Looking on the bright side of portfolio careers

India-born Serena Kern-Libera on meeting the demands of a fulfilling corporate career in law through the week; and morphing into a pop singer when the weekend dawns

Aphorisms are double-edged swords that help rip apart ideas they themselves carved. Mark Twain upended a popular aphorism and made its opposite equally riveting. He wrote scornfully, as one can imagine from the tone: “Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.” The Twainism here is that balancing many egg-laden baskets diffuses the focus, and may even cause a part of the disaster the arrangement is meant to avert. It may be tempting to imagine millennials booing Mr. Twain for this remark. But portfolio careers cannot be painted with a generational brush. Is it not obvious that the desire to indulge multiple interests would have always existed? However, conditions that make for a portfolio career are greater now than ever before. One, the advance of technology. And two, with greater connectivity, geographical limitations dwindle. And three, the march of the gig economy — there are reasons to believe the pandemic is quickening those steps.