What do you want to be when you grow up ?
why some of us may never be able to answer the question
TED is arguably one of the greatest places to feed our curiosity. The talks that bring us countless of thoughtful perspectives and wisdom.
Recently, there’s one talk that gained my attention. It’s Emilie Wapnick who’s talking about multipotentialism.
Well personally, I found it mind-penetrating, I can relate in some ways so I’m eager to re-write and summarize her talks.
Please enjoy!
What do you want to be when you grow up ?
Do you remember how old were you when you were first asked this question?
It’s considered an innocuous question, posed to little kid to elicit cute replies, like: I want to be an astronaut!
The truth is, no one actually cares what you say when you’re at 5.
This question get asked of us again and again as we get older in various forms. For instance, high school students might get asked what major they’re going to pick in college.
And at some point, the question goes from being the cute exercise it once was to the thing that keeps us up at night.
She’s someone who’s never been able to answer the question.
See, the problem wasn’t that she didn’t have any interests, it’s that she had too many.
She worried that there was something wrong with this, and something wrong with me for being unable to stick with anything.
If you can relate to her story, ask yourself where you learned to assign the meaning of wrong or abnormal to doing many things.
It is the culture
When someone asks you what you want to be back then, you can’t reply with 20 different things.
Though the adults will likely chuckle and be like,
“oh how cute, but you can’t be a violin maker and a psychologist”
Really?
How about
“oh wow that’s so adorable, but darling, you can’t be a computer programmer and sending people to space at the same time”
I mean, really?
The sacred idea of one true calling
The notion of the narrowly focused life is highly romanticized in our culture. The idea that we each have one great thing we are meant to to during our time on this earth, and you need to figure out what that thing is and devote your life to it.
But what if you’re someone who isn’t wired this way?
What if there are a lot of different subjects that you’re curious about, and many different things you want to do?
Well, there’s no room for someone like you in this framework and so you might feel alone. You might feel like you don’t have a purpose, and you might feel like there’s something wrong with you.
But, there’s nothing wrong with you, but you are a mutlipotentialite.
The multipotentialite
A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits.
It’s easy to see your multipotentiality as a limitation or and affliction that you need to overcome. But what she have learned through speaking with people and writing about these ideas on her website is that there are some tremendous strengths to being this way.
Here are three multipotentialite superpowers
#1 — Idea synthesis
Combining two or more fields and creating something new at the intersection.
Innovation happens at the intersections, that’s where the new ideas come from
And multipotentialites with all of their backgrounds, are able to access a lot of these points of intersection.
#2 — Rapid learning
When multipotentialite become interested in something, we go hard, we observe everything we can get our hands on. We’re also used to being beginners because we’ve been beginners so many times in the past. and this means that we’re less afraid of trying new things and stepping out our comfort zones.
What’s more, many skills are transferable across disciplines and we bring everything we’ve learned to every new area we pursue, so we’re rarely starting from scratch.
#3 — Adaptability
The ability to morph into whatever you need to be in a given situation.
It is rarely a waste of time to pursue something you’re drawn to, even if you end up quitting. You might apply that knowledge in a different field entirely, in a way that you couldn’t have anticipated.
The economic world is changing so quickly and unpredictably that it is the individuals and organizations that can pivot in order to meet the needs of the market that are really going to thrive.
Thriving as Multipotentialite
Those are three skills that multipotentialites are very adept at. Also three skills that they might lose if pressured to narrow their focus.
As a society, we have a vested interest in encouraging multipotentialites to be themselves. We have a lot of complex, multidimensional problems in the world right now, and we need creative out-of the box thinkers to tackle them.
Now let’s say that you are in your heart, a specialist
You came out of the womb knowing you wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with you either.
In fact some of the best teams are comprised of a specialists and multipotentialite pair together
The specialist can dive in deep and implement ideas, while the multipotentialite brings a breath of knowledge to the project.
It’s a beautiful partnership.
Last Words
Embrace your inner wiring whatever that may be. If you’re specialist at heart then by all means specialize that is where you’ll do your best work
But to the multipotentialite, including those of you who may have just realized that you are one, say this to yourself:
Embracing our inner wiring leads to a happier, more authentic life. And perhaps more importantly, multipotentialite, the world needs us !
— Emilie Wapnick
