I'm in the 40-45 year old range and assuming you are much younger. Apologies if we are closer in age, since this advice will carry less value.
I have often been envious of people who were more focused than I am. I feel they have been able to make more progress in a given amount of time. I worked as a mover in Boston into my mid twenties, spent a bunch of time trying to become an elite athlete, climbed big mountains, eventually learned to code, got involved in some early ecommerce businesses, eventually video gaming industry, and finally a principle engineer for the playback technology we use on Disney+.
I was complaining about my lack of focus to an old college mate, and he posed an extremely relevant question: "Do you regret your experiences?"
No, I don't. Not one bit. The experiences I've gathered are assets which build on each other, leading to more and more valuable experiences.
I have an objective of starting my own company, even at this ripe old age, and I am more confident than ever that I'll be successful at it. I have the experiences I need to pursue just about any dream.
Go out and get experiences. If your personality is such that you get a varied scope of experience, it will serve you well. Don't fight it.
I'm in a similar age bracket. Started my company a little earlier. Pivoted and did all the fancy startup stuff but while having a family with multiple kids and several other commitments that many of the younger founders are not encumbered with.
The OPs advice is excellent. You can't find out what you're good at without first going wide. Mistakes will abound but you need to pin some meta skills
1. Avoiding things that are high probability dead ends. They might not be but you should have instinct for not pulling back on a path when it doesn't seem to be worthwhile.
2. Ability to make tough calls and execute - Abandoning things that you "always wanted to do but never had the time for", fixing personality problems that you know are holding you back but you always just ignore (e.g. false pride, procrastination etc.)
3. Develop skill stacks rather than deep specialisation. My brother writes and my sister draws. I do calligraphy and I tell people that I draw better than my brother and write better than my sister. In a similar vein, if you've got experience in a certain area, learning a useful skill that others in the area don't have will make you super valuable in that area.
4. Be resilient. If you're ambitious (as I gather you are), you're going to nurture that and while the process is worthwhile, it's blood unpleasant. There's a constant feeling of dissatisfaction that sometimes borders on an almost pathologically inability to celebrate a victory. You're going to have to make these calls as you figure out what you want to do and where.
Finally, once you do figure out something that you're good at and can make a living out of, dive deep and constantly get better at it. Start saying no to other stuff and become a narrow expert. Don't let all your exploratory experience and outlook become a handicap. It served you well to find your destiny but there is a time when you have to discard it. That's easier said than done but it's a must.
To add a scientific perspective here, there is a study on "hot streaks", periods of continuous success in a person's life. The main conclusion? Trying a bunch of different things is what leads to a hot streak. Focus comes after the start of the hot streak, in other words after success has been found.
Oh man. Thanks for sharing. This text could be coming from me. I also struggle with myself for not having a clear focus. I am interested in a wide range of topics.
I also wanna start my company. But I wonder: Will I ever stick? Will I have the grit and the passion to pursue one topic for the next 5-7 years. What's your thinking on this?
Charlie Munger (of Berkshire Hathaway fame) says that the best investors are multi-disciplinary, because everything in life is interrelated. I tend to agree with him. It goes beyond investing.
> Will I have the grit and the passion to pursue one topic for the next 5-7 years.
I will say, I was able to get my company off the ground and white labeled it for a much larger company. I ended up hating the product in the end, 10 years later - because I was sole founder and every single thing I had to do myself.
I think you will be able to stick with it ( especially when there is no other choice ! ) , but you might end up hating it.
I think this is not uncommon. I mentioned in another reply, that I'm "good at" what I do but I don't like doing it anymore. Saying I hate it is a bit too strong, but some days it can feel like that.
I've had those thoughts in the past. I would do a trial run of something with much less importance t o prove to myself that I could commit to something for a long-ish time. For example, one time I used the Borderlands 3 story line as a benchmark. If I could sit through that entire story line (something I hadn't done with any game in many many years), then I would have some modicum of confidence that I could stick to something more important.
I'm sorry but this is survivorship bias to the extreme. Most people that start like you will do the odd unstable jobs for the rest of their life, they won't end up Principal Engineer at Disney.
ha, boston, climbing obsession, career pivot to software eng... are you me? did mark twight also have an oversized impact on your life? I burnt out on alpine climbing and never got anywhere close to elite, but I feel the exact same way. wouldn't trade a minute of sitting out bad weather in a tent.
Then you take if from there - if you regret your experiences, perhaps try different choices and learn from them. If you don't, then there is much to celebrate.
I'm in the 40-45 year old range and assuming you are much younger. Apologies if we are closer in age, since this advice will carry less value.
I have often been envious of people who were more focused than I am. I feel they have been able to make more progress in a given amount of time. I worked as a mover in Boston into my mid twenties, spent a bunch of time trying to become an elite athlete, climbed big mountains, eventually learned to code, got involved in some early ecommerce businesses, eventually video gaming industry, and finally a principle engineer for the playback technology we use on Disney+.
I was complaining about my lack of focus to an old college mate, and he posed an extremely relevant question: "Do you regret your experiences?"
No, I don't. Not one bit. The experiences I've gathered are assets which build on each other, leading to more and more valuable experiences.
I have an objective of starting my own company, even at this ripe old age, and I am more confident than ever that I'll be successful at it. I have the experiences I need to pursue just about any dream.
Go out and get experiences. If your personality is such that you get a varied scope of experience, it will serve you well. Don't fight it.