What's up everyone? This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew.

Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you the business builder,

the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business,

a team, or a new product. Today, I am talking about being a generalist versus being a specialist,

and how you can succeed as a generalist. Let's hop into it.

So from a young age, we are taught to specialize. We're told the only way to play a sport in

college is to dedicate ourselves to one single sport at a young age. And I remember growing up

feeling like shit as a kid because I told myself that I wasn't the best on the high school soccer

team because I dedicated myself to three other sports. So I dedicated myself to golf,

to skiing, as well as to soccer, whereas everyone else was focused on just one sport.

We're also told the only way to find a good job out of college is to pick a specific major

like Compsi or economics, or that offers a specific knowledge base that employers want.

And that's why I majored in business with a focus on finance and real estate.

And we're convinced that the only way to succeed in our careers is to continue to specialize and

pigeonhole ourselves and become a domain expert in whatever our area of work is.

Basically, we've been taught our whole lives to subscribe to the Tiger Woods School of Thought,

which basically is start early, go as deep as possible, and put in your 10,000 hours.

Just for those of you that don't know the Tiger Woods story, I'm actually reading it from the book

range by David Epstein, which is an awesome read about the generalist and building out range.

But for those of you that don't know the story, Tiger Woods had a golf club put in his hand

at seven months old. And then he would drag it everywhere with him in addition to his baby walker.

And by two years old, he was on national television, hitting golf balls in front of Bob Hope.

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