Is a Polymathic Career Path For You?
There are many blocks that prevent people from Making Money Doing What They Love. One block that seems to sit within the depths of most people’s subconscious minds is the false belief that you should only have one career at a time.
This is a belief that’s been handed down from our parents and grandparents ever since the Industrial Revolution, and especially with the invention of “specialization” and Henry Ford’s assembly lines. People who specialize in only one thing, such as knowing how to put the four bolts on the front-left wheel of a Ford car, became more highly valued than a well rounded human being with many talents but no specialty.
Sometimes people will ask me this question:
“Paul I know I need to leave my job. Not because the people there or the boss is treating me bad, but just because I know that career path is just not for me anymore. However, I have bills to pay and I can’t seem to think of what job or career path I would want to do in order to be happy and still be able to make enough money to pay my bills. There are a lot of different things I like to do, but if I think about making a career out of any one of them, it scares me because if I did any of them all day long, 40 hours per week, all year long, I know I would also get bored of that and be in the same spot I’m in now. What do I do???”
If this sounds like something you’re struggling with, perhaps you’re not seeing the solution because you’re not looking at a “Polymathic” career path. Polymath’s are people who excel in many different things, not just one specialty. They have many diverse interests and are always wanting to learn more things.
What you may be completely overlooking is that you are not supposed to be going from ONE career path to another ONE career path. Maybe it’s now time for you to follow a “Polymathic” career path where you do many different things to earn money to pay the bills.
Let’s say that you currently make $3,000/month at your job and you can’t see yourself finding any other job that pays that much that you like. Maybe, the solution is for you to switch to having 5 part-time jobs making $600/m at each one. Now, I know, I know, that may sound very overwhelming to some of you. 5 PART TIME JOBS!? ARE YOU INSANE PAUL!? No, I’m not. It’s not as hard as you think. It only seems difficult because your mind is projecting the wrong picture.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. I just checked my email this morning, and I got one notice from Text Link Ads, which was a payment from them for $46.52 USD for the month of October for my earnings from them. What’s it for? For putting some links on a couple of Blogs that I used to run that I no longer run, but that happen to have a pretty good Page Rank and people continue to buy links on them if they have related sites. I also got another email from AWeber sending me $23.37.
To me, those are like two part time jobs. I work as a sales representative (Affiliate) of AWeber, promoting their product because I use it myself and I believe it’s the best product of it’s type on the market. What do I do for this? Not a lot. I just talk about it from time to time on my Blog and anyone who is interested in the product that purchases it through my affiliate link ends up earning me a small cut from their monthly fees.
Same type of idea with Text-Link-Ads. These are just two small income streams I have built. I can also earn income as an affiliate marketer in my InspiredAffiliate.com business. I can do consulting work for people as a technology manager. I can do life coaching with people. I can do Blog coaching with people. I also have my AquariumFishWorld.com Blog that I’ll soon be building up traffic to and monetizing. I have my Nutritionist diplomas as well, so I can do Nutritionist consulting or even get a part time job at a health-food store for one day a week. These are just a small tiny portion of literally dozens and dozens of different ways I can earn money in my life.
There are dozens and dozens of ways YOU can earn money in your life as well, except that you are probably not seeing them becuase your brain has been brainwashed into thinking that you have to only follow ONE career path. I mean, traditionally you hear people say “I want to be a lawyer” or “I want to be a doctor” or “I want to be a mechanic” etc. right? Why? Why do we have to limit ourselves to doing just ONE thing?
Break that belief. Get rid of it. Erase it from your mind. Then, take a look at your problem of not knowing what you want to do again and see if perhaps there are 10 different things you may want to do as your Polymathic career path.
Many successful people not only have multiple simultaneous careers, they actually run multiple COMPANIES that do different things.
Going back to the example of the person making $3,000/month at a job and looking to replace their income doing something they love. Ask yourself, “How could I make $1,000/m doing three different part time jobs I love?” or “How could I make $600/m doing 5 different part time jobs I love?”
