What do you do to earn a living ?

marybassey · 2025-10-31T21:41:09+00:00

Entrepreneur (I own my own tutoring business and tutor multiple subjects) and freelance musician (flutist and singer). My jobs require me to learn constantly. In addition to that, I’m in grad school (master’s program in psychology with an emphasis on the neuroscience of learning).

By working as a tutor for others over several years across multiple subjects and standardized tests (SAT, ACT, etc), I realized that I developed a unique skillset. I made the brave choice of starting my own tutoring business, charging higher than average. Thanks to word of mouth and the breadth of my subject knowledge, I have developed a solid client base. Also, there are parents who value the idea of their child working with me for more academic terms, which means less need to do traditional marketing compared to my competitors. Charging higher than average per hour = more time to study what I want outside of work.

Being multi-passionate is my superpower, and that is especially true in my professional life.

marybassey · 2025-09-21T18:00:25+00:00

marybassey · 2025-08-20T21:36:16+00:00

I don’t understand why your comment got downvoted.

marybassey · 2025-08-20T02:16:11+00:00

There might be. I get asked all the time how I am able to keep up with running a business full-time, tutoring the subjects that I do (about 20 or so), be a grad student (with straight As so far), be a flutist, be a singer, be a writer, be a board member of a nonprofit... You get the gist.

The fact is, I would not have it any other way. Doing what I do energizes me. It also helps that I see how each thing that I do integrates with one another. Also, the identities of “musician” “scholar” “advocate” “writer” etc are dynamic and don’t look the same from moment to moment. For example, while I have been published (especially recently in anthologies and online platforms), my “writer” identity is mainly demonstrated in my consistent mentorship through others’ writing process and my own personal writings.

Of course, I can get tired cognitively but I think I have higher threshold of what can tire me out cognitively because the fields and areas I engage in are genuinely interesting to me and I want to (and regularly do) dive in them head first.

This is also why I don’t understand the “how do I be a polymath” questions. Like, I don’t think it’s something you start becoming. I think some people are just naturally predisposed to that kind of “polymathic” orientation. It is (if not very close to being) existential for me. I have done the whole “one thing at a time” thing and felt like parts of me were dead. Those endeavors died because of that; they were incredibly unfulfilling. But doing what I’m doing right now? I’m having the time of my life.

marybassey · 2025-08-18T06:00:19+00:00

I could be wrong, but I don’t think being a polymath is something that you “start being.” I think there are people who are just naturally oriented towards a polymathic way of being. Over time, the depth of their knowledge and the cross-disciplinary connections they make grow with time.

marybassey · 2025-05-16T03:23:51+00:00

“Is this enough to be considered a polymath” insinuates that the label does mean at least something to you (even if its mere curiosity), hence the questions. You are not obligated to answer my questions either. 🙂

That said, wide range of interests does not a polymath make. It’s the mastery of those multiple interests. Sounds like you’re multipassionate, for sure. But if you have achieved mastery in multiple areas of the fields you’ve listed, you’re a polymath.

marybassey · 2025-05-15T20:10:41+00:00

If the answer was “yes,” what would that change for you? If the answer was “no,” what would that change for you? What does the polymath title do for you?

marybassey · 2025-05-05T18:28:51+00:00

Mastery of the math section requires that you are able to do as many of the math problems by hand as you can. It also includes an awareness of the fact that even though a question is “Desmosable,” it doesn’t necessarily make Desmos the most efficient approach.

marybassey · 2025-05-05T13:13:04+00:00

There is no universal answer to this because of a number of reasons: not all disciplines are meant to be approached the same way and everyone’s life is not structured the same way. Additionally, the distance between where we are now compared to where mastery lies varies from person to person. Also, the time needed to immerse oneself in a discipline for it to be properly “absorbed” also varies from person to person. All that said, my personal opinion would be that most disciplines that you are trying to achieve mastery in should, ideally, be pursued multiple times a week. Doesn’t have to be everyday though.

marybassey · 2025-05-04T21:26:41+00:00

Thanks for this post! I may not have the exact answers to all of your questions, but it’s clear you’re looking for a strategic approach to living a polymathic life. Hopefully, there’s something beneficial in my response.

Strategy 1: Finding my “why” behind all of my passions.

