Portfolio Lights.

Last week I wrote about living a fairy lights life. It’s a more practical version of living than a fairy tale life, which exists mostly in our imagination. Golf and nature photography are two of my passions, and I love them as much as I love coaching and storytelling. That’s my portfolio life, one where you have multiple interests or careers that coexist peacefully and even support each other to grow. I love the colour that creates. It works well for folks like me who get bored doing the same thing for too long. The variety keeps us going. That’s why I’m still going to the gym a year and a half later. I honestly didn’t think I’d last this long, but the variety of workouts makes it bearable for me.

Folks, if you have more than one interest and are feeling pressure to focus on one, let me set you free by letting you know that we are not all focus people, as society tends to insist. Some of us thrive on having multiple interests across various fields; that’s what makes us come alive. Remove some interests or force us to choose one over another and the system malfunctions. We prefer life as a buffet to choose from, rather than a fixed menu.

This isn’t to be confused with hustling, which in Kenya means doing whatever you can get your hands on to make a quick shilling. Sometimes it may involve deceitful tactics, and the end game is money, not so much meaning. Living a portfolio life is doing a few things that, yes, may make you money but more importantly, serve a bigger purpose.

There are more portfolio people than we think. Maybe even some of you reading this are closeted portfolio folks masquerading as focus people on the outside. Alternatively, you could be a focus person by default; you took a path years ago, got good at it, and became known for it. Our long careers can feel like a trap when our identities are tied to them. That’s what makes activating other passions so awkward and transitions more difficult. We risk being seen as odd for stepping into something unrelated to what we’re known for, like a banker who decides to grow mangoes in Ukambani. Yet that itch (which often appears at midlife) cannot be ignored for too long.

I pick this up a lot in my coaching sessions when dealing with midlife transitions. I once coached an expatriate working with an NGO that supports local manufacturers. He was passionate about recycling waste that’s produced near the ocean and keeping marine ecosystems healthy. In addition to that, he was a member of a band that played in local joints on weekends. He would explain to me how those three occupations energised him to be the best version of himself; he couldn’t imagine choosing one over another. That’s what I call a beautiful life. It’s like a string of fairy lights, each bulb a different colour for a different passion, all lit up at once. Those colours illuminating our lives make it feel like one long disco. And I like discos, so power to the portfolio life hehe.

This week has been bittersweet. I’ve lost my mzee buddy Paresh Jai. That’s the bitter part. I met Paresh years back in golfing circles, and we became buddies. Little did I know that when I got into nature photography six years ago, I would bump into him again. He was a top photo printer in the region.

When I was shortlisted for the Benjamin Mkapa Wildlife Photography Contest in 2022, Paresh reached out to congratulate me. Since that time, we have met a couple of times at his office, where he would give me lessons on how to colour-correct my images before printing. He also gave me hacks on best practices when editing images, especially on colours. I didn’t even know that our laptops need yearly screen calibration to function optimally.  At our last meeting in April, he told me to upgrade my laptop because the one I had was incompatible with the software he needed to install. That’s the sweet part of this week: the value he poured into me and many other photographers. I wish I had recorded all the advice he gave me now that he is gone and I can’t randomly call him for tips. I feel like Paresh’s passing has confirmed the Mali proverb: when an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.

I’d never have thought that someone I know in one area of life would be of immense help in another unrelated area. That’s the beauty of life. When we discover other portfolio people just like ourselves and collaborate across various interests, our fairy lights can only get brighter. Clearly, Paresh was also a portfolio person, being a guru in golf and photo printing. Maybe he had other passions that I’m unaware of.

I particularly valued how cordial our interactions were in golf, working together to improve the game. That foundation made it easy for him to help me later, when I moved into photography, and I’m eternally grateful for it. Standing with him at the National Museum in 2022 with my chosen photo hanging on the wall between us was a moment I will cherish for a long time.

Folks, maybe the point here is to have the courage to activate our gifts and put them to use. In the process, we will meet new destiny helpers along the way or get support from folks we already know, only that they will show up differently. That’s what Paresh was: someone who was passionate about golf like I was and who shared a passion for bringing nature photography to life through quality prints. I feel like I had a two-in-one friend.

Folks, are there people in your life who are supportive of your current season? Could they also help you in your next season, since they’re multi-talented too and open to living it out? Try to find out who those are, if any. For me, it was a pleasant surprise as I had no idea that I’d find Paresh in yet another season of my life. Thank you for sharing so generously, Mzee. Your portfolio life may have ended, but the colours of it continue to shine on us through the fairy lights that you lit in us. Kwaheri.