Impressive Facts and Best Traits of Polymaths

Polymaths: Master of none or someone who can master anything?

“I think if you have ability and talent in one way, you have it in all ways. I’m not a jack of all trades; I’m a master of many. I don’t feel there is anything I can’t do if I want to.” -Evel Knievel

Author: Brenda Scott
https://puttylike.com/11-inspirational-quotes-for-multipotentialites

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Introduction

Ever heard of the figure of speech “Jack of all trades, master of none“? Well, this saying was considered to be a negative connotation way back then. However, in the 21st century, there are a lot of people who are becoming “Generalists” or “Polymaths“. Because the need for knowing multiple skillsets is getting higher.

In this article, we will discuss the Impressive Facts and Best Traits of Polymaths, and how they can help you when it comes to your career. With that being said let’s get right on to it!

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What is a Polymaths?

Jack of all trades or some call Generalists, or Polymath is a person who has a piece of knowledge in multiple skill sets. However, most people have a misconception of generalists. Because they thought that generalists are masters of none since generalists possess the knowledge on multiple skill sets rather than focusing and mastering only one skill set.

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Pros and Cons of being a Polymath

Cons

1. Branching out your skillset too much may result in you failing to finish or achieve anything.
2. Some employers prefer people who focus and master one skill set.
3. To be a master generalist may take years.
4. You will get easily confused with your skillsets if you are not organized. Because you have the risk to mix things up.
5. If you do not possess extreme focus on mastering your skill sets, you will get easily bored, and eventually, you will try to learn a new one.
6. Requires patience and extreme focus before you can master a skill set if it is far from your usual traits.

Pros

1. Your knowledge and learning capability are limitless.
2. You have the freedom to choose and master which skillset you might think is useful in your current situation.
3. Possess flexible knowledge.
4. In demand in most huge international companies.
5. Can do multitasking.
6. You are equipped with multiple knowledge on whatever the world throws in front of you.
7. You can execute different strategies when it comes to problem-solving.
8. Your mind is not concealed in one theory. You have a wider way of thinking.
9. Generalists are great mentors, you possess multiple skills that can be passed to the next generation.
10. Most successful businessmen are generalists.

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Things you need to know before you pursue to be a Generalists or Polymath

1. Start focusing and mastering one skill set at a time. 
2. List your skills that you are passionate about. And prioritize mastering those first.
3. You must know your personality very well. And learn the skills related to your personality (Learn more about personality through this link).
4. “It’s not the destination, It’s the journey.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Generalists are an experience-based type of people. The more you experience the more you become a master.
5. Patience is a virtue, it will take years but the result is worth it.
6. You will fail most of the time, so you need to maintain the focus on achieving your goals and keep on grinding until you reach them.
7. You must learn across different skillsets and applying them into one and try to get a result.
8. Applying multiple skillsets into one was proven effective to produce a breakthrough. It will take some trial and error however it is achievable.

Why is it an advantage to be a Polymath rather than a Master of One?

Jack of all trades or Polymaths is very flexible when it comes to careers. They possess multiple skill sets and knowledge which is an advantage when it comes to problem-solving. 

Especially in this era, due to the constant changes in technology and industries. Generalists possess the advantage because they can adapt to any situation at hand.

For example, even if you are in the sales department but you possess the knowledge when it comes to e-commerce, you have the advantage compare to the other sales team because you know how to execute the best practices in e-commerce. 

Which for some they needed to undergo some crash courses to learn more about e-commerce. Imagine that, they are required to spend time studying about e-commerce which you already possess the knowledge and skillset about it. Therefore it saves you time and effort so you can just focus on getting those sales by using all the relevant knowledge and skillsets that you possess.

Jack of all trades, Generalists, Polymaths considered being the key for the future as they are capable to adapt easily to the constant change that is happening in the world. 

Aside from that, they also possess a wider understanding of how the world works. Hence, they are capable to create something that can help humanity in many ways that only they can create. 

There are a lot of well-known generalists or polymaths in history that you might not know. And these people contributed their breakthroughs to mankind and we use their breakthroughs as inspiration in modern times.

Well-known people who are Generalists or Polymaths

How to be an effective Polymaths or Generalists?

According to Michael Simmons, as he studied the behavior and routines of the well-known leaders he tracked such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and even Oprah are doing the same thing. 

He called it the 5-Hour Rule. Which often includes doing these three significant routines in their daily lives.

Read

In the article of Michael Simmons, He mentioned that the mentioned well-known people are into reading books, and it is part of their daily routine.

• Warren Buffet spends 5-6 hours per day reading 5 newspapers and 500 pages of corporate reports.
• Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day, according to his brother, Kimbal Musk.
• Bill Gates reads 50 books per year. This was also mentioned in Netflix’s Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates mini-series.

Reflect

As part of the 5-Hour rule, aside from reading these successful people also makes time to reflect on the things that they learned. Michael Simmons called it the “Thinking Time“.

Where they reflect on everything they experienced, read, learned in a week. Some businessmen are doing Brainstorming sessions with their colleagues. To create and formulate new ideas that can they use to improve their businesses.

Experiment

This step is where you experiment with your ideas by an implementation. Applying the formulated ideas into action and check if will it work or not. Otherwise, they take note of the result and use it to formulate another idea until they get the right formula and successful result.

This is also the technique that Thomas Edison in his journey of experimentation to create the first-ever light bulb.

If you think about it, these successful people are not afraid to take a risk and fail. As they consider failures as learnings that they can use to improve until they can get the best result that they are aiming for.

Creativity that only Generalists and Polymaths posses

If you read our article on a movie about creativeness, we mentioned the term SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify/Minify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearrange).

The SCAMPER technique is very useful for generalists and polymaths because they possess a wider creative mind. Hence, applying the SCAMPER method will help them formulate new ideas much faster than others.

Since polymaths and generalists possess knowledge of different skillsets they can create and formulate new strategies and approaches by combining the skillsets they possess and applying the SCAMPER method. It is a unique trait that not all people possess. 

Conclusions

I, myself was branded as a Jack of all trades due to my work experiences. I gained knowledge in different industries, from retail inventory to customer service in a call center to sales in a car dealership then went to marketing then shifted to warehouse operations and went back to sales and business development.

In my previous company, my manager saw me as a Jack of all trades, which I find as a negative connotation because I know what it meant due to the things I’ve read in the past. However, every time I get another job. It seems like that my skills are becoming more advanced compared to others without even knowing it.

Until the time I realized that I already possess different skill sets in different domains. Which I am now using to share and help other people to learn something new that can help them when it comes to personal development.

I finally get it now that it wasn’t bad at all learning across different things. As matter of fact, I should consider it as an advantage. Because I am equipped with different skill sets that I can use in all of the problems that I will encounter in my life.

And there are a lot of successful people who prefer to be a generalist rather than just a master of one skill set. And I will continue to learn and will keep on working hard to improve much more and hopefully to contribute and make our world a better place.

How about you? Do you prefer to be a generalist or a master of one skillset? Let us know in the comments. 😉

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Author: Carlo David

KG Collections is an online store on Facebook, Established on April 15, 2020. Primarily, We started selling Pre-loved goods which eventually expanded to sell brand new apparel through reselling.Now, KG Collections is a franchisee of Siomai King, Mangbok's, And other food products. We are also a franchisee and operator of the newest delivery platform called TokTok PH.Aside from franchise and reselling business. KG Collections also participates in multiple affiliate marketing programs, content creation, and online course teaching.KG Collections is managed directly by the owners Kathlene Garcia & Carlo David, the couple's goal is to build a business community for small business owners where they can attain new knowledge and be inspired with their businesses.The organization will also launch its online course programs to help the public learn new things, which the courses will be prepared by professionals who have excellent skillsets to share and teach the enrollees.-KG Collections