Today’s Monday Motivation post is a bit of my back story, and also a “you aren’t alone” to other like me. I embraced my “unfocused” nature long ago and just tell people I’m weird. Emilie’s TED talk is spot on for me, and I suspect many other creatives. The same things that makes us “creative” is what causes us to be bored by anything we have reached proficiency at. Watch it. My backstory below is optional but it might give some insight into how I arrived at being a multipotentialite photographer.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
My Backstory
Once upon a time I was a software engineer… I was a damn good software engineer. I worked from my first job designing big complex software that solved real problems and made real money (sometimes). I worked in startups with no backup, no one to cover me or help me. And I made money. In theory this sounds like the start of a long and rewarding (financially and otherwise) career.
So why after 15 years did I abandon it for photography? To most people in our society it would be insane to give up the financial security of the software world for photography at a time when photography is at best a making-ends-meat career.
Getting Bored
To understand that decision, you have to understand me. At an early age I was already a sort of jack of all trades. By high school I was wood working, cooking, sewing costumes (sometimes without a pattern), playing a musical instrument (not well), and writing software among other things. In college I added scuba diving and working on cars (not changing the oil but things like adding bigger turbos and swapping transmissions). In grad school I started swing dancing and the scuba diving I had done (maybe 50 dives) turned into technical and cave diving with me quickly acquiring full technical and cave diving certifications and the skills to go with them. I even completed a deep air certification doing several 200 foot + dives on air.
Moving On
Today many of those things are not my focuses any more. I still want to drive the race car, but it isn’t my main passion and so it doesn’t receive the time or money required. If I had more hours and $s, I would still drive the race car. Same for scuba diving. Wood working went away for a while and now it is back mostly because I have opportunities to do it and I enjoy it as much as any thing else. Frankly, I’m pretty good at it.
I chose software during high school because it seemed to have the most chance of providing me a creative outlet and keeping me challenged, and because you have to pick just ONE thing to be. In a world of “pick one” it seemed to my young mind to be the best option. I thought there was something wrong that I also wanted to do other things (some of which I haven’t started yet but will at some point if I live long enough). I never really expressed that and I played the “I know what I am” game everyone seemed to expect.
Multipotentialite Photographer
What’s the point? I’m really not trying to say I’m great. I know people that are better at every single thing I do than me. I even know people that are good at lots more things than me. I’m not unique in that respect either even if our society seems to push us to think of people like me (and maybe you) as “abnormal”.
You MUST have a single focused career… to pick one all consuming thing and do just that, because that is what is expected, glorified and rewarded (e.g. pay based on seniority, which is a terrible idea for lots of reasons that I won’t go into). It is orderly, easy to understand, and lets society put all of us in neat little cubbyholes.
But people like me (and maybe you) aren’t alone. There is nothing wrong with having one thing you do your entire life (see Jiro Dreams of Sushi for an example of having one all consuming life long passion) but there is also nothing wrong with embracing multi-dimensional passions. Photography, for now, is a sort of nexus for me, and maybe owning my own business is that way in general. Which hat am I wearing today? Am I marketer, photographer, producer, graphic designer, event coordinator, accountant, writer (as I’m doing now), web-admin, social media person, customer service, printer, delivery driver, prop and costumer person, etc?
Photography
But it is more than that. Photography is a complex skill. It is more complex than software even if it seems simple on the surface. Beyond that, I can make it what I want through personal projects. Every other skill I have (or want to develop) can enhance it. Need props: wood working. Need costumes: sewing.
I joked with Josh yesterday as we bought lumber to build backdrops for a show “I got AzulOx to pay for wood working; now I just have to figure out how to get AzulOx to pay for my race car and cave diving.” Josh looked worried. Maybe he and my wife can start a support group for each other.
Josh has the same tendency though and a similar backstory. He has just never had to deal with someone else making sharp unexpected turns when it was him alone in the business. Most “creatives” I know are that way. That is why we seem to be the misfits, working odd jobs and never seeming to be able to string together more than a year or two at the same thing.
Acceptance
It isn’t that we haven’t found our calling (as is often asserted) but that we have diverse talents and interests and most jobs (or careers) fail to use us correctly. Employers try to cubbyhole employees. He is a software dev. That means he can’t possibly be anything else – not a graphic designer, not a advertiser, not a inspired leader and not really anything else. Multipotentialites get shoehorned into a single job, like everyone else. They are expected to specialize in one area they are seen as best at. Employers refuse to acknowledge their other abilities. The result is job hopping, not because we can’t do that job well, but because it gets boring.
My solution was dissolution with the traditional work force and career. I reached a point that I realized I would never work for someone else again. I had to be my own boss, and to allow myself to shift from focus to focus. I’m not saying it is an easy path, but it is my path.

Andrew is a photography instructor teaching students of all skill levels in Austin, TX through Precision Camera and independently in San Diego, CA. He runs workshops around the United States.
He is a self taught experiential learner who is addicted to the possibilities that new (to him) gear open up. He loves to share the things he has worked out. Andrew started with a passion for landscape and night photography and quickly branched out to work in just about every form of photography. He is an ex-software developer with extensive experience in the IT realm.
Andrew is a full time wedding and commercial photographer in both Austin and San Diego. Andrew is a club founder and multi-time past president of North Austin Pfotographic Society.