Recently, I began experiencing problems with my the faucet in my shower. The handle was starting to get very loose, and water would leak from it whenever it was turned on. I tried to fix it, but quickly realized that this project was going to be beyond my abilities (I’m definitely not handy around the house!). The obvious solution was to contact one of our local handymen and get the shower fixed correctly. The call was made on Friday morning, and that afternoon someone was at my house working on it. The guy, Ray, shut off the water to the whole house (the was no shut-off valve for just the shower), assessed the situation and determined that the entire shower faucet would need to be replaced. Ok, no big deal… just replace the faucet and let me get on with my day. The problem was that there was no access panel to reach the plumbing. That meant that Ray was going to have to cut a hole in the wall of the adjoining bedroom (my children’s bedroom) so he could get in. Great… this is not starting out well.
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Did you know?
Did you know that the oldest university in the English-speaking world is the University of Oxford? Oxford is located about 55 miles west of London, England in the town of Oxford. Lectures have been given at the university since about 1096, making Oxford over 900 years old! Think about that for a minute… Oxford was founded in 1096. The plague in Europe was in the 1300’s; America was discovered in 1492; the United States declared its independence in 1776; the Civil War was from 1861-65; the first airplane flight was in 1903. When I think about the 19th century, I try imagine the type of life that my ancestors were living. Their lives must have been extremely difficult in comparison to mine (thank goodness for modern conveniences!). What must it have been like in Oxford in 1096?
Did you also know…
that in the United States, the oldest institution of higher learning is Harvard University. Founded in 1636 and named after John Harvard of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Harvard has graduated seven presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush) and over 40 Nobel laureates. In addition, the Harvard University Library contains over 15 million volumes and is the largest academic library in the world (and the oldest library in the United States).
Welcome to ExceptionalGeneralist.com. To find out more about me, click here. To find out more about how I define and exceptional generalist (ExGen), keep reading below.
What is an ExGen? It is a person who has a broad general knowledge in many areas. Rather than spend time and effort becoming a specialist in any given area, the ExGen learns enough about the topic to become familiar with it before moving onto the next task. In a corporate environment, this person will be visible and a change agent. This is the individual who everyone goes to when action needs to be taken. The ExGen is a passionate leader, and uses his or her extended set of skills to effectively unite teams and drive them toward a shared goal.
To me, an ExGen is characterised by:
Having:
- a hunger for knowledge
- a short attention span
- a tendency to procrastinate
- a desire to get long-term gains from short-term effort
Being:
- curious
- driven
- passionate
- goal/success oriented
Being an ExGen is not about skating through life without mastering a skill. Instead, it is about using a foundation of general knowledge to help you succeed and excel in life. It is about finding pearls of wisdom in an ocean of information.