Depth over breadth?
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking through the general store of a small, rural Ontario town. It was amazing to see the variety of products in this one-person shop.
Non-perishable groceries, household hardware, beer…even a 16-flavour ice cream stand!
I stopped for a moment to pay particular attention to what the store was offering in terms of plumbing parts. The selection sat on a stack of three shelves, about one metre wide.
“Interesting,” I said to myself, “I could maybe fix a few basic plumbing issues with this gear, but would struggle to tackle the bigger, more expensive issues.”
More advanced parts would have to be bought elsewhere. And with my (very) limited plumbing skills, the more complex, valuable and expensive work would have to be done through someone else. I’d need the help of a true hardware store and a real plumber in a lot of cases.
Here’s the $64 000 question: does your career resemble the general store, or is it a specialty store?