 Some thoughts
From my own experience, you can be successful (or unsuccessful) with either strategy. As Famous Nabob posted, it all depends on your risk tolerance, as well you willingness to commit time and energy in the investment process. As a rule of thumb, I do not invest in industries I don't know about.
One of the things that I learned from Kiyosaki's series is that one way to reduce risk is by means of education. If you want to invest in the service sector, learn about it. If you want to enter in the technological sector, learn about.
A way to quickly jump start your investment portafolio is to leverage your current knowledge on your industry, and work your way from there. For example, a realtor knows a lot of the housing market where he/she works, has an idea about the offer/demand dynamics in the past, and may have developed a sense about where the industry is headed for. If that were my situation, I will try some real state investing, looking into the stocks of companies on the industry (suppliers in the construction sector, developers, etc). This does not imply that a realtor shouldn't try buying biotech stocks, but if he/she doesn't know much about, it will be similar to gambling.
There is another advantage of having knowledge about investments: it can help you separte good from bad advisors.
Good luck,
Pat
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