Don’t be tempted to become a Jack-of-all-trades, instead, concentrate on what you love to do and become a master of one. The following fable illustrates the point: Brer Rabbit, Brer Duck and Brer Squirrel enrolled in the school for animal welfare. Each animal was an expert in his own field of athletics, Brer Rabbit at running, Brer Duck at swimming and Brer Squirrel at climbing. However, although each excelled in his own field, they all achieved very poor results in the other events. It was felt that they needed to put in extra time on the events that they weren’t particularly good at. So, Brer Rabbit had to cut back on his running and instead concentrate his efforts on swimming and climbing. Eventually, he improved, but in doing so he had become just an average runner. Brer Duck, instead of swimming, practised full time on his running and climbing skills. He, too, improved a little, but in the end his webbed feet were so badly torn, because of all the running along stony pathways and the climbing of rough tree bark, that he could no longer swim properly. And as for Brer Squirrel, well, he spent so much time swimming and running that his claws were simply worn away to nothing. In the end, he could no longer grip the trees trunks and so he stopped climbing altogether! And the moral of this story is simply this: Concentrate on what you do best and become an expert at it.

R. Ian Seymour

R. Ian Seymour (excerpt from Maximize Your Potential.)