Why Mastery Is Expensive But Competency Scales

Depth vs. range.

Genetic disposition plays a role here. Some people have the wiring for mastery—the obsessive focus, the tolerance for repetition, the ability to grind on one thing for years.

Others don’t. They consume breadth. They connect dots across domains. They’re competent in twelve things instead of world-class in two.

Neither is better. But you need to know which you are, because the strategy changes.

The framework.

Here’s how I think about skill development across four quadrants:

1. Easy to Do, Hard to Master

This is where I spend most of my time. CRM systems. Coaching. Consulting frameworks. SaaS platforms. Strategy development. Writing. Project management.

My approach: build a broad base of moderate skills with the ability to go deeper when a specific situation demands it. I’m not trying to be the world’s best Salesforce admin. But I can configure it, troubleshoot it, and know when to call in an expert.

Go-to resource: YouTube tutorials, vendor documentation, pattern recognition from repetition.

2. Easy to Do, Easy to Master

I minimize time here. Most manual, stepwise processes fall into this bucket—data entry, basic formatting, repetitive admin tasks.

My goal: automate or outsource anything in this category. If a process can be scripted, documented, or handed off, it should be. These skills don’t differentiate you. They just consume time.

Go-to resources: Scribe for documentation, Zapier for automation, RPA tools, virtual assistants.

3. Hard to Do, Hard to Master

I don’t claim mastery in anything here. Few can. But I maintain competency in several hard skills I’ve developed over my career—programming, sales, lead generation, financial modeling, design thinking, product development.

These require real commitment. If you start down one of these paths without a solid reason, you’ll burn significant energy for minimal gain. But if you choose wisely, competency in hard skills opens doors and commands higher compensation.

Masters in these areas are rare and expensive. Knowing enough to evaluate their work, brief them effectively, and integrate their output is often more valuable than trying to become one yourself.

Go-to resources: Networking, online communities, mentorship, paid courses with real feedback loops.

4. Hard to Do, Easy to Master

I struggled to populate this quadrant. Accounting, maybe? Skills with high barriers to entry but clear paths to competency once you’re in?

Honestly, I don’t invest here. If something is hard to access but easy to master once you do, it’s probably not a leverage point for me.

My personal thesis.

I aim for competency across the value stack of business transformation—enough depth in hard skills to diagnose opportunities, enough breadth to see connections others miss, and enough humility to know when to bring in masters.

The goal isn’t to be the best at any one thing. It’s to be dangerous enough in the right combination of things that I can rapidly assess what’s broken, what’s possible, and who needs to be in the room to execute.

I need to know what mastery looks like so I can help clients stitch together the right resources for ambitious projects. But I don’t need to be the one delivering that mastery in every domain.

The exercise.

Take fifteen minutes and map your own skills across these quadrants:

• Easy to do, hard to master — Where are you building broad competency?
• Easy to do, easy to master — What are you automating or outsourcing?
• Hard to do, hard to master — Where are you committing real energy? Is it worth it?
• Hard to do, easy to master — Does this quadrant even exist for you?

Then ask yourself:

• What’s your commitment level to each category?
• What’s your natural wiring—depth or range?
• What does your skill development thesis look like over the next three years?

This should be unique to you. Don’t copy someone else’s path because it worked for them. Figure out where you have leverage, where you have interest, and where the intersection of those two things creates value.

The takeaway.

Mastery is expensive. It takes time, focus, and often a specific genetic disposition for obsessive depth.

But competency is scalable. You can be competent in a dozen high-value skills and still have time to build a business, stay curious, and avoid burnout.

The trick is knowing which skills are worth going deep on, which are worth staying broad on, and which are worth ignoring entirely.

Most people never ask the question. They just accumulate skills randomly and wonder why nothing compounds.