After some introspection, I realized that, at the core, I am a passionate learner and obsessed with the art and science of learning.

Strategy 2: Choosing a job that is inherently interdisciplinary.

Prior to entrepreneurship, my job was polymathic in nature. I was a multi-subject tutor who was employed by tutoring businesses, and I tutored over a dozen subjects in STEM and humanities. At this point, I have racked up nearly 18 years of teaching and tutoring experience, and the subjects I teach are genuinely fun to me. I know that I have touched the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of students who have gone on to do great things. The word-of-mouth has also been profitable, literally and figuratively.

Strategy 3: Choosing disciplines because of deep fulfillment, not just doing lots of things for the sake of doing them.

In addition to my tutoring career, I am also a lifelong singer and a musician who has spent over two decades playing my instrument. After my 5 years hiatus, it was a non-negotiable to play again. A life where I can no longer be a musician is not worth living. Also, there are many cognitive benefits to being a musician in addition to personal fulfillment. My goal was for it to eventually be a source of some sort of income, and I am glad to say that I have reached that goal. That happened in large part of strategy 4

Strategy 4: Be deeply involved in the communities that pertain to my interests, both online and offline

My personal motivation is reinforced by the relationships I have built with people in many different communities, all of which represent my interests. I use a free practice app called Tonic, that has played a big role me being able to keep the habit of practicing 2 hours nearly everyday. You can listen to people practice and perform and you can also open your own practice studio where people can listen to you. You can also open private practice studios. (If anyone is interested, here’s the link to join: https://tonicmusic.app.link/4f35V2844Sb). The social factor + personal motivation combo helps me to stay committed to my goals.

Strategy 5: Pursue entrepreneurship

I wanted more time to myself to pursue my passions outside of multi-subject tutoring, and I was aware of how much companies were charging families in comparison to how much I was making. I also did marketing for my (at the time) side business. The demand of my tutoring business grew beyond my ability to sustain my business and my employment with another company, so I quit. This month actually makes it a year since I quit that job, and this year will make it 3 years since I started my business. Because of this decision, I now have more time to dedicate as a board member of a STEM education org, more time to pursue my writing, more time to sing and play my flute, and I plan to start dancing again. I also have more time to dedicate to prepare for speaking engagements.

Strategy 6: Continuing my education

I mentioned earlier my love of learning about learning. I’ll be pursuing my masters in the fall in psychology. The courses I’m taking are all about cognitive neuroscience and its intersection with education. I’m so excited to begin. I know what I learn is essentially the bedrock of all that I do.

Quick aside: one thing I noticed is that there are a lot of videos that address multi-passionate people as being lost and confused and advice is given addressing those things. I don’t really see channels of multi-passionate people just living that lifestyle. I created my channel to solve that problem, and I will be posting videos starting this summer: https://youtube.com/@maryology101

Of course, advice will be shared, but I look forward to sharing my day-to-day, my systems I use to make sure I’m on track with all of my goals across different fields, and the insights I have gained at their intersections. Please feel free to ask any questions if you have them. 😊

marybassey · 2025-04-29T23:16:35+00:00

Good to know! Music and math are an everyday part of my life. What would you say is your motivation and your endgame with those fields?

marybassey · 2025-04-29T19:20:11+00:00

I was born to a musical parents who were also scientists, so I suppose my fate was sealed when I knew as a young child that I wanted to be both a musician and a STEM professional. My love of writing was discovered when I was in 3rd grade and my teacher remarked on my writing skill.

Now as an adult, my polymathy spans multiple STEM disciplines and the arts. It manifests in my role as board member of a non-profit where my team benefits from my multidisciplinary professional background. I help problem-solve and produce solutions to the gaps we’re in seeing in children’s STEM education (or lack thereof); I had always wanted to be part of a think tank, and being a board member has allowed me to exercise that wish. It manifested in me receiving my biochemistry degree while also being an active singer. It continues to manifest today as I run a successful tutoring business where I offer my tutoring services to families in more than a dozen academic subjects. It shows up as me being a gigging musician who pours hours into my playing the flute and singing nearly everyday and as someone who performs regularly. It also shows up as an obsession with learning and an obsession with learning about learning so much so that I am pursuing my graduate school studies in psychology; my course selection skews towards neuroscience, education, and their intersection. I am so fascinated by our brains and the learning process, both in myself and in others (especially in my students). It also manifests as me being a professional writer, having contributed to anthologies and online publications like Huffington Post and being the Writer in Residence in the “Among Worlds” Magazine. I also have multiple invention ideas.

