Your Title Doesn't Always Define You

Today, one of my mentors is heading to Chicago to do a workshop on pricing written work. He's done this topic plenty of times before, so this time he's mixing it up and providing various scenarios where people need to determine what pricing would be appropriate.

The issue that he has—which he discussed with me—is that some people can be very narrow-minded in their pricing. For some, they cling to a title as their sole defining characteristic, making any other scenario that doesn't apply to them irrelevant.

"I'm an editor, therefore, I don't write articles.""I'm a social media manager, therefore, I only handle social media accounts.""I'm the manager of a bank, therefore, I don't interact with any other branches of the business."

Having a title is important of course. It's a clear indicator of what sort of value you can bring to the table.

But a title is entirely subjective. All you need to look at is titles like entrepreneur or writer.

Believe it or not, but people like me have several "job titles" wrapped into one neat package.

As a result, it's important for us to not restrict ourselves. Even if you're not an entrepreneur or a freelancer. At the end of the day, being able to "switch hats" and do so effectively is more useful than being someone who does a set of tasks in a specific area of business.

This also makes sense when you turn to work in general. No one is going to work on the long-term with someone who can do a single task. No matter how good it is.

It's entirely up to ourselves to find more work, even when our boss/client isn't assigning the work themselves. We want to be finding new and creative ways to deliver value.

After all, if we help a business grow, we grow in the process.

And that can all be summed up with how I approach my own work. When my mentor talked about that, I chuckled at it and said:

"Editing and writing is not that different."

I also shared with him an example of what sort of attitude people should have when there is something new.

In recent months, I've started to delve into Wikipedia editing. I'm at the point now where I have a basic understanding of the writing style on Wikipedia and could probably build a page proper now.

How did I get to that point?

It started when a client asked me if I was familiar with Wikipedia page creation. At the time, I responded:

"I haven't done any Wikipedia editing work before, but I'm eager to learn."

This creates eagerness and this eagerness is important in any path you walk. It opens more doors for new opportunities and grows further skills. Because of my answer, I've been able to work with this client for longer periods of time now, keep myself busy while I wait for more article requests from them, and ultimately offer this service further to this client and any future clients I have.

That's not to say that specialization is completely pointless. I think in certain cases having skills that you are known for it essential. But those solid skills shouldn't be the only thing you can offer to an employer, client, or customer. Having other skills—even if they're not mentioned initially—can open new doors.

All of this reminds me of the quote from Robert Kiyosaki:

"It's better to know a little about a lot, than a lot about a little."