The False Choice
Most career advice presents a choice: employment (stability but limited upside), freelancing (freedom but unstable), or products (ownership but risky). Pick one. Commit. That’s your path. But what if that’s wrong? What if the most sustainable approach is doing multiple things simultaneously? That’s the portfolio career approach: deliberately mixing different work models to create something more resilient than any single path.What Is a Portfolio Career?
You intentionally combine multiple income sources and work models. Employment + products. Consulting + teaching. Part-time role + full-time building. 2-3 retainer clients + product development. Each serves a different purpose. One for stability (base income, benefits). One for upside (higher rates, equity, ownership). One for learning (breadth or depth, depending on what you need). One for optionality (keeping skills fresh, building network). Together, they create resilience. If one fails, you’re not broke. If one becomes unsustainable, you have others. Each compensates for the weaknesses of the others. You’re not dependent on any single source.Why It Works
Resilience Through Diversification
Just like investing, putting all your eggs in one basket is risky. Single income source: Employment—one layoff and you’re unemployed. Freelancing—clients dry up and you’re desperate. Products—market shifts and revenue disappears. Portfolio approach: If you lose your job, you have consulting and products. If consulting slows down, you have employment base. If product fails, you have stable income to try again. No single failure destroys you.Balancing Tradeoffs
Every work model has tradeoffs. The portfolio approach lets you get the best of each. Employment provides stable income, benefits, colleagues and team, domain expertise, clear boundaries. Consulting provides higher rates (2-3x employment), variety of problems, flexibility, control over who you work with. Products provide ownership, uncapped upside, creative freedom, long-term asset building. Together, you get stability AND upside, depth AND breadth, people AND independence, salary AND equity potential.Reduced Desperation
The biggest advantage: you’re never desperate. When employment is your only income, you stay in bad situations too long, accept low offers, have limited negotiating power. When freelancing is your only income, you take clients you hate, can’t afford to say no, gap anxiety is constant. When products are your only income, you rush to monetize, make desperate decisions, can’t wait for product-market fit. With a portfolio, you can walk away from bad situations, say no to wrong-fit opportunities, be patient with products, build from abundance not desperation.The Three Main Portfolio Models
Model 1: Employment + Products
Full-time employed (40-50 hours/week), build products evenings/weekends (10-20 hours/week). Employment provides stable salary, benefits, colleagues, domain learning. Products provide ownership, upside potential, creative outlet, long-term asset. Best for: early in career (need stable income), risk-averse (want safety net), building domain expertise, anyone who needs benefits. Challenges: limited time for product, energy management, potential IP conflicts (check contract), slow progress can be frustrating. This is probably the most sustainable model for most people.Model 2: Consulting + Products
Consulting 20-30 hours/week (3-4 days), building products 10-20 hours/week (1-2 days). Consulting provides high hourly rate, flexibility, variety of problems, cash flow. Products provide ownership, upside potential, not trading time for money, long-term value. Best for: mid-career (established reputation), self-directed (good at finding clients), prefer variety over depth, want more control than employment. Challenges: client work expands to fill time, context switching is exhausting, hard to say no to lucrative consulting, requires discipline to protect product time. Works if you’re good at sales and boundaries. Otherwise consulting consumes everything.Model 3: Employment + Consulting + Products (Full Portfolio)
Part-time or full-time employment (primary income), occasional consulting (high-value only), products (long-term building). Employment provides base salary and benefits, colleagues and team, stability. Consulting provides extra income, variety, keep skills broad. Products provide ownership, upside potential, future optionality. Best for: established professionals (late career), strong network (consulting comes to you), high energy (can manage multiple things), want maximum optionality. Challenges: complexity (managing 3 different things), time management is critical, risk of doing everything poorly, requires excellent boundaries. This is where I’m headed at 37. We’ll see if it works.How to Build a Portfolio Career
Start with One Stable Base
Don’t try to build multiple income streams simultaneously from zero. Start with employment (most stable), or 2-3 retainer clients (if you have them), or existing product with revenue (rare). Then add one other income stream, test it, refine it, stabilize it, maybe add another. Don’t quit everything to build portfolio from scratch, try to juggle 5 things at once, or add new streams before stabilizing current ones.Protect Your Time Ruthlessly
Each component gets dedicated time. Employment: 40 hours/week. Products: 10 hours/week (specific days/times). Consulting: 5 hours/week (strictly limited). Set boundaries. Employment doesn’t bleed into product time. Consulting doesn’t expand to fill all available time. Products get consistent attention (even if just 5 hours/week). Use scheduling. Block time for each component. Treat product time like a meeting. Say no to anything that conflicts.Price Each Component Appropriately
Employment: negotiate for 4-day weeks if possible, or remote/flexible schedule. Value: stability and benefits. Consulting: charge 3-4x employment rate, only take interesting work. Value: high rates justify limited time. Products: don’t need immediate revenue (other income covers), can be patient finding product-market fit. Value: long-term upside.Let Each Component Support the Others
Employment supports products: stable income removes desperation, colleagues reduce isolation, domain expertise informs product ideas, benefits you don’t have to think about. Products support consulting: demo of your capabilities, marketing (building in public), expertise that commands higher rates, eventually might replace consulting income. Consulting supports products: cash flow for product development, real-world problems inform product direction, network for early users, keeps skills sharp.My Journey Toward Portfolio
What I’ve tried: Employment only (early 20s)—stable but limited upside. Freelancing only (late 20s)—freedom but exhausting. Products only (early 30s)—ownership but risky, when it collapsed entire income gone. Client work only (mid 30s)—more stable than freelancing but still all eggs in one basket. What I’m building now (37): Employment (interviewing now)—senior engineering role, stable base, colleagues, benefits. Products (building on side)—ownership, upside, because employment removes desperation. Consulting (maybe, selectively)—high-value only, interesting problems only, because I don’t need it. The thesis: employment provides stability I need at this life stage, products provide ownership and upside I want, consulting provides variety if I want it. Together: resilient, balanced, sustainable. The risks: might be too complex to manage, employment might consume all energy, product might not get enough attention, consulting might not materialize. We’ll see. I’ll share what I learn.When Portfolio Approach Doesn’t Work
Don’t do this if you’re building a venture-scale company (you probably need 100% focus, investors expect full commitment), you’re in a hyper-competitive market (your half-time effort won’t beat their full-time team), you’re early in career and need deep expertise (going deep matters more than staying broad), or you have low energy or poor time management (fix those first—portfolio approach requires discipline).Building Your Portfolio
Step 1: Assess your current situation. What do you have now? What do you need? What are you missing? Step 2: Choose your base. Most stable options: full-time employment, 2-3 retainer clients, existing product with revenue. Pick the one that covers your expenses, provides benefits if you need them, gives you stability, doesn’t consume all your energy. Step 3: Add one component. Don’t add multiple at once. If you have employment, add products or occasional consulting. If you have consulting, add products or part-time employment. If you have products with revenue, add part-time employment or selective consulting. Step 4: Test and refine. Give it 3-6 months. Is this sustainable? Are you doing quality work in each area? Are you managing energy well? Adjust accordingly. Step 5: Protect what’s working. Once you have a working portfolio, maintain boundaries between components, don’t let one consume everything, be ruthless about saying no, protect the balance.What Success Looks Like
You know your portfolio is working when you’re not desperate about any single income source, you can say no to bad opportunities, each component energizes different parts of you, you’re building both current income and future assets, losing one component wouldn’t destroy you, you’re sustainable long-term. You know it’s not working when everything feels chaotic, you’re doing all things poorly, one component is consuming everything, you’re constantly exhausted, nothing is getting real attention.My Current Experiment
Employment (primary, ~40h/week): senior engineering role, provides salary/benefits/colleagues/stability, goal is go deep in one area and financial security. Products (secondary, ~10h/week): building in public, provides ownership/learning/upside potential, goal is long-term asset and future optionality. Consulting (tertiary, ~5h/month): high-value only, interesting problems only, provides variety/extra income/network, goal is stay broad and supplement income. The thesis: this mix gives me stability (employment) + upside (products) + variety (consulting) = sustainable and resilient. We’ll see if it works. I’ll share what I learn, including if it fails.You don’t have to choose between stability and upside, between depth and breadth, between salary and equity. Build a portfolio that gives you multiple sources of value—and the resilience to weather anything.