What do you call someone who is good at art at the same time an amazing cook also being able to master graphic designing while being a top notch golf player?
Jack of all trades? That’s a thing of the past. The new term used to describe someone with varied talents in different fields is “multipotentialite”.
A little heads up before we talk about them and why they are a unique group of people.
This term was coined by Emilie Wapnick who recognizes herself as a multipotentialite. She doesn’t like to give herself any labels but if she had to describe herself she would call herself a combination of artist, entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and coach. She explains that her attitude towards constant evolution of mind and thirst for exploration of new things made her try and explore her different interests be it in music, writing etc.
She was never concerned about excelling at one particular thing, rather to achieve experience and learn new things everyday. She aims at getting inspired each day, something she believes can’t happen if you’re doing the same thing forever that moves her to discover new fields everyday. And what some would call this “quitting” she calls it ‘growth” ,aptly.
So bringing our focus back onto the “multipotentialites”, who share a similar point of view as Emilie. Multipotentiality is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability of a person, particularly one of strong intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields.
And to enlighten all those curious minds who might be thinking that this is just another sugar –coated word for failures and some fad term that was coined recently. Nope.Multipotentiality was recognised way back in Leonardo Da Vinci, Averroes, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, René Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton, Aristotle, and Archimedes.
The multipotentialites are often hard to find and to be frank, its often even harder for a multipotentialite to identify themselves as one. In this influential world we live where when something becomes a fad, people run towards wanting it at the cost of losing their genuineness and uniqueness, it’s not surprising that originality is soon becoming a thing of the past.
I’m not one to pretend that’s not the scene in India where being an engineer, doctor or any another mainstream job that has everyone going gaga about, has pushed us to limit our choices. I believe sincerely that our mindsets to want one and only thing will be a major setback for further research and evolvement as students, educators or even as learners.
But thanks to some examples of IITians who dropped out or rather drifted from their original field to pursue their interests be it in the music industry or as professional cooks or anything unconventional and refreshing.And mind you they have been successful if you only defined success rightly and not by what today’s world defines “success”.They have reinstated our hope towards change and evolvement. They have proved the fact that where you start is not as important as where you end up.
So keeping that in mind I encourage everyone to be like a sponge that can absorb any kind of information or any talent any time no matter what the consequence. Always be prepared to do something new and search for inspiration and evolvement more than excellence and fame. Its very important for one to recognize one’s potential before making waves in this world because when you realize your own power that you’d probably wish for, looking at your successful peers when in reality you already had it in you, you become confident and it radiates in your work.
So pause, recognize and rediscover yourself and enter every journey with a positive, open-minded outlook and always and always keep learning.
–B.Marilyn Joyner