You don't have to be good at everything.

My business partner and I overlapped at the last company I worked for before I went 1099.

He had just started at the company a few months before I left and we decided to meet up for happy hour.

He was a bit frustrated with one of the projects he was on because he was asked to make updates to a presentation or training materials or something to that effect and the task lead wasn't happy with his work.

Basically, he wasn't good at making it "pretty" which is very important in the management consulting world.

I empathized because I also suck at making attractive presentations.

But I also told him to not worry about it and instead, just learn how to make pivot tables in Excel and learn the basics of data analysis.

That was the skill that was missing at the company so if he could get good at that he could get away from doing the boring stuff he didn't want to do.

He started learning Excel and did a great job on a different project and he got out of having to do endless PowerPoint formatting.

As a W2 employee, you might feel pressure (particularly at management consulting companies) to be good at everything. They may even give you raises based on how well you demonstrate a variety of traits.

This will make you feel terrible when you fall short on any one of those dimensions (and really bad when you get stiffed on a raise).

As a 1099, you get the freedom to just focus on what on you're good at and be selective about the type of work you do.

Sure, it's helpful to have a wide variety of skills. Learning how to make slick presentations is very practical actually.

But you know what? If you're above average in one thing and can find a client that rewards that one skill, you'll be just fine.

While it may help you to learn how to make a slick presentation, if that's not something that interests you, someone else can do it.

Make sure you are you an "A" student in a core skill, and then you can be a "C" student in other areas that don't interest you.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.