
2. Expectiations. "If I choose this field my family, friends will feel let down"
3. Moral." In this field I might be doing something against my conscience, or accidents etc might happen..."
4. Finance. " I don't know how I will earn.. will I be good enough? What if I don't make enough."
May God bless us all and help us settle and find peace and the path forward...
Thanks for sharing
@@thefutur thank you too for sharing this wonderful video.
Thanks, finally a youtuber who shows me a way
Minddddddd BLoooooown. Yoooooooooo Needded thiiiiiiiiiissssss. It explains niching down so well, while keeping experimenting with our interestssss
Amazing insight. This isn't just valuable for designers, its useful for entrepreneurs overall.
Guys a genius when it comes to perspective. That one initial diagram nailed it. Deep and specialized Vs general and wide. No brainer.
daaamnnnnn I have been facing this problem for so so long. Thank you for the video
Bless this soul. Second video I've watched -- both spectacular.
Thank you
Loving the content. Always highest of quality stuff.
I was just reading the book Range by David Epstein - I’ve been having this dilemma because I identify with the multi-potentialite persona as someone with multiple interests and passions (but also believe in certification specialization for both credentials and credibility purposes); I want to do just about everything! The statement how “creative people are addicted to new/novel things and being bored of doing the same things repetitively is so true” - I get bored VERY easily. But listening to this video and the case scenario especially helped put the focus into perspective (because whenever there’s a problem, we want someone who’s had the most experienced or has the most expertise to help solve that particular issue) because truthfully I love working and caring for children I’ve felt this way for the longest time but I guess I’m still learning though how to balance it with my other activities.
"Halo bias" awesome concept !!! 🔥👌🏽
I see the whole sponsor part just cvause DAMN this is valuable love you guys.
Thank you 🙏
This is an eye opener..... Thanks the futur... Thanks chris.
I never knew about the "Halo Bias" theory until I watched this video. That theory has worked in my favour so many times.
Just because I was great in academics, people used to think that I would be great in other areas as well like debate, elocution, essay writing or sometimes even in presenting research papers. I was also selected in a drama/play just because I was great in academics. That's such a faulty way to look at things
Thank you The Futur for creating this video. As a 2D animator and illustrator, I have been contemplating on whether I should offer a ton of services related to this field such as logo animation, explainer videos, short animated films, banners, or simply offer the service of just creating short animated films. After watching your video, I have now decided to focus my energy on selling my animated short film service to my clients.
Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome
We'll need this video💰👍 great video thank you!
You have to love what you do if you are going to specialize, because it will also show, take James Victore as an example. Thanks for the great info, I have been having a little trouble deciding since my studio does videos for companies, and that is very wide, but I have been having a hard time attracting clients, so I decided that I was not connecting to clients because I could not target them well....
You maybe a generalist in your attic but be a specialist in your shop.
Like a Chef who gathers vast spices and roots from far off lands but cooks it all into ONE dish that he can sell for a premium and his clients can enjoy a cosmos of taste on a plate.
Have your roots to the deepest crest, but sell the ONE fruit that's Best (niche)
For the IT folks like me. This video is relevant! Watch it until the end.
We struggle if we need to be a jack of all trades or a master of one tech and as Chris explains in this video. That's not a hard cut off decision, it's not zero or one, one or the other. Find your bread and butter and cultivate that into a masterpiece and keep learning on the other areas that interests you.
Love this video! Thank you so much.
This helps me alote as a student
Man that was superb.... I dnt know about the guy who asked question but it crystal cleared lot for me
Glad to hear
I really like this position on the specialist versus generalist debate. It's like branding. Become known for one thing. That's what you focus on telling the world you do. But internally you do many more things. This helps you capitalize on the Halo bias, the fact that people think people who are great at one thing are great at other things. As well as keeping you satisfied internally by being able to pursue many things while also making killer amounts of money by selling yourself as the expert.
wow.. I needed this ❤️ thanks Chris
This is the best advice I need to hear
Thanks so much
Chris!!!!
This is just too good man.
Thank you for putting out this value for free.
Lesson learned!
Specialize externally, generalize internally.
✊
Thank you
Chris Do is great, great and great.....🔥💯
This makes me think about "So good that they can't ignore you" . Still, great content as always! Thank you for your sharing! Muah!
Pretty good advice. I hadn't though about the externally / internally expertise.
This video was really needed. Watching now......
I love that & wish you make more of those classes
I really needed this...such mind blowing advice😎
that's a great and clear way to put it thanks a lot guys. I like the halo bias concept.
Wow thanks great thoughts on this topic!
Damn this just solved one of my dilemmas... wich you'd organise your playlists though.
We do
Rewatched this again haha and just reminded me of the halo effect with Michael Jordan, who was able to switch over from professional basketball to professional baseball.
Halo Bias - _If you are good at one thing, you must be good at everything._
Wow thank you so much Chris!
Amazing ... Thanks for your insight... i'm a photographer/videographer and i think it applies for other creatives too...
Needed this so much!
Amazing... this is so "open eyes".
❤ general lysing is more fun and versatile and specializing is more goal, oriented and comparatively more profitable. Regardless, a lot of the underlying content, creation, philosophy goes into both. However, before anyone starts at their continent project, it’s best to pick either generalization or specialization and commit to it. Thank you for the great video. This was fun to watch.❤
Exactly what im looking for, thankyou
Great advice, thx a lot, it really helps me
So smart how u had the ad in the video 😍
Here I saw interesting things, agencies told me "I see you've done lots of this, did you also have done that and that ?" Brands say the same thing. At the end, agencies don't hire me, brands did (even when they didn't see their categories in my portfolio)
Love it love it love. We specialise only in comedy video production for companies. Only comedy.
This is a golden video!
This is really fantastic advice!!
Hey Chris and team, loved this advice and new perspective. What advice would you give to a creative professional who struggles with choosing a specialization when there are so many options? I'm sure you don't have time to respond even if you see this, but perhaps it could be a topic for new content. Thanks.
This is one of the biggest struggles of my (professional) life! Picking out a field of expertise...
I think I found one, but I've been wrong on this before...
that's so valuable, thanks a bunch!!
I needed this video so much
Very well said! Really helpful
I’ve replayed this video like 12 times. 🤓 So interesting 🤔
🤓
Thank you so much, from South Africa
You’re very welcome
Brilliant explanation.
Great advice!
Update you're self is main thing, do graphic design later shift to motion graphics then go to 3d animation go with trends experiance doesnt work here updation nd workspeed is important
Absolutely loving it
Thanks. Nice explanation
Great advice
So powerful, it’s like studying philosophy than marketing
I struggle with this all the time. My career is built on my skill in coding. I’m a software engineer by trade. But when I started out, i was freelancing doing the whole thing from sales and marketing to design and coding. I’ve noticed my obsessions switch from coding to design to filmmaking to illustrating to photography and to music. I normally get bored of one thing and move onto the other. My longest streak was about 2 years of filmmaking. Now coding at the moment but already have the urge to get back into illustrating. Schizophrenic creative. Does anyone else have the same problem?
I don't have professional career in coding other than freelancing but since I am wanting to officially have a brand, I get concerned about the low-code movement and which platform to go to. Or is it mandatory to go to 2 platforms and I enjoy graphic design who loves alot of niches but can't narrow down because I think I will get bored. I'm neurodivergent do idk if that plays a part. I sort of take these videos lightly tbh.
Have you considered checking if you have ADHD?
Great info!!!
The oxygen app didn’t work for me. Couldn’t open account
incredible as always