We recently lost a giant and gentleman. Ambassador William vanden Heuvel was the original portfolio careerist. The OG of the hyphenated career. He handled many professions across the private and public sectors with grace. I was fortunate to know him and to consider him a friend and mentor. We even collaborated on a music album together. He passed away last June. I will miss our lunches together in New York. But to remember him is to honor his legacy, so let’s revisit what made this man so special.

Bill’s careers

• Lawyer
• Diplomat who served as US Ambassador to the European Office of the UN
• Businessman who worked a senior adviser at Allen & Co., an investment banking firm
• Author who wrote Hope and History: A Memoir of Tumultuous Times

What Made Bill Special: Service

Bill believed in servant leadership. Leaders should put their people ahead of them. He knew that government could be a force for freedom, democracy, and the common good. He came of age during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and was inspired by how FDR leveraged government to help secure, defend, and advance millions of Americans.

He later became a confidante of the Kennedys and served as a special assistant to Robert Kennedy. As his New York Times obituary points out — the Kennedys liked to use intermediaries to communicate with others, and Bill became one of their trusted communicators. During the civil rights movement, Bill worked closely with RFK to help secure the rights of African Americans. He later served as chairman of the New York City Board of Correction after inmates protested their conditions.

During President Jimmy Carter’s administration, Bill was appointed to serve as ambassador to the European office of the UN, and later as the the deputy representative to the UN.

His Legacy Endures
Go to Roosevelt Island in New York City and visit the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy. Bill was instrumental in the creation and development of this space, one of the most serene and beautiful areas in all of NYC. He believed it was necessary to preserve and protect the legacy of FDR and to remind future generations of how government can be a force for human rights and good in the world. Watching him lead the charge for the Four Freedoms Park was inspirational.

Personal reflections
Bill and I were introduced by a mutual friend, and we hit it off. We would meet for lunches, and he would share stories about his time serving in public office or traveling abroad with dignitaries. He was a tremendous story teller, and I learned so much about diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Most of all, I learned how to be there for friends. He was an important and busy man. But he always made time for me and others. He was interested in what was going on in my life, and he asked many questions. He was a curious and kind, warmhearted and affable gentleman.

During one of our lunches, I mentioned to him that I was producing Ted Nash’s Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom. A jazz album in which every piece was inspired by political oratory. He was intrigued that we were including a piece inspired by FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech. And quite wonderfully, he agreed to read a passage on the album which ended up winning 2 Grammys. I’d affectionally call him “The star Ambassador” whenever I saw him, reminding him (and others) of his great performance on the album.

I’ll miss you, Bill! Rest in power.

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Kabir Sehgal is a Multi Grammy & Latin Grammy Award winner, as well as New York Times bestselling author.

Follow Kabir on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube.

Meet Sami “Haxu” Hakala. He’s a talented multi-careerist who works a corporate job while also being a musician and coach. We struck up a conversation over LinkedIn, and I’m glad that we did. Here you’ll find his insights on how he’s built a hyphenated career that works for him.

Sami’s Careers

• Development Director at Housemarque, Finland’s oldest video game company
• Performing musician in National Nightmare, music producer, partner in Hawaji recording studio
• Owner of Exciting Outcomes; coaching high performance teams and individuals and organizing tactical training

On his motivations for many careers

Being able to work with the best creative and tactical teams and experts is my top motivation. I am continually amazed and motivated by their skill, capability and commitment to their crafts and that makes me try harder and develop myself not just as a professional but as a human being too. I am very grateful that I have been accepted to the quite small circles of experts in games, music and tactics.

On how long he’s had these careers

I played my first paid gigs in 1991. I think that counts? It has to.

[In]1998 I started in games as a sound designer and music composer.

I’ve been coaching companies and individuals for the past ten years in project and product management, agile transformations, even before Exciting Outcomes, but as a tactical training organizer I am a late bloomer. Been doing that now for five years at a level that counts.

Advice to aspiring multi-careerists

Try it out ASAP. You miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take.

Time is special. You don’t have an unlimited supply of it. You waste time, you waste life. How do you want to use your limited supply of life? I want to be creative and do fun projects with great people. This alone would count as a success in my books. Maybe this could be your motivation too to start?

