Landing on the right career seems more important today than ever before; in recent decades, work has eclipsed family, community, and religion as our primary source of meaning and identity. In a shift accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, technological advances have largely erased the boundary between our personal and professional lives. Right or wrong, we have become our work, and our work has become us. But when your personal sense of identity, self-esteem, and mental health are so deeply tied to what you do, what happens if you don’t actually like your work? Or worse, what if you lose your job?
Like millions of others, you may have recently decided that spending the vast majority of your waking hours doing work you don’t particularly care about is no longer worth it. In 2021, during what came to be called the “Great Resignation,” a record 47.4 million American workers left their jobs. Those who stayed were more disengaged than in prior decades. In 2022, the Gallup organization, which tracks employee engagement year after year, reported that a mere 21 percent of employees felt motivated at work, and more people than ever before were experiencing high levels of stress. “Living for the weekend” and “work is just a paycheck” became mantras. As Gallup observed, “Most respondents said that they don’t find their work meaningful, don’t think their lives are going well or don’t feel hopeful about their future.”
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the nature of work was changing at a breathtaking pace. But when Covid struck, the world turned upside down. Hundreds of thousands of businesses shut down in a matter of months, and millions suddenly found themselves without a paycheck.
Those who could least afford it were the hardest hit: Of the 9.6 million jobs lost in 2020, the overwhelming majority of those positions employed people in the bottom quarter of wage distribution. In the first thirteen months of the pandemic, eight million workers were laid off and the restaurant industry hemorrhaged $280 billion in sales. Under pressure to care for children and family members, a stunning 3.5 million working mothers left the workforce, and even today over a million fewer mothers are holding down jobs than in 2019.
The pandemic also triggered a massive shift in how we work. By October 2020, 70 percent of employed Americans were performing their jobs from home all or most of the time, and increasing numbers found they enjoyed greater work flexibility. For some, working remotely is burning us out faster than commuting ever did. For thirty-five-year-old Nikita Ovtchinikov, traveling several times a month for in-person meetings was an integral part of his work as a Silicon Valley enterprise sales executive. He might, for example, find himself scheduled for a meeting in Los Angeles and having “to fly down there from San Francisco, maybe cancel some of the calls due to the travel time, have lunch with colleagues, and fly home.” But when the pandemic hit, all of his meetings became remote, and their frequency increased threefold. “It was bananas,” Ovtchinikov says, “both draining and exhausting.” He realized the travel that once seemed like such a nuisance was actually a much-needed cushion in a hectic and unrelenting workday. Even if remote work can lead to higher productivity in some cases, he noted, “it comes with a cost.” Human beings aren’t cut out for such rapid attention-switching.
Still, not having to commute to work retains its appeal for many. In 2021, 80 percent of Americans working from home said they didn’t want to return to the office full-time, while a whopping 95 percent of workers were considering changing jobs. Americans today are realizing they will be working at many more kinds of jobs, and for many more years, than previous generations. Combined with longer life expectancies and more working years, the average twelve jobs held by baby boomers over the course of their careers is set to rise with subsequent generations.
Meanwhile, employees no longer seem content to work grueling hours, perhaps as an investment in their future earnings or title, without a more immediate payoff. The phrase “quiet quitting” generated millions of views on TikTok, as many young professionals rejected the notion of working longer and longer hours to prove themselves worthy of promotion. According to the Wall Street Journal, these employees didn’t want to leave work altogether, but they yearned to spend more time outside the office doing things that interested them, such as being with their families or enjoying sports and hobbies.
It’s not just Gen Z and young millennials either. Millions of older workers, too, resent spending their days watching the clock tick. As many have told us, “I can’t wait until I retire so that I can have time to work on my _____ [fill in the blank: art, music, volunteer work, family, et cetera].”
Of course, every job involves some amount of plodding through familiar drills. And certainly, there are distinct changes in the way we work—and a broader movement toward more diverse and inclusive workplaces—that are influencing these employment trends. But the vast dissatisfaction we currently face goes deeper. It’s about the rampant, fundamental mismatch between our natural abilities and the jobs we routinely perform. Like a decoupled chain, this disconnect weakens our staying power and makes it harder to find satisfaction at work. It amplifies the weight of anxiety, boredom, overwork, demands to re-skill, frustration with management, low pay, lack of benefits, poor working conditions, and any number of other factors, driving employees of every rank to simply check out.
