Mile Wide, Mile Deep
December 27, 2016 by Steve Pavlina
Have you ever heard the phrase “inch wide, mile deep” with respect to picking an area of focus for your education, career, website, business, etc? The idea here is that you should narrow your focus and concentrate on becoming highly skilled in one particular subfield. Then you’ll be able to carve out a space within your industry where you’re competent enough to compete… and hopefully make a good living.
你是否有听过一个叫做“英寸宽，英里深”的词组，旨在寻找一个为了你的教育，职业，网站，商业等等方面而专注的领域？此处的理念是你应当专注于成为某个特定领域的高水平人才。那么你将会在所处的行业中开辟出一块自己具有足够竞争力的区域，并且很可能过上很好的生活。

You can do that. It does work to a certain extent. But this article is about why you may not want to do that.你可以这么做，这也在某种程度上的确奏效。但是这本篇文章是关于为什么你不会想要这么做。
You don’t have to use the inch wide, mile deep approach to niche down if it bothers you to do so. Many people have mixed feelings about it, and rightly so. There are some big consequences to consider.你不需要用这个方法来找到适合你的位置，如果这使得你产生困扰。许多人对于这个方法这件事情有着复杂的感觉，的确如此。有许多大的后果是需要去考虑的。
I don’t use this approach for my work because I don’t like the lifestyle consequences of sticking to one niche for so long. I’d be bored within a few years no matter what I picked, even if I picked something I love. I like variety too much. This life is precious to me, and while I love doing deep dives, I don’t want to be so myopically focused on any one aspect of life or business for so long that I miss out on exploring the other aspects that also interest me.
我并不将这个方法运用在我的工作上因为我不喜欢过久专注于使自己契合于一件事情而带来的生活风格上的后果。无论我选择的是什么，即使是我所热爱的，数年之后我也会感到厌倦。我太喜欢多样性了，生活对于我而言是非常珍贵的，并且尽管我喜欢深度潜水，我也不想如此短视且长久地专注于生活或是商业上的任何一个方面，这最终会使得我错失探寻其他使我感兴趣的方面。
You could say that my niche is personal growth, but that isn’t really a niche at all because anything fits into that huge space: productivity, relationships, career, finances, health, lifestyle, values, spirituality, social skills, and more. Name any topic you can think of, and I can link it to personal growth.
你可以说我的生态位是关乎我个人的成长，但是这可能根本并不是一个真正合适的位置因为任何事物都可以贴合到一个巨大的空间中去：生产力，人际关系，职位，经济状况，健康状态，生活方式，价值观念，精神状态，社交技能等等。随意说出一个你能想到的主题，我都能够把它同个人成长联系起来。

Mile Wide, Mile Deep

I prefer the mile wide, mile deep approach. It works well too, but the mindset and framework are different if you want to succeed with it. There are some consequences to accept, but you may actually like those consequences.
我更喜欢“英里宽，英里深”的方法，它同样也很有效，但是如果你想要通过它来获得成功，它的思维方式和架构是不相同的。有一些可能的后果是你需要接受的，但是你可能实际上会喜欢那些后果。
To make this work in business, it’s important to focus on the long-term relationship with your audience instead of deliberately trying to nichify or brand yourself into a corner. You want to connect with them as human beings with lots of interests, problems, challenges, and desires – i.e. people just like you – not as monodimensional prospects who care about your niche.
要使这个方法在商场上见效，关注与和你的受众的长期关系而不是刻意的想要把自己标榜到某个角落中更为重要。你会想要和他们建立起关于兴趣，问题，挑战和渴求方面的种种联系，同和你一样的普通人建立联系，而不是同单一方面的关注你所处生态位置的人。
It’s important not to brand yourself in the typical branding sense if you want your audience members to relate to you as a real, multidimensional person. If I brand myself as anything, I prefer to just call myself an explorer. It turns out that many people like being able to maintain our relationship across a wide variety of interests – I like it too! – and branding myself into a singular niche would only get in the way of that.
如果你想要你的听众真实的向你展现多样化的自我，不要把自己标榜在一个特定的领域中是非常重要的。如果要我给自己贴上标签，我愿意称自己为一个探索者。结果证明是许多人喜欢通过广泛的兴趣爱好来维持我们之间的联系——我也喜欢！——可把自己限制在一个特定的角色上仅仅会阻碍这条路。
Doesn’t it kinda suck when you discover a guru you really like, but all they do is speak and write about the same narrow topic over and over again? Wouldn’t it be nice to connect on some other dimensions too, especially if you like and respect the person? How many emails or blog posts can you read about the same thing until you’re drowning in boredom and looking for the unsubscribe button?难道当你好不容易发现了自己真正喜欢的一群人，结果他们反复的就那一个话题讨论来写作去，不是很扫兴吗？加入一些其他的方面，尤其是如果你喜欢并且尊重这个人的时候，不是很棒的一件事吗？在你把进度条拖到底部点击退订之前，你又能忍受多少关于同一件事情的邮件和博客推送呢？

