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Brand You Magazine > All Posts  > A Life in Chapters as a Multipotentialite

A Life in Chapters as a Multipotentialite

To be described as a ‘Jack of all trades’ is scarcely considered a compliment, often laced with undertones of restlessness and an indecisive nature. This appears to be at odds with a time where life’s varied possibilities are constantly showcased to people, through our online world.

In business, the idea of dedicating your career to one industry, product or company is becoming less desirable as opportunities for variety become more widely available.

For anyone not self-employed, the perception of their career can be fundamental to their chances of securing their next role. Whilst organisations are often looking for a member of personnel who they believe will be a long-term appointee, the connotations attached to someone who has spent 10 years at one company (loyal, dedicated and reliable) can differ greatly from those attributed to a potential employee after a 15 year tenure (stagnated, institutionalised, unambitious). Even when that potential employee has achieved several promotions during that period, concerns can persist that they will be resistant to change and slow to react to new opportunities. 

 

“It’s this important balance and variety that epitomises the developments in the most successful businesses.

 

Similarly, a business that can showcase talent that has risen from the ground floor to the boardroom is one that can expect applications from some of the most ambitious people entering the workforce, and yet a boardroom full of company stalwarts is one that is at risk of lacking fresh ideas.

It’s this important balance and variety that epitomises the developments in the most successful businesses, as the innovation of relatively new appointees acts as a counter-balance to the experience of long-term personnel. 

So, if 10 years should be considered the maximum employment period for any career-conscious employee and well-run organisations must be wary of an over-saturation of long-term personnel in decision-making roles, how does an entrepreneur safeguard against stagnation, both personally and within their business? 

Surely, a small, family enterprise or a single-person company are at the greatest risk of one-dimensional thinking? This has given rise to the notion that rather than re-inventing a business with new ideas, a creative mind can take those passions and ideas and apply them to a new industry. Do the skills that Lord Alan Sugar cultivated, trading in London’s East End, not continue to serve him in his Loughton boardroom? And whenever his company enters a new marketplace, does it not inject fresh competition and innovation into that industry?

 

“A multipotentialite can now start a venture from home risk-free and build a brand, whilst continuing to work in their current occupation.”

 

What set entrepreneurs such as Lord Sugar and Richard Branson apart in their youth was the fact that they were so rare but with modern attitudes and tools; there has been no better time to recognise and embrace the ‘multi-potentialite’ life.

Not everyone will have the skills or the desire to address life in this way, but now, all who do are not limited by a lack of opportunity. Niche industries that were so difficult to penetrate in smaller towns can now be accessed by businesses operating from anywhere, as the internet seamlessly matches innovative organisations with ever-growing target markets. 

A multipotentialite can now start a venture from home risk-free and build a brand, whilst continuing to work in their current occupation, regardless of whether the ultimate goal is to pursue this new career full-time.

Sharing resources, clients, locations, innovations and platforms allow multipotentialites to grow several brands simultaneously, whilst hedging their bets and improving their odds of financial security. The most attractive element is achieving all of this whilst pursuing the things you love. For the true multipotentialite, business was never meant to be à la carte, but rather should be approached as a buffet.

As a multipotentialite, it’s not possible to be disloyal to yourself. Even your customers, suppliers and employees benefit from the tools that you honed in one area of business and put to good use in another. If Leonardo Da Vinci had been unable to use his skills as an artist to consign his thoughts to paper and bring his engineering ideas to life, would he ever have had the confidence to build them?

 

“When circumstances change, the multipotentialite adapts, closes one chapter and starts another.”

 

Given that Lord Sugar had left school by the age of 16, it is little more likely that he personally built Amstrad computers than it is that Sir Richard Branson flies his own aeroplanes. Like all good businesspeople, they recognised the gaps in their skill sets and employed people to fill them. When passion is your passion and ideas burst out of you, do not regret failing to bring them to life.

The more I sit back and take a look at the world and how it changes, the more I see that the tendency to set up a life and live it has been replaced by a desire to live a life in chapters. Perhaps this is due to digital evolution providing a platform to see all of the possibilities on offer, leaving us like kids in the proverbial sweet shop, able to make more selections. 

Short-term thinking is permeating into all aspects of our lives, evidenced by the trends in shorter ebooks, outselling thick tome novels and bite-sized episodes of TV series being preferred to films because they allow us the freedom to dip in, pause and pick up again at our leisure. The life of necessary regiment is being replaced by one of bespoke convenience, supported by the two greatest allies of the multipotentialite, choice and possibility.

Possibility holds only the need to embrace it. I sit now, writing this in Ibiza, where I am spending the next few days, hosting a VIP day. Is there something about the pleasant climate, sea air or the sand between our toes that inspires creative thought? The environment shift and the possibility was there.

So many people are diligently searching for a role that provides the perfect hours that accommodate their childcare and other commitments when it’s possible to build one around your life and prioritise a work-life balance. When circumstances change, the multipotentialite adapts, closes one chapter and starts another that serves the new life and takes skills, connections, lessons learned from failure and success and utilises them. Unlike Ibiza, no business is an island.

 

A jack of all trades is master of none, but off-times better than a master of one.”

 

I sat last night and enjoyed good company, none of whom had visited Ibiza prior to  their forties, and I smiled as I realised that this beautiful island is one more multipotentialite. An island of produce for centuries, a trading hub and home to one of the oldest towns in Europe, Ibiza has adapted in recent decades. In June 1973, the nightclub Pacha opened, followed quickly by several others, and the iconic party island atmosphere was born.

Revellers still flock in their thousands to her shores each year, but once Ibiza had mastered that, she had other ideas and now provides tranquil villas, family attractions and peaceful getaways for people of all ages. My friends last night commented on how, once in their thirties, they’d imagined they’d never visit here, but we multipotentialites know that possibility never dies as long as there is vision and a desire to change.

So what of Jack then, the original and much-maligned multipotentialite? The origins of this characterisation can be traced back to the 14th century, a time when small communities did not always have specialist bakers, fishermen and other skilled workers. Recognising that he could not sustain a living baking loaves for his dozen or so neighbours, I like to imagine Jack turning his hand to fishing, carpentry and whatever else appealed to him at the time. Whilst sleeping in a slightly rickety bed and eating an overbaked loaf, I can’t imagine the residents of Jack’s town disparaging him, but rather being thankful that such a resourceful neighbour provided so many services. 

Perhaps then, this is why the original quotation, sometimes attributed to Shakespeare, recited in full is: A jack of all trades is master of none, but off-times better than a master of one. As the times changed and specialist skills became more readily available, it’s not difficult to see how the abbreviated version appealed; but times are changing again and the opportunity for the multipotentialite has returned.

The internet might highlight a buffet of opportunities and it is widely accepted that we cannot sample them all… at the same time. It does not necessarily follow that we cannot embark on different adventures at different times in our lives, squeezing out as much as we can. Don’t worry about what you can’t do – that can be recruited – instead, focus on what you can achieve with nothing more than determination and the vision that you’ve been cultivating in your mind of multipotentialitism. Richard Branson has often been quoted as saying that his notebook is his most prized possession, so pick up a pen, turn a page and write – perhaps not the story of the rest of your life, but certainly the next chapter.

 


Regular Columnist: Article published in Brand You Magazine – Edition 33

Dawn Beth Baxter, founder of Beyond The Dawn

Dawn Baxter, owner of Beyond the Dawn, is a true industry leader, expert and mentor in the realm of digital marketing. Dawn has cemented her position as a sought-after authority in the field.

Instagram: beyond_thedawn

Website: beyondthedawnblog.com

 

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