WRITING

My Employer Better Not Discover My Side Hustle

Why I quietly maintain my writing habit

Writing is my side hustle. It's a secret I don't advertise.

In the beginning, I did tell my family as I was pleased with myself and got them to read a few of my stories, but as usual, the people whose opinion you care about most can be your best and worst critics. Anyway, they've not asked me about it since, so I am quietly writing. And writing quietly.

It's not a big deal. I read on Medium, comment, follow people and write.

Many writing-related stories on Medium suggest you share with LinkedIn and Twitter to grow your audience. That's not for me. Not yet, and probably never.

I like the fact my audience is invisible and anonymous.

How would my vast network of professional contacts react to me reinventing myself as a writer, sharing personal stories about my failings, dreams, disasters and frustrations? I'm not ready to share that level of information with the people I work with.

My employer is a male-dominated environment, a conservative, old-fashioned business. If they read my stories, it would change how I am perceived. I would become transparent. Some things are best kept hidden.

It would be different if I suddenly proclaimed myself an expert in Leadership, Coaching or some such self-improvement subject. But I'm not trying to sell my services as a consultant or motivational speaker.

A friend has just released her second professional book on a subject she is clearly passionate about and gets invited to speak at events. She has worked hard to build it from a side hustle as a successful business. To do that, she laid herself bare with her network of peers and past and present colleagues. If it had failed, it would have been obvious. She would have been judged. I'm envious of the guts she needed to do that.

It might also be different if I was a fictional writer or a poet, letting the words flow onto the page like musical notes from the dark recesses of my brain. How I wish I had the imagination to let rip and see where it led. I would share that, and I would be proud of it.

So writing here will be my secret, under the radar for now. With you as my sole audience, I feel safe.

I’ll go unnoticed and uncriticised until I feel accomplished and successful enough to declare myself 'A Writer' to people I know.

For fear of judgement.

Until I am proud.