Take Care of business

No matter what the peccadillo, having the flexibility to adapt is one of the most important traits you can have. It would be nice to have one trick so nice you lived on easy street with it. But it’s not always possible.

You may recall the Paul Simon song One Trick Pony. It spotlights a successful musician with a specific niche or talent. He may not be too versatile, but he does not need to be; his one-trick is so good. Not too many of us are one-trick ponies.
Life may call upon us to do many things, at least adequately. It’s called getting by or having a second gig.

At various points in my life, I was a Pius Itinerant, folksinger, surgical tech, and applied anthropologist. I was lots of other things, too, but those are other stories.

I studied to be an anthropologist but went back into working in an operating room for two years before I found a job in my field. After a sixteen-year-long stint as an applied anthropologist, the government spat me out with the “reinvention of government,” the next day, I was back working in a boatyard. I then “reinvented” myself as a marine woodcarver, something I hadn’t done since 1975, twenty years before. Being a one-trick pony is not something I had the leisure to be.

People studying workplaces and careers have been sounding the alarm for over a decade now that the old days of doing just one thing, having just one job, are ending. Developing the psychological and skill flexibility needed for a diverse work life is essential.

But beyond just work, we also need to be able to carry with us skills that are transferable from one occupation to another. Like what? People skills, the ability to work well with others, lead when called upon, be flexible, and apply practical skills from other places to our current situation.

It’s not easy. But the truth is that – in the cant of the streets, ” you have to take care of business.”