I once heard on the radio - it may have been a Paul Harvey segment - some commentator talking about an old Girl Scout handbook from the '30s (or something). Anyway, his point was that it contained much practical advice that would be as useful today as in the 1930s or whenever it was published. It was sort of a feel-good fluff piece. Anyway, one bit of advice that struck me was that girls should "learn two trades, in case one of them goes out of fashion" or something like that. Today I was having lunch with some engineers, as usual, and we were joined by a guy I will call The King. The King is, as his name implies, the king of a relatively narrow (but very important) field. He's one of these Distinguished Engineers that's in the top 2% of all the engineers at the company or something like that. If you want to know something about this particular field, you can just ask The King, because he knows it. He also happens to be a hell of a nice guy. Well, in addition to being the King of engineering, he is also an accomplished musician, and has recorded a few albums with some of the best session players in the business. Just, you know, as a hobby - for fun. FOCUS: Who do you know that is a star in two widely varying fields? Is the VP at your accounting firm also a backup dancer for Janet Jackson? Is one of your professors also the world champion of fly-fishing? Do people like this annoy you, because it's not good enough for them to be awesome at just one thing?
I don't know him well, but a guy I used to roll with is a Pedro Sauer BJJ black belt. I knew he was well off since he always used to show up to class driving a Lotus. One day I stumbled across him on LinkedIn, and it turns out that he is a VP of R&D in the medical device industry. Oh, and he also has two B.S. in unrelated fields, and a Masters a third. Motivated much?
While I don't know him personally, Nnamdi Asomugha (or, as I like to call him, Scrabble) is arguably the best cover corner in the NFL. Turns out he's also awesome at life: http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-14/sports/30154555_1_blockbuster-deals-nnamdi-asomugha-foundation
I don't know if these two things are related, but I have a friend who is an amateur MMA fighter and speaks conversational Polish. These are two skills that he picked up at different points in his life, but excels at both of them.
One of the old guys I work with is a fully qualed Electrician as well as Fitter & Turner and I believe he was almost all the way through another trade apprenticeship at one stage as well. Hopefully in a years time I'll be on the way to a second trade as well.
What kind of a fucking loser only excels at one thing? I can't be the only one here with this question. Hell, by the time you're in your early to mid thirties, you should at least be good at a few different things. If not, what the fuck is wrong with you?
A consultant I recently met is a master woodworker/finish carpenter as well as an amazing brewer. Just a breathtaking ability to create.
I can burp really loud as well as make a killer pickle sickle. I don't know if that's as impressive as speaking a second language conversationally and being an amateur at getting my ass kicked, but I think it's good start on my way to becoming a renaissance man.