If I’d have stayed stagnant on what I studied in school (ad copywriting and journalism) I’d only know how to do one thing: write.
As a doe-eyed 22-year-old grad, I figured that would be enough. I thought, “hey, I’ll do this forever, seems fine.”
Little did I know how pigeonholed I’d become over the next half decade as my organizations relegated me to a blogger – and as I passively, happily succumbed. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Like a muscle not used, when you do not constantly upskill yourself by incorporating new, adjacent capabilities, your utility in the market atrophies.
That’s because the world is evolving. Print journalists are out of style. And regular journalists need to know how to build a personal brand and YouTube page. If you’d relied on that narrow skillset the past ten years and that’s all you’ve got, you’re shit out of luck.
You stay stagnant, you lose.
The only way to ensure you’ll remain relevant tomorrow is to grow at a rate faster than the market.
Wherever you’re at now should be a stepping stone to where you’re going.
It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do. There are always higher levels and no one is ever irreplaceable.
The highest performers have the foresight to say “what might I need to know how to do in six months from now?” Then they start learning it in advance so by the time they need the skill, they’re already proficient.
Skills build atop one another, complimenting and compounding as you acquire them.
And, the utility of a single skill doesn’t just get a little more usable as new abilities are tacked on; it doubles or triples.
I think about skill-stacking in three tiers:
- Foundational skills. Communication abilities; speaking, writing, etc.
- Functional skills. Industry-specific competencies; tools, niche knowledge, etc.
- Finesse skills. Highly-specialized, non-general knowledge, must be earned.
To be a high-level investor who manages a group of portfolio companies (my ultimate goal) and coaches other founders, I’ll need my communication skills. But my writing skills will no longer be used to create content for some employer. They’ll be used stacked atop deal-making, negotiation, and strategy skills in much higher-fidelity forums with millions at stake.
Yet I’ll also need the foundational and functional skillsets in order to activate that future timeline, and to ace those future projects.
Without the basic stuff, you can’t get to the higher-level stuff.
Start stacking now.