Remember, the split doesn’t necessarily have to be done every week. Meaning, lets say that one of your abilities that you enjoy is helping people with their taxes. So, maybe you focus on that from January to April of every year and do that 20 hours per week during that time, and then do 0 hours per week outside of tax season swapping in another part time job during the rest of the year.
When’s the last time you even looked for a part time job? High-school? There are many businesses that need the expertise of certain people on a part-time basis, but they just don’t have the budgets to hire someone full time. They might need someone’s expertise for 10 hours per week, but can’t afford to pay a full time salary.
There are seasonal part time jobs such as tax-related careers or retirement investments related careers. There are year-round part time jobs that require a person to come in only a few hours a week. There are “on-call” part time jobs that require the services of a person but only during a certain time, when a need arises. There are lots of part time jobs that can be done at home.
Don’t assume that the only part-time career paths are for teenagers working at McDonalds. There are many “real” career paths that are totally condusive to a part time environment. So, before your belief systems completely filter out a “Polymathic” career path, do some research and see if you can find something that fits. Perhaps the solution to leaving your ONE job is not to replace it with another ONE job, but rather to replace it with multiple part-time career paths.
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Good suggestions. In my opinion, changing of beliefs is more important, just like you have said in your previous post: consistent positive actions. learn to complete positive actions in the mind first, then obey your instructions from the mind to complete the actions in the physical world.
To become a specialist at your favorite area, perhaps the area is of your hobbies. The internet has provided us a lot of chances and many people become wealthy from scratch through it.
Hi Paul,
Great post and great concept. While it may not work for everyone it is certainly something to consider. To play devil’s advocate I think it would be stupid and near impossible to work 5 part-time jobs. Jobs where you had to drive to a physical location. All the transitions would wear you out and be totally counter-productive.
I still love the multiple streams of income concept which is really what I think you are trying to put forth here. Your income streams are not “jobs” per se, but ways of earning money that you can accomplish simultaneously. I love the concept, but I think this idea is worth a second and maybe a third post to clarify a bit more.
Cheers,
Jeremy
The key idea here is the concept of having a “job”. I personally think that viewing something that a person does as a “job” is a less than powerful way of being. A job has many negative connotations, it is something that pays the bills, feeds the family, gives you some status in society. I think everyone comes to the physical plane with some gifts they can contribute as part of their purpose. It would be even nicer if they could make a career out of it. Living that purpose is more important than trying to find 5 different part- time jobs. Plus, in doing what you love to do, one must have the courage to take a leap of faith, let go of what does not work and make the “space” for the possibility of something that works and truly inspires the soul.
That’s my opinion on the matter
@Jeremy: It’s only impossible if your brain says it is. Nobody says you have to drive to 5 different places in one day. You could drive to job 1 on Monday, job 2 on Tuesday, job 3 on Wednesday, etc. That’s *IF* you even had to drive to them at all. There are a lot of “career paths” that can be done from home via Internet, or by phone. Or you could have clients coming to you. For example, lets take two job types at random… Hairdressing and Bookkeeping. You could setup a hairdressing business at home, and a book keeping business at home. Clients could come to you to drop off their monthly invoices/paperwork and other clients could come for haircuts. Nobody says you have to drive anywhere.
All I’m saying is that there ARE options, but most people completely dismiss them after only giving about 30seconds of thought to it because they think the whole thing is way too complicated and too confusing. It’s not. It CAN be made simple.
@May: Remove the “job” label from what I’m saying. Call it a career, or occupation or whatever you want to. I’m not saying you go from 1 job that you hate, to 5 part-time jobs that you hate. What I’m saying is you go from 1 job to 5 part-time “occupations” that you love.
Hi Paul,
You are right. I wasn’t saying go to them in the same day. I am just saying it takes a lot to shift gears. I don’t know if you can gain much traction in anything if you do something completely different everyday.
