It's becoming more common to have multiple professions in a lifetime. People are rethinking what they want to get out of work and for many, work is no longer just for income but a way to make an impact in the world.
Now I’m not going to tell you to make some drastic career change if you feel unfulfilled and are slowly burning out at your current job. And I do understand that for some one career is daunting enough, let alone pursuing two, or more.
But I am going to say that whilst pursuing two careers concurrently is demanding and complex, if managed well in the long run it will produce benefits for both (not to mention bring you tonnes more personal fulfilment).
In my case, I have four vocations. By far my most time is spent running my business, IdeaBridge, but beyond this I am also a passionate University Educator (facilitating final year BCom students in Business & Brand Management), a (fledgling) writer and public speaker, and a reading volunteer assisting Grade 2 & 3 learners develop their literacy skills and shine at life.
I am often asked “do you ever sleep?” and “how do you find the time?” (my answers: ‘enough’ and ‘being organised helps’) but these questions don’t get close to the heart of my true motivations for working varied roles.
Plainly speaking, it makes me happier and leaves me more fulfilled. I’m able to pursue multiple activities - some for income, some for interest, some for pleasure, and some to give back - but it also helps me perform better at each role. Here’s how.
1. Regularly meeting new and varied people helps me learn, collaborate and grow.
At the pace by which the world is changing we need to embrace continuous learning and find ways of adapting to new realities. New realities more often come from meeting and collaborating with new people from varied backgrounds to our own, bringing with them new and innovative ways of doing things.
In my role as University facilitator, meeting and working with a new class of pending graduates each year helps me learn & grow - and get hyped-up about life! These creative and curious young leaders are challenging the way we live and work and bringing us exciting new ways to connect. Check out my previous post, What student start-ups are teaching small business owners, where I look at some of the ways the life of the small business owner has got a whole lot easier.
2. Developing skills that previously lay outside of my day-to-day job accelerates my professional and personal growth.
I’m fortunate enough to face daily challenges in my varied work that require me to draw on my personal values, my creativity and my business management and leadership experience. But it also presents the opportunity for me to be uniquely tested in everything I know — or think I know - on a regular basis.
Strengthening and developing new, cross-industry skills centred around team building (think problem-solving, fostering innovation, leadership, communication) and research & planning helps me tap into new possibilities for my business clients.
3. The flexibility and independence of a diverse career means I’m able to pursue passion projects, where I produce some of my best work.
Passion projects are special. With passion projects there’s no limit to your input and nothing feels like a burden or too much effort. The creative process is different too, you’re more likely to come up with creative ideas to problem-solving when you enjoy what you do.
Each year I participate as panel member for Vega School’s annual Brand Challenge initiative. This intense, month-long, labour of love sees me collaborate with current and future industry leaders to unlock brand value for some of South Africa’s best-loved brands.
This creative drive pushes me to think deeper, read wider and spot new trends across the industries I work in.
4. The more I learn about a variety of topics and industries, the more creative I become in combining ideas and recognising patterns.
Identifying key principles applied by successful businesses from varying industries allows me to bring clients alternative ways to apply solutions and plant a seed for later innovation.
By drawing analogies and transferring approaches between contexts - like assisting medical businesses rethink their patient engagement strategies in contrast to the (same) customer’s experience in the retail sector – helps find clients new and innovative ways of doing things.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs
I’ve always seen the ‘dots’ (what I only later came to recognise as ideas, experiences or people that enter my life as gifts) but its only when I started paying attention to them, and connecting the patterns, did the pictures emerge. Pictures that weren’t clear before, but that suddenly, made sublime sense.
Today I not only am I more open to the ‘dots’, I honour them, and act on them. And guess what happens when I do? Kismet shows up.
Lead well.