Page 78 - Midas Touch

dough.” You’d be right. It is absolutely possible for E’s and S’s to make a
lot of money in their respective quadrants. But, as we clearly demonstrate,
the big bucks, the real magic, the true alchemy of capitalism is created by
entrepreneurs who focus on developing their skills in the B and I

quadrants. When you think of the real alchemists of capitalism—
individuals such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Sergey Brin,
and Mark Zuckerberg—most created their fame and fortune from the B
and I quadrants. They created monster businesses in the B quadrant, and
the I quadrant showered them with wealth for their efforts.

Is Your Focus Too Narrow?

The more time you spend in school, the narrower your focus becomes
because the more you know about a particular subject, the more
specialized you become. Consider this: You graduate from high school,
then college, and then graduate school. With each degree, you become
more and more specialized. If you’re good in math, you may go on to

become an accountant. If you excel in reading and writing, you may go on
to law school to become a lawyer, or journalism school to become a
reporter or blogger. And if you happen to be a science whiz, you may
choose medical school, which then means further training in a specialty
that, when everything is added up, can take a decade or more. If you have
an interest in business, it’s natural to think that in today’s world, an MBA
is a must for any level of success.

By the time you earn that JD or MD or PhD, you are among the people in
the world who know the most about the least. You are a specialist, rather
than a generalist.

We both live and breathe the opposite. We know something about a lot of
things and can operate successfully in many worlds. We have the wisdom
of a generalist, rather than the deep knowledge of the specialist.

Are You Missing the Big Picture?

The reason we bring this generalist-specialist concept to light is because,
when you are overly specialized, it is very easy to miss the big picture of
business. When people take their intense specialization and combine it
with their programming from school to “get a good job,” it’s no wonder
the whole concept of building a business or becoming an investor isn’t