The two examples you used would both be considered businesses, as you said. And as you saw from May and I, we both don’t like the word “job”. It does have a lot of bad connotations. With all that said, I think we are mainly arguing over semantics more than anything.
I also understand 5 is an arbitrary number you used just for the sake of discussion. I definitely believe in pursuing multiple careers, having multiple businesses, or having multiple sources of income. It does help if they are related though. If you happen to good at and enjoy hairdressing and bookkeeping by all means go for it. I mean, you should already be doing some bookkeeping if you are a self-employed hairdresser anyhow.
Hope that all makes sense…
Cheers,
Jeremy
I have tried doing several “occupations” at once and found it hard to focus in general. But that isonly my personal experience. I think once I found some level of clarity in terms of where I want to go, it is easier to choose a path to give 100% of my attention to. But that does not mean I am oppose to multiple streams of income, that’s a great idea
Thanks for the response Paul.
@May and Jeremy: The important thing to remember is this. If you are already 100% doing what you love and making money with it, meaning you’re already happy with your career path and are already an Inspired Money Maker and you’re focusing on doing just one thing, that’s awesome! This article isn’t meant for you then, as you have already found your path.
However, if you still work at a “job” or are even running a business that you don’t enjoy and know that it isn’t part of your “true path” in life, then it MAY be part of your path (even if it’s temporary) to switch from a SINGLE income stream, to MULTIPLE income streams for a period of time. For some, that may be 2 income streams. For others it may be 5. For others yet, it may be even more.
The logistics of how that comes together is something that can be figured out, and isn’t anywhere near as important as first making the decision to allow a “Polymathic” career path option to be even considered. I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but what I’m saying is that society wrongly conditions us (especially schools) to specialize and “make up our mind” on what to focus on.
You notice that in elementary school kids are perfectly fine and capable of learning language, math, science, music, art, physical education, etc. all at the same time and most kids are very capable of excelling at all of them at once. It is only later on when the shift turns from “Educating a Human Being” in elementary school to “Creating a Worker Drone” in College/University that we are forced to focus on only one thing so that we can enter the “work-force” as a “productive worker bee”.
Ask yourself, if you could for one second forget about the logistics of how it could work, what 3 or what 5 activities that provide value for others could you do throughout the year and enjoy?
This is an interesting way of looking at a groove many people, including myself, have found themselves in. It sounds like a scary prospect, and it is, because the single career is for many of us a comfort zone and it’s easy to stay in that comfort zone. It takes courage to step outside it! More than anything it takes belief. Perhaps your recent post on the Law Of Attraction is just the ticket for any of us that need to build Total Belief in order to make the step?
One think I love about creating websites is that there are so many different ways to make money with them. Even if a site makes $50 a month, so what, just create 100 sites using the same model and make $5000 per month. Of course, services that automate the money making process like kontera.com, TLA, http://www.linkxl.com, adsense, and various affiliate programs is key.
I agree Paul. I think most of us need to become more like Renaissance men and women. Varied interests make a more fulfilling life. And I agree people should definitely start looking at part time ways to produce income. This is a very good post to create discussion. I still think it is worth writing a couple more articles about this idea because it is a big one.
I think everyone has more than one talent inside of them. It is just a matter of getting that out. I am an accountant but I know I can become a pretty darn good sales person. Maybe I will give that a try
This is wicked!!! I was always looking at myself and thinking: hmm, I have a ton of interests and a ton of skills, I just need to focus on ONE thing to get good at it! But that never satisfied me and now I understand why. Thank you for posting such an awesome article and for finally giving me a sense of calm with the fact that I too, am a polymath
Cheers!
I’m definitely a polymath. I would always get frustrated wherever I worked and when I would change to a different job, it would be the same thing a couple of months later.
To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in what I was doing at work to begin with (Wal-Mart cashier, making fast food at McDonald’s and Toxic Hell, etc). I have many interests that I want to pursue and I’d like to focus on all of them instead of one at a time. If I do get bored with something, I could just give that thing a rest and focus on my other interests.