what do i want to be?

I’m trying to change the way I write these letters each week. I noticed that a lot more of you relate to it when I’m just sharing my own learnings, stories and experiences, instead of trying to teach or explain stuff.

So the last few pieces I’ve tried to make this less about advice, and more about just me sharing what I went through and what I’m thinking. 

Let me know your views on it, as always, I love hearing from you!

Moving on…here’s a little story. 

In school, we were always asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

And I still remember, bright as day, that I always struggled to answer that question. Because I always had multiple answers to it. 

Even as a child, I could never tolerate the thought of doing just one thing. Being just one thing. 

I wanted to learn how play the guitar, and also play cricket, and also become a Pilot, and also do business. 

But I was never given these options, I was always asked to pick one. And so were you. 

I did not pick one. And to this date, to has been one of the best decisions I made in my life. Here’s why:

All through our childhood, teenage and into adulthood, systematic attempts are made to push us into hyper specific boxes.

We are assigned roles and labels with exclusivity attached to them. 

Think about all the questions that are asked to us, right from childhood to adulthood. They all subconsciously communicate a limiting belief. 

As children we are asked “What do you want to become when you grow up?” And never “What ALL do you want to be when you grow up?”.

As adults we are asked, “What do you do?” And never “What ALL do you do?”

It gives us the subconscious message that you can be just one thing. Pick what you want to be. 

But over time I started to realise that the world isn’t about “OR”. There’s also “AND”. 

And I’m sure a lot of you were like this as well. Because as children, we think limitless. It is only over time, that our thought processes are conditioned by school, teachers, parents, society, social media, etc. 

And once our original, unhindered, thought process is coloured by all of these influences, we start thinking like them.

We start to see the limitations, and choose to live our life based off of what we are told we can do.

But I made a conscious attempt to resist them. 

Even today, when someone asks me what I do, I hesitate before I answer. Because I know they’re expecting just one answer.

And here’s my big hypothesis. There should NOT be just one answer. I don’t believe we were wired to do just one thing, be just on thing. I think we thrive when we are wearing multiple hats. And I’m going to make the case of why you should also attempt to break out of that mould. 

History:

All throughout history, men and women wore many hats. We were always a species of many talents. 

Specialisation is only a product of the industrial age, being introduced as late as the 19th century.

• Factories needed repeatable labor.

• Systems were built to reward specialization: “You turn this screw, and only this screw, 8 hours a day.”

• School systems mirrored this — training students for “jobs,” not exploration.

But that is not a real representation of our nature.

Look at some of the biggest and influential names across history. They never fit one bill. Never did just one thing. You could not define them with one word. 

• Leonardo Da Vinci - Artist, Scientist, Inventor, Engineer, Anatomist

• Archimedes - mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer.

• Pythagoras - Astronemer, Mathematician, Philosopher, politician

• Rabindranath Tagore - Poet, Novellist, Playwright, Composer, Painter, Educator

• Maya Angelou - Author, Poet, Singer, Writer, Director, Activist

And if you want to look at modern day examples, then people like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Steve Jobs. 

Polymaths were never the outcasts. They were, and always will be the norm. 

We were all meant to be polymaths. We have a built in curiosity for all the different things in our lives. 

This curiosity was suppressed by our surroundings. But I am writing this so that you understand that it’s still not too late to reverse it. 

Benefits of being a polymath:

Doing a lot of different things has had a huge impact on my life. I am sharing some of them here so that it can serve as additional motivation for you. 

• Financial Impact: The financial impact of having done several things has been massive. I have been able to make money from various different sources and opportunities. It has increased the number of current and potential income streams I have. This can act as a huge cushion, as you are never at risk of being obsolete. You also get access to much more opportunity than someone who does just one thing. 

• Diversification of risk: Every time I’ve face disappointment or failure with one of the things I do, I’ve gained solace from the others. Because it seldom happens that everything fails. If one thing fails, chances are one of the others is working out. This gives you confidence and courage to keep going.

• True expression of life: Human beings are expressive creatures. We thrive when we are allowed to fully express ourselves in all areas of life. Every time I’ve stopped doing one of the things I enjoyed doing, I felt something missing. Case in point, I stopped playing cricket for a couple of years and immediately felt like something was missing. And now that I’ve started playing again, things feel better.)

• Holistic Growth: As a result of exposure to various disciplines, I had a much more holistic growth. I could look at the world through a much more rounded lens. I had a lot more empathy than the person. I met people from various disciplines, from different socio economic backgrounds, from different cultures.

There are obviously a lot of other benefits to this that I haven’t listed out here but you get the gist. 

Now here’s my grand pitch to you. 

You know that you weren’t born to be just an engineer, or and architect, or an entrepreneur, or and employee at XYZ company. 

That is not who you are, and that is not who you want to be. 

You are a human being that has infinite potential, that cannot be described by a couple of syllables.

You are greater than the sum of your parts. So start living and acting like that. 

Start doing all the things that interest you, start reading about all the things that excite you, learn the things that pique your curiosity, and make an attempt every single day, to grow out of the box that you have been confined too. 

Life is not divided. It is unified. It works in synchronicity. Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Biology, Philosophy, Astronomy, etc, these are all parts of a whole. They cannot exist, or be studied in isolation. If you want to truly understand how all of them work and interact, you have to attend to your natural curiosities.

In order to do justice to all your infinite potential, you have to let the juices flow. Express yourself freely, do what you want to do, and stop restricting yourself on the basis of what others tell you.

Become the polymath that you were always meant to be.

Let me know if it helps.

— Khyatt