Do you invest?
Most of us make financial investments of some kind during our lifetime - real estate, bank deposits, stocks, gold, etc. If you talk to any investment advisor, he/she will advise you to have a portfolio of investments across asset types, risk categories, etc.
Even if you ignore the commissions they get from different companies, it is usually a piece of sound advice to have a portfolio of investments. It helps in balancing a variety of stuff - risk hedging, short term vs long term liquidity, gains from sudden market movements, etc.
In this context, it is interesting to note that most of us do not follow the same portfolio approach for the most important investment of our life - our career.
Have more than one career
Kabir Sehgal is a bestselling author, works in corporate strategy at a Fortune 500 Company, is a US Navy veteran and multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning producer.
In this exceptionally interesting podcast, he talks about what is a portfolio approach to career, how it helps us in becoming better professionals/individuals, and what are the tradeoffs involved. The basic premise is that you should have at least two careers.
Podcast link: https://hbr.org/podcast/2017/07/build-your-portfolio-career
It is a 2 years old podcast and makes me wonder why this concept is not a lot more popular because I found the entire concept of having a second career and a portfolio of interests that can be extrapolated to careers, completely fascinating.
What is a second career
Having a second career does not mean that you are employed by 2 different companies. It means being able to identify skills and interests that allow you to build an alternate set of activities with predictable ROI and identified goals/themes (revenue, goodwill, fame, etc.).
For instance, you could be a corporate executive and also be an author in parallel. I am sure we know someone like this in our personal lives. Or you can be a tech journalist and also an angel investor. Or you can be a chef and also a Jazz performer.
The fundamental point here is that you should stop calling it a side hustle and start calling it your second career. A side hustle is something that you can do as a pastime or a hobby. It is not something where you assign project plans, goals, and ROI, as you do for your career.
This is not a cosmetic jargon change but a shift in mindset on how you treat your skills which are non-core to your first career but are exceptionally valuable to an alternate career.
Benefits of the portfolio approach
A new third space
It may sound like a badly written copy for Starbucks (they promote their stores as third space between office and home), but honestly speaking, your second career gives you a tangible third space between your home and office, where you can apply your skills for your benefit and the benefit of people around you.
This will give make your journey as a professional much more fulfilling and will allow you to make a larger dent in the universe, compared to what you can do with one career.
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Synergies
Once you have more than one career, you will be surprised to see the opportunities for compounding effects that will emerge from these multiple careers.
For instance, your first career as an advertising executive can expose you to opportunities where you can connect with exceptionally creative people with whom you can create a record-breaking Jazz band.
Or if you are a commentator on productivity in your second career, you can use this knowledge to build stronger connections with your C-suite clients in your first career as a consultant.
Risk-hedging
Your second career gives you a safety net which you can leverage in case your first career hits a roadblock. This is especially true in today’s uncertain scenario.
If you have a strong second career as an online blogger, or an author or a productivity expert, you can fall back on it in case the company where you are working goes belly-up or due to any unfortunate situation, you are no longer associated with the company.
This is similar to the financial investments we spoke about at the beginning of the post, where you diversify your risk and rewards by investing across a range of asset classes with different levels of risk.
Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Do listen to Kabir’s podcast linked earlier in the post.
cheers,
Rohit
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