🧠Do you have a true calling that you're pursuing?

Society's invisible shackles, and why some of us don't have one true calling | Wisdom Letter #140

May 08, 2022

[Quick update: I released my writing course this week, you can grab it here.]

“Specialization is for insects, the race of man? He’s a whole other creature”
- Robert Heinlein

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Were you asked this question as a child? What did you answer?

We give cute answers when we’re kids, but as we grow up society forces us to pick a single profession for the rest of our lives. It doesn’t remain cute anymore.

Some of us are specialists and enjoy that.

While some of us are “multi-potentialite” and suffocate in narrowing down our scope.

This TedX Talk from Emilie Wapnick is an eye-opening realization that not all of us are wired to be “special-purpose” humans.

We can be “general purpose” as well.

“Multi-potentialite” is a big word.

And Emilie’s talk implies that somehow it’s a special thing.

I don’t like using big words. And I’m not saying I’m a special person.

But towards the last 3 years of my corporate employment I had this nagging feeling:

I kept asking myself, is this it?

Am I to keep running this corporate rat race forever?

Am I only meant for this? What happens to all my other interests and passions?

Do they merely remain “hobbies” that I pursue for a few hours amidst the chores of the weekend?

Most of all, what happens to the freedom of pursuing my own vocation?

This eventually lead me to quit my job and go solo last year.

I think all humans are multi-potentialite to some extent.

From Leaonardo Da Vinci to Leonardo Di Caprio.

From Thomas Edison to Elon Musk.

From Alexader, the great to Barack Obama.

We have always been multi-potentialite.

We all want to explore different interests and passions throughout our life.

But we don’t go down those paths because of the invisible shackles society binds us with.

This topic was sparked because of a Tweet I saw from one of my favorite people on the internet - Dan Vassallo

Daniel Vassallo @dvassallo

Raising a family is a common reason for enduring a soulless job that wears you out. But raising a family should also be a common reason for quitting such a thing. Yet, it’s rarely done. It’s hard to leave money on the table, even when you can afford to. But you should.

Family was actually one of the big reasons for me to quit my job. I realized I wasn’t able to spend as much quality time with my family as I wanted to.

Plus I wasn’t taking an active involvement in the education of my son.

While also setting an example in front of him of how he doesn’t have to abide by any of society’s invisible shackles.