The 50-Year Audience

Ask yourself this: What kind of audience could you keep for 50 years? Who’d stay with you that long? In which niche could you expect to still be working in 50 years after you start, assuming you lived that long?
你试问自己一下：你能够保留什么样的观众长达50年之久？谁会同你待那么久？又在哪个位置上你能指望工作50年之久，就算你能活那么长的话。
I’ll bet a lot of people in your audience would love to connect with you based on other interests beyond your main niche, and you’re probably not inviting them to do so. So they can’t bond with you as closely as they would with a real life friend with whom they may share multiple interests. But what if they could bond with you that closely?
我敢肯定你受众中的许多人会想要在除了你主要领域方向之外的其他兴趣方面，同你建立联系，可你同样也很有可能并没有邀请他们这么做。所以他们不能够像同生活之中的一个真实的朋友分享多重爱好一样和你联系地那般紧密。但是如果他们能够达到这种程度呢？
Motivation can be a lot harder in a nichified business after the first few years. Eventually the repetitiveness and lack of variety start to grind you down. I see this happening in so many friends. The passion just drains out of them after a while. And it shows up in procrastination, lifeless work, and frequent fantasizing about doing something else. What once seemed like a great niche is now stunting their growth as human beings, providing them with too little stimulation and variety.
在度过了进入一个领域后的最初几年后，动力将变得越来越不足，最终工作的反复重复和多样性的缺乏会开始把你拖垮。我在许多朋友的身上看见过这样的事情发生，没有过太久激情就从他们身上消退了，接着表现在拖延，没有生机的工作以及频繁的幻想着做其他事情等方面上。曾经看起来是极好的一个领域位置现在看来却是阻碍他们作为普通人发展的一个因素，因为这能给他们提供的刺激和多样性实在是太少了。
Eventually they begin to think there’s something wrong with them for being experts in their field and not feeling driven anymore.
最终他们开始思考自己在这个领域中成为一个专家存在什么问题，以及为什么再也感觉不到被驱动着向前了。
My business is a lot of fun to run because on any given day, week, or month, I can tackle any topic that interests me. I can switch topics seemingly at random, and I often do. This year I did three-day workshops on abundance, mental development, lifestyle design, and entrepreneurship. I spoke about relationships in Mexico and character development in the UK. I love, love, love that kind of variety.我的事业在任何一天，一周，一月，运营起来都很有趣，我可以应付任何使我感兴趣的主题。我可以看上去随心所欲的切换主题，并且我也经常这么做。今年我开了一个为期三天的关于充分性，精神发展，生活方式设计以及企业方面的训练营。我谈到了在墨西哥的关系和在英国的性格发展。我非常喜爱这种多样性。
Even after 12+ years on this path, I’m more in love with the work now than during the first 5 years. Whichever direction my current interests twist and turn, a sizable audience has proven they’re willing to come along for the ride. Of course I lose some people now and then, but in the long run, the narrow-minded, mono-focused people get filtered out as they smash into walls at every zig and zag and can’t keep up with the course changes. Meanwhile the ones who make it through multiple years with me are the ones who, like me, love the variety and enjoy connecting with and learning from someone who’s very much like them – a multidimensional human being.
即使在这条路上已经走了十二年多了，我却比刚开始的五年还要更为热爱这项事业。无论我现在的兴趣导向哪个方向，总有一部分成规模的受众被证明了他们愿意跟着我一同前行。当然我也时不时的会失去一部分人，但是从长远的角度来说，狭隘的思维，注意力单一的人们会在每一次蜿蜒崎岖最终撞墙的经历之后被淘汰并且他们也不能够跟得上课程的变更。同时那些成功做到应对这么多年的变更的人，跟我一样喜欢多样性并且享受同他们类似的人建立联系并从他们身上学习，这些人都是多维度的。

Breadth AND Depth 宽度与深度

You might be thinking that you can’t possibly go a mile wide and a mile deep. You have to go for breadth OR depth, don’t you? It’s an either-or decision. I think Leonardo da Vinci would call B.S. on that, and so would I. Breadth and depth enhance each other. You can have both. In fact, I think it’s a lot easier – and way more fun – to go for both.
你可能会认为自己不可能同时既走一英里宽又凿一英里深，在深度与广度之间只能选择一个，你是这么想的吗？这是一个要么这个要么那个的选择。我认为达芬奇会称这个为BS，并且我认为深度与广度是会互相提升的，你可以同时拥有它们。实际上，我认为同时追求两方面更简单也更有趣。
If you explore a lot, you’ll become a better explorer. You’ll be able to go deep faster and more efficiently by building skills across multiple areas.
如果你探索了很多，你将成为一个更好的探索者。你将能够更快更有效地通过建立跨领域的技能来深入你的研究。
Most importantly, your mile deep will not be in the same spot as someone else’s mile deep. You’ll do your deep dives differently than nichified deep divers.
最重要的是，你的广度不会和他人的广度重合在一点，你会同专注于一个领域的研究者探索出不同的广度。
Your deep dives will also be more holistic because you’ll be able to connect the dots with other deep dives you’ve done. You’ll be better than most people at seeing the big picture and understanding each niche within the context of the others. And that’s going to allow you to offer up some really unique insights, the kinds of insights that even the so-called experts within a field aren’t commonly sharing.
你的深入研究同样会更为全面化因为你能够将其他领域中得到的点连接起来。你能够比绝大多数人更好的看到大局，理解他人所研究的领域。这将给与你一些着实独特的洞见，这种洞见即使是某些领域所谓的专家也不能够普遍领悟。
There’s a huge advantage to being unattached to niches as well. You can be ridiculously disloyal to all of your niches and yet still be considered something of an expert within them. You can step into the role of expert within one niche and fire a shot at another niche, then switch sides and fire back. You can explore some really interesting paradoxes this way and find new truths beyond them. I’ll just have to let you chew on that one for a while. This one is hard to describe unless you’ve already experienced it.
不拘泥于一个特定的领域同样还有一个巨大的好处：你能够变得近乎荒唐的对所有你研究的领域都不专一，但仍然被视作其中一些领域的专家。你可以扮演一个领域中专家的角色同时向另一个领域开火，发表抨击，然后换一边之后再反击回来。你可以探索出一些的确非常有趣的矛盾现象并找到他们背后的真理。关于这条我会让你好好理解一会儿，因为这一点的确非常难以形容，除非你已经这么实践过了。

Is Your Niche Draining Your Motivation? 你的领域正在使你的动力枯竭吗？

Motivation is another key factor. You can dig more and deeper wells if you keep your motivation high. Do you think your depth is really going to be all that deep if your motivation is falling below a 6 out of 10? What if you’re constantly at a 9 or 10 for your motivation, but you jump around a lot? Can you imagine some situations where the 9+ will likely outperform the sub-6?
动力是另一个重要因素。你可以挖出更多更深的井如果你将自己的动力保持的很高。你认为如果你的动力丢掉了6成，那你还能够真正深挖的那么深吗？那么如果你持续保持着动力的9成甚至10成，可你却仅仅在周围瞎晃悠呢？你能够想象这些9成的动力却仅仅发挥出6成不到的效果的情形吗？
I’ll readily admit that there are some problems better suited to the stubborn sub-6 who can chip away for years. But there are other problems where the 9+ will win hands down. You can choose to tackle either class of problems. Do you have a preference?
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You can actually solve many of the same problems with either approach. You’ll just use different strategies. For instance, a sub-6 might make money with a regular job or with stable self-employment, doing the similar work day after day. A 9+ might earn income by working in bursts, such as by setting up passive income streams (also called evergreen) or by doing income-generating projects.
你实际上可以用二者之中任意一种方法解决许多同样的问题，你所用的不过是不同的策略罢了。举例来说，一个有六成动力的人通过常规的工作或稳定的自由职业来挣钱，日复一日；而一个有九成以上动力的人则可能以一种热切的态度来工作，比如通过建立被动的收入来源（同样被称为常青树），或者是通过做一些能够产生收入的项目。
Also, when you get burned out on some particular niche, you can always take a pause, switch to something else, and come back to it with a fresh perspective. You can go surprisingly deep when you’re able to stave off burnout indefinitely. And every now and then you’ll get lucky just by trying lots of different approaches to many different areas of life. Sometimes gold isn’t buried that deep; it may be buried where no one has bothered to look yet.
同样，当你在某些特定的领域里感到焦虑到极点时，你总是可以停下来歇一歇的，转移到其他的一些事情上，然后再带着一个全新的观点视角转换回来。当你能够毫无疑问地赶走焦虑时，你能够惊人地钻研进去。并且有时你会仅仅通过尝试不同的方法接触生活中的不同领域，就能够变得足够幸运。有时候金子并没有被埋藏的那么深，它只是被埋在一个还没有人有空去看的地方。

The Social Consequences of Nichification 固定领域的社会结果

There’s the social aspect too. If you niche down, you’re going to take a lot of your social life into that inch-wide pit with you. By resisting your own nichification, you could enjoy a more varied and arguably richer social life vs. one that’s overstuffed with the same types of people. Partly this is because you can offer up dozens of different interests that people may share with you. Some people will notice that they have a LOT in common with you, and they’ll often reach out to you. If you present more facets for people to connect with, you can attract a great variety of connections as well as more compatible connections.
同样有社交方面的因素。如果你深入钻研，你会把许多你的社交生活一并带入那个英尺宽的坑里；而通过拒绝你自己的领域定型，你可以享受一个更为多样以及可论证的更为丰富的社交生活，而不是被同类型人群塞满的那种。部分是因为你能够提供数十种人们能够跟你共享的兴趣点。有些人们会注意到你因为他们和你有许多共同点，继而他们也会经常和你交流沟通。如果你提供了更多的方面供人们产生联系，你就可以吸引不光是许多种联系，同样还有更多相契合相匹配的联系。
Also, who really wants to be friends with a mono-focused person? If you go the niche route, there’s a good chance you’ll attract a lot of people who want to connect with you mainly because you’re an expert on that one particular thing. That can be cool for status and income, but it can also lead to a feeling of being used by other people and by society. Do you only want people to relate to you as a tool for their own advancement? That gets lonely after a while. It can also lead to a love-hate relationship with your work.
同样，谁又真正想和单一兴趣的人做朋友呢？如果你走领域钻研的路线，很有可能你会吸引许多想和你建立联系可仅仅是因为你是这方面专家的人。这对于收入和地位而言的确很棒，但是这同样可能导致一种被其他人和社会所使用的感觉。你仅仅想要人们把你看做一件工具或者是他们的进阶方向吗？这过不了多久就会使你感到孤独。这也同样会导致你在工作上的爱恨分明的同事关系。

Give some careful thought to the lifestyle consequences of nichification first, and decide whether it’s truly the right path for you.
先对固定领域带来的生活方式上的改变进行一个仔细的思考，然后再决定这是否对你而言是一条正确的路径。
If you don’t pick a niche, you’ll probably have to build more skills, face more fears, and build a stronger social support network. For people like me, those are powerful reasons not to niche down.
如果你不选择钻研一个领域，那么你有可能建立起更多的技能，面临更多的恐惧同时也建立起一个更强的社交支持网络。对于和我类似的人而言，这些都是不固定一个领域的有力理由。

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