When you think of your school, job, or future career, I wonder if the idea of doing more than one thing pops in your head. Our society has cultivated this specialist mindset, where you need to go to college for ONE thing, find ONE career, and choose ONE niche for your business. However, this isn’t really the case, and when you actually go into entrepreneurship, you find out pretty quickly that your degree doesn’t mean much. You have to teach yourself new skills to keep up, or you will swiftly fail.

There is also the idea that failing is a bad thing. It isn’t, and the sooner we realize that, then the sooner we can get to learning from our mistakes. The constant trying and failing is what really leads to success down the line. This is what I am going to talk to you about today: the changing of your mindset from choosing one thing to embracing the interdisciplinary.

Why do we need to do one thing?

Back in the industrial revolution, there was a huge lack of responsibility for workers. They would show up to work late and not have the skills they needed to do the variety of jobs in the factory. Henry Ford sought to change that and created the 9-5 job cycle we still know today.

With the changes to our working environment due to the pandemic, the future of work is changing, and we are realizing that we don’t actually need to work in an office to be successful. Twitter even told its employees that they don’t have to come in at all anymore. What is more interesting, though, is that everyone is different; the circadian rhythms, for example, for each person varies. Some may like to stay up late, and others rise early. That defines their energy for the day and at what point in the day they will do their best work.

Additionally, during the rise of this now pretty archaic timeframe of the 9-5, the companies of the time worked with the government to create an education system to give the basic competencies to uneducated people to work in these factories. Yet, we still keep that system that was made a hundred years ago.

If, by changing from the old ways of working and schooling, we get a truly better result, then why haven’t we done so already?

How does this impact you?

Throughout the past 100 years, the schooling system guided you towards getting a degree, getting a job in that field, and then sticking with it until you die. That not only doesn’t happen, but we find ourselves not even able to get a job anymore from that same degree. Self-education is the key to success, and if you look at all of the successful founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, they all have one thing in common: the ability to learn and unlearn.

If we, as a society, can unlearn the habits and norms established before us, cultivate a new way of thinking, and change the mindset on what success really looks like professionally, then we will establish a much more innovative and successful end result.

Personally, I think that because of the schooling and work designs of the time, it led us all to believe that being a specialist is the way to go. Now, for a while that worked, and for doctors and lawyers, that can still be applied. Alternatively, however, there are a plethora of fields that it doesn’t work for anymore. We need interdisciplinary skills and the ability to bridge multiple knowledge areas into a new innovation/field, such as biochemistry, nanotechnology, and the content creator entrepreneur.
In order to do almost anything successfully online nowadays, you must know more than a couple platforms to really be successful.

What can we do about it?

Listen, I am right here with you. As a child, I would tell people that I wanted to be a CEO, and when I graduated high school, I had no idea what degree I would get. I spent the next better half of a decade pursuing self-development instead. When I finally got around to going to college for a time, I realized it wasn’t for me. I know for some it is, and I respect that people have the self-awareness to know that they enjoy learning. Whichever path you choose, however, you need to pursue your own self-growth. Challenge yourself to put yourself out there and out of your comfort zone.

When the pandemic struck, it changed how all of us view the importance of the schooling that we have, as we didn’t want to risk it going in. Although, do we still want to be paying $120K a year, for four years, for a degree we are getting online now? Better yet, is it worth it in general? Ask yourself these questions and try to change your state of mind. Cultivate that growth mindset.

Whether you are a student, aspiring CEO, or accomplished CEO, there is always something more to learn.