Yesterday, BBC News Magazine ran an article about a nine-year-old boy who wrote in to a BBC children's program 35 years ago, telling them that he had a "strange" belief that he would someday know how to save people's lives. This boy did, indeed, go on to become a doctor whose groundbreaking research has saved lives. (Read the full article here...)

This article got me thinking about my own childhood dreams, and I wondered - how many of you knew at the age of nine what you wanted to be? And how many of you have become that?

I started playing piano at a very young age (see picture). My parents swear that when I was less than a year old, I could plunk out a recognizable melody of  "The First Noel"by ear (my dad used to sing it every time we drove past the post office at the corner of Fisher Ct. and Main St. in Clawson, MI, where I lived for the first seven years of my life, at Christmastime. There was a big "NOEL" sign hanging in front.) By the time I was twelve, I was writing a lot of songs and already performing a lot.Today, playing piano and singing is a huge part of my life as a worship leader and performing artist (see other picture).

 It's commonly acknowledged in business that sometimes the best engineers make the worse managers of the engineering department, just as sometimes the best artists should never be in charge of the other artists. In fact, in any technical field those that have demonstrated mastery in their profession fail at managing their peers. Instead, just like in baseball, sometimes the best general managers are those that were not naturally gifted players. These were the invididuals who played their hardest, studied the game, and learned how to overcome physical deficiencies to still successfully play the game they loved.** They became utility players - reliable in every circumstance but not a star in any position. In business, we say that they are "a jack of all trades, but master of none."

The reasons these jacks may make the best managers is because they realize that they can't control the outcomes of project or endeavors through their own skills and efforts. Those who are naturally gifted in any particular field often expect that they can determine the course of events through their own willpower and talents. Those who have had to work and strive for their place on the team realize that this is not possible for them. (Additionally all that time spent studying and learning what success looks like doesn't hurt them eitheer.) Therefore the jack of all trades realizes that just as they may not be a master in their field, they are also not the master of the work that others produce. Therefore they are gifted at orchestrating the work of others to achieve the success that they know exists. Its a lesson for all of us who are tasked with managing others. Managing them doesn't mean controlling them. It means recognizing that control is limiting, but that as each master excersies their particular skill set, we can work towards acheiving the goals we've set.