Can You Only Be One Thing?

Maybe one reason why I’m obsessed with Marie Forleo is her belief that you can be a multi-passionate entrepreneur. I can’t be tied down to one interest, one area of expertise, one passion for my entire life. It’s just not possible for me, there’s too much I want to see and do and taste and touch and…you get the picture.

So I was especially disturbed when I was doing some research for a social media class I’m teaching and saw this article on Entrepreneur.com. The unsettling content? To build a successful brand, you have to settle on being one thing so your customers can easily and succintly identify you. As far as I’m concerned, that’s like telling someone you can only recognize them by one feature on their face.

“Oh, sorry. I don’t recognize you unless I only see your nose.”

More practically, this seems like really hedging your bets. You better hope that whatever you choose to specialize in is what you REALLY love and what you REALLY want to do forever. Not saying you can’t go back, but isn’t it nicer to diversify early?

And also, who would actually want to be associated with only one thing, forever? It sounds like a bad dream you have you in high school. Oh, so you’re the person who ripped their pants from hip to knee sliding down the railing of the second floor quad two years ago…

Anyway. You get my point. It sounds limiting, stifling, sophomoric and scary all at once. To me, that is. And as a writer, first and foremost, variety is the spice of life. (And also quite often the source of my next paycheck.)

So, I’m going to take a page out of Marie Forleo’s book and hope that most people are intelligent enough to associate me (and my “brand”) with more than one thing. Or, if associating me with writing, travel, yoga, community management, wellness and academia is too much, I’m fine with streamlining this notion and being associated as simply a “multi-passionate entrepreneur,” or pentreprenate for short, just because it sounds better.

Sorry to those of you who specialize- no offense is meant here. Specialization is what brought us out of the Stone Age! All I’m saying is that I’m far too curious to hedge my bets and focus on one thing forever. I’m not as brave of a soul. Or perhaps as talented an individual.

And with that, an announcement: after several months’ hiatus from regular(ish) blogging as I searched for topics to write about (work and life in Denver aren’t exactly the most enthralling topic from which to pick interesting nuggets about which to write), I have dusted off my walking shoes and am back on the road next week, with several exciting announcements in store in the months to come. I’ve enjoyed the nice long break I’ve had to hunker down and think about my new big leap, but I’m excited to be up and flying again.

What do you think? Can you only be one thing?