I don’t remember the exact time I first heard the term “portfolio career,” but I remember thinking this is me.
For years, even though I have had great jobs (and not so great ones) and have worked for great companies (and not so great ones), I always felt I was leaving a part of me behind. The part that didn’t fit into a job description. The part that didn’t quite find its place in a CV. The part of me that was not enough, and also the part that was too much. You learn to program yourself to be just right, just like a software on your computer that gets the job done in the background.
Back in the corporate world, I always felt like I had to fit into something: a persona, a mold, a skill set and project myself into what they wanted me to be. And whatever wasn’t required for the role was conveniently put aside in a drawer until at one point, some parts of me started dying silently because I forgot that drawer even existed.
That’s why when I found myself unemployed during the pandemic, I felt a deep sense of emptiness, as if my inner compass was suddenly off sync and I had to recalibrate my direction without knowing the cardinals of life.
The hardest part was not not having a job but discovering who I really was without one.
Suddenly I had a blank page in front of me and it was both liberating and terrifying because the flipside of freedom is ownership and you can’t look the other way. I had spent years borrowing my purpose from a fancy website’s mission statement and having to find my own in front of the mirror was scary. There was no manual for that.
Fast forward three and a half years from when I first published my first article online, I love having a career that can’t fit into a corporate box or any box for that matter. My job doesn’t define me as much as I define my job with my words and my actions. I set my own rules only to break them a few months later because they no longer suit me and not the other way around. I used to think that I had to find purpose in my work. Now I find purpose from within and use my work to channel it and bring it to life in different shapes, whether it’s speaking about inclusion, writing about mindset, publishing books or coaching people who want to turn their creativity into their lifestyle.
I’m not going to lie…
Some mornings I wake up and I wonder if all this effort makes sense. Especially when I spend days working on a project that doesn’t really take off or when I write something that flops. From the outside, people think that having a big audience and getting many likes is success. From the inside, it’s way messier. Insecurities creep in, the ups and downs are both very real and not having someone tell you if you are on the right direction or if you are way off means you are on your own on both sides of the tunnel. There is no ladder here for you to climb. It’s more like a maze. And effort doesn’t equal results. The math here is always changing and your best teacher is often failure with a coat of humility.
For me, having a portfolio career is not about being rich but living a rich life inside out; one that allows you to fully embrace who you are outside the colouring lines and explore new versions of the person you are to become without leaving anything in the drawer. One where alignment comes from within, not from a playbook.
I don’t have a “where do you see yourself in 5 years” plan (they are creativity killers anyways), but I have the freedom to try, fail, and pivot without worrying about being fired or put in a performance improvement plan.
Every year, I actually fire myself from dozens of jobs and tasks that no longer serve me: some I outgrew; others I delegated and some I left behind because they were not aligned with my direction or my values. And I have also promoted myself dozens of times, always before I was ready.
I became a coach before I was ready.
I spoke on global stages before I was ready.
I published this newsletter before I was ready.
I launched a cohort before I was ready.
You are only ever ready when you pull the trigger. You figure things out when the gun goes off, by taking one step and then the next. There is no road until you walk it with your own feet.
The journey doesn’t exist: it unfolds with your footprints.
That’s really what building a portfolio career feels like.
A few days ago, I heard of yet another round of layoffs: Visa cut 2,600 jobs. 7% of its global workforce. A freaking déjà vu. It sent me straight back into that dark hole and somewhere between frustration and hope, it inspired me to write this because I think someone needs to read this today.
Regardless of whether you are working, have lost your job, or are starting something new, chances are, you also have a little drawer somewhere waiting to be reopened. A drawer with passions and dreams you put on the side a long time ago because they didn’t quite fit in that moment.
Maybe it’s time to open it again, to go back to the maybes and the what ifs, to take a chance at that something you didn’t dare to pursue because you were told you were too little or too much.
Maybe the time is now.
If you are ready to explore and unlock your Portfolio Career, you can upgrade now to access the full Series and join my August Business Roundtable with other creative entrepreneurs to brainstorm, share best practices and discuss business strategies to grow together.
Career Portfolio Series:
Episode 1: What the heck is a Portfolio Career
Episode 2: How to launch your 1:1 coaching from zero
Episode 4: How to build and scale a paid community
Episode 5: Turning your book into a business
Portfolio Career Business Roundtable:
📍Session America: 19 August 8pm
📍Session Europe: 20 August 8am UK
Register now for 59 US$ (FREE for paid subscribers).
Let’s open your drawer.
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