∴ What Makes A Champion

Hey Leader of Today,

One of the things I constantly struggle with is figuring out whether to specialize or diversify what I am involved in.

In a world of AI, social media and so much innovation, I keep asking myself whether it’s more valuable to be a generalist or an expert in one thing.

In today’s newsletter, I explore this dilemma through a study in the context of sports.

Hope you like this one…

read time: 3 mins

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Specialisation vs Diversification

Growing up, I always went back and forth in my head about the activities I was involved in.

My parents signed me up to almost everything.

Football, Volunteering, Scouts, Piano lessons - you name it.

As I started growing older, I slowly started to specialise but would always have a dilemma if I am doing too little vs too much.

On one hand, I’d hear the story of people like Tiger Woods and how all he did from a young age was focus on his craft.

On the other hand, I was told about the importance of developing holistically and trying out various things to develop as a whole.

This constant dilemma led me to a study that explored the same - but in the context of sports.

The study looked at 51 reports, including 772 of the world’s top performers.

Here were the findings:

World class athletes (highest level) engaged in more multidisciplinary sports during their early years compared to their main sport.

They started in their main sport later in their journey and had better long term performance outcomes than those who specialised early.

This can be because of a range of reasons including:

i) those who played multiple sports were more likely to prevent themselves from burnout and injury

ii) diversified practice could’ve given them a broad range of skills which they could eventually apply to the main sport

iii) participating in a range of sports could increase the athlete’s enjoyment and intrinsic motivation for physical activity which could lead to long term sustainability for success at a high level

When they looked at parallels in Science and studied Nobel Prize laureates, the results were the same.

Those that reached the highest levels of long-term success had diverse experiences at the start and showed slower early career progress.

But how does this apply to us?

1) Diversify: don’t be afraid to gain as many experiences at this stage of our lives. As young people, our goal at this point in our lives should be to increase our luck surface area and gain as many tools in our toolkit. But also remember, the world class athletes were playing multiple sports and not doing multiple other activities - they still had a sense of focus to be an athlete and had intention behind playing a range of sports.

2) Play the Long Game: the study shows that young athletes who specialised early had high levels of success earlier in their career. However, they wouldn’t make it as far the world class athletes (that would specialise later). This one was hard for me to digest. I got a lot of success as a teenager and start specialising when I was 15. But this study opened my eyes to a different perspective and validated some of my experiences. Having early success made me feel burnt out and in a lot of ways took my love away from the craft.

3) There is no one formula: most of the stories we hear about are usually the exceptions - the Michael Jordans, Tiger Woods, Ronaldos of the world. But these are exceptions, and not the rules. This study showed me there is no one way to do it. Yes there may be certain patterns, but at the end of the day everyone is on their own journey. You can create your own path. As long as you’re being true to yourself and working towards maximising your potential and happiness, nothing else matters.

I am curious to hear from you. What did you think of this study? Do you agree with the insights? Do you believe in specialising or diversifying at this stage of your life?

My friend, summer is almost over, school is starting soon and I am hoping you are taking as much sun in as you can. Aug is usually a time when most people go on vacation and slow down. I am hoping that today’s newsletter gave you the opportunity to evaluate and remind yourself of your goals and priorities as we go into the final third of the year.

Sending you the best vibes my friend,

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