A versatile item allows for multiple different uses.
Versatile is an adjective that comes from the Latin word versatilis and refers to the ability of something or someone to adapt quickly and easily to different functions . Versatility, therefore, is a highly valued characteristic.
For example: “We need to hire a versatile player who can perform in different positions on the playing field” , “I think I am a versatile worker who is able to offer all types of solutions to the company” , “What I like most What I like about this bag is that it is very versatile: I can use it during the day when I go to work or at night if I decide to go out to dinner.”
A versatile individual
A versatile person is able to respond to different challenges and adapt to all types of contexts.
For this reason, versatility is a value that employers usually take into account when hiring someone. Sometimes they prefer to do without a specialist, who works in a single area of the company , and choose, instead, to choose a person who has the ability to successfully carry out various tasks, regardless of not standing out in any particular sector. .
Versatility in sport
Something similar happens in professional sports . Teams usually have players who specialize in some task or who only occupy one position on the playing field, but in every team (also called squad) there are several versatile athletes.
In a soccer team, to mention one case, a player who can play in three or four positions is very useful since this translates into the possibility of replacing different teammates.
Versatility is usually a highly appreciated value.
María Callas, a versatile artist
In music, the term versatile is widely used, especially in the field of singing, to refer to those performers who have the ability to do justice to works of varied themes or from very diverse periods and styles. María Callas, for many the soprano par excellence, was a clear example of versatility, regardless of the damage she may have caused to her vocal cords: during her intense career, she put herself in the shoes of the darkest and the happiest characters, trying from Mozart to Puccini, passing through Rossini and Verdi.
Callas's case exceeds the physical issues, the merely vocal ones, given that she was a great actress, capable of imprinting a series of unprecedented emotions on her performances, elevating the acting level of the opera, something that until then had not been done to that level. Despite having received many negative reviews since the beginning of her career, her legacy is undeniable when looking at her successors, from Joan Sutherland (one of the most outstanding singers of the last hundred years) to the youngest of today.
The negative aspect
Depending on how you analyze it, versatility does not always represent a virtue . There are those who consider that doing many things entails an inevitable cost on a qualitative level; In other words, someone capable of performing in various fields cannot be very talented in any of them. However, flexibility can be beneficial since it allows us to observe life from many perspectives, as if the experience of more than one person were acquired at a time, with the consequent enrichment at an intellectual level, which can be used to improve an aspect in particular.
There are people with multiple talents , who quickly learn seemingly distant concepts and who carry out very varied activities with satisfactory results. Continuing with what was stated in the previous paragraph, this versatility can turn against the subject, if it does not allow him to focus on a single path; On the other hand, it can become a treasure for him if, through his time in the various fields, he gathers the necessary wisdom to improve in his vocation.