One for the Generalists

At some point in my career, I was coached, no, accused of not being a specialist in a niche to be more successful. The secret I learned early was that specialization actually makes you more susceptible to missing out on some grand things in life.

Before I ever got out of school I had been a bus driver, goaltender, radio DJ, and sportscaster. Through all of these though I learned the skill that would carry me forward, even with my liberal arts degree.

The ability to build and lead teams.

My first offer was for an operations manager position for a major transit authority. I chose bank operations instead. Then bank marketing, financial institution information technology, academic leadership in higher education, then project management in the post-pandemic public sector.

So what was the grand thing I stood to miss?

All of those grand relationships with colleagues and the challenges we met together.