Delusions of Expertise

The other day I was eating lunch with a friend in a nearby park. We noticed a newlywed couple behind us being photographed. So we congratulated them on their recent marriage.

Just as they were finishing, we heard a random man passing by yell at the photographer, "That's a bad angle. You should take it from over here!"

We waited until they left and then we both starting laughing hystarically. I'm no photographer, but I'm smart enough to know that, a) this guy was dead wrong, and, b) if he was right, he should have been holding the camera instead!

Not everyone is an expert in every area. I can't sing "Heart Of Gold" as good as Neil Young can (or as bad, depending on your taste). When I try, my brother is always there to ask me, "Who sings that?" When I respond with the name, he replies, "Let's keep it that way."

This guy was no expert, and even if he was, nobody was asking for his opinion.

In business as in life, we need to be clear about we're good at and what we're not. And beyond that, we need to be clear about what we have time to be good at, and what we don't. Bill Gates may be a computer programming whiz, but I doubt he's doing much of that anymore. Just because we are experts at something, doesn't mean we should be the ones to take care of it.

This is a subject often discussed when hiring freelancers. "Why should I hire her, I can do the same thing?" Maybe yes, probably no. But either way, you have your own job that you should be doing.

If you do what she does, who's gonna do what you do?