Signup for podcast

Hack & Grow Rich Episode 11: Be Specific

 You don't want to become a generalist, that is probably the single biggest mistake that you can make in the book, Think and Grow Rich, which I think is interesting but flawed. And we can go into that later. He talks about the author, Napoleon Hill, talks about the difference between general knowledge and specified knowledge. He says that there are two kinds of knowledge. General knowledge is definitely more popular. University professors and academics love it, and it's not very useful for the accumulation of wealth, which is why professors and academics in most cases are not particularly rich. Hill himself said that there's no such thing as knowledge is power, that that's a misnomer and rather he calls knowledge potential power and that it becomes power only when it's intelligently directed through plans of specific action and a well-defined purpose. Now, purpose is very important. Instead, what Hill talked about is specialized knowledge. And I love this because I remember in the early days of herbal ecstasy and my company there. There was so much to do, I was a kid, I had no idea how to formulate a pill, I didn't know how to start a company. I didn't know how to do any of this stuff. But one of the things one of my very first mentors taught me is the art of influence. And it's like the one ring that unites them all. The ability to hire people, the ability to influence people to help you with their specialized knowledge is incredible because with it, you can do anything. You could do heart surgery if you can get the right people together to perform the operation.

So if you can get a surgeon and an anesthesiologist and all the right people in the room, that heart surgery will happen. It doesn't happen because of one person. It happens because of a group of people with the specialized knowledge. Now, I don't mean that you could do heart surgery yourself or you certainly shouldn't do it. But it's very possible that somebody with the knowledge of what people to get together, how to get people together would be able to do the most complicated task that one could think of. Now, you would have to have a general knowledge or you would have to gain a general knowledge of the field and of the specific task that you wanted to. But you wouldn't have to learn how to do each of the elements in the world of Amazon. Which I'm in now, there's so many different moving parts and I look at graphic design as being such an essential component to commerce and it is such an art, it takes such talent and nobody is more broke than graphic artists they exceed in being able to sell their hours for money and not realizing how limited their hours are. And their skill set is one that really a good graphic artist is something that is so time consuming, so meticulous, so perfection oriented, but so underpaid. And if I need an amazing design, an amazing piece of graphic design, I will get together two or three great graphic artists. I will give them examples and I will pay them by the hour and they are done. There's no need for me to learn Photoshop to learn any of the stuff.

I know nothing about that. I know what looks good because I've been doing it for so long, but I don't need to know those specifics. So specialized knowledge is what you want to be. You want to be a specialist and the more niche you are, the better off you are. I know that I am one of the top people in the world at a very narrow band of stuff which is winning at Amazon, which is how to get my products to sell on the Amazon platform, how to get products to rank not only mine, but my students and other peoples. That's it. Most other things I hire other people to do, and oftentimes the result comes out excellent. Why? Because I'm a good manager of people. I'm a great project manager and I am an amazing systems builder. There are a lot of things that I absolutely fail at and that I am not a success at. But those are things that I am very successful at. Now, if you are not a specialized person, if you are a generalist, chances are you are not going to be very successful. So, you want to change yourself, to become a specialist, to hire the best of the best and get them on your side. And you do that through influence. And we will talk about influence in later episodes. Great book on that, which I talk a lot about is the book titled Influence by Professor Cialdini and his follow up book, which is called Pre-Suasion. OK, we'll see you on the next episode.

Transcript

Shaahin Cheyene 00:00

specialized knowledge, do not be a generalist in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, he talks about how the value of specialized knowledge of being a specialist far outweighs having a wide general knowledge, which is why college professors are relatively lower-paid to entrepreneurs that are very specific in certain areas. We're going to explore that a little bit more in this episode. So make sure to comment below, and subscribe. And like if this is something that you find yourself enjoying, we'll see it in the next episode. You don't want to become a generalist. That is probably the single biggest mistake that you can make, in book thinking Grow Rich, which I think is interesting, but flawed. And we can go into that later. He talks the author Napoleon Hill, talks about the difference between general knowledge and specified knowledge. He said that there are two kinds of knowledge, general knowledge is more popular university professors and academics love it. And it's not very useful for the accumulation of wealth, which is why professors and academics in most cases are not particularly rich. Hill himself said that there's no such thing as knowledge is power, that that's a misnomer. And Rather, he calls knowledge potential power, and that it becomes power only when it's intelligently directed through plans of a specific action, and the well-defined purpose. Now the purpose is very important. Instead, what Hill talked about a specialized knowledge, and I love this because I remember in the early days of herbal ecstasy, and my company there, there was so much to do, I was a kid, I had no idea how to formulate a pill, I didn't know how to start a company. I didn't know how to do any of that stuff. But one of the things one of my very first mentors taught me is the art of influence. And it's like the one ring that unites them all. The ability to hire people, the ability to influence people, to help you with their specialized knowledge is incredible because, with it, you can do anything, you can do heart surgery if you can get the right people together to operate. So if you can get a surgeon, anesthesiologist and, and all the right people in the room, that heart surgery will happen. It doesn't happen because of one person, it happens because of a group of people with specialized knowledge. Now, I don't mean that you can do heart surgery yourself, or you certainly shouldn't do it. But it's very possible that somebody with the knowledge of what people to get together how to get people together, would be able to do the most complicated tasks that one could think of, now you would have to have a general knowledge or you would have to gain the general knowledge of the field and have the specific tasks that you wanted to, but you wouldn't have to learn how to do each of the elements in the world of Amazon, which I'm in now, there are so many different moving parts. And I look at graphic design as being such an essential component of e-commerce. And it is such an art, it takes such talent. And nobody is more broke than graphic artists. They exceed in being able to sell their hours for money and not realizing how limited their hours are. And their skill set is one that really good graphic artists is so time-consuming, so meticulous, so perfection oriented, but so underpaid. And if I need an amazing design, an amazing piece of graphic design, I will get together two or three great graphic artists, I will give them examples. And I will pay them by the hour. They're done. There's no need for me to learn Photoshop to learn any of the stuff I know nothing about. I know what looks good because I've been doing it for so long. But I don't need to know those specifics. So specialized knowledge is what you want to be you want to be a specialist and the more niche you are, the better off you are. I know that I am one of the top people in the world at a very narrow band of stuff which is winning at Amazon, which is how to get my products to sell on the Amazon platform, how to get products to rank not only mine but my students and other people's. That's it. Most other things I hire other people to do, and oftentimes the result comes out. Excellent. Why? Because I'm a good manager of people. I'm a great project manager and I am an amazing systems builder. There are a lot of things that I fail at and that I am not a successor, but those are things that I am very successful in. Now, if you are not a specialized person, if you are a generalist, chances are you are not going to be very successful. So you want to change yourself to become a specialist to hire the best of the best and get them on your side. And you do that through influence and we will talk about influence in later episodes. A great book on that, which I talk a lot about is the book titled influence by Professor Cal Dini and his follow-up book, which is called pre suasion. Okay, we'll see on the next episode.

Links, audio podcast, and more:

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/ShaahinCheyene

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shaahincheyene/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/shaahincheyene

Twitter - https://twitter.com/shaahincheyene