Your Portfolio Life

Charles Handy is a well-known professor, business guru and co-founder of London Business School. In his 1989 book, ‘The Age of Unreason‘, he coined the term “Portfolio Life”.
He explains: “I created what I call ‘a portfolio life’, setting aside 100 days a year for making money, 100 days for my passion, 50 days for what I consider good works, and 100 days for spending time with my wife”.

“I mark these days out in my diary. When people phone and ask me to do something, I can then say, ‘I’m terribly sorry, that’s my day with my wife’. It is a freeing way of life. 100 days a year for me is enough for making money, there is no point in making more; and I find I do as much work in 100 days as I used to in a year.”

In essence, the concept of a portfolio life is to have a portfolio of activities – “some you do for money, some for interest, some for pleasure, some for a cause…” and the different bits fit together to form a balanced whole greater than the parts.

As with any portfolio you get different returns from different parts.  By addressing your needs and managing risk, you protect your portfolio.
By protecting it and investing in each different part of the portfolio, you can lead a more fulfilling life. A portfolio life means you can have a career that suits your talents best rather than somebody else’s job specification.
A portfolio life gives you job satisfaction and financial reward, and you can please your friends, family and community at the same time.

Keep it real

Let’s think about this. How realistic is the portfolio life for most individuals?

Crazy house prices, increasing costs, high school fees and static salaries: all these combine to create a package that makes it difficult to envisage living a portfolio life. The reality is that sometimes it feels like life just isn’t built like that. For the average factory worker, a portfolio life can look like a luxury.

Then again, people are in their jobs for fewer years and shorter days. More people seem to be self-employed, doing bits of jobs rather than the same job for a lifetime.  At some point in your life, you’ll find that your job no longer dominates your time anyway.

Since Covid we know that nomadic working conditions are becoming more and more an option especially for younger generations who never knew pre-Covid days.

Going back to the factory worker, even he might have a portfolio of jobs in factories, where he’s manufacturing products he believes in rather than just sticking it out in one full time job for life.

There are many examples of how people are walking away from the traditional job-for-life model and towards a portfolio life. The growing trend of nomad working post Covid is a prime example.
The younger generations are jumping onto that bandwagon.
What makes them embrace it so much easier?
Maybe because they never saw the previous way of life as a normal?

Could you follow the same path?

Two sides to every coin

The portfolio life is not for everyone. There is a premium on networking and self-promotion, and portfolio workers have to be ultra-organized, needing to juggle several balls simultaneously.

The likelihood of an irregular salary brings financial risk. 

Portfolio workers have no real colleagues.  You are hired for you.  This can be flattering, but it also means that you can’t call substitutes onto the pitch when you’re injured. You might find it a lonely life without the infrastructure of an organization behind them.

On the other hand, living a portfolio life constantly provides different and new mental challenges and stimulation.  You have more independence and greater control over your own life, nobody telling you what needs to be done. Living a portfolio life puts you in an environment where you can usually be completely honest about what you think and say. This could be an empowering space to be in.

Your portfolio life

How does living a portfolio life sound like as an attractive option to your corporate grind?
The road to success starts with a decision to live the life you want. If you need to take the next step, working with a professional coach can help you unlock your potential to maximize your own performance and abilities. A coach will help you set goals with deadlines, get you into action and keep you on track. Good luck with making yours a truly exciting journey!

If you need help to start releasing your talents, dreams and goals, call me. I would be privileged to play a part in helping you with this important life-changing decision.
In the meantime, I have zoom with an executive coaching client this morning, before strategizing talent management with a professional actor and after financiers for next film project. Then it’s some me-time for a yoga and surf afternoon. Finally, I have a date evening with my daughter.
And that’s just today!

As published in leading business journal Accountancy SA.