“So, what do you do?”
We live in a society where we are largely defined and identified by the work that we do. Job titles carry with them a great deal of power and a veritable barrel of assumed traits and characteristics. When someone tells you he is a mathematician at a prestigious university, you get an instant impression that is quite different than if he said he worked as a security guard at the local bank. The problem, as you can imagine, is that job titles can only provide an incomplete picture at best. And the notion of a “working life” has changed considerably in recent generations.
At the Same Job for Half a Century
Several years ago, I held a temporary position with a local charity where I was responsible for managing some of the workplace fundraising campaigns. During my time there, while helping one of my colleagues with one of the campaigns he was managing, I got to talking with a fellow who worked for CP Rail. Here I was, a young university student still trying to figure out his place in this world and there he was, a seasoned veteran on the verge of retirement.
He told me that he had worked basically the same job for the entirety of his adult life. He started out as a teenager with a summer job, which evolved into a full-time job upon high school graduation. He gained some more responsibility along the way, but he told me that his job had remained largely unchanged and he still worked out of the same office. It was good, honest work and he looked back at his career with a sense of satisfaction.
Contrast that to what has become typical of the modern day employee, hopping from company to company, job to job, and even career to career on a not infrequent basis. Part of this has to do with appeal of novelty, part of this has to do with seeking a new challenge, and part of this has to do with finding our place in this world. We refuse to be defined by a single job at a single company.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
A “Renaissance man” (the formal term is polymath) is defined as an individual whose “expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps one of the best known examples, having studied and explored a range of arts and sciences. He wasn’t satisfied doing “just one thing” for the entirety of his life; he wanted to do all the things. This is a very different philosophy from the one held by the CP Rail fellow.
And we’re really start to witness a resurgence in this “Renaissance man” movement among today’s young professionals, myself among them (though I don’t really consider myself all that young anymore). Some people will tell you that the path to success is to choose just one thing and really excel at it.
While there may be some truth in that, there is also something to be said about seeking variety to be complete. There is something to be said about addressing all the different areas in your life in all sorts of different ways. It’s the difference between the balanced approach and the min/max approach. As a self-employed entrepreneur, running a small business with an employee count of one, it becomes a necessity to wear many hats. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Jack of All Trades?
Yes, I make my living as a freelance writer. Most of my work involves blogging, product reviews, tutorials and feature articles. Most of my work has to do with technology and the “digital lifestyle” in one way or another. And even so, I also dabble a fair bit in social media, photography, and video editing. Some of these are hobbies that have become work, going above and beyond the duties related to running a business.
I’m still the logistics manager, the administrator, the accountant, the webmaster, the customer service representative, the office manager, the marketing department, the billing department, the caterer and the cleaning staff, among countless other roles.
“So, what do you do?”
The answer really isn’t all that simple or straightforward anymore. It’s complex. It’s meaningful. It’s multi-faceted.
Is this what it means to be a modern day Renaissance man? I know many an individual whose primary profession may be one thing, but they also work to establish expertise in other areas. The photographer is also a musician. The graphic design artist is also a web developer. The video producer is also the social media consultant. If this means exchanging some “success” in favor of greater variety and a more comprehensive sense of fulfillment, so be it.
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