When Your Difference is Your Superpower

If, like me, you’re a person of color, then you almost definitely grew up with your parents and elders telling you that life would be more difficult for you. You’d have to work twice as hard to get half the recognition. And you will have experienced it within your own life too, from playground bullying to questionable school reports to being passed over for promotion at work. 

In fact, if you’re in any way minoritized—for your sexuality, gender, heritage, body, size, or anything else—this “thing,” this point of difference has potentially become something that you feel needs to be overcome in order for you to thrive. That your success will be despite being brown, gay or dyslexic. Unfortunately, due to the society we live in there is an element of truth to that. But I’ve been thinking a lot about how these parts of who we are that society tries to shame and diminish us for can be such a huge source of strength, inspiration and—yes—even power.

Reality check

I don’t mean to sound like a personal development guru who tries to convince you that the only one in control of what happens to you is you. We do have the ability to shape our realities, but that must be recognized in conjunction with the fact that this very same reality is heavily influenced – or perhaps controlled – by white supremacist patriarchy, which will have a negative impact on the lives of people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people living with disabilities and other groups that face discrimination, no matter how much positive visualization we do. My purpose here isn’t to ignore the very real challenges we face. It’s simply to shine a light on some of the beauties our differences hold, beauties that we can often miss because we’re so busy fighting simply to live. 

While not all multipotentialites think of themselves as creatives, we are, by definition, living creatively. If you’re a multipotentialite, you do things differently from the norm, you go against the grain. This often requires you to carve your own path rather than following a blueprint that’s been laid out for you. It requires creative thinking and an innovative approach to life, as well as the confidence and conviction to see it through despite doubts and disapproval from others. As a multipotentialite from a minoritized community, I believe that the experience of being minoritized can actually aid us in making multipotentialite life work for us. Here’s how.

How our differences breed superpowers

1. We’re more adaptable.

Code switching involves a conscious or unconscious adjustment of our language, behavior or appearance in order to adapt to our surroundings. For me, a Ghanaian-British girl who grew up mostly in the UK with a few years spent in Ghana, this mostly manifested—and still does—through my accent.

The voice you’ll hear me speaking to my aunties in is not the same voice I use, for example, in a London boardroom. And this change happens entirely automatically for me. In fact, I’m currently doing my best to actively unlearn “telephone voice”: the phenomenon of my most polished British accent coming out whenever there’s a phone or a microphone nearby! While this adaptability is obviously borne out of extremely damaging views on acceptability and professionalism, and the idea that anything outside of the “norm” of middle-class, straight, white, cis male is “other” (and not in a good way), the result is that those of us who don’t fit into that extremely narrow window often gain the ability to adapt to our surroundings. In multipotentialite life, this could look like:

• Being as at home in a corporate environment as you are in the studio with theater darlings
• Knowing how to speak about your work or your business in different ways to varying audiences
• Being able to access opportunities, investments and spaces that might normally be unwelcoming or difficult to navigate for outsiders

2. We have multiple perspectives

Growing up accessing different spaces allows us an insight into a range of perspectives. The thing that makes you an outcast might also be the reason you’ve learnt about another religion, belief system, culture or cosmology. Being exposed to these varying ways of seeing the world benefits us in both a personal and professional capacity. For example:

• We’re likely to be more accepting and understanding of those who are different from us
• We can draw on our culture, heritage, religion etc. for inspiration in our work
• Understanding multiple perspectives gives our work more breadth and depth

3. We’re more empathetic

Now there are absolutely exceptions to this, with many people enacting the same discrimination they complain about onto others with nary a brow raised at the irony. But I think it’s fair to say that, for many of us, having the experience of being marginalized makes us more empathetic to others. And empathy is most definitely a superpower!

Aside from being great for our mental health and relationships, having good levels of empathy is also a boost in multipotentialite life because:

• Empathy has been linked with creativity
• It is key for effective leadership
• Empathy builds community, and community is vital for multipotentialites

I know that these three superpowers—adaptability, different perspectives and empathy—have been hugely important in my work and my journey so far. And I also know that they exist within me partly because of my experiences as a Ghanaian-British woman.

Final word

Despite all the hardships we might face because of our differences, it can be a relief and a boost to also recognize the benefits we gain from them. The most important thing I like to remind myself and others is that, without your differences, you wouldn’t be you…and that would be a real tragedy.

Your turn

Have your differences become a blessing to you? How do they help you as a multipotentialite? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments!

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