The Renaissance Soul: How to Make Your Passions Your Life—A Creative and Practical Guide

Not every Renaissance Soul takes the concept of versatility quite as far as Ben Franklin did, though. Those people who are closer to the middle of the continuum often have a foot in both camps. Some, like my client Matt, may even have one foot on Mozart’s side of the line.

Winston Churchill (1874–1965):

This short list includes just a small number of the Renaissance Souls who have made a name for themselves throughout history:

As soon as I took the Renaissance Soul quiz, I knew I was one. That made me happy the whole weekend. But when Monday morning rolled around and I was back at work, I went into a panic. How can I have any sort of economic security if I keep changing interests all the time? Deep down I think I really count on that regular paycheck, the promotions, and

Abū ‘Alī al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham

Wherever they end up, Renaissance Souls usually find that they have to tackle three challenges in order to get where they want to be: focus, money, and time. The challenge of focus is to avoid being paralyzed by the seeming need to choose among many paths. The challenge of money is to link your passions to a source of income. And the challenge of t

When her parents wanted to get her attention, they often rattled off three or four other names before finally coming up with the correct one, and most outsiders couldn’t remember her name at all.

experiments? Fine, his wife might say. Why don’t you go to MIT and pursue a nice stable career in science?

Most people dread the difficult time spent moving up the front end of the learning curve. Not the Renaissance Soul! We are most fully engaged when learning something new and discovering how it works.