Multipotentialite Emilie Wapnick (find her on Facebook and Twitter!) tells her story:
The only constant in my life is shape-shifting, exploration and evolution. I went from being a serious musician and songwriter to a web designer, filmmaker, writer, and law student (I graduated from the Faculty of Law at McGill University in 2010). After that, I became interested in entrepreneurship, launched a business, became a coach, and wrote a book.
All of these pursuits were personal choices that I made out of genuine interest. Even law began as a fascination. My aim was not to become a lawyer, but to simply explore this new interest of mine.
There’s something that draws me to each of my interests and it’s not “excellence.” I have no interest in committing to one thing forever. Once I no longer feel inspired in a field, I simply move on. Some people call this “quitting,” I call it growth.
This is how I’ve always lived– moving from interest to interest, building on my skills in different areas, and synthesizing the knowledge I acquire along the way.
I currently live in a Boler trailer in Portland, OR with my schnauzer, Grendel.
Steve Jobs once defined creativity as “connecting things,” and said that sadly, most people don’t have enough dots to connect because they haven’t had many diverse experiences. (Check out the whole quote, it’s great.)
Innovation happens when you take knowledge from one field and use it to solve a problem in a completely unrelated field.
To stifle your puttylike nature is a crime, not just in terms of limiting your own potential, but to society as a whole. As multipotentialites, we must use our gift to innovate. It’s in our genes.
Innovation is the reason you’ve been blessed with this trait, and it’s what you’ve been called on to do. Never forget that.
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