Why some of us don't have one true calling | Emilie Wapnick | TEDxBend

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
Have too many passions to settle on just one? Perfect. Your unique mix of interests may turn out to be your very own super power.

Raise your hand

if you have ever been asked
the question,

"What do you want to be
when you grow up?"

(Laughter)

Now, if you had to guess,

how old would you say you were
when you were first asked this question?

You can just hold up fingers.

Three, five, three, five, five; OK.

Now, raise your hand if the question

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
has ever caused you any anxiety.

(Laughter)

Any anxiety at all.

I'm someone who's never been able
to answer the question,

"What do you want to be
when you grow up?"

See, the problem wasn't
that I didn't have any interests

it's that I had too many.

In high school I liked English,
and Math, and Arts, and I built websites,

and I played guitar in a punk band
called Frustrated Telephone Operator.

(Laughter)

Maybe you've heard of us.

(Laughter)

This continued after high school,

and at a certain point,
I began to notice this pattern in myself,

where I would become interested in an area

and I would dive in,
and become all consumed,

and I'd get to be pretty good
at whatever it was,

and then I would hit this point
where I'd start to get bored.

And usually, I would try
and persist anyway

because I'd already devoted
so much time and energy,

and sometimes money into this field.

But eventually, this sense of boredom,
this feeling of, "Yeah, I've got this!

This isn't challenging anymore,"

it would get to be too much,
and I would have to let it go.

But then, I would become
interested in something else,

something totally unrelated,

and I would dive into that
and become all consumed,

and I would feel like,
"Yes, I found my thing!"

And then I would hit this point again

where I'd start to get bored
and eventually I would let it go.

But then I would discover
something new and totally different,

and I would dive into that...

This pattern caused me
a lot of anxiety for two reasons:

the first was that I wasn't sure

how I was going to turn
any of this into a career.

I thought that I would eventually
have to pick one thing,

deny all my other passions
and just resign myself to being bored.

The other reason
it caused me so much anxiety

was a little bit more personal.

I worried that there was
something wrong with this

and something wrong with me

for being unable to stick with anything.

I worried that I was afraid of commitment,
or that I was scattered,

or that I was self sabotaging,
afraid of my own success.

If you can relate to my story
and to these feelings,

I'd like you to ask yourself a question
that I wish I had asked myself back then.

Ask yourself where you learned

to assign the meaning of wrong
or abnormal to doing many things.

I'll tell you where you learnt it.

You learnt it from the culture.

When you were first asked the question,

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

you were about five years old,

and the truth is that no one really cares
what you say when you are that age.

(Laughter)

It's considered an innocuous question

posed to little kids
to elicit cute replies.

Like, "I want to be an astronaut,"
or "I want to be a ballerina,"

or "I want to be a pirate,"
- insert Halloween costume here.

(Laughter)

But this question is asked of us
again and again

as we get older in various forms.

For instance,

high school students might get asked

what major they are going to pick
in college.

And at some point,
what do you want to be when you grow up

goes from being
the cute exercise it once was

to the thing that keeps us up at night.

Why?

See, while this question inspires kids
to dream about what they could be,

it does not inspire them to dream
about all that they could be.

In fact, it does just the opposite.

Because when someone asks you
what you want to be,

you can't reply with 20 different things.

The well meaning adult
will likely chuckle and be like,

"Oh, how cute, but you can't be
a violin maker and a psychologist.

You have to choose."

This is Doctor Bob Childs.

(Laughter)

And he's a luthier and a psychotherapist.

And this is Amy Ng, a magazine editor,

turned illustrator, entrepreneur,
teacher, and creative director.

But most kids don't hear
about people like this.

All they hear is
that they are going to have to choose.

But it's more than that.

The notion of the narrowly focused life
is highly romanticized in our culture.

It's this idea of destiny
or the one true calling.

The idea that we each have one great thing

we are meant to do
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 are 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 is 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.

You might feel like
there is something wrong with you.

There is nothing wrong with you.

What you are is a multipotentialite.

(Applause)

A multipotentialite is someone

with many interests and creative pursuits.

It's a mouthful to say.

It might help if you break it up
into three parts:

multi - potential - ite.

You can also use one of the other terms
that connote the same ideas,

such is the polymath,
the Renaissance person.

Actually, during the Renaissance period

it was considered the ideal
to be well versed in multiple disciplines.

Barbara Sher refers to us as scanners.

Use whichever term you like
or invent your own.

I have to say I find it sort of fitting
that as a community,

we cannot agree on a single identity.

(Laughter)

It's easy to see you multipotentiality

as a limitation or an affliction
that you need to overcome.

But what I've learned
through speaking with people

and writing about these ideas
on my website, Puttylike,

is that there is some tremendous
strengths to being this way.

Here are 3 multipotentialite super powers.

One; idea synthesis.

That is combining two or more fields

and creating something new
at the intersection.

Sha Hwang and Rachel Binx

drew from their shared interest
in cartography,

data visualization, travel, mathematics,
and design when they founded Meshu.

Meshu is a company that creates
custom geographically inspired jewelry.

Sha and Rachel came up
with this unique idea

not despite, but because
of their eclectic mix

of skills and experiences.

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.

The second multipotentialite
superpower is rapid learning.

When multipotentialites become
interested in something - we go hard.

We absorb 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 of 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.

Nora Dunn is a full time traveler
and freelance writer.

As a child concert pianist,

she honed an incredible ability
to develop muscle memory.

Now she's the fastest typist she knows.

Before becoming a writer,
Nora was a financial planner.

She had to learn
the finer mechanics of sales

when she was starting her practice,

and this skill now helps her write
compelling pitches to editors.

It is rarely a waste of time
to pursue something you are drawn to,

even if you end up quitting.

You might apply that knowledge
in a different field entirely

in a way you couldn't have anticipated.

The third multipotentialite
super power is adaptability.

That is the ability to morph

into whatever you need to be
in a given situation.

Abe Cajudo is sometimes a video director,
sometimes a web designer,

sometimes a Kickstarter consultant,
sometimes a teacher,

and sometimes, apparently, James Bond.

(Laughter)

He's valuable because he does good work.

He's even more valuable

because he can take on various roles
depending on his client's needs.

Fast Company Magazine
identified adaptability

as the single most
important skill to develop

in order to thrive in the 21st century.

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.

Idea synthesis, rapid learning
and adaptability.

Three skills that multipotentialites
are very adept at.

And 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 pediatric neurosurgeon.

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong
with you either.

(Laughter)

In fact, some of the best teams

are comprised of a specialist
and a multipotentialite paired together.

A specialist can dive-in deep
and implement ideas

while the multipotentialite brings
a breadth of knowledge to the project.

It's a beautiful partnership.

But we should all be designing
lives and careers

that are aligned with how we are wired,

and sadly, multipotentialites
are largely being encouraged

simply to be
more like their specialist peers.

So, with that said;

if there's one thing
you take away from this talk,

I hope that it is this:

embrace your inner wiring
whatever that may be.

If you are a specialist at heart,
then by all means, specialize.

That is where you'll do your best work.

But, to the multipotentialites in the room

- including those of you
who may have just realized

in the last 12 minutes that you are one -

(Laughter)

to you I say: embrace your many passions,

follow your curiosity
down those rabbit holes,

explore your intersections.

Embracing our inner wiring
leads to a happier, more authentic life

and perhaps more importantly,

multipotentialites,

the world needs us.

Thank you.

(Applause)