More __init__ methods

[Mr.SpOOn]

Hi,
I know there can be only one __init__ method (at least, I think).

Often I need an object to be created in different ways, for example
passing a string as argument, or an integer, or another object. To
achieve this I put the default value of the arguments to None and then
I some if...elif inside the __init__.

Is this a good practice? It actually works, but sometimes I think that
in this way the __init__ method can become too complicated, for
example when an object can be created using more than one argument and
in different combinations.

Hope my doubt is clear.