Don’t Have Just One Tool In Your Toolbox

In this episode, we discuss how we should not focus on having the best skill, but having multiple skills to help us be successful in life.

Full Transcript

Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.

I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.

In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how we just can’t have one tool in our toolbox because if this happens then every problem will look like a nail. Once I heard this quote like 4 years ago, I realized that I need to start learning other skills and reading different books so I don’t get stuck in one way of thinking.

This is why I’ve read books on communism to books on free-market theory. This is why I read books on women anatomy. I’ve read books about Mexican history and I’ve booked on roman and Grecian philosophy.
I’ve also gone to a public speaking conference, taking improv classes, been in the Marines, a federal employee, and a business owner. I have a lot of tools in my toolbox. So when I come across a problem, I’m more likely to use the right tool to get the job done.

If you’re trying to get a nail out of a wall, and the only tool you have is a saw. Things are going to get messy. If you have a hammer, then you can easily get that nail out with the least amount of collateral damage, but don’t think this hammer will solve all future problems. What happens if that next problem is a screw. The hammer is going to be less effective than a screwdriver.

We live in a complex society with a bunch of decisions to make. 120 years most people lived on farms and life was simple. You woke up and made sure the farm running efficiently. This was a lot of work but our economy has transitioned from a manufacturing and agricultural society to a service economy because there have been so many technological advances that have allowed us not to work on the farm 12 hours a day, seven days a week. And now we have a lot more free time for leisure.

A service economy requires more tools in your toolbox though. As a business owner, I have to know a lot of different things to become successful. I’m a financial planner by heart, but my brain needs to know different things in order to make sure I can follow my passion. If I didn’t learn all these different things on how to become successful in a service economy, then I would have given up on my passion a long time ago and I would not be fulfilled as I am today.

If you really want to do what you love in life, you just can’t build it and they will come. We need to have different skills that we might not enjoy. I didn’t want to start this podcast and do a bunch of other stuff for marketing, but it’s required of me to make a successful business. I’m working on other tools now and I’m just going to keep my growth mindset so I don’t get left behind by society and I continue to do things I love in life like financial planning and coaching.

That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, don’t have just one tool in your toolbox. In this new economy, we need to know a bunch of other things to become successful. Skills are going to trump passion in this new service economy that we are in. It’s not enough just to be good in one area, it’s best to be good in a bunch of different areas and then you will create a nice little talent stack for yourself and then you’re going to be the best at the intersection of those skills because you will be one of the few that has that combination of skills. The economy is big enough to have more services in it, but not big enough for more things, so focus your efforts on the right thing and you will be able to build some amazing things with your tools.

If you would like to get the journal questions for today’s episode, you can sign-up for my monthly journaling subscription newsletter, where you get daily journal questions Monday through Friday, and as a bonus, you will also get my time management course and my personal development cheat sheet. You can get all this for $13/mo, which is less than the cost of an audible subscription and it’s less work to gain more wisdom. You can get this offer at growwithjoe.me/journal

Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my Audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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