Jack of all Trades in the Wild World of Kings

Jack of all Trades in the Wild World of Kings

The world is sometimes so huge that our minds are capable of shrinking ourselves to such an extent where we call ourselves insignificant. What changes could we possibly make in this intense crowd and competition? You will never know when you’re ready, which is, if you ever happen to be in the first place. 

The formation of a society, which is quite evident from the early civilisations, is what let such rapid evolutions and adaptations. The basic idea of a community is that individuals contribute to the society and the society in turn gives what he needs but not have. However, centuries have passed and the idea has not been flawlessly implemented yet. Nobody can completely rely on the society to give them everything they need, because the resources are limited and the distribution follows a hierarchy with a financial base. 

There is hardly anyone who does agriculture hoping that their own field produces the three meals a day. The motive behind growing certain crops is indeed that the owners of the crops consume them but always indirectly. They sell the produce of their effort to have access to the other things their hard effort couldn’t produce either due to lack of skill or focus. Money has been working as the middle man for quite a long time. 

Imagine a world where everyone is self sufficient; where everyone has their own source of food, water and shelter. After pushing the line that divides ‘need’ and ‘desire’ further, a world where everyone has their own source of entertainment and access to unlimited energy and material, is what awaits us in the future. At this point, money will be only in history, desire will quickly convert itself to reality hence all limits will disappear. Considering the rapid progress and hard work of billions of people from the past and present, such a future is far away.

Coming back to the living present and peeking into the near possible future, we must choose to be the jack of all trades or the king of one.

It’s often told that being a jack of all trades restricts you from being a master of one. It is an easily and logically derivable fact that if you devote your time in one thing, you will prosper in that field and if you distribute your time and effort you will grow of importance on different grounds but never make it to the top. Being the best at everything is beyond human determination. 

The Master

Imagine you have mastered a particular skill of your choice which is extremely specific in nature. You may also assume that you are the best at what you do in your large neighbourhood. However, you are not useful enough at anything else other than just this one skill. “Not good at anything else” doesn’t matter because you are so qualified that you have no worthy competition. Everyone you know, approaches you when they require a service or advice related to your field. Everyone, who believe in quality, happily affords your expensive bills. You have an edge over the rest of the people and you continuously work to keep yourself updated so that your rank is never challenged. 

Now, imagine after years of exploiting your skills, comes a day when your skill has lost demand in the market. The possibilities of “machines taking over”, “competition from the young with hot-blood in their veins”, “the society attracted to another alternative” are undeniably and undoubtedly present at adequate levels. Such a turn of events would meet you with such devastating effects that you may not survive it. You will be unable to channel your time or effort into acquiring other talents because you never bothered to build yourself a decent foundation when you could have, upon which you could build. 

The Jack of all Trades

Someone having a decent level of knowledge regarding all that is common in the society. If someone decides to select the best people at a variety of fields, if you are the best at something you will always be chosen at some point when someone require the skill at which you’re the best at, unlike the mediocre ones who will always hope but never make it to the top. Your overall growth will be tremendously slow as the effort is distributed to a wide range and no skill you have will reach its zenith. By the time you are eligible to be compared to the best at different fields, you would have become old and have a fresher set of competition that is young and energetic. That person you envy, may be such a ruin at everything else except at that one skill at which you cannot be better than him. As long as you're being compared at that field, you hardly stand a chance at overpowering his skills. 

Although being a Jack or a King comes with their own drawbacks, a good take away is “try to be good at the things you do and never forget to try something new once in a while” and most importantly - nobody wants to live forever (not that anyone can) but your contributions that touch the lives of many; several aeons to come will live through them. It us important that we breathe and make sure it counts because it matters to someone else. What is the point in living if you have no one to live for?