Some slash combinations coexist better than others. While this isn’t a rigid rule, I’ve noticed a common pattern—the idea of balancing something that isn’t very flexible or that requires physical presence with something that is portable, virtual, outsourceable, or able to be done in hourly increments. Remember the old menus in Chinese restaurants that allowed you to pick “one from column A” and “one from column B?” You can do that a bit with your career.

Think of column A activities as the Anchors, those things that require physical presence or are otherwise fixed in some way, and column B activities as the Orbiters, those things that can be done more flexibly. The key is to complement the parts of your life that aren’t too flexible with activities that are flexible. If you try to combine too many of the column A Anchors, things can start to fall apart. Adding up a bunch of Orbiters in column B is usually more manageable.

Designating something as an Anchor or an Orbiter doesn’t have anything to do with its importance to you or its priority in your life; it just means that the Anchor’s logistics are more fixed than the Orbiter’s, or that the Orbiter vocation is flexible enough to be done around the constraints of the Anchor.

The beauty is that the moment you think of how to move something from column A to column B, it becomes easier to add something else from column A. For example, if you work as a C.P.A., that job will likely move from column A to column B if you start telecommuting and serving your clients via e-mail and phone rather than reporting to an office each day.

Your Anchors and Orbiters

Try this: List the slashes you want to build your life around. See if there is a natural Anchor for column A, or at least something that at this point in time needs to be your Anchor. It could be the job through which you get your health insurance or steady income, or the place that requires you to show up at an office (or, for that matter, one that requires a lot of travel). Now see if any of your other slashes can go into column B; in other words, whether they can be designed to orbit the activity you put into column A. Typical column B slashes would be writing fiction or building Web sites, work that can be done anywhere and at any time of the day.

If you ended up with too many Anchors, see if you can figure out how to get an activity from column A to column B. You can move any A to the B column by turning it into something you do in a freelance, consulting, virtual, or part-time way—or if you delegate it to someone else. Even caring for your children, the ultimate column A Anchor, can move to column B if your partner stays at home or you have a nanny or other help at home.

The chart below includes some of the slash portfolios that have worked for subjects who were interviewed for this book.

RASHID SILVERA

fifty-nine, high school teacher/fashion model (see p. 129)

Column A—Anchor

Teaching is the anchor; it’s what he studied to do and it’s his core career.

Column B—Orbiter

Fashion modeling entered his life by chance, and he’s pursued that career in a way that works around the constraints of his teaching life.

Why It Works

Teaching is a career with a fixed schedule, a fixed location, and a guaranteed salary and benefits. With school days that end by mid-afternoon, ample vacations, and summers off, Silvera has been able to accelerate his modeling during those periods. Even though he’s missed out on some modeling opportunities, he says being unavailable has only made him more desirable to clients. Says Silvera, “It gave them something to figure out—how are we going to get this guy?”

How Long He’s Been Doing Both

More than twenty-five years.

NINA FINE*

singer-actor/real estate investor-property manager (see p. 144)

Column A—Anchor

The performing comes first and it’s what she considers her professional identity. She needs the freedom to travel for auditions and performances and wanted a money gig that complemented that.

Column B—Orbiter

Fine got into real estate after buying her own home in Philadelphia and seeing the opportunity to buy slightly distressed homes, fix them up, and rent them out. When she inherited a little nest egg, she put it all toward her first investment house. Four years later, she now owns about ten houses. For now, the rent covers expenses with some profit, but she hopes to grow the business substantially by selling the properties as they appreciate in value.

Why It Works

The combination is complementary on many levels. Fine is convinced that the only way to really build wealth is to have your money working for you even when you’re not present, which is a principle behind investing in real estate. Performing requires physical presence and is not flexible—when there’s an audition, rehearsal, or show, she has to be there. A lot of the work she does in real estate can be done on her own schedule or by someone else.

How Long She’s Been Doing Both

About six years.

*Actors don’t reveal their ages!

GEOFF

thirty-six, lawyer/actor-director (see p. 62)

Column A—Anchor

His work in the theater comes first and is what he thinks of as his career, even though his first educational training was as a lawyer.

Column B—Orbiter

He works about thirty hours a week for a law firm, researching and writing legal briefs.

Why It Works

Geoff has to be present during rehearsals and performances so he needed to find part-time work that didn’t require his physical presence. His legal work is completely flexible and portable; he can do it pretty much anywhere on the planet as long as he has Internet access. An added benefit: he’s able to work as an artist but with a lot of the comforts of a lawyer’s salary. Now that he’s established in his legal career, he has started to notice another advantage of working at the law firm—relationships with people who could become patrons of his theater company.

How Long He’s Been Doing Both

About nine years.

CAROLYN LANE

thirty-nine, Pilates instructor/art consultant/author (see p. 14)

Column A—Anchor

Her job at the gym is the anchor because it happens in a fixed location, on a fixed schedule.

Column B—Orbiter

All of her entrepreneurial endeavors—art consulting, writing, and private Pilates clients.

Why It Works

For a person with many different professional strands, it’s a comfort to have a base job that provides the security of a steady income and benefits. That’s Lane’s job at the gym. But since that only consumes thirty hours a week (and much of it in the very early morning hours), she has the rest of the day for research/writing at her home office, working with clients (private Pilates clients as well as art clients), visiting galleries, and anything else that comes up. She’s an entrepreneur with a cushion.

How Long She’s Been Doing Both

About five years.