The Case for Multipassionates And Generalists

You may have been told if you are a jack of all trades you will be a master of none. Niche down. After all, it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.

But what if you have multiple interests that you are passionate about? What if you can’t pick just one to focus on? Why should you have to niche down?

Chances are the person telling you to pick one thing is not a multi-passionate. If they were, they would understand we’re not wired that way.

It took me too long to realize that. We are round pegs trying to fit into the square holes. But there’s spaces around the edges that we want to fill. So, instead of living in someone else’s box, embrace that being multi-passionate is who YOU are.

Niching Down is Old and New

Niching down is as old as the hills. In the past, the tentmaker, the blacksmith, any of the tradespeople were skilled and specialized in their field.

They may have learned their trade as an apprentice to a master, or knowledge was passed down from parent to child.

Women, on the other hand needed to be skilled at a wide variety of things—sewing, cooking, preserving, gardening, caring for animals, nurse to children, etc. 

In higher society, women who could draw, play piano, speak a foreign language were considered accomplished. If a women didn’t have a range of interests and abilities, they were considered dull. We see this in Pride and Prejudice, where Mr. Darcy’s sister Georgiana is considered to be very accomplished.

Even in more recent centuries, people had skills that seem largely lost to the niches these days. If you live near farmland you may have examples of big beautiful wooden barns. Raised in a few days not by skilled laborers, but by a bunch of neighbors helping each other out.

Even as late at the 1960’s my father in law built a house for his family. He never worked in the construction industry. Today, I don’t know anyone who would dare do such a thing unless they had some building experience, a good book or resource, or a mentor to guide them.

In niching down, we have lost the abilities to be generalists in a lot of useful ways.

-RENAE CLARK

Revival

While I don’t consider myself a homesteader, I think the trend towards homesteading is a positive return back to some of the skills we have lost.

There is renewed interest in raising our own food, making our own beer and wine, roasting our own coffee beans, making butter from scratch, preserving the harvest, and a whole host of other DIY projects.

In fact, pretty much anything with “DIY” in front of it is a return to learning to do things for ourselves rather than buying it or hiring it out. A big shout out to bloggers and Pinterest for helping this trend along.

Can You Really Be MultiPassionate in the 21st century?

Of course! However, I think we need to separate being multipassionate professionally from personally. There are nuances and differences to consider.

In your personal life, there are few limits on how many hobbies, interests, or passions you can have. The biggest (and most vexing) limits are having enough time, and possibly enough money to do it all.

Professionally, it can be a little trickier, especially if your professional passions require a license or formal training like an aesthetician, nurse, physical therapist, landscape architect, etc.

Professionally, I think we are best off to either pursue one main career at a time and have a side hustle in another interest (did you know that 45% of working Americans have a side hustle in 2024? Source).

Someday you may even turn your side hustle into your main hustle.

Another option is the career change. In our modern era, the career change is more acceptable than it was even a generation ago. If you work from age 17-67 that’s 50 years. You could have two long careers of 25 years each. Various surveys have found people have anywhere from 3-7 different careers in their lifetime.

So, while personally our passions are limited by time and money, professionally it really makes more sense to focus on one career at a time, perhaps combined with a side hustle in a different niche.

Finding the Freedom to Be MultiPassionate

When it comes to the two biggest barriers to living the life you want—time and money, well that is what this site is about. I share strategies to make the most of your time (because we all have the same amount to work with). I also show you how you can make the most of the money you have (save money) and earn some extra money.

Money is an indirect antidote to the freedom problem—with more money, and the right kind of money (the kind that earns for you while you sleep) you can free yourself from trading your time for dollars (aka your job). Not that you need to quit altogether—that’s not everybody’s goal—but even if you could trade full-time for part-time, heck, even if you could work 4 days instead of 5 days think of what you could do with that time!

So, my approach is simple—make the most of your time and money so that you can make the most of your life.