Just finished Marci Alboher’s One Person/Multiple Careers: How “The Slash Effectâ€? Can Work For You, and finally feeling like someone actually “getsâ€? me. You see, according to Alboher, I have a “slash career,â€? meaning I’m a writer/entrepreneur/speaker. While I’ve always seen the interconnection between the three (the outside slashes feed the inside one – literally and figuratively), sometimes others don’t get that and think I should pick one or go back to having a “real job.â€?Â
I’ll be honest; I wondered how much could be said about this topic. However, I found out there was quite a bit, because having a slash career permeates way beyond what’s on your business card. Here are a few highlights/tidbits from the book:
- Most slash career stories are entrepreneurial.
- Think of one as a “job� and the other a “starter profession� (sort of a modern-day “waiter/actor� syndrome).
- You can learn things from both sides of your slash to help you do the other better.
- Having a slash in your back pocket may be useful if your original career doesn’t work out.
- Slash careers can keep you from burning out at either one.
- By adding one more slash “/mom� or “/dad� at the end, it’s no longer an either/or situation but instead it’s just another aspect that makes up the whole.
Throughout the book, Alboher gives great examples and advice about how to start a slash career, how to market your dual careers, how to blend careers, how to separate careers, and how to have a life while having a slash career. Many of the examples are unique and inspiring. I’m not sure why, but I had a huge fascination with the blue-collar/white-collar blends. Maybe it’s that all of mine utilize my creativity brain cells so that a little redundancy without the never-ending responsibility hangover sounds quite appealing at the moment. Disappointing of course, is that many of these individuals still felt they had to hide their “blue� jobs to maintain respect.
Another section that I found interesting was about overcoming the naysayers. Like all entrepreneurs, when you do something different from the norm, you will face naysayers. But, society has changed. Company loyalty means nothing. You can have advanced degrees and be unemployed. And, flexibility is starting to mean more than money. So, next time Great Uncle Charlie lectures you on commitment and loyalty, giving the example of how he was rewarded for being a company man, or someone tells you to stop working at two (or three) careers and use your free time to pursue a hobby, remember the following.
- People no longer get fired for moonlighting (unless they’re doing something competitive).
- For many of us, our slash careers ARE our hobbies.
- Company loyalty disappeared along with Enron.
- No one complained about the following slash careerists:Â Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson.
So, maybe slash careerists are our society’s “renaissance men/women�? I kinda like the sound of that.
The Bottom Line: An inspirational and great “how to� book for entrepreneurs who want to dip their toe in the water, and a nice resource and support group for those of us who have been living life in the “slash-lane.�
Check out Marci Alboher’s “Shifting Careers� blog for more about custom-blending careers.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.One Response to “Life in the Slash-Lane”
Leave a Reply
November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
[...] So if you are feeling torn between two fields (think a registered nurse vs. a pharmacy technician or a law enforcement officer vs. a financial analyst), why not take the unconventional route and choose both? All too often people spend their lives feeling unfulfilled by their careers, so why not pursue both a white-collar position and a blue-collar job, a steady stream of income and a life-long passion? Slashing is transitioning into a legitimate career strategy…so take advantage, and start living your life in the slash lane. [...]