Would you rather be good at many things or excel at one?

I would rather be good in multiple skills, and here is why:

1. It makes for a well-rounded person
2. It greatly enriches my 'me" time
3. I honestly would get bored if I was just good at one thing
4. You never know what information can be useful in the future.

I am absolutely HORRIBLE at math...well calculus that is, but to make up for that, I am a good singer, writer, artist, good at memorizing and taking in information, good at chemistry and life sciences, and can speak three languages. I wouldn't have it the other way around, unless I wanted to be an engineer or something along that line. My friend excelled in calculus in high school, but their gpa fell far below mine, despite the fact I was scraping a D in that class, but all my other grades were As...Bottom line is that well-roundedness for the most part, will get you the farthest in life

 

It depends on what that one skill is. If it is easily marketable then yes, one skill. There are already a lot of people who are just good at many things. Not many people can do amazing things. Now if you are saying I will be like the rain man and be great at math but have to live in a home, then no.

 

I'm naturally talented in only one area or so I appear, I wouldn't mind being good at a lot of thing though.

I've noticed that I have a nephew who is good at just about everything, but he plateaus very quickly and then it get's hard for him to get any better.

so far I've found I'm good at public speaking, and the growth in my ability is almost exponential.

 

I wish that I was good at public speaking

 

Public speaking, whether it be a speech, a sermon or talking in front of a class is all about being comfortable and the best way to be comfortable is to know about what your talking about.

Still it's easier said then done, the second biggest thing is being smooth and transitioning well, getting words like "like","um", and "uhh..." out of you vocabulary will help you immensely, the rest is trial and error to figure out your style.

 

Thank you for your advice, I will think about it. My main issue is that I get so nervous just getting up to speak that I trip over something and it sometimes goes downhill from there

 

I starting to think that there are always going to be butterflies, I've never spoke and not been nervous for the past thirty minutes to thirty hours prior.

While I wouldn't recommend it, you can speak with very little knowledge of something if you can project your self as knowledgeable on the subject. I winged more speaking assignments in high school the I care to remember, however if your preaching or giving a speech the important part is conveying your emotions, making others feel what you feel.

while the former is fine for high school and some college, the latter means you really have to care about what you say.


And of course practice, practice, practice.

 

Sometimes I wish that when I was growing I would have picked one thing, and stuck with it.

See... When I had to actually chose somthing... it was a little heartbreaking to me. As much as I would encourage people to try new things, I don't sugest getting invested in too many things... you lose time to get really good at anything.

I mean I'm good at a lot of things (and I don't mean medicore, I mean honest to godzilla, really good), but Sometimes I wonder what I would have been like I devoted all my time and energy spent in my constant quest for overall self improvement into one skill. I think I would be brilliant.

I don't regret my choices, I'm still young and can still focus on what I've finally chosen. Hey, I can both excel and have a lot of side skills I'm good at. (I can find time to maintain them), but that doesn't stop me from thinking "what if?"

 

Good at several things, but having one thing to excel at, probably.....?

 

It would be nice if I was either.

 

i'd much rather excel in one field than be mediocre in everything, it's what would distinguish you from the crowd and make you more marketable (and loveable )

and i think the specialization of individuals in a society mimics the development of single cells in an organism - just as cells evolve to become more specialized and interdependent on the whole for basic needs such as food, so too are people becoming more specialized and "single skilled" as time goes on, with the result that people in the present generation are much more reliant on social structures to provide for them than people were in the past. eg. we now expect farmers and a stable global economy to provide us with food rather than growing the food ourselves.