This is an amazing TED talk by Emilie Wapnick. She looks at how those of us in the world who don’t have a ‘clear’ career choice or expertise focus offer so much in business.
As someone who has always had innumerable interests, hobbies and things that I’m ‘good at’, there has always been a sense that I should focus on ONE thing, decide on ONE interest, ONE career to excel at and stick to that. But the truth is, that’s not where my value is.
My value is being what Emilie calls a multipotentialite. I’m good at lots of different things; most importantly I love working on lots of different things, learning new skills and always having something new on the horizon. My career path has not been ‘regular’ by any stretch and rather than seeing this as not ideal or something to overcome, I’ve come to realise that as a business leader this eclectic mix of skills, interests and education is exactly what is needed. I am the perfect foil to Kurt’s specialist. I can see things from different perspectives, I can learn and implement new skills quickly, I can transfer all of my skillsets and apply them to traditional and not so traditional business problems in a way someone with a plain old MBA can’t.
The great take away lesson for business owners from this talk: You need a mix of specialists and mulitpotentialites around you. We need multipotentialites to push fresh ideas, to think outside the box and to help businesses to adapt to this crazily changing world.
And for #MondayMotivation: If you’re a multipotentialite out there like me, embrace your interests, go with it and know your value is in this. Don’t feel that you should push yourself to be more of a specialist, the world needs both.
Amber Schubert is the CEO of Ronin. A lover of great coffee, a good book and walking the streets of Paris, Amber is our very own multipotentialite. From productivity to plugins, there’s no topic that she doesn’t want to sink her teeth into.
