The pros and cons of being a multi-hyphenate
It's been five years since The Multi-Hyphen Method came out. Here’s what happened when a fellow multi-hyphenate committed to doing one thing for a year.
Lots of people love having one dedicated vocation; and I am all for that, we need those people. But I tend to write for the ‘career misfits’, the people who were constantly told they were doing life wrong (especially for refusing to pick One Thing or changing their mind too often.) For years I was told I was indecisive and scatty. In reality, I just thrive when I have multiple projects on the go. In meetings over the years, big PR CEO types have said to me, leaning back in their chair: “the problem is, we just don't know how to sum you up.”
What they really mean is this: “we don't know how to sell you, and we want you to be a product.” But I refuse to be a neat little product in a world obsessed with products. Plus: I love the organic twists and turns my career is taking, like a meandering river.
I love it whenever anyone comes up to me and says they enjoyed any of my books, but especially The Multi-Hyphen Method. In some instances people have told me it changed the course of their career. I know what it’s like to have a book reach you just at the right time, and for many people who read that book they went on to make unconventional decisions: be it a fingers-in-pies kind of career, varying projects, a flexible schedule, a life of experimentation. My goal for that book was to offer up case studies and experiences, but more importantly: validation. It’s OK if you don’t want to pick One Thing.
We are often told to pick a lane and not be a ‘jack of all trades’, but the old career ladder has crumbled. The reason receiving nice comments about this book means so much to me is because it’s one of those books that isn’t mainstream. If you’ve read it, I feel like you ‘get’ me and my work.
When the book was first released in 2018, I did all sorts of press: Radio 4’s Money Box, BBC Breakfast, Stylist Live, and I went on tour to Bristol, Edinburgh, Bath, Exeter. I partnered with Bumble Bizz app. However, it was a book that really split opinion at the time, conflating it with hustle culture/gig economy— “are you really saying it’s good to have multiple jobs??”— when really it’s simply a book about refusing to be boxed in. The book questions society’s work ‘rules’ and explores how we can create our own career autonomy.
(When I wrote the book, I wasn't feeling overtly political. I actually just pictured journalist/screen-writer/film director Nora Ephron at her desk wearing multiple creative hats.)
It was for the people who say “well, I do a combination of this and this and this…” at dinner parties when asked “what do you do?” Instead of feeling embarrassed, I wanted it to be celebrated. Being a multi-hyphenate is not a ‘better’ way of working (it's hard! It can be overwhelming! It can take many wrong turns!) but it is a way of making a living that can work really well for many people.
Then, the pandemic happened — many people suddenly working from home, working in a different way, trying a new side project from their living room (hello Substack) — and people went out to buy a copy of The Multi-Hyphen Method or The Multi-Hyphen Life as it’s called in the U.S. Five years later, it was back in conversation.
You cannot second-guess the response your work will get, or when people will want to read it. You cannot foresee whether it’ll be positive or negative. You do it anyway. There are many marketing professionals who sit in boardrooms plotting strategies to try and make a book ‘appeal to everyone’ and it’s just impossible. If you appeal to everyone, I think you actually end up appealing to no one.
The Multi-Hyphen Method might not be for everyone, and that’s precisely why I’m so proud of it.
Onto this week’s guest column! Fellow writer and Substacker Annie Ridout is generously sharing her own advice and experiences of her multi-hyphen life. She is the author of The Freelance Mum, Shy and Raise Your SQ. She is a coach and freelance writer for titles including The Guardian, Grazia, Red, Stylist and Forbes. In this brilliant guest post, she reflects on her multi-hyphen career, explores how to make good career choices and looks at both sides of the coin.
The pros and cons of being a multi-hyphenate
By