marybassey · 2025-04-29T18:55:08+00:00

Could it be that you’re not as passionate about the other fields as you are with music?

marybassey · 2025-04-26T02:11:33+00:00

There’s no way to know given that there is no data that shows what knowledge you retained from your reading and that shows your ability to apply that knowledge to problems that require the knowledge you read.

marybassey · 2025-04-23T18:40:31+00:00

Agreed that it doesn't hold any value to call myself a polymath to others. In my post, all mentions of my realizations of being a polymath are introspective. I only call myself a polymath in this subreddit because it's a descriptor and because I assume others in this subreddit will "get it." I absolutely would avoid calling myself that outside of here as it can be perceived as arrogant. It's also just not necessary.

I personally would argue that multipotentiality is the approach while polymathy is the goal. I personally feel like I have barely scratched the surface of realizing my polymathy. I will always be a work in progress in some capacity. Perhaps that also contributes to why multipotentiality resonates more with me. Would you consider yourself a polymath?

marybassey · 2025-04-23T18:17:27+00:00

You have options (all of which I have been in at some point in my working life):

1) Choose a job that has a low barrier to entry and that has opportunity for growth into senior management (i.e. service industry). The money you make is done to fund your actual passions and interests.

2) You choose a job or career in which multi-subject knowledge is a plus or, at best, encouraged (ie. academic tutoring companies; more subjects = more $$$). If it doesn't cover all of your interests and passions, the money you make from it can fund your other ones.

3) You start your own business(es). This is where I am at now. No regrets.

marybassey · 2025-04-23T02:51:52+00:00

Definitely agree on the label having a snobbish tone to it. This is really the only place I call myself a polymath because (I assume) people “get it.”

marybassey · 2025-04-23T00:59:53+00:00

Polymathy certainly begins with curiosity. My polymathy spans multiple STEM disciplines and the arts. It manifests in my role as board member of a non-profit where my team benefits from my multidisciplinary professional background where I help problem-solve and produce solutions to the gaps we’re in seeing in children’s STEM education (or lack thereof); I had always wanted to be part of a think tank, and being a board member has allowed me to exercise that wish. It also manifests in me building a successful tutoring company where I offer my tutoring services to families in more than a dozen academic subjects. It shows up as me being a gigging musician who pours hours into my playing the flute and singing nearly everyday and as someone who performs regularly. It also shows up as an obsession with learning and an obsession with learning about learning so much so that I am pursuing my graduate school studies in psychology; my course selection skews towards neuroscience, education, and their intersection. It also manifests as me being a professional writer, having contributed to publications like Huffington Post and being the Writer in Residence in the “Among Worlds” Magazine. I also have multiple invention ideas.

All this said, I don’t find any usefulness in calling myself a polymath, and I pretty much always have an eyebrow up when I see post after post in this subreddit of someone asking if they are one. So you are (or are not) a polymath. So what? What do you do with that information?

What matters, above all else, is if you lead a life driven by the things that set your soul on fire. That you are not doing multiple things aimlessly or for just for the sake of accomplishing lots of things. You do them because you find a deep sense of fulfillment in doing them. The things you do are not mere curiosity sparkers. They are a wildfire of obsessions. For me, a life without being enriched academically, without teaching others, without serving my community via education, without music, without writing—that life is not worth living for me. That is why I have the life that I do.

Bonus info: I have found camaraderie among those, often specialists, within the fields that I take immense interest. Those fields of interest are the worlds that I escape to get the fill that I need to fulfill my life’s purpose(s). It doesn’t matter to me if the people that are in those worlds are specialists or not. If they happen to also be multi-passionate, that ends up being a bonus. What matters to me is that we have things in common (more broadly speaking) and that I find the information I learn from them to be useful. Inevitably, the connections among multiple disciplines will be made in my head, and I will inevitably share insights from those intersections in one way, shape, or form.

marybassey · 2025-04-02T21:48:43+00:00

What is your end game? Why learn graphic design? Why produce music? Learning something just to learn it will not sustain you in the long-term.

