THE I'LL TRY ANYTHING ATTITUDE

I was once passing along a street, and on one of the windows of a shop which deals on second hand goods, make no attempt to specialize on a particular brand of products. The owner prefers to accumulate more goods and will accept almost any article be it dirty, damaged or practically useless if he thinks he can sell it.

There is one type of individual who very much resembles the "I will buy anything in the shop". He has an "I’ll try anything attitude" towards life, and he possesses a "junk shop" mind. He has never learned to specialize on a particular brand of products. He has just gathered in little bits of knowledge here and there, regardless of whether they are any real use to him. He has cluttered up his mind with unwanted scraps of information, allowing them to accumulate until the task of sorting them out and getting rid of the rubbish proves too great. And for all that, he believes he is a remarkably versatile fellow. He really believes that he can try his hand on anything because he has dabbled in everything. But there lurks the danger. The dabbler’ never develops. He never knows enough to be able to apply his knowledge usefully. He knows too little of too many things to ever be really confident of success in one.

A person with an ‘I’ll try anything complex" is not like the man who, when asked if he could drive a car, replied, ‘I don’t know, I have never really tried. To the person with a junk-shop mentality, many things seem simple because he or she only touches the surface. Such people never delve deeply into anything, never probe a problem, or interest themselves in anything long enough to learn very much about it. Lack of knowledge and not lack of opportunity is the chief enemy of progress.

A man applied for the position of typewriter mechanic. He was a motor engineer. He knew all about cars. He could take down an engine and assemble it again with all its parts in position. But he had never taken down a typewriter. In fact, he had never used a typewriter. But he would soon get into it, he said.

A girl applied for the post of shorthand typist. Efficiency and experience were the requirements stated in the advertisement. She had been a receptionist. The only qualification she had to offer were sound sweet voice and a pleasing appearance, but she wanted a change and thought she could soon pick up typing and shorthand.

There are people who have succeeded in a variety of jobs, but they are the exceptions. They have bluffed others into giving them jobs by their keen business acumen, or purely on their personality; they have held on their jobs and even shown creditable performance until the wanderlust made them restive. They just walked out and walked into another job. To such folks, life is, and always will be an adventure. Finding new interests is the very essence of their existence. But they don’t dabble. In whatever they do, whether they are keeping watch in some lonely outpost, or collecting steel for a steel company or serving in a restaurant, they take their work seriously, gaining experience in a variety of jobs and in a multitude of ways.

All that is different from trying one’s hand on anything that comes along, utterly different to the extent that skill or experience or the ability to lead may be an essential qualification.

Blundering into anything blindly generally produces an impact and any person could cut rather a ridiculous figure attempting a skilled work without experience thereby thwarting ever effort that was made. There is a story of a sculptor who, when asked if his work was difficult to learn, replies: "Not at all. You just take a block of marble, a chisel and a hammer, and knock off the bits you don’t want!"

Another person’s work very often looks easy until we try to attempt it ourselves. An artist might dash off a snappy little sketch in ten minutes, but it could well be the result of ten years of hard and patient effort on the part of the artist concerned.

It seems as if the ‘I’ll try anything people" have very little chance to achieve success in any sphere unless they are determined, that is first of all, emerging triumphant from their first real test.

It is useful to be versatile. In fact, each of us should be able to do more than one job reasonably well but it definitely does not pay to dabble.

Sometimes, a hesitant bather dips an inquiring toe into the water and withdraws it hastily because the water is cold. The water is invariably cold when tested in this way. It is only when one plunges in and splashes about, flinging oneself heart and soul into the pleasurable pursuit, that the real joy of conquest known.

I am Mr. Nicholas Ohajianya. Send me an email to whatmore@getresponse.com, and see what I can do for you.