The good news is that all of this frustration and unrealized potential is entirely preventable, and the solution isn’t just about complying with a shrug or finding a different job where you may be equally stalled. The answer lies in switching tactics. It’s about harnessing modern insights and technologies (far advanced from the quackery of Mark Twain’s era) to assess whether your work life and avocations are in harmony with your authentic self. By discovering your hidden genius—the complete tapestry of your personality, interests, and, most important, your aptitudes—you have the means to unlock your potential. With the help of this book, you can begin to understand your own natural talents and what they can tell you about your life, career, and relationships. And we promise, no head thumping required.
Starved for Guidance
When it comes to choosing our most satisfying work lives, we face many challenges. Despite the strides we’ve made in science, data aggregation, and technology since the late 1800s, most people today default to guesswork or rely on incomplete information about potential careers. Young people have always felt pressured by loved ones, circumstances, or immediate needs to “settle” for work that may or may not suit them. Or they don’t have models in their family, friends, and personal networks to realize the incredible breadth of their employment options. With no concrete or objective guidance, they are apt to lean heavily on the opinions of their peers and other well-meaning people around them. Lacking a complete understanding of what kinds of work might best fit their skills, they end up relying largely on assumptions and stereotypes.
Thus, steeped in unconscious gender roles, a majority of high school boys still tend to be interested in “masculine” jobs such as engineering or construction, while girls veer toward work traditionally performed by women, such as teaching or nursing. A recent study on career choices and gender disparity revealed how classic gender roles permeate our personal aspirations. When free to follow their career passions, female study participants gravitated toward primary caregiver roles, while the men sought to become the breadwinners. Following our passions might seem like the best way to express our true selves. But as it turns out, this freedom can instead lead us to fall back on social norms that feel safe and predictable. As the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing observed, “We learn to be who we are told we are.” But what’s the alternative?
Unwinding the Thread
We do, in fact, have a choice: we can follow our enduring traits like a guiding thread through our lives. Writers, actors, and directors who tell stories for a living rely on the notion of an imaginary thread that weaves through a narrative. They call this the “through line.” It is the underlying motive of characters, the hidden force that drives their behavior. The events surrounding the protagonist may change, but his or her basic through line remains consistent and ever present throughout the story. Your hidden genius is this essential thread. It contributes to your individuality. It comprises the enduring and distinctive aspects of what makes you, you. Your aptitudes, along with your interests and personality, are the raw materials—the fuel that propels your life.
Uncovering your hidden genius is a gradual process. Your starting point—discoverable through the complimentary YouScience assessment in our new book, YOUR HIDDEN GENIUS—will help you to uncover your own unique combination of aptitudes, interests, and personality traits. Once you apply the results of this assessment to your career, they will help you to find the work and other pursuits that can most fulfill and satisfy you. You will be able to apply your newfound self-awareness not just in choosing your career, but also in navigating other aspects of your life.
In the meantime, here are three things you can do right now to uncover your hidden genius—no assessment required, just a little self-awareness and curiosity!
- Notice When You’re in “Flow” Mode: You know those times when you lose track of time because you’re just so into what you’re doing? Whether it’s fixing problems, organizing a room, or doodling, those are signs of your natural genius. Pay attention—your untapped abilities are probably speaking to you when you’re not even trying
- Look for Patterns in Your Life: Ever notice you’re always the one planning the parties or jumping in to solve tough problems? Those are no accidents! If you’re consistently drawn to the same types of tasks or interests, you’re likely onto something big. Your hidden genius is trying to show up, so stop brushing it off or discounting it!
- Ask the People Around You: Sometimes, the best way to spot your hidden talents is by asking your friends and coworkers. They probably see traits in you that you’ve been overlooking. Get their thoughts on what you’re really good at—it’s like having a backstage pass to your own greatness
So, take a minute, tune in to these everyday moments, and you’ll start uncovering the genius that’s been hiding in plain sight!

Adapted the book YOUR HIDDEN GENIUS by Betsy Wills and Alex Ellison. Copyright © 2025 by Betsy Wills and Alex Ellison. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.