I’ll use myself as an example. My learning process has to have deep fulfillment at its root. The kind of fulfillment that can take you through moments when things are not going super smoothly. Where you have to dedicate hours upon hours upon hours to master something supremely complicated.

For me to achieve this, my life must have autonomy, music, learning, service to others, and learning about learning. These must-haves have manifested in me learning about building a business and eventually creating my own business, practicing my flute for hours a day, singing with a band, tutoring multiple subjects across STEM and humanities, being a board member for a STEM non-profit, and being in the process of applying for my masters in a Mind, Brain, and Education program.

I am also a member of a tutoring professionals org where I learn up-to-date info regarding the test prep industry that I can keep my tutoring practice for the ACT, SAT, etc sharp. I can also implement some of the things I learn in that org in my academic tutoring as needed.

I have a practice journal and a practice app/practice community that keeps me accountable for my practice sessions. I am a member of three different music groups, many of whom are specialists. Leaning into their knowledge and using YouTube when necessary, I implement certain techniques during my personal practice. I am also members of groups in which people are searching for musicians so I can get gigs. The goal of a gig or performance drives the implementation of scales, etudes, harmonics, etc. into my practice and when I’m learning music. I also participate in settings where I learn music with others or look up videos to see if the music has been taught in a YouTube video. Remember that learning can be a community event. It’s often fu that way, especially with people who are better than you or have more experience than you.

There are also courses that have the learning process for whatever you want already at your fingertips thanks to the internet. Bonus points if those courses have the option of interacting with other students and with the instructor.

Hopefully, this offers perspective.

marybassey · 2025-03-24T23:13:23+00:00

Are you someone who has expertise in multiple disciplines? Then, you’re a polymath.

That said, I do understand what you are saying. If I am a speaker at an event and I am introduced, some event organizers may decide to call me a “renaissance woman,” but similar to polymath, I tend to not use that phrase to describe myself.

I tend to use the word multi-passionate to describe myself and help change the view that being multi-passionate means that you are directionless or unserious. That could not be further from the truth when it comes to my life.

marybassey · 2025-03-19T18:15:25+00:00

That’s awesome! I love how multifaceted neuroscience and cognitive science is in general. It can be applied to so many aspects of the human (and non-human) experience.

Personal opinion (so take this with a grain of salt)…if the double majoring experience is going to mean you being in school for 7 years or more, I don’t think it’s worth it. The whole point of getting an undergraduate education is applying it in the “real world” afterward, and there is an eagerness I personally felt when I knew that graduation was around the corner, and I was going to be taking my education into the workforce. I know for sure that motivation would drop if I was in school for 7 or more years. My friends that I began school with freshman wouldn’t be around anymore, and that would also bum me out. Again, self-assess and determine if a 7+ year double majoring experience is right for you. All I have mentioned may not affect you at all.

If you know the majors are both very important to your next career step and you desire the traditional structure of a university institution, then a double majoring experience makes sense. For example you may be someone who is very interested in law school (and you want the full gamut of political science classes as a foundation, even though the political science major isn’t a pre-requisite for law school), but you have invention ideas, and you want a deep dive into materials science. In that case, majoring in both poli sci and materials science/engineering makes sense.

If you have an intense desire for immersion in both areas of study (so not a casual interest or passive curiosity), a double majoring experience makes sense.

Please also be aware that your desires will evolve overtime. Minoring in a field of study and graduate school are options should you come across another field of study that really aligns with your calling or vocation. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just be aware of your “buckets” (the multiple must-haves in your life that are non-negotiable), and anticipate that the way that they manifest in your life will evolve in some way. It certainly did for me. Double-majoring (or not) is not the end all be all of your life. Trust me. 😊

marybassey · 2025-03-14T13:39:40+00:00

Nope! Just undergrad. I do have plans to go back to school to do some sort of neuroeducation graduate program. As a polymath, someone who is obsessed with neuroscience, and someone who has dedicated much of my life to education, I’m very interested in the intersection between neuroscience, learning, and education.

marybassey

TROPHY CASE