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Transcript

Why Multi-Passionate people need to approach mastery differently

"For the Multi-Passionate person the path needs to be rich with overlap"

Mastery looks different for Multi-Passionate people. It is not a single-minded focus that progresses linearly. Where you choose your one subject from many and sacrifice the others to the fire. Never turning back and proceeding to repress any desire to taste alternative routes. No, this is not the way for Multi-Passionate people.

There is another way.

One that works with your naturalness and builds on your innate talents.

How mastery is currently perceived

If you’ve ever watched a talent show on TV you’ll inevitably see a young child trotted out on stage. A piano in the middle, spotlit. You’re told by the host, “This child is only 9 years old.” The judges question and find out they’ve chosen to play Mozart. The child plays the music with perfect technique. The crowd applauds, the judges stand and the host continues to say wow-wow-wow. This is the mastery we have come to know. A topic or skill chosen and worked on for years without distraction. Whilst this is an example of mastery there are some problems with its perception.

The problem with this perception

Mastery has so many different paths. Alternative arrival points that aren’t captured in this modern narrative that suggests focusing in on one thing and ignoring the rest. Are there basic enduring principles? Sure. Mastery requires deep patience, intense devotion and continual improvement. However if we negate alternative avenues to getting there we may go against our own natural inclinations and miss out on it completely.

Attempting to fit ourselves into this approach can appear correct and yet for Multi-Passionate people it can hold us back from the very thing it promises. There are so many examples in history whereby multiple interests helped people to achieve mastery. Just look at Joseph Campbell, a mythologist and writer who studied literature, mythology, cinema, religion and psychology when mastering his craft. What would have happened if we told him to only focus on ancient mythology and not cinema? The famous example using the film Star Wars for the Hero’s Journey may have been non-existent today. Perhaps his mastery would have been non-existent too.

Why Multi-Passionate people suffer with this perception

Multi-Passionates can fall for the trap of thinking they need to choose one already defined path. This is because it’s so easy to see, visibly. Thinking that focusing on one interest or passion must lead to mastery. It offers an easy solution.

However what inevitably happens is that another passion will rise up. Asking for attention. Rather than following their own instinct and natural way, they either ignore it or pursue it by itself. Deciding that they’re going to use the form of single-focused mastery on this ‘new’ thing. This goes on and on and can be tragic to watch. Wasting time on an approach that’s destined to let them down. They need to pursue mastery differently.

An alternative approach to mastery

Rather than choosing one interest, they are often better served by having an anchor point that can hold them steady (I refer to this as a Career Archetype). Whilst at the same time being able to pursue interests and passions that can help them pursue their calling. Gathering from so many different sources, overtime, allows for an overlap of diverse knowledge and skills. Gaining insights that people with singular domain knowledge or skills could never have arrived at.

This has been done by so many successful people for thousands of years it’s a crime we don’t accept this alternative. People such as Charlie Munger the billionaire investor, Hilma af Klint the mystic and artist, Leonardo Da Vinci the polymath and Patti Smith the poet and artist are all fitting examples. There’s no reason why more Multi-Passionate people can’t pursue this form of mastery.

Patti Smith photographed by Pieter Hugo, for Harpers Bazaar, 2022

Smith’s creative impulse also tends to blur or transcend mediums, making her work difficult to classify. “Robert [Mapplethorpe] was always worried because I had so many different ways of expressing myself,” Smith says. “So many vocations, and why couldn’t I stick to one? I just can’t. It’s funny because every once in a while, somebody very nicely says I have all these different ways of expressing myself, I’m a Renaissance woman, but I think more I’m really a jack-of-all-trades.” — The Radical Hope of Patti Smith by Chloe Cooper Jones


For the Multi-Passionate person the path needs to be rich with overlap. Rather than creating walls to hold everything out, ideas, skills and knowledge need to intersect. The cross-pollination will bring forth the needed material to proceed on the path. Mastery for them can look like pursuing multiple subjects at once or diving deeply into one for a season and then shifting focus to another.

Honour your curiosities whilst remaining committed to ongoing growth. It may seem slow in the beginning but you’ll gain insights that single-focused mastery could never achieve.

Think integration, not isolation.


Our Holiday Study Program kicks off tomorrow! 🎉

Hey everyone! You may have heard that tomorrow we’ll be officially kicking off our holiday study program — a specialised holiday study school that includes exclusive masterclasses + group study sessions for students looking to make a vocational bang into 2025.

Along with our Career Archetypes Course + Study Sessions — the Masterclasses we’ll be presenting are:

Masterclass I Dec 28 | Grounded Stars - How the astrological MC/IC axis can help your vocation, work ethic, work to rest ratio and more

Masterclass II Jan 18 | The Brand Within - On the deeper connection between branding & your identity, reorienting branding toward depth and tips on how to approach yours


The price: $29USD/month ($58USD for the 8 week period).

We’re very excited for all the new students who have joined us and are gearing up for a transformative and studious holiday season in our community. Alongside festivities, of course. 🎉

P.S. Joel will personally message you once you get inside—see you in there! If you’d like more information on the program, read the article below:

Enrol before tomorrow 🎉