Every person has their own strengths and weaknesses. I believe that every person should work within their strength zones. But it’s also important to be well diversified when it comes to life. What I mean is having many different hobbies, interests, and dimensions to yourself. By being a well rounded individual, it allows you to have a wider reach in terms of your relationships, knowledge, and skills.

For instance, I’ve always been interested in finance. My dad let me pick a stock when I was younger and he invested real money in it. Ever since then, I’ve been learning about the stock markets. That doesn’t mean I’m any better of an investor than I was at age 13, but I have learned a lot about investing since. This allows me to speak somewhat like I know about finance with people I meet. There are parts of finance I have no interest in and/or have no clue what they mean (like derivatives and insurance), but I still think it’s important to learn about them.

Having some interest and knowledge of a subject gives you more opportunity to connect with people and share common interests. Gaining new skills through new experiences or raising your knowledge by learning new things can only help you as a person. Sharing common interests and the ability to connect with people is the basis of solid relationships and having solid relationships allows for great leadership to occur.

Another example from my life that shows I try to be well rounded is this website. A few years back when I was in junior high I tried learning HTML so I could make a website for my family’s business. I taught myself through trial and error and could make a basic website, but nothing fancy. I didn’t use that skill until recently when I decided I wanted to share what I’ve learned with people. I could have paid for a company to make me a fancy website but I wanted to put the small skill I learned years ago to use. I like to think that every skill or knowledge a person may have will be used at some point, so the more skills and knowledge you have the more value you create for yourself and others.

I think the key to being well rounded is the diversity of your skills and knowledge. Stretching across many different concentrations that don’t have anything to do with each other is an effective way of doing this. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, but small steps add up over the long term.

For example, if you’re a sports fan and watch ESPN every morning and memorize players’ statistics because they’re on your fantasy team, perhaps you could include CNN or CNBC in your morning routine to hear what’s going on in the world outside of sports. Just making this one change can make an incredible impact on your knowledge of what’s going on. In turn, having this additional information can serve you well. Having that extra information or extra knowledge doesn’t hurt you. But it’s always there to be called upon if you need it. It’s like knowing a second language. You don’t always use it, but you have it in your repertoire if you need to call on it.

I think it’s a good thing if you have knowledge of topics outside of your field or expertise or comfort-zone. Like me and derivatives or options, you don’t have to care deeply or be passionate about it. Or on the other hand it could be a hobby that you grow to love or a subject that you realize you’re really interested in. Basically, I think knowing something about a wide range of topics is better than knowing a lot about one thing, and nothing about anything else.