Jack of All Trades

Jack rhymes with hack doesn't it?

I read a piece called "What would a professional do?". It almost said what I was thinking, but not quite. He lost me. Instead, I would say...

When you're busy being a jack of all trades, you're competing against professionals. The recipient of your work doesn't care that you are also capable of doing other things. All he wants is the best he can get.

Define a pro as a specialist who does industry standard work for hire. A professional presenter, for example, could give a presentation on anything, not just the topic on which you're passionate about.

When you compete with professionals, you have a problem, because generally speaking, they're better at what they do than you are.

There are three valid ways to think your way out of this situation:

• Hire a professional.
• Be as good as a professional.
• Realize that professional-quality work is not required or available and merely come close.

The first option may require time and money you might not have, presuming that's why you didn't go that route in the first place.

The second is a smart option, particularly if you do the work often and the quality matters. Web design and selling are two examples that come to mind here. The first step to getting good is admitting that you aren't (yet.) Invest the time and become a pro if it's important. Hire a pro and pay attention. Deliver quality and pay attention until you are one yourself.

The third option is the worst idea ever. Does your customer/client/employee actually believe that they haven't been shortchanged by your amateur performance? It is costing you in ways you're not measuring because you're willfully ignoring the consequences? Think of all the sub-pro experiences you've had as a customer, instances where someone was pretending to be a chef or a bartender or a computer jock but just came up short... Were you delighted? Of course not. Don't kid yourself. Amateur work will get you amateur results.

Find out what it takes to deliver the look you require and don't settle for crap. If you make less by doing it that way, then make less. Don't let everyone see what half-baked cheesy standards you consider to be "good enough". Charge more if you have to.

There you have it.