Not a long ago, I was asked to define myself in eight words.

Eight words.

In psychology and psychotherapy trainings, this is common. You are invited to define your identity in a few words. Most people start with gender. Someone’s son or daughter. Nationality. Age. Sexual orientation. A hobby. A passion.

And almost always, profession.

“I am a teacher.”
“I am a dancer.”
“I am an engineer.”
“I am a doctor.”
“I am a waiter.”

For most of us, our profession becomes a core part of our identity. Sometimes the core part.

And we try to compress it into one word.

But what if that word keeps changing?

My Evolving Labels

If I look back at my life, I have defined myself many times.

First, I was a baby. Dependent. Entirely held by others.

Between two and four years old, I called myself a magician. I had a cape. I truly believed I could shape reality.

As a student, I proudly identified as a mathematician. A physics expert. A nerd. I loved precision. Logic. Structure.

Then I became an architect in training. An economist at UCL.
For a while in Washington DC, working near Congress, I thought I might become a diplomat or a public policy professional.

Later, I labeled myself:
Management Consultant at PwC.
Sales Manager.
HR Manager.
People Leader.
Coach.
Evolving psychotherapist.
VP of People. Chief People Officer.
Startup strategist.

And now?

I am launching my art website.
www.mattamasi.com

So what am I?

Am I a business person?
Am I a designer?
Am I an artist?

Hard question. Maybe even a pointless one.

The Myth of Binary Identity

We are taught, (subtly) that identity should be clean.

You are either:
Specialist or generalist.
Analytical or creative.
Business or art.
Corporate or free.

But life is not binary.

Identity is layered.

I can be a Senior VP of People shaping organizational strategy and culture, and I can be an artist exploring form, color, silence, abstraction.

Those worlds do not cancel each other out.

They inform each other.

Art × HR

The more I reflect, the more I see how much art and HR have in common.

As a People Leader, you are constantly designing.

You design performance frameworks.
You design compensation philosophies.
You design feedback rituals.
You design hiring processes.
You design culture itself.

Nothing exists until someone imagines it and draws the first lines.

In art, you start with a blank canvas.
In HR, you often start with a blank organizational moment.

Both require:

• Sensitivity to human emotion.

• Understanding of structure and composition.

• Courage to experiment.

• Willingness to iterate.

• Comfort with ambiguity.

When I design a People practice, I feel the same creative tension as when I work on a piece of art.

You balance structure and freedom.
Constraints and expression.
Clarity and interpretation.

I believe creativity enables me to build cultures and processes that stand their ground.

Not because they are rigid, but because they are thoughtfully composed.

Good art has integrity.
Good systems have integrity.

Both are intentional.

And both shape experience.

The Profession Trap

The challenge is that we often mistake profession for identity.

We say:
“I am a doctor.”
“I am a consultant.”
“I am HR.”

But these are roles.

Roles we perform.
Roles we grow through.
Roles that shape us, but do not fully define us.

When someone asks, “Who are you?”, we reach for the most socially legible label.

It feels safer.

But what if we allowed ourselves to be more complex than a job title?

Specialist and Generalist

It is absolutely okay to be a specialist. There is beauty in mastery.

And it is equally beautiful to be a generalist. To connect dots. To evolve across disciplines. To change.

We play many roles in life:
Professional.
Friend.
Partner.
Child.
Leader.
Creator.
Student.
Mentor.

The attempt to compress all of that into one word is almost absurd.

Labels can help us orient ourselves.

But ultimately, they are containers, not the content.

What Actually Matters

What really matters is not the word.

What matters is:
Are we in touch with our personal and professional desires?
Are we taking responsibility for our choices?
Are we consciously shaping our path instead of passively inheriting it?

Right now, I feel deeply fulfilled leading the People function of growing startups, especially as I work in climate, a purpose that matters to me so much.

And it means the world to me to be an artist alongside it.

Not instead of it.
Alongside it.

The two identities do not compete.
They expand me.

Life Is Not a Straight Line

Life folds.

It shapes us.
It challenges our earlier definitions.
It gives us more questions than answers.

And maybe that is the point.

I am a People/Startup Strategist.
I am an Artist.
I am many other things that don’t fit neatly into a headline.

And that complexity is not confusion.

It is richness.

Life is good.