The Capitalism Guide for Creators

Or the guide to juggling your side hustle and a full-time job.

I wouldn't say I like the idea of working a nine-to-five job. It’s stressful, especially when you factor in office politics. When I started working as a freelance content writer while in university, running my own literary media collective simultaneously, I told myself I wouldn’t work full-time post-law school. I still joke about this. I had no clue what the alternative would be. Sit at home and work on my short stories and novels? How would I have survived? Every day in the past seven years post-law school that I’ve made monthly income, it’s dawned on me that being a starving artist is not as romantic as it is in movies.

The actual alternative has been to use my full-time career to sponsor my creative engine — my passion projects, if you will. Lucky for me, I’ve also benefited from awards and scholarships that have funded my writing. In 2020, I was only able to attend the University of East Anglia (and write all the delicious stories I did during that time) because the Booker Prizes offered me a scholarship that also paid a monthly stipend and in 2022, I was a Miles Morland Scholar. A lot of creators find themselves in this position: needing a job or steady source of income to complement their creative hustle. Freelancing can be quite erratic, so most people, like me, turn to full-time capitalism.

I know but I’m not a trust fund baby.

While I still do not appreciate capitalism, I find comfort in the money, the structure, the routine, and the exposure to all kinds of people and experiences. Beyond the small tokens that come from creative work and before you blow the Sally Rooney or Chimamanda Adichie way, how do you survive? You get a job.

I started my career in media, and have since worked in legal, publishing, media, and tech, in junior and senior roles. I’ve also had opportunities to work in editorial and marketing capacities on several creative projects: festivals, book publishing, magazines, events, road tours, and more.

In this post-AWOL edition of my letter to you, I share a few things that have helped me manage a fairly successful nine-to-five career while also growing as a writer.

• If you’re at the start of your career, choose a career path that aligns with your interests or creative skills. If you’re a writer like me, then it’s probably a role in editorial, communications or marketing. But it could also be in employee experience or software development or even more conventional roles like becoming a lawyer or banker. Whatever path you choose, aim to be so good, you can make enough money quickly and retire.

• Follow the money. Work in a lucrative industry. I left the publishing industry because the money in that industry is concentrated in high-level (exec) roles that take you several decades to reach. I realised soon enough that my editing skills could be transferred elsewhere if I acquired a few more skills. So I picked up content writing, learned SEO, and project management, and got invested in tech and media. As creators, we’re often lucky to have great foundational skills such as storytelling. Sometimes, all it requires is to layer on your existing skills. For example, if you write, then you could consider learning content marketing and working in tech (even as a freelancer).

• Flexible work environments have helped me; I acknowledge that this is not necessarily a privilege that most people enjoy, especially if you work in the corporate world. In most of the startups I’ve worked in, I’ve been lucky to have managers and colleagues who supported my craft and often offered tips on how to structure my work better to have more mental and actual time to create. Flexibility also looks like checking to see what the company’s culture is; do they give you the side eye when you leave your desk exactly at 5 pm and do they frown on using your leave days? Are you okay to take your lunch break? Or do they frown on this? These are the issues.

• Define your work structure. If you don’t specify how you want to work your nine-to-five or how you want to create in your spare time, you’ll get sucked into the black hole of never doing the latter. This often happens to me. Sometimes, my work structure is waking up at 5 am to get some writing done and reading from 6 pm in the evening post-work (half of writing is reading). Other times, it’s vibes. Don’t be like me. Your creative engine is business and just as important as your full-time gig. Take it seriously and build a structure around it. 

• Consider a work environment or industry that exposes you to interesting people and opportunities. An interesting environment will fuel your creative juices.

• Use the rules of ‘capitalism’ to your advantage. Reading Expect to Win by Carla Harris re-emphasised the need for networking internally and externally. It’s not enough to do your work and go. You must be deliberate about doing more. In a different newsletter, I’ll probably share some of the insights from this book. 

• Set goals and pace yourself. I’ve set a three-year goal for myself. In three years, I must have completed a novel I’m proud of and a set of short stories. I’m pacing myself by giving myself this year to write at least four of those short stories and to complete half of the novel. I’m using Notion to keep track of the progress. It goes without saying that staying organised with productivity tools and setting deadlines will help you get ahead when balancing your passion project and a full-time job.  

• Be patient and get enough rest. It can be tempting to stay up late working on your side hustle, but sacrificing sleep can actually hurt your productivity in the long run. Make sure you're getting enough rest. Building a successful side hustle takes time. Don't get discouraged if you're not seeing immediate results. Keep working at it, and eventually, your hard work will pay off.

I hope you’ll find this useful if you’re a creative person with a passion project on the side, but also work a full-time job. 

What have I been up to?

It’s been a quiet four months. I’ve been reading, trying to survive capitalism and working on some important projects. One of which is not unrelated to this newsletter. For the last six months, I’ve been building ConTech Africa, a community for creators looking to transition into or grow in the tech industry. We provide scholarships, mentorship programmes, CV reviews and events that’ll help them improve in their role and access lucrative opportunities. My co-founder, Daniel Orubo, and I are building this because we realise that growing in your career can be difficult if you don’t know what you don’t know. The Nigerian unemployment rate is set to hit 40% this year—an increase from 20% in previous years. In our little way, we’re trying to solve it and make it easy for creators to find lucrative careers in tech.

Running a not-for