TED Talk. Emilie Wapnick: Why some of us don’t have a true calling

26.10.2015

You have varied interests, are blessed with subtle potential in a number of fields and a rapid learner? You have changed jobs often because you got bored quickly? Well, then perhaps you are what Emilie Wapnick calls a „multipotentialite“ – a person well-versed in a wide range of disciplines. Multipotentialites are never glued to their comfort zone, readily take on new challenges, are used to being beginners and thus, not afraid to start from scratch – over again. The most intriguing and valuable part may be ascribed to synthesis: by combining two or more areas, something new is being created at the intersection. And this is where innovation happens.

All her life, Emilie Wapnick has been moving from interest to interest, building on skills in different areas and synthesised the knowledge acquired along the way. “This is how I’ve always lived“, says the musician/songwriter-web-designer-filmmaker-writer-law student-entrepreneur.
As a career and life coach, her work with “multipotentialites” has resulted in the book Renaissance Business and the website Puttylike.

Header image: ©Christina Feyerke