When this nation of ours was born nearly every one was a generalist.
The merchant sold a general line of merchandise. The doctor was also a
farmer and a horse trader. In those days there were very few
specialists.
As time passed some of the wiser individuals turned specialist and
succeeded.
The doctor who is a generalist cannot excel in any one branch of
medicine, or compete with the specialist who devotes all his time and
study and practice towards one point and towards the treatment of a
specific ailment. The merchant who sells everything cannot compete with
the man who makes it his business to sell one class of goods. This is
an age of specialists, and what we considered a specialist twenty-five
years ago is only a generalist from the present standpoint. The
specialist of twenty-five years ago has been divided again and again.
The best doctor today is one who doctors the eye alone, the stomach
alone, or the nerves alone. He can do more for you and knows more of
your case in five minutes' observation than the generalist would in
three months.
With the keen competition of these days it is necessary for the
individual to be a specialist in business.
Pleasure and recreation are the only things in which an individual
should be a generalist.
Were it not for specialists we should know little about the sun, little
of electricity, little of steam, little of railroads, little of
advertising, little of anything else. It is because individuals have
made a speciality of one thing, because they have concentrated their
energies and their brain power on one thing that the world has
progressed.
Recreation is for relaxation, and the business man should see to it
that he gets the full benefit of recreation. If he carries specialism
into recreation, recreation is spoiled, for the moment a man is a
specialist in recreation he strives to excel, and this striving to
excel is hard work, and that is the same thing he is doing in business.
The business man who plays billiards and no other game doubtless will
play a better game than the generalist who indulges in all sorts of
games and recreations, but the man who makes a specialty of billiards
finds his powers centered on this game of billiards. He puts his
thought on it and wishes to excel, he wishes to make a record, and
billiards then become business.
This striving to excel in a game brings forth the same gambling
instinct manifested in business. It is his "I will." The business man
who plays a good game of billiards some day meets his superior, and the
superior is the individual who does nothing but play billiards.
If a man tries to be a specialist in billiards and a specialist in
business, even though both callings commence with "B," he will find
that a division of effort is a division of results, and he will not be
a success in either business or billiards. In proportion as he excels
in billiards he will be lacking in business, and vice versa.
We remember the story of a young friend of Herbert Spencer who joined
the great philosopher in a game of billiards. The young man played a
most excellent game. When they had finished Spencer remarked: "Young
man, your education has been greatly neglected, you play billiards too
well."
Be a specialist in business and a generalist in pleasure. Play
billiards, swim, ride, play golf and indulge in all athletic sports and
so long as you get uniform pleasure and recreation from these things
you are doing right, you are helping your mind and developing your body
and letting your brain rest, so that it may be keen and a greater help
in your specialty, which is business.
The world needs specialists, and it needs specialists in recreation as
well as business, but the man who tries to be a specialist in business
as well as a specialist in recreation will fail in both, or, at least,
his success will be only moderate.
It is necessary for life's scheme that we have individuals who have
steady incomes so that they do not require to enter the strenuous
business life. It is necessary to have such individuals, so that they
may devote themselves to being specialists in recreation, otherwise the
sports would die out.
If you go in for sport do not expect you can compete with anybody who
goes in for sport exclusively. You can't win in two callings or
occupations.