Since I left corporate world to run my own business, one of the hardest questions I have to answer is 'what do you do?'. My answer usually involves describing a portfolio of strategy and consultancy work, workshops, speaking, making, and writing that span the fields of marketing, planning, content, and even into journalism. It probably says a lot for the overlapping areas of challenge and opportunity across these fields that my skills are considered to be applicable in such a broad range of areas. The downside is that it's hard to productise what I do, but I consider myself fortunate that I have plenty of paid stuff to do, and also that that my work involves such a breadth and variety that it is not only continually stretching and interesting, but that it somewhat defies a tight definition.
So I could really relate to this quote (below) taken from Miltin Glaser's fabulously rich Ten Things I Have Learned talk. Glaser descibes how he was listening to a radio interview with John Cage who, getting mildly irritated that at 75 he was repeatedly being asked about old age, said:
‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age. Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every day since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’
There's a lot to be said for defying definition.
HT to Swissmiss for the original link
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