Sowing Skills, Reaping Rewards: The Practice of Skill Stacking

The most unsettling email I've received in my career opened with three words: 'About your position.'

Instantly, the future I had planned unraveled, forcing me to confront a reality where the ground underneath me shifted. In that moment of uncertainty I realized the importance of a concept I now consider pivotal for resilience in work and money: skill stacking.

The experience took me back to my career's start in Finance, a time when the stock market's implosion and industry upheavals left millions, including myself, scrambling in the aftermath.

In both instances, it reminded me that I needed to constantly and consistently improve my skills to survive the storms in work and money.

In a world that never stands still, adaptability isn't just a virtue—it's a necessity.

Building Systems of Resilience

Early in my career, it became a daily routine confronting adverse situations. As a result, it turned me into a great proverbial firefighter to avoid short-term loss.

However, I quickly hit a limitation: the finite nature of time. And beyond that, having a firefighter's mentality is exhausting. It severely restricted my ability to plan for the future, focusing on solely on the urgencies of today.

Although being prepared to address emergencies is invaluable, it falls short in cultivating lasting financial security. Through my experiences, I learned it's equally important to adopt the mindset of a fire marshal -- creating resilient systems that prevent crises rather that just reacting to them.

The key to such resilience, I learned, was in elevating my value. It was during a conversation about the fundamentals of financial decision-making that a mentor shared a profound insight, using in a memorable acronym.

He said, "Money Is Always A Major Issue," known succinctly as the M.I.A.M.I. principle. Much like how the city of Miami draws people with its vibrancy and appeal, in the marketplace, money gravitates towards areas of high value.

For me, the path was clear: to build more resilience with money, I needed to be make myself more valuable.

M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is Always a Major Issue)

Money represents the value of our help in the marketplace, which translates to cash, equity, and other forms of exchange.

Having this ability gives you a better a sense if clarity in the midst of challenging times, knowing you can pivot and adapt as you need.

Conventional wisdom points us towards education as the pathway to more opportunities and a better life.

But what is the right education to increase your value? You can learn any number of things, but all don't translate into more opportunity.

As that same mentor shared with me, education, at its core, is developing skills and expertise that others find valuable enough to pay for.

But not skills in isolation, but skills that stack together to enhance your unique value proposition.

This brings us to the concept of skill stacking—an approach to building career and financial resilience.

What is Skill Stacking?

“Successwise, you’re better off being good at two complementary skills than being excellent at one.” - Scott Adams, How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Skill-stacking is not relying on being the best in one particular thing but rather combining a special set of skills that uniquely increase the value of your help.

You simply have more chances of success if you have more skills. Think about it. If you’re a one-trick pony, your opportunities are limited. But if you have multiple skills, you’re simply more valuable. And that’s what resilience is ultimately about.

To highlight an example of this concept, imagine skill stacking beginning with basic math skills. While essential, they serve primarily as a foundation. The transformation begins when you build upon this.

Next, you step into bookkeeping, a skill valued in business, marking a significant shift in your professional perception.

Following the bookkeeping skill, you obtain your CPA certification, which elevates you to an accountant, broadening your career horizons.

Diving into tax law and insurance further amplifies your value.

Advancing into capital markets, debt markets, mergers, and acquisitions, you move beyond traditional accounting, stepping into CFO territory.

Incorporating the art of marketing and selling, and now in the realm of being a rainmaker in the game of business.

Each skill is valuable in its own right, but stacked together, create a very powerful value of help.

What Skills Are Valuable to Stack?

The more skills you have, and the more value you can create, the more rewards you receive. But what are valuable skills?

When choosing which skills to stack, consider these two key factors:

1. Brighten Your Brilliance: Start with what you're good at and what you enjoy. Your unique talents can guide you toward complementary skills.
2. Surf the Current: Research current trends in your industry and beyond. Emerging technologies, sustainability practices, and shifts in consumer behavior are just a few areas that might reveal valuable skills to acquire.

The value of certain skills will depend on industry, and of course your own aims, but there are tried and true skills that you can't go wrong with:

• Productivity: Your ability to get things done will always be in high demand. There are many great ideas that never are brought to light because of lack of execution. It also makes developing other skills much easier.
• Influence: Influence is more about effective communication than anything else. When you write and speak a way that resonates with people, you are better at leadership, sales, networking and holding conversations, public speaking, at anything else that requires being in exchange with others.
• Financial Intelligence: Budgeting, investing, and risk management are core strategic financial planning, in business or personally. Not only will you be more empowered to navigate economic challenges, you will be better positioned to capitalize on opportunities.

People have made entire careers on just these foundational skills by themselves. Imagine if you added them in a unique way as you build your own skill stack.

Skill Stacking With Limited Resources

Skill stacking might seem Herculean, particularly when resources are scarce. Yet, it's precisely these constraints that can spur most creativity.

To that end, here are some considerations to overcome common constraints:

• Limited Time: Engage in short, focused sessions within dedicated time-boxes that can fit into a busy schedule.
• Limited Finances: Start with free or low-cost online courses, or reimbursements from an employer. As next level strategy, invite a instructor to do a skill teaching exchange, leveraging a skill you have for something they value.
• Limited Access: For in person, explore workshops and courses offered by local community centers, libraries, or community colleges. For online, forums, social media groups, or professional networks related to your areas of interest for insights and resources.

Sow Skills, Reap Rewards

The seeds of skill we plant and nurture today are the harvest of opportunities and successes we will enjoy tomorrow.

Some seeds (skills) we plant may sprout quickly, while others take time reap the fullness of their rewards.

And just as in gardening, the key to a good harvest is not merely in the sowing but in the consistent care, nurturing, and even sometimes weeding out of less fruitful endeavors.

By building our own unique skill stack, we're not just preparing to weather the storms; we're equipped to seize opportunities and turn challenges into stepping stones.

Of course, environment plays a crucial role as well. Just as plants need the right conditions to flourish, our skills thrive in environments as well.

In conclusion, I invite you to consider two questions:

1. Are your skills being sown in the right environments?
2. Are you sowing enough skills to continue reaping rewards?

Plant wisely and tending your garden with foresight and dedication.

"As you sow, so shall you reap." - Galatians 6:7