Overcoming obstacles

I push all three to the max. I have learned you can have only one point of main effort. When I was younger I had problems with scheduling and managing my downtime resulting in bad quality. Dividing focus between several complicated and complex efforts was too much. Then you take a step back, go back to basics, kick your problems to the middle of the room to re-prioritize, find your way out of the chaos to a domain where you can make an impact and get on with it again.

On how careers are mutually beneficial

I bring everything that I learn from the tactical side and music to my work in video games. To mention a few I have consulted weapons and tactical movement in motion capture, I have helped writers to make military radio communications more realistic and obviously I have my small part in sound design and music too. I run all three with mission-command (auftragstaktik) and agile principles and that actually has made me quite good at coaching those principles into organizations in different industries. From games I bring attention to detail, project management, presentation skills, facilitation techniques, conflict resolution, etc. to other two careers.

On finding balance

My spouse for 29 years has always been supportive and encouraged me to take prudent risk with my ambitions. She has a challenging engineering job and purposeful hobbies, and to manage our time we synchronize a shared family calendar together. It’s mostly smooth sailing between a producer and an engineer.

On something wishes to have learned sooner

That it’s possible to achieve a great level of success, skill and personal satisfaction in multiple demanding careers. There was a time when I focused solely on day job career building and I was if not unhappy, quite unsatisfied. I didn’t record any music, didn’t have an active band, no game contracting, I stopped going to jujutsu. I learned comparatively late, but not too late, that being disciplined and actively choosing where to spend your life points makes fun experiences and great things happen in life.

Suggested reading

Being organized, disciplined and a good leader is the key for me so I’d like to recommend two modern classics:

• Get things done, by David Allen
• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink, and Leif Babin

Overcoming the stigma of multiple careers

This has never been a problem for me. Maybe some people have wanted me to prove my level of professionalism more than with just one career?

I think the tactical training was the hardest to enter as a newbie. It took time building trust in those circles (and for a good reason obviously) and getting people to participate in training sessions arranged by someone who doesn’t do it full time.

On his ultimate goal

While I enjoy accomplishments a lot I enjoy the journey the most. This took me a while also to learn about myself. My ultimate goal is to keep doing these things or other things I might find and learn in the future until old age stops me. Luckily there are many ways to scale these careers to fit old physique and energy. I just hope my mind stays relatively sharp.

On what to share with corporate colleagues

I think my colleagues would say that “Sharing information on your other careers is not a problem for you, Sami.” I am like those crossfitters; I will let you know about them and I am quite skilled at plugging them in the conversation in innovative ways.

Housemarque is very supportive to all kinds of personal pursuits and people here have very ambitious hobbies. That means we also discuss them a lot and draw inspiration to the games we make.

On how to sublimate ego at the day job

Here I’d like to quote myself; “After an arena show nothing beats household chores to keep you grounded in reality.” Having a normal family life is the key.

My day job at the Housemarque is not at all banal – we make AAA video games and after Sony bought the company we are now part of the Sony Studios family.

If anything, my other careers suffer from my “banal” office job ego.

A Day in the Life

Discipline, routines and time management are my “secret” weapon.

• 0600 Wake up, morning routine and commute/telecommute.
• 0645 Work starts with Development Director Daily, an 11 item checklist ranging from reading Slack messages to checking project statuses.
• 0700 Pre-booked focus work
• 0900 Meetings start at Housemarque, if not in a meetings, then focus work
• 1200 -1230 lunch
• 1230 Meetings or pre-booked focus work
• 1600 Daily Wrap Up 11 item checklist ranging from saving files to quick self reflection; what did I learn today?
• 1700 Break and exercise.
• 1900 Most weekday evenings; family time, National Nightmare promotion and music publishing, planning coaching and training sessions, band practice, reading/gaming, writing songs, relaxing and unwinding in good time before bed.

On Fridays I plan the following week with a checklist with tasks like “Book time for focus work” and most importantly, book time for recovery and reflection.

I also plan monthly goals for all careers. Helps to sync and prioritize them. I visualize everything into midterm timelines and long term roadmaps. Keeps me overexerting.

Quite many of my weekends are spent in a recording studio or at the shooting range or CQB houses.

Where to find Sami

• LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
• Housemarques newest game: Returnal, 85 Metacritic
• National Nightmares newest single “Witch”

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Kabir Sehgal is a Multi Grammy & Latin Grammy Award winner, as well as New York Times bestselling author.

Follow Kabir on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube.

Meet Dorie Clark. She’s a tremendous multi-careerist who is able to handle many professions. I’ve known her for years, and she’s indeed a friend. I always enjoy attending her “author dinners” where I meet interesting writers and thought leaders. Dorie is an impressive writer, too. I’m excited about her new book The Long Game: How to be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. I know you’ll enjoy the clarity of her thinking in her comments below.

Dorie’s Careers

• Author
• Professor (Duke University Fuqua School of Business)
• Musical Theater Writer
• Broadway Investor
• Keynote Speaker
• Online learning instructor (LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, Udemy, ExecOnline, CreativeLive, etc.)
• Consultant (for organizations)
• Executive coach (for individuals)

On her motivations for having multiple careers

In 2001 – on September 10, 2001, in fact – I was laid off from my first job. That showed me how precarious a ‘safe job’ can be. Since then, I’ve been keenly aware of the importance of hedging my bets via a portfolio career to limit risk (and also to open up new opportunities). I believe multiple income streams are the real path to career security.

Advice to aspiring multi-careerists

It can feel overwhelming to build multiple income streams at the same time, so I suggest focusing on only one new income stream per year. That enables you to devote the necessary time and attention to mastering it and getting it off the ground – and within a few years, you’ll still be able to build out several.

Overcoming obstacles

As one example, several years ago, I was interested in creating a year-long paid mastermind group. But masterminds are tricky to organize – a “chicken or the egg” situation where everyone wants to know who else is in the group before committing! I couldn’t get enough interest to officially launch one the first year, so I had to regroup and create a modified, two-person mastermind that was more like “mini” group coaching. That was frustrating, but the extra time enabled me to build my following further and identify new prospects, and the following year I was finally able to organize the mastermind group.

On how multiple careers are mutually beneficial

I think of it as a flywheel, where one activity helps draw in participants for your other aligned offerings. For instance, someone might read my book, and then decide to join one of my online programs, or sign up for private coaching. Or they might hear me speak at a conference, and then buy my book – or any combination! The secret is to have multiple offerings at multiple price points, so you can ‘meet people where they’re at.’

On balancing personal time

A concept I talk about in my new book The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World is ‘thinking in waves.’ There will be seasons where you’re focused on something – like a work project – very intensely. And that’s perfectly OK – as long as you eventually toggle back and shift your focus back to other areas, such as family or health, that you may have not have been focusing on during that time. It’s all about balance over the long-term, not in a particular week or month.

Something she wished she learned earlier

It took me a number of years to fully realize that it’s far more secure to have a career with many different clients and many different types of work, as compared to one ‘safe day job.’ (Which, in actuality, can be taken away at any time.)

Recommended Readings

I wrote a book a couple of years back called Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive. It was a deep dive into how to create new revenue streams through various activities like coaching, consulting, blogging, podcasting, creating online courses, and more, and I hope it might be helpful to folks considering their own portfolio careers.

Overcoming the stigma of multiple careers

Sometimes unenlightened people might think you’re a dilettante – but I’ve found that as long as you carry yourself with confidence, other people will generally accept how you want to be treated and act accordingly. 😉

On how you sublimate ego at a day job

Actors have been living this forever: just because your paycheck is from waitressing doesn’t mean it’s all you are. Our mantra needs to be that our self respect doesn’t come from a particular job, but from who we are as people.

A Day in the Life

• 8am – wake up and read the paper in bed
• 830am – coffee and more newspaper
• 9am – 1230pm – coaching calls, podcast interviews
• 1230-1pm – lunch
• 1pm-6pm – coaching calls, podcast interviews
• 6-7pm – gym
• 7pm – dinner
• 8pm – take a walk and call my mom
• 9pm – household chores
• 10pm – reading
• 1130pm – bed

***This is my recent ‘monastic’ schedule due to my book launch. It’s not actually preferred at all! I like a lot more white space in my days and will revert to that soon…but for now, I’m in launch mode to hopefully ensure the book will be successful.

Where to find Dorie

• LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Website

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Kabir Sehgal is a Multi Grammy & Latin Grammy Award winner, as well as New York Times bestselling author.

Follow Kabir on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube.