The Portfolio Life: Future Proof your Career and Craft a Life Worthy of You

February Book Review:

I was fortunate to read an advance copy of The Portfolio Life: Future-Proof your Career and Craft a Life Worthy of You by serial entrepreneur and Harvard lecturer Christina Wallace (Grand Central Publishing, Hachette) that releases April 18, 2023. 

The book encompasses common sense encouragement to shed the fear of self-promotion as well as broadening our circles of influence and looking more critically at our hobbies and talents for sources of employment. I share the author's view about what would/should be optimum work-life balance and the joy that arises from pursuing passions with time for rest and relationships. As someone who has transitioned between different careers, the author's view of modern careers as non-linear paths felt authentic. At different points, it struck me that not everyone will have the "safety nets" or networks in place to implement the author's glass-always-half-full suggestions in order to utilize elements of flexibility into their jobs and job searches. Those elements don't arise organically in difficult situations and the advice in this book could be frustrating to some who are already stretched to their max in terms of time and efforts. The author notes this in passing, but I wonder if the struggles are more prevalent than she acknowledges.

I recognized some of the suggestions about tangible, actionable goals from other books, but the reminder is always good and being a visual person I appreciated the use of Venn diagrams and examples in charts, and wish more of that had been incorporated. I found it to be an uplifting and aspirational if not always realistic read.