You don't have the time.
The genesis of this post comes from the linked video of a former Navy SEAL scoffing at the fictional character of Jason Bourne. As someone who was at an elite level for a period in his life, that SEAL knew the idea of Bourne as a man who was at an elite level in multiple things was impossible in reality. Bourne is a Renaissance Man of brutality who exceeds James Bond in fighting skills, weapons proficiency, knowledge of languages, and on and on. He can only exist in fiction because no real human being has the time to know and do all of that stuff at the elite levels Jason Bourne knew and did them.
You don't have the time. I think this is a reality that every person must accept at some point in their lives. It is why I tell people that what you do in life matters less than what you don't do. I remember watching another YouTube video about the Delta Force where someone asked a question. What do those elite soldiers know and do that the rest of the Army doesn't know and do? The answer was that Delta doesn't do anything different than the infantry and the Rangers. They just do what they do to the highest degree possible. Where an infantry guy would be a pocket knife, a Delta operator is a straight razor. Both cut, but the razor is much sharper. This comes from specialization.
To be good at something, it must be done to the exclusion of other things. Even the Jason Bourne character tells us that his skill level came at the cost of his humanity which he rediscovers after a brain injury. The guy was programmed like a robot. He was a killing machine.
The Renaissance Man is a fiction. The reality is that you can be supremely good at one thing or competent at multiple things. You can never be supremely good at multiple things. You just don't have the time. Each additional skill you acquire or job you do takes from something else. You can see this in triathletes who are competent at three sports but could not win a dedicated marathon, bike race, or swim meet against the specialized world class talents in those sports. You are never going to see someone win the Boston Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in the same year. It can't be done. Someone might possibly transition to something like that and win them at different times. I doubt that I will ever live to see that feat.
Why does this matter? I see many people getting duped into this Renaissance mentality while also ignoring the inevitability of age and injury. This duping happens most acutely with the game of golf where men expend considerable time, money, and energy in their off hours to play a game where they can't break 80 while dreaming of making the PGA tour. I know a guy who was a good golfer, and I asked him why he didn't try to make the tour. He candidly said that would require a sponsorship from someone which would allow him to quit his day job in order to devote himself exclusively to the sport. That's what that level of performance takes.
Talent matters because it shortens and lessens the time to reach those elite levels of performance. You see this with athletes, musicians, brilliant mathematicians, and other fields of endeavor. Even then, talent is not equal. There have been many talented NBA players, but there have been few on the level of Michael Jordan. Jordan's foray into baseball was a real fiasco and a waste of time and talent. He shouldn't have done that.
I can honestly say that you shouldn't waste your time on doing things with great commitment for which you don't have the talent. I like playing my kazoo for funzies, but you won't see me playing the saxophone or piano or the electric guitar. For the same reason, I don't waste my time writing the great American novel or poems. I write blog posts. In another time and place and before TBI, I would have written newspaper and magazine articles. I have the talent to write non-fiction books, but that would amount to collecting the stuff I write here. My heroes in the realm of non-fiction writing are Matt Taibbi and Sebastian Junger. If I ever write something great, it will be telling the true story of some person or event. Non-fiction writing doesn't get enough credit. But I digress. . .
You don't have enough hours in a day or enough years in a life to be elite at very much. This leaves competence. You can be competent at multiple things. This would be Yvon Chouinard as a climber, fly fisherman, surfer, blacksmith, and businessman. Even then, he cuts himself off at the 80% level of anything. That last 20% requires more than he cares to give. Likewise, the Marine Corps demands the same sort of generalization and flexibility from its Marines. This is why the Corps never cared much for having special operators because it goes against their DNA as a force that improvises and overcomes. The Marine Corps mechanic also has to be able to perform as a rifleman and vice versa. They are generalists.
Generalists benefit from the same practice of subtraction as specialists. A skill or pursuit has to be worth doing or not be done at all. The generalist might learn Spanish, but he isn't going to waste time learning the ancient and dead language of Akkadian. The generalist leaves that to the scholars at the universities and institutions.
To be elite requires a 100% commitment. Attaining this requires a 0% commitment on everything else. And that, Gentle Reader, is how you have to look at things. What level of commitment are you going to give to something? This is why the Navy SEALS have that grueling thing called BUD/S that weeds out those with less than 100% commitment. The goal of Marine boot camp is to get everyone to pass. The goal of BUD/S is to get as many as possible to quit. The sad thing about the Navy is that quitting BUD/S turns a good fighting man over to a career chipping paint or something else he never wanted to do. In the Army, you can go back to the infantry if you fail to make it as a special operator. Personally, I think the Marine Corps is the better way to go because the Corps gives you a better chance at succeeding. This is also true of the generalist.
Recognizing what it takes to be elite helps settle a lot of regrets for people. If you have talent, pursue that but also recognize the limit of that talent. With competence, do the things that have some value for your life. For everything else, don't do them at all. You don't have the time for anything else.
UPDATE #1: This subject also touches on the issues of ego and humility. One of the great things I noticed about truly elite people is that they tend to be humble. This comes from knowing that they suck at everything else in their lives. Likewise, generalists do not envy the specialists because they know the math. Generalists are not elite because they wanted to do other things with their time like have a family or read a book. The elite will tell you candidly that they don't have free time. When Hendrix wasn't playing a show, he was playing that guitar in his room for hours by himself. That was it. I just wish he had laid off the drugs.
The disgrace of the elites or those who want to be elite are the fakers. One type of faker cheats to make it. This would be the guy on performance enhancing drugs. The other type of faker is the one who embellishes and lies. This is how you get awesome special operators who end up telling tales and become guilty of stolen valor the same way a homeless guy will fake being a veteran to get money out of people. Finally, there is the resume builder who makes a big deal out of his nothings. This would be the person who puffs his way one weekend through a 5K and claims to be an endurance athlete. The entire running cult is like that. The same applies to martial arts. Some dude rolls at the BJJ strip mall dojo, and he claims to be a martial artist like Bruce Lee. Those black belts are no different than finisher's medals at a road race.
Everybody wants to be a somebody. Everyone wants to be special. Then, they hit 40. Their best years are behind them. They are past their prime and coasting on yesterday's achievements. This is why they are tempted to lie or throw shade on others or whatnot. You can't change the past, but you can lie about what you did and hope you don't get caught. Or, you can be a nobody. Humility is the better way to go.
UPDATE #2: This Army Ranger dishes the dirt on the US Navy SEALs:
Army Ranger Exposes the Truth About Navy SEALs
The SEAL Truth a Ranger Won't Sugarcoat
The basic truth here from this Ranger and the combox is that the SEALs are the douchebags of the spec ops community. Meanwhile, the Delta Force are truly the elite professionals while the USMC, Army Rangers, Airborne, and the infantry grunts are severely underrated and do not get their due. The flaw with the SEALs seems to be going from Navy basic training straight to BUD/S without any kind of time in an infantry unit. This missing piece in their development and lack of maturity results in some amateur decision making and operation. There is no substitute for experience, and the only way to get experience is to experience it. Faking it until you make it just doesn't cut it. You have to put in the time.
