The Man Who Chases Two Rabbits Catches Neither -Confucius

A very popular quote by Confucius. You can also find this quote in slightly different versions:

The Man Who Chases Two Rabbits Catches Neither

A Man Who Chases Two Rabbits Catches Neither

He Who Chases Two Rabbits Catches Neither

-Confucius

The idea is simple, needs a bit of visualisation: Now, imagine there’s a man who’s trying to catch two rabbits at the same time. He runs after one rabbit in one direction and then quickly changes his mind to chase after the other rabbit in a different direction. Because he’s switching between the two rabbits so much, he ends up not catching either of them.

The moral of the quote is that if you try to focus on two different things or goals at once, you might not succeed in achieving either of them. It’s often better to concentrate on one thing at a time to increase your chances of success.

I personally, am not a big follower of this conventional wisdom, even though i do understand it’s merits.
Also, would this apply to everything in life ? Wouldn’t it be better to diversify than keep all your eggs in the same basket ?
Wouldn’t pursuing 2 degrees give more chances to find a better job, wouldn’t running 2 businesses hedge against unexpected bad times hitting a business …