The Future is being Multi-Hyphen
“Travis (Scott) dropped right into the Kanye, Pharrell, Virgil, Drake world,” says StockX cofounder Josh Luber, “this blurred line between fashion, music, sports superstar culture.”
The world and society seems to want to categorize you into one thing or what you do. But I think it’s important that we all realize we can and should live multi-faceted lives.
Crossing different industries, sciences or genres is how you come up with innovations. The most interesting part of anything is the intersection. Let’s go back to Hip Hop music and fashion impresario Travis Scott.
The secret to Travis Scott is that he sees, before anyone else, how everything connects. “He's touching so many different levels and different fields of art,” says composer Ludwig Göransson, who collaborated with Scott for Tenet. “The way that he connects with art is not in a singular form. He has so many tentacles, and they're all electric. So when we talk about feeling, [whether that's] listening to a song or talking about a movie, he can visualize things in so many different fields.
If you look at all the most interesting people in the world these days, they share that trait of being multifaceted. Actors becoming alcohol beverage tycoons, Professional athletes becoming tech and franchise business investors, heck the CEO of Goldman Sachs is a professional DJ. (DJ Sol in case you are wondering).
So sure, start with specializing in one key thing & be great at it. But then, make sure you build out other interests and skills. Then like a great DJ re-mix these. Who knows what magic might come out of this.
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert cartoons said it best. “if you want something extraordinary…... Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
Capitalism rewards things that are both rare and valuable. You make yourself rare by combining two or more “pretty goods” until no one else has your mix.”
And if anyone tells you that specialization is the only way to success. Frankly in this fast changing world where skills and technology get so outdated so quickly, I'd rebut that with Heinlein’s comment that “Specialization is for insects.” :)