Serendipity and portfolio careers

Serendipity - that lovely word that describes making fortunate discoveries by accident, seems to have been happening a lot since I embarked on a portfolio career. I'm beginning to think being open to serendipitous occurrences is an important factor is making a success of things.

Since I started combining freelancing, project work, consultancy and teaching I've developed a more adventurous attitude. I now have the freedom to say 'yes' to things that when I was in full time employment, was more difficult. This has undoubtedly led to meeting a diverse range of new clients and inspiring new colleagues. It has also added a richness to my work, excitement to my day and is great for making me feel motivated. For example, at a yoga class of all places, I met a fantastic new colleague who I have since been working with to develop a range of teaching and learning resources to promote the work of a brilliant charity raising awareness of forced marriage and dishonour-based violence. It was purely the result of polite small talk that led to me mentioning by background in citizenship education - the exact area she was looking someone to write some resources for.

This hasn't been the only citizenship-related coincidence lately. For the last term I've been doing some voluntary at the Learning Zone at homelessness charity, Crisis. A few weeks ago the charity happened to conducting consultations on client involvement, which has lots of opportunities for developing citizenship skills of discussion, debate and expressing opinions, so I was easily able to help out with and it was a useful exercise for reflecting on how organisations approach this type of work, which in turn may inform other work I'm involved in.

Through a variety of channels, including volunteering with a local community action project, I've also found that I'm coming across plenty of other portfolio careerists who are choosing to combine different ways of earning a living and reaping the rewards of the flexibility and diversity it brings. These chance meetings all add to a sense of being part of a community of like-minded individuals which I think is important when you're not part of a traditional office.

I've even been bidding for work drawing on my writing and editing skills, only to discover further down the line when meeting clients that the area of work in question just happens to be even more closely linked to areas of interest in community involvement and education, than I had first realised. Such coincidences have led to further research and project management opportunities.

I'm often surprised by some people I come into contact with who are reluctant to try new things, have a tendency to automatically say no to new experiences or shy away from things outside of their comfort zone. It's in deliberately not being like this that serendipity seems to befall people and I can honestly say from experience, when it happens it's exhilarating and almost always leads to new and exciting experiences. So go on, be brave, do something different today!