Learn These Skills, Stay Employed
There’s an old saying that says, “Give a man a fish and he
will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will probably buy a huge bass
boat and never come home.” That may or may not actually be the way that saying
goes, but it’s something about fishing.
Regardless, the basic premise is if you want to survive, learn a skill. I was reading a blog post from Austin Kleon
the other day about the importance of learning a skill (Read it
here).
One of the things he says is “I would recommend thinking about what the world
needs, thinking about what you have to offer, and working hard to build a skill
set so that you can fill that void.”
I agree totally. The only way to stay employed in this crazy
world is to develop the skills necessary to survive.
The Future of Newspapers And The Mark of the Beast
After working in the newspaper industry for years, kids (and
adults) would ask me the future of journalism. The
short answer is: I have no freakin’ idea. But the longer answer is: It’s not
going away. It may change, but it’s not going away.
People are going to want to read stories about their
neighbors. They are going to want to know what’s happening in their community. The key is telling the story.
That skill — the skill of crafting a story — is not going to go away. In
the future that story may get told totally online, in the cloud or beamed
directly into our heads through the Mark of the Beast, but we will get stories.
And somebody has to tell them.
There are some very basic things that all humans should know
how to do — build a fire, cook, change a tire, and how to record “Keeping Up With The
Kardashians — but there are also some basic skills that will keep most
homo sapiens employed long past the rise of the apes. Storytelling is one of
those.
Cartoonist Scott Adams (famous for his Dilbert comic strip)
said there are “12 core human skills” that if everybody can be in the top 25
percent (very good) at most or all of these skills, they would never be out of
a job. Author Josh Kaufman wrote a blog post about it here
here.
You can read the 25 skills
yourself, but they are: information assimilation, writing, speaking,
mathematics, decision-making, rapport, conflict resolution,
scenario-generation, planning, self-awareness, interrelation and skill
acquisition.
The History of Every Job Ever
I did a little research myself some minutes ago on the
Internet — The Source Of All Truth — and came up with a list of basic jobs that
have that have been around since homo sapiens crawled out of the goo and
started talking on their cell phones. Each of these jobs requires one or more
of the skills that Adams put in his list.
My list of basic homo sapien jobs and skills required:
1.
Farmer – Grows things. He solves problems and
provides for a group of homo sapiens. Skills needed: information assimilation,
mathematics, decision-making, planning, and skill acquisition.
2.
Philosopher — Studies the important questions of
life and tries to answer the question, “Why are homo sapiens here?” And then
she shares that answer with other homo sapiens. Skills needed: information
assimilation, writing, speaking, scenario-generation, self-awareness,
interrelation and skill acquisition.
3.
Artist — Translates the biggest questions of
life and explains them to homo sapiens through words, paint, musical notes,
videos, movies, acting, etc. Skills needed: writing, speaking, rapport,
scenario-generation, planning, self-awareness, interrelation and skill
acquisition.
4.
Tradesman — These are the homo sapiens, who
build and make things. One homo sapien designs a product and a tradesman homo
sapien brings that vision to reality for the rest of the homo sapiens to enjoy.
Skills needed: information assimilation, mathematics, rapport, planning,
interrelation and skill acquisition.
5.
Merchant — A merchant is a homo sapien with, for
lack of a better term, the gift of gab. She can talk to any homo sapien and
convince that homo sapien that he needs whatever she is selling. It’s a rare homo
sapien gift. Skills needed: information assimilation, speaking, mathematics,
decision-making, rapport, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.
6.
Statesman/Politician — These are the
leaders of the of the homo sapien world. They set the vision, offer solutions
to problems and negotiate peace between groups of homo sapiens. Skills needed:
information assimilation, writing, speaking, decision-making, rapport, conflict
resolution, scenario-generation, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.
7.
Warriors — Warriors have no fear. These
homo sapiens are willing to put their lives on the line for other homo sapiens.
Skills needed: information assimilation, decision-making, rapport, conflict
resolution, scenario-generation, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.
All of these jobs are still around today in one way or another. Nothing changes. And these skills will always be in demand.
Forget the Resume, Learn a Skill
Basically, if you learn all or most of the 12 core human
skills, you can do any of the jobs that have been in existence since Jesus
wrote the book of Genesis. And if you can do any job in the world, ever, then
you should always have a job, even if you have to create your own
(especially if you have to create your own).
So forget about majors, and college and writing resumes. The key is
learning skills. Fill a void that the world needs. Become very good (be in the top
25 percent of the world’s population) at each skill and set back and wait for
the money to come in.
Until then, you might want to hold off on putting that down
payment on that new bass boat.
