Are there a Lack of Multipotentialites in Your Daily Life? (a Loving Rant and an Announcement)

There’s an email that I receive a lot. It goes something like this:

Quite by accident I happened upon your site. It was hard to believe, but at the ripe old age of 56, I have finally discovered that there is NOTHING wrong with me! I am a multipotentialite!

I always felt that I was a loser, couldn’t stick with something, destined to live my life without finding my “niche”. All my life I have gone from one thing to another (very successfully, I might add). Staying with it until I got bored. I blamed it on ADD. I always considered my self the proverbial “Jack of all trades, master on none.

My kids refer to me as a fount of useless knowledge. I now know that is not the case.”

This is a quote from a real email, but I’ve gotten hundreds of emails that sound exactly like this, from people of all ages and from all different backgrounds.

Here’s another example:

I just started reading your manifesto, and I almost started crying…but good crying! I feel relieved actually. I went through a year of counseling to try to find out why I felt so unhappy with where I was. I was at an amazing art school, making good grades, people seem to like me, but I never felt like I fit. Everyone seemed so driven to be a painter, or a sculptor, or a this or that. I even double majored because I couldn’t choose between painting and art history. My studio teacher of 1.5 years kept telling me that I was afraid of success and failure! I didn’t agree, but he said it so often that I started to think he could be right.

Emails like these feel incredibly rewarding. They remind me that what I’m doing matters. But they also break my heart a little…

Over and over, I hear the message: “I’ve always felt like there was something wrong with me,” and “I didn’t know there was anybody else out there like this.”

And as grateful as I am for the privilege of being able to help, part of me also wants to (lovingly) scream: “You are far from alone! There are so many others out there “like this”. I know because I’ve received hundreds of emails exactly like yours!!”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not frustrated with the multipotentialite letter writers themselves, but with the sheer extent and frequency of this problem. It’s the situation that I’m upset with. The fact that multipotentialites are everywhere, and yet because of all the culturally-based shame around it, so many of us repress our multipotentiality.

I hate that we’re taught to pick one facet of our personality to focus on, and deny all of the other parts of ourselves. And I hate that those who are determined to embrace their curiosity and be their full multipotentialite selves, end up feeling so isolated.

Taking Puttylike to the next level

After receiving enough emails like this, I began to feel like the blogging and email format were limiting the potential of this community. I felt like I could be doing more.

I want, not only to connect with you guys on an individual basis, but to connect you with each other. I want to you to be able to share your experiences with one another, get help with the practical aspects of building a life around all your interests (career, productivity, family, etc.), and to make use of the networking opportunities and the incredible knowledge base we’ve got here.

There’s so much talent and diversity in this community. The sort of innovation that might be sparked, if we only just connected? Well, it sort of scares me…

But mostly, I want every multipotentialite to have the benefit of knowing other multipotentialites in their daily lives.

Enter, the Puttytribe

The Puttytribe is an online community I created back in 2012 for multipotentialites of all ages, cultures, locations, and levels. We brainstorm, help each other with our many projects, collaborate, co-work, and learn from one another. It’s a really warm place, where everyone understands “what you’re up to” when you have a dozen projects or jump from passion to passion. We’re a truly global community of over 600 multipotentialites and we’d love for you to join us!

How to get your invitation to the Puttytribe

We open up the doors to the Puttytribe once per month, and only to 75 new members.

More importantly, make sure to sign up to the Puttytribe email list. Otherwise you won’t get the invitation at all:

I consider the Puttytribe the most important thing we’ve ever done as a community.

There’s so much potential here. If us multipotentialites just come together, we’re sort of– unstoppable.

Your pal and fellow multipotentialite,

Emilie