Emilie Wapnick’s TED talk Why some of us don’t have one true calling has been viewed over 4 million times, and leads nicely into her book How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up.

Emilie challenges the seemingly innocent question we’re asked from a young age: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” because that funnels us into thinking society only wants us to be and do one thing with our working lives. And while that suits specialist career types who work in fields like law and medicine, there are other people who have many interests, multiple projects going on simultaneously, and several different career paths under their belt.

The talk introduces us to multipotentialites: people who should be celebrated and embraced for having “many interests and creative pursuits”. Read more about Emilie and her home for multipotentialites here.