Here is a quote – A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not, but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.
—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Thanks to technology, we all get a chance to participate in a diverse range of everyday activities. No wonder, then, that the modern man is multitalented. Many of us are excellent writers and photographers, and even apart from that, we find within ourselves not one, but multiple talents. Every second person is a singer, dancer, painter or bodybuilder. There was probably no other time in the history of humanity when we had so many multitalented people. But no matter how much we admire our multiple talents, they have many other problematic aspects as well.
The troublesome life of a multitalented person
First, you think that you are interested in child psychology, so you take admission in a three-year course. Suddenly, after a year, you feel that it is too easy. How can you spend your life being a child psychologist? So you decide to do something else. Maybe you began practising the violin in the meantime, and now you want to give more time to that. Your studies start suffering because of it and ultimately, you decide to drop out. And now that you can play the violin just the way you want to, you don’t feel like practising it any further. You know that if you want to become a master, you have to spend hours every day working on the same movements. Won’t that be boring? So you give up playing the violin, too, and look for something else.
Many people suffer from the above pattern in life. They simply can’t devote themselves to a specific field. They are ‘jacks of many trades and masters of none.’ Being like that isn’t easy in a society that reserves its highest positions for only those who specialize in something. If you are a multitalented person, you know that you could have easily become an expert child psychologist or a famous violinist, but you gave up the idea because it was too easy for you. You only like doing difficult things, and you can’t help being the way you are.
Is being multitalented a medical condition?
Some of the most common mental traits of a multitalented person, creativity, in particular, are sometimes also linked to mental health illnesses. Research by S Kyaga of Karolinska Institutet7 finds that in certain aspects, the brain of a highly creative person works just like that of a schizophrenic. Moreover, it has also been observed that very creative people have a higher tendency to develop mental health issues such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Is that why we are also seeing a gradual rise in mental health disorders?
Interestingly, the time in history when being multitalented was considered a boon was the very same period when people with eccentricities or even mental health disorders were treated as special. That time in history is now known as ‘The Renaissance’, and we owe the discovery of geniuses such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci to that time. However, strange as it may seem, this situation raises many questions. Didn’t we have – at other times in history – people as talented as Michelangelo or da Vinci? If there were such people, is it possible that they were put into mental institutions, or just executed, for being too talented?
We have three instances in history that prove the above statement to be true. Socrates, one of the fathers of western thought, was convicted of corrupting the minds of the youth and of impiety and was poisoned to death. Giordano Bruno, now considered a hero in the freethinking and scientific communities, was burnt at the stake for holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith. Galileo, one of the ancestors of modern science, had to face house arrest because he said that the sun lies at the center of our planetary system.
People in these three examples were lucky because their works survived, which made it possible for future generations to know that they existed. However, it was a custom in ancient times that the works of ‘heretics’ were burnt. Therefore, there is a high probability that we don’t know anything about some of the greatest minds that ever existed on this planet as they were condemned for being geniuses.
Being multitalented in the modern world
Has the world become a better place for the multitalented now? Well, not quite. Though it seems like we are modern and free, we have new biases now.
Had Galileo been a 21-Century man, he would have needed doctorates in philosophy, physics, engineering, and mathematics, or no one would have paid him any serious attention. For his psychotically impulsive attitude, Leonardo da Vinci would have most probably ended up in a mental asylum, where he would have actually become a lunatic. Giordano Bruno would have been raving on the streets to find people who could understand his diverse and mystical teachings.
Our overly methodological society significantly hinders the impulsivity that is characteristic of the highly creative and the multitalented. Despite all that, even the modern world has had its share of such people. However, most of the time, these people were able to focus all their diverse energies on one particular field.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of the most influential German directors of all time, was also an accomplished actor, theatre director, screenwriter, playwright, lyricist, cinematographer, editor, costume designer, producer, and much more. He was able to focus all his talents on cinema. In his short career, which lasted just 15 years, he made 44 films, wrote 15 plays, and was involved in hundreds of other projects as an actor or in other roles. He was a real creative force. Because of his immense talent, he assumed complete creative control of his works and was able to make a film within a few weeks.
Prince
In an interview in 1979, when asked how many instruments he could play, the 19-year-old Prince said that he could play over a thousand instruments. He was exaggerating, but he sure wasn’t lying. Prince was proficient at playing at least 27 instruments, and on top of that, had an astounding vocal range. He was also an excellent dancer, record producer, actor, and director. In his career, which spanned almost 38 years, Prince released 39 albums, in which he tried his hand at almost every genre that he could find. He is still considered as one of the most influential and path-breaking musicians of all time.
Channelizing your many talents
From the above examples, it is clear that to be a successful multitalented person in the modern day, you ought to channelize your talents. You might have enjoyed considerable success as a child, but as you grow older, people expect you to excel at something in particular. Failing to do so might leave you with the feeling that you are lagging behind others who are no better than you are. If you are facing such a situation, just remember that it is just because of your overarching curiosity that you are suffering. However, if you learn how to channelize it, and keep it under one roof, no one will be able to match your skill. Given below are some effective ways that would definitely help you in channelizing your many talents.
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Master self-control
Remember, the more creative you are, the more impulsive your mind is. Based on a sudden impulse, you might take decisions that you will regret all your life. Your mind is like a wild horse that keeps wrecking your life. The same horse can be of immense value and help you win races if you learn how to tame it. Depending on what you are comfortable doing, you can try one of many ways.
First, you can try writing down your thoughts every day before you fall asleep. Before taking any new decision, you should make it a habit to go through all that you have written before. One of the most common reasons that multitalented people generally give to justify their behavior is, ‘I have never felt this way before about anything.’ But if you go through what you have written earlier, you will see that you have felt the same way many times. This will keep you from making the same mistake twice.
Second, you should start meditating. You won’t be able to discover stability in the outside world if you fail to discover it within yourself. Meditating regularly will make your personality more centered, and will supply you with a storehouse of patience, which is one virtue that you desperately need. It could help you take control of your destiny, and make your life less directionless than it was before.
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Spend time making a choice
The most common problem that we usually come up with nowadays is that we are good at almost everything. This makes it very difficult to opt for a single career choice. When you are sure that you will be interested in anything no matter what you choose, why don’t you develop some other criteria for making decisions? While choosing things that catch your interest, why don’t you go for the things that entail some monetary gain, too?
You should divide your interests into three categories. The first category should contain interests through which you can earn a lot of money. The second category should be about interests that you find highly fulfilling. In the third category, you should place all your talents. It’d be best if you ask someone else to write the third category for you as it is likely that a multitalented person would overestimate their talent.
Once you have made the list, you should look for the interests that lie in all the three categories. Those are the things that you like doing, are good at, and which can help you earn a decent living. Make the interests that lie only in the second category your hobbies, and only consider interests in the first category as career prospects. Leave the interests that lie solely in the third category, as they won’t be of any real value to you.
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Aim for something that complements your personality
Since you are different from most others, it is important that you be practical in your decisions. Don’t just look at the syllabus or the career prospects before taking admission to a course or institution. Talk to the students. Ask them what they are supposed to do, what their routine is. Try finding out if there is enough room for your talents and creativity. If you don’t find the prospect attractive enough, drop it immediately. It will be better if you pick something where you are not supposed to attend many lectures, and have plenty of time for yourself. In that free time, you can do many short-term courses, which in one way or the other support your career choice.
If you have multiple interests right now, don’t think that in the future you will ultimately be able to focus on one thing. That is probably not going to happen. Therefore, you should aim for something that has many aspects, and in which you can keep growing by learning more. These types of jobs are not rare, but you won’t find them unless you search for them.
It is important, however, that you don’t make any false assumptions. Before making a decision, you should try to imagine how that job would really be, or try meeting someone who is doing the job. Don’t look only at what you will get out of it; find out what you will be supposed to do every day, as that is something that will ultimately retain your interest. Remember, the most highly ranked jobs, like those of managers and CEOs, require a person to be multitalented, and who knows, if you keep a persistent approach, you might end up with one such job.
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Utilizing your talents for discovering unexplored niches
With your multiple talents, if you learn how to control your energy, you could become a master innovator. The ability to think out of the box has been the sole right of the multitalented. One great example of this is Steve Jobs. He was able to put fonts in Macintosh because he had attended calligraphy classes, a feature that was soon adopted by every major software firm.
No matter how great a technical expert you are, you will never be able to create something useful until you know what people want. The greatest innovators aren’t those who possessed great technical knowledge; they are visionaries who can see life from multiple aspects. Once an idea is unveiled, anyone can follow it.
If being a filmmaker, you also have a great interest in music, you can make excellent musicals. If you are a writer who spends his time studying dialects, you can create your own language. A sculptor with an interest in bodybuilding would have an exact idea of how muscles really look. There are endless other possibilities. All you need to do is gather your energy and focus it in one place, rather than frittering it away. If you have multiple talents, innovation will come naturally to you.
