Ted talks: Works and Passions

Since we were kids we are always asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?“. Adults expected us to answer “doctor!”, “policeman!”, “teacher!” ,and many other specif jobs. But what if our passions and dreams were countless? What if we did not want to be just one thing but as many as we could?

This is exactly what Emily Wapnick tells us in this TedxBend video, where she tells us how important it is for society to be MULTIPOTENTIALITES. Yes, it is not a disease, but the label to describe all those people that are so creative, versatile and polyhedral to become successful in many different things.
Is there any good reason why a psychotherapist can’t  be a violinist? Why a mapmaker can’t become a jewelry designer? There is no answer, cause it is all possible. Emily Wapnick says that we must not assign the meaning of “wrong” to the pursuing of many passions. Culture settled that, but it does not mean it has to stay this way.

Some people do not have one true calling in life. And there is nothing wrong with that. This is called being multipotentialites. These people can create innovative things and achieve high goals because of their many interests, not in spite of.  
Innovation happens at the intersection of our interests and passions. The world is changing so much and so fast that those who will succeed and thrive are the individuals. Society should encourage multipotentialites to bring a breath of fresh knowledge into the world. We just need to learn to embrace out inner wiring an our many passions, to let them be and explore our intersections freely.

Finding your passion and what you want to do in your life is not easy. This is what Scott Dinsmore says in his talk about finding the job you love. He explains his experience on the way to find the job he could not avoid doing, the task that would have fulfilled his life and not just his cv. He says a great truth: if you do not know what you are looking for, you are never going to find it.

Scott Disnmore says that we all have to find our strengths and values and try to reach the impossible. We must turn the sentence “how could I possibly do that?” into “how could I possibly not do that?”. It is all about changing the surroundings and let other people inspire us.

We cannot change everything in our lives, but  we have the power to learn from ourselves, to learn from the impossible and the chance to surround ourselves with inspiring people.
It is all about the impact that we can make on the world and on the other people. Impossible is nowadays becoming the new normal, we just need to start working on us.

On the other side we have Terri Trespicio who says something odd about passion. She claims that passion is not a plan, but a feeling, and feelings do change. Often. The idea that everything goes around passion is, in her opinion, totally unrealistic. Success is the fuel of passion, not the other way around.

Passion is not a job, a hobby or a sport. It is a force, an energy that follows what you want. If we are busy waiting for passion, we could miss opportunities. So, her advice is to stop waiting and start being surprised by life.

Passion is when you meet someone else’s needs, becoming useful and generous. It is not when you are waiting, but when you start doing and be active. Passion follows you, not the other way around.

Last but not least, also Benjamin Todd is on the same side of Terri. Actualy, kind of.
Benjamin works for a company that helps people finding their career path and states that passion is not what fuel our careers. We should not follow our passions, but focus on what we could do for the other people. This is the real meaning of a career, this is the real purpose of a job: doing what is valuable for others and what can make a change in the world.

We should focus on what can we do for other people rather than finding our greatest interests and pursuing them. In real career decisions passion seems not to be decisive and our present interests are not a solid basis.

Making the world a better place, this is the real secret for a fulfilling career. Focus on what is valuable for others.