Nick Huhn - Creative Versatilist

When people ask me what I want to do when I grow up, I can never provide an answer other than “it doesn’t exist yet.”  For the entirety of my career, I’ve pondered the answer to that question and usually responded by creating opportunities on my own.  With the exception of my web / business strategy roles at Norton Healthcare and Yum! Brands, I never had a job I didn’t create out of thin air.  To date I have served in a variety of roles in:

• Information Systems
• Marketing
• Software Engineering
• Creative Services
• Business Development
• Communications / Public Relations

As the nature of business, technology and marketing have changed, I too have maintained interests and skills in those spheres.  Like Jeremiah’s Venn diagram of effective web strategy, I try to explain my “job” in terms of having knowledge and skills in all 3 disciplines (and several more esoteric ones), not just one.  This rarely makes sense to the relatives, career counselors and  the “do one thing and do it well” advisors that seem perpetually confused by my aversion to focusing on just one area of expertise.

A few years ago Gartner let me know that not only was this “versatilist” approach ok, it was seen as a key to future career success.  I felt my stubbornness was somewhat validated even though positions like these are rare in Louisville.  My interest in business strategy had taken a back seat to many of the other creative and technical projects I had been a part of, so I enrolled in U of L’s IMBA program in 2002 to underscore the importance and inherently the skills needed to derive business value from ‘the new economy.’

Had I listened to my career counselors or other parental pundits, I’m sure I’d be an architect or engineer (or ‘doctor’ or ‘lawyer’) right now.  But I dashed all hopes for those scholarships and career path when I opted to go way out of my comfort zone by attending a liberal arts school.  When a conversation traverses topics like bluetooth, blue chip stocks and JetBlue’s marketing, I’m excited to delve into the nuances of each ’sphere’ and also have the ability to abstract an idea that might hit the sweet spot for a new business strategy or opportunity.

Among other self-imposed or attributive labels: I’m a geek, I’m a marketer, I’m an entrepreneur.  These characteristics keep me always craving more information and always questioning “what if?” with the understanding that the best way to predict the future is to create it.  So I’ve hereby labeled myself and this resurrected blog the “Creative Versatilist.”  As I continue to write and think abstractly in this medium, I will assuredly struggle to find a singular voice or set of interests.  But that, to me, is what will hopefully keep it interesting.

Until then, anyone that wants to chat about subnets, subliminal influences in colors, and substitution effects - or all 3 at once - will know where to find me.  Any other professional versatilists out there?

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