Emma Gannon - The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work Less, Create More and Design a Career That Works for You

Also by Emma Gannon

Ctrl Alt Delete: How I Grew Up Online

The Multi-Hyphen Method

Work less, create more, and design

a career that works for you

Emma Gannon

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Hodder & Stoughton

An Hachette UK company

Copyright Emma Gannon 2018

The right of Emma Gannon to be identified as the Author of the

Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be

otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that

in which it is published and without a similar condition being

imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781473680135

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

50 Victoria Embankment

London

EC2Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

Contents

Introduction

When it comes to your career, do you ever feel like you are on an endless journey to get somewhere and you never quite seem to arrive at the destination? This somewhere feels sort of like the top of a mountain: you cant quite see it, but if you squint, you think you can see something blurry and special in the distance waiting for you. When you eventually get there, tired and exhausted, you assume everything will magically fall into place. You will eventually achieve career nirvana. You were told somewhere along the way, maybe at school, that youd reach this life goal in the end if you kept working hard and its the reason you toil away at work, nine-to-five (and then some), every day. We will get that reward, someday. When we get another promotion, another pay rise, another perk to post on Instagram, it will surely get us further towards this place of calm and satisfaction. But what if such a place doesnt exist? What if, when you get there, there seems to be something missing? On the way up and during those long hours at work, have you ever truly thought about what success really looks like to you? The daily small successes, the mundane stuff, the choices you make along the way? What if the success you were promised at the top of the mountain were to not feel or look how you expected? What if success has an entirely different meaning to each of us and we might be currently risking totally missing the point? What a scam that would be.

There are things we have to do and unless youre extremely fortunate, work is one of them. But every single career guide I was given at school was outdated by the time I graduated. Even as recently as 2007, I was given the standard vet, teacher, lawyer multiple-choice brochure before I left university without any clue as to what was happening in the real world. In their defence, a realistic guide to working life cant possibly exist. For example, every single job Ive had since graduating hadnt been invented when I was given these guides.

I also realise in hindsight that it wasnt only the act of picking a job that was frightening, it was the idea of picking one job for life . I was told and retold the myth that you can find your one dream path. I was encouraged to pick one subject to study, one subject to master. But successes in my career have come from having multiple projects, goals and choices. You dont have to pick one job or be good at one thing. In fact, the positives and possibilities of living a multi-hyphenate lifestyle are endless, hence this book. Some of us most of us are not built to dedicate our lives to just one thing.

The gig economy is on the rise. In the dictionary its described as a labour market characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. In America, its predicted that by 2020 nearly half of all workers will earn some of their income from freelance projects. However, it also has a bit of a bad rap: last-minute scheduling, insecure hours, zero-hour contracts. The Multi-Hyphen Method is not championing these things, but it is taking into account that the gig-economy trend on the whole is on the rise. Being a multi-hyphenate is about choosing and strategising a plan of attack and having the freedom to take on multiple projects, not being backed into a corner. This is about choosing a lifestyle. This is about taking some power back into our own hands.

The multi-hyphenate lifestyle is about having a mishmash of projects going on with different income streams attached that make up a salary, instead of it coming from one source. Sure, it makes the What do you do? question harder to answer, but your identity becomes less about what your singular job title is. It becomes more about who you are, what you are interested in, what pays the bills and what your hobbies are. All these things make up your different hyphens. You are a career chameleon, changing and moulding yourself to different projects.

Its an important topic, work, as we spend so long doing it and even though it doesnt necessarily define who we are, it does make up a large proportion of what we do with our days.

On average we spend twelve years at work during our lifetime and fifteen months of that will be time spent working late in addition to our contracted hours. And it will surprise no one to hear we now spend a third of our waking lives on our phones. So, how do we thrive in a modern technology-obsessed work environment, cut through the noise, build longevity and create our own definitions of success? How do we make ourselves happier and more fulfilled in a world that wants us to chase a never-ending finish line? How do we launch that side-hustle that we keep talking about but feel like we dont know how to start? How do we stand out in a world where seven billion people are now joined in one interconnected online mass? How do we make money differently? How do we empower ourselves when we can feel so let down by an outdated system that doesnt work for so many? This book is my attempt to help you answer these questions.

The time frame needed for drastic change (in careers, lifestyle habits, technology) is faster than ever before. We dont have as much time to sit back and figure out a new plan of attack. Even if we do, we feel the anxiety and strain of the future upon us. We are all thinking about our career 2.0. We cannot predict the jobs we will do in the future, but we can keep ourselves feeling secure in a new way. The impact of technology is not all positive, but its allowed us to teach ourselves new skills, create new jobs and build personal brands that over time attract consistent work.

The Multi-Hyphen Method is a practical look at how we can reinvent ourselves, the workplace, our environment and our own definition of personal success, with a toolkit in Chapter 7. Its about rethinking old habits and asking more questions. Its about designing our own schedules and not feeling limited to one thing or one box. In times of change, being really good at one thing isnt enough anymore.

THE MULTI-HYPHEN METHOD IS NOT:

THE MULTI-HYPHEN METHOD IS: