Concept
Shadow Career
A shadow career is Steven Pressfield's term, in Turning Pro, for work that sits next to our real calling, uses some of its skills and pays some of its rewards, but spares us its risk, such as editing other people's novels instead of writing one.
Pressfield's examples are familiar: the would-be novelist who becomes an editor, the would-be founder who becomes the adviser founders call, the would-be filmmaker who spends years in the business around films. A shadow career is often a good career, and the people in one usually work hard. What it avoids is exposure: someone else's name is on the work that might fail. Pressfield reads it as Resistance in its most sophisticated form, because it keeps us busy next to the real work instead of stopping us outright. Two cautions apply. Not every adjacent career is a shadow; many people find their real calling in editing, advising or teaching, and the test is what the person wants. And seeing a shadow career rarely calls for resigning. Most people move to their real work by giving it fixed hours alongside the job they already have.
A real-life example
A tax consultant in Konya who has advised restaurant owners for ten years notices that she envies, rather than admires, a client who opens a second café. She takes out the café concept she sketched years ago and books Saturday mornings to test its menu in a friend's kitchen, while keeping her practice.
How to use it
- 1Write the work you are admired for beside the work you once wanted to do, and compare their skills and their risks.
- 2Notice envy toward peers who do the real thing, and treat it as information rather than as a mood.
- 3Give the real work fixed hours alongside your job before you consider any change of job.