This is a bold statement, but to me skill stacking is the most important skill you need to learn to produce the kind of quality outcomes required for living a successful and abundant life. Life coaches, businesses, and magazines all love buzz words and “skill stacking” certainly has fallen into that category. But this is not remotely new. Skill stacking is the epitome of being a polymath. That’s what we do.
Polymaths Unite
Yes, I put myself in that category. In the same category as Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci. Dudes that could do just about anything they put their mind to because they had a virtual cornucopia of other skills that could be instantly applied to whatever that new skill or task happened to be. It’s pretty amazing to be honest.
In case you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea who these guys are, Franklin was an American statesman who served as our first Postmaster General, as a diplomat in France, he was one of the drafters of just about every major document when the country was founded, he invented things like bifocals, and started the first library in the US. He was also a prolific author and publisher and even founded the University of Pennsylvania. To name just a few things. Leo was a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect. His work is incredible. Just go look it up online.
What is Skill Stacking
In short, it’s having sufficient ability in any given skill set that it can be applied to learning a new skill set. As these are collected, you’re able to more rapidly squire new skills. For example, you may be exceptional at writing and communication. So you decide to study copywriting, which is a pretty unique way of using words to persuade others. You don’t have to learn a whole new set of vocabulary, because you already have it. You just have to learn a new way to present it. Then, as you start developing your copywriting ability, you learn wordpress so you can write blogs. This turns into building out websites. Next, you may need a video, so you apply your communication skills to writing the script, which is just another form of writing and communication. Because you’ve done lots of power point presentations, you are able to use those skills to apply it to using a a teleprompter and speak on camera. And so it goes. In short, it’s just an approach to learning and doing new things that helps you become better today than you were yesterday.
That list may look like:
- Organization skills
- Discipline
- Writing
- Public speaking
- Teaching
- Marketing
And so on. You get the gist.
What Skill Stacking Isn’t
It isn’t perfect mastery. Consider this: it takes about 20 hours to learn a new skill at a basic level. For instance, I can fly planes. And I learned to solo in about 20 hours. But if you want to be a professional commercial pilot, you’re looking at like 20,000 hours (yes, you read that correctly) before you can really be considered a master. Skill stacking is not becoming a master in each subject. You need to be good enough, but at some point you need to move on to the next topic.
What My Skill Stack Looks Like
I’ve spent decades learning new things. I am addicted to school (or, rather, education). I take formal classes, and I study on my own. In every respect, I’m what is known as an autodidact. That is, I know how to learn independently. As a result, I have a pretty varied and advanced set of skills. I am good at all kinds of things, and I jokingly say I am a jack of all trades master of most.
Okay, I just said that skills stacking isn’t mastery. Correct. However, you can get pretty dang close if you keep doing the same kinds of skills or skills that are synergistic in nature. Eventually, you get so good at it that you look pretty much like someone who has mastered a given skill set. Albeit, you won’t be as good as someone who is specialized. But you know what, that person who is specialized will be very limited to that one speciality. That’s the nature of the game.
My personal skill stack includes communication skills that include the ability to speak publicly, present on TV or in video, write in a variety of formats such as books, articles, scripts, and copywriting. Playing off the previous list, my communications ability includes persuasion, sales, marketing, and advertising. I can use photoshop, illustrator, indesign, final cut, davinci, powerpoint, and so on.
I can drive or operate almost anything including motorcycles, cars, off road vehicles, large trucks (lorries), boats, planes, backhoes, diggers, and so on. I can build things like house framing, drywalling, and make wood and metal products using a variety of tools including lathes and milling machines. I can build apps, program in PHP, HTML, C, Python, and others. The list is extensive. And every time I learn something new, it generally crosses paths with something else I learned before it.
The communication skills made it really easy for me to become an instructor. Once I started teaching one topic, I was able to very easily move to another topic. As I learned new topics, I was able to teach those too. Because I’m good at breaking down information and sharing it, I was able to pick up new topics fast. In fact, I learned if I teach a topic I learn it at much higher rate. That’s why I believe in co-teaching, which is a technique I use to teach instructor candidates in all kinds of fields from medical courses (like CPR, ACLS, etc) to scuba diving and martial arts.
What Does Your Skill Stack Look Like
Really, you have to decide what you want to do. If you sit down and logically think about it, it’s not hard to realize where cross overs are. Are you interested in marketing? Want to write a book? Well, do it; sit down and write for an hour a day. Apply yourself, and you’ll see the fruit of that effort. Embracing and learning the widest range of topics, interests, and activities is how you become a polymath. Just pick a topic and go for it. Dig in. Look to invest at least 20 hours on it. Do something every single day. Before you know it, you’ll know a ton about a ton.