When Charles Handy Met Elon Musk (In Theory)

Back in the late 1980s, when floppy disks were still cool and the Berlin Wall was just about to fall, the late-great Irish management thinker Charles Handy predicted that the future of work would look very different.  In his seminal book The Age of Unreason, Handy argued that traditional careers - those neat, linear journeys from intern to corner office - would give way to something much messier, more flexible, and more exciting: the portfolio career.

A portfolio worker, Handy explained, would be someone who cobbled together a professional life from different roles, projects, and interests - think consultant by day, novelist by night, and part-time beekeeper on weekends.  Fast-forward to 2025, and it’s tempting to look at Elon Musk and declare: “Ladies and gentlemen, the portfolio worker has arrived.”

Only, as it turns out, even the most turbocharged portfolio worker can run out of road.

The Many Hats (and Helmets) of Musk

Elon Musk has built a career - and a persona - on doing what most mere mortals would consider impossible.  At one point, he was simultaneously running Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly known as Twitter), Neuralink, and The Boring Company.  And then, in a plot twist that Charles Handy might have found equally fascinating and hilarious, Musk joined the Trump administration as head of the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (yes, DOGE).

DOGE was Musk’s latest attempt to drag the slow-grinding wheels of bureaucracy into the age of rocket ships and memes.  His remit: make government work like a startup. What’s the phrase?  Move fast and break things.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, Tesla’s Q1 2025 earnings.  They were, to use the technical term, not great.  Net profits fell 71% to $409 million, revenue slid 9% to $19.3 billion ($2 billion below expectations), and investors began quietly muttering things like “distracted," “overstretched,” and “maybe lay off the Twitter fights.”

Cue Musk’s announcement: he’s scaling back his DOGE duties to one or two days a week to refocus on Tesla.  In other words, he’s rebalancing his portfolio.

Handy’s Theory: Working Like an Investor

Naturally, Charles Handy didn’t have Elon Musk in mind when he came up with the idea of a portfolio worker, but the analogy fits eerily well.  Handy argued that just as a financial investor diversifies assets to spread risk and seize opportunity, a worker could also diversify their career.

You might be a part-time teacher, freelance writer, mentor, and advisor to a startup, each role giving you different types of rewards -money, meaning, flexibility, or creative satisfaction.  The idea was to treat your working life more like an investment strategy than a job description.

Musk?  He took that literally.  Instead of dabbling in hobbies, he went all-in on multiple full-time CEO gigs, threw in some public infrastructure tunnelling for spice, and topped it off with political advisory.  He didn’t just build a portfolio career but a portfolio universe.

When the Portfolio Gets Too Heavy

Here’s the catch, and it’s one that Handy hinted at: portfolio careers work best when they’re sustainable.  For most people, that means balancing work with life, not letting one gig cannibalise another, and being honest about time and energy constraints.

Musk, who appears to operate on a different circadian rhythm than the rest of us, seemed immune to those rules – perhaps until now. Tesla’s wobble, investor jitters, and acknowledgement that he needs to “refocus” suggest that even the most ambitious portfolio needs the occasional audit.

The lesson?  Diversification is good.  Dilution is not.

What This Means for the Rest of Us

You don’t have to be a billionaire genius with an appetite for flamethrowers to live a portfolio life.  In fact, millions already are.  The gig economy, hybrid roles, and the rise of remote and flexible work have made portfolio work possible and often necessary.

A graphic designer might take on agency work, sell templates online, and teach a class once a week.  A lawyer might consult for startups, sit on a nonprofit board, and write a Substack newsletter on the side.  The key isn’t the number of roles - it’s the intentionality behind them.

Musk’s course correction is a timely reminder that even the most exciting work buffet can lead to burnout if you keep piling on the options.  And just as a savvy investor periodically rebalances their financial portfolio, smart portfolio workers need to reassess priorities, energy levels, and impact.

The Comic Relief (and a Serious Point)

There’s something inherently comedic about a man who runs a rocket company deciding he’s also the guy to fix government spreadsheets.  But there’s also something admirable. Musk’s willingness to tackle big problems across vastly different sectors is the purest form of portfolio thinking: solving problems where they exist, not where tradition says you belong.

Still, even polymaths have to sleep - or at least delegate.

In his typically understated way, Handy might have simply said: “There is a difference between a portfolio and a pile.”

Zooming Out: The Cultural Shift Toward Multiplicity

What Musk’s story reveals - and what Handy foresaw - is a broader cultural shift in how we define success, identity, and career ambition.  We no longer live in a world where status is solely conferred by title or tenure.  Influence is increasingly measured by versatility, the ability to straddle different domains, and the skill to reinvent oneself continually.

Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, are embracing the portfolio mindset –not because they want to juggle endlessly, but because they seek meaning, autonomy, and agency over how they spend their time.  Many reject the “one job, one identity” model in favour of a constellation of interests that evolve.

This trend is reshaping not just careers, but companies too.  Employers are starting to recognise that retaining great people may require allowing them space to pursue side projects, passion initiatives, or consulting work on the side.  The portfolio mindset is no longer a fringe concept; it’s becoming embedded in the very structure of modern work.

Conclusion: Rebalancing the Future

Elon Musk stepping back from DOGE to refocus on Tesla isn’t just a business decision. It’s a case study in how the portfolio career, while exhilarating, demands discipline.  Charles Handy’s remarkable insights, penned nearly four decades ago, are more relevant than ever.

As work becomes less about job titles and more about value creation across contexts, the challenge for each of us is to construct a working life that’s coherent, fulfilling, and effective.  For Musk, that might mean putting down the political pitchfork and picking up the Tesla roadmap.  For the rest of us, it could mean a thoughtful mix of projects that light us up without burning us out.

So next time you’re tempted to add one more thing to your calendar, channel your inner Charles Handy - and ask if you’re managing a portfolio or just hoarding chaos.

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