Life and Work by Design Blog

In the last 20 years or so, it has become common for people to change careers multiple times but a newer phenomenon is earning a living from multiple careers at the same time.

An article in the WSJ discussed boomers who have Slash Careers.   These are folks who spend a good part of their free time pursuing a passion, while still working at a full-time professional job.

Some examples are a lawyer who does caricature portraits on weekends; a hotel manager who writes mysteries in his off hours; or an English professor who sells her summer travel photography through local galleries.

Another recent article called them Portfolio Professionals and a third used the term Eclectic Professionals. An example would be a teacher who spends the summer doing different jobs that reflect her personal interests or to gain experience in a different field.  And I know a man who is a stock broker by day and a Wine Expert who stages wine tastings several nights a week.

You don’t have to be a professional to have a Slash career.  A story in the Philadelphia Inquirer told of a local man who loves to make independent films and documentaries, but who works intermittently as a longshoreman on the docks to earn income to pay bills and put his daughter through college.

An acquaintance of mine is a very successful executive consultant who always dreamed of being in the opera.  Now she works part-time in the evenings as an extra for the local Opera Company, dressing up in fabulous costumes, wigs and make-up to strut and dance her way around the stage.

If you are daydreaming of doing something new and different to earn your living, you are certainly not alone.   And the need to create additional streams of income is growing for many.  There are very few rules anymore- feel free to start working on an old dream, a new dream, or that long-held, really big idea. Combining two disparate careers is definitely possible.   There are no limits to what you can do!

Remember when you were a little kid out on the porch in the evening and some grownup said, “oh, there’s the first star – quick make a wish?”   We asked for things like red bicycles, baseball mitts, and dolls.   And those things often appeared on our birthday or as a holiday gift.

I’ve been holding conversations with groups of adults over 50 around the topic of what they are going to do in the next phase of their life, and I find a lot of people start their answer with the words, “I wish……”

For the most part, these are folks who have spent the last 30 years living in the same area, employed in the same career and working hard just to maintain the status quo of their lives.  They haven’t had the opportunity to try to make any major changes so they can’t quite imagine how to start.

At a presentation for The Transition Network here, author Carol Saline (Mothers and Daughters) talked about the many transitions of her life.  She suggested an approach for career and life decisions that reminds us that making successful changes or transitions requires taking action. She calls it FOOFY and I like her philosophy.

•    “Get your Foot in the door
•    When Opportunity knocks, just do it
•    When Opportunity doesn’t come calling, send out invitations
•    If you believe in something Fight for it
•    Just say Yes – never let the fear of failure hold you back!”

Wishing for a different life gets us nowhere until we start doing.

In a conversation over the weekend I discovered that an acquaintance previously served on the Board of an organization I would love to be associated with professionally.

I discovered this only because when she asked “what have you been up to?”,  I didn’t hesitate to state clearly what my immediate goals are.   If I had said that I was just “busy trying to build my business” the opportunity would have passed right by.

She offered to provide an introduction to some current board and staff members and suggested an approach to getting involved with them.

I need to polish my resume and pull together a proposal to present within a week or so and that’s going to require putting in some extra hours, but I can’t ignore this “knocking” on my door.

What have you found yourself wishing for lately?  It’s time to turn some of those thoughts into real concrete ideas and apply the FOOFY principles to your efforts.   Paying attention to opportunities and taking even small actions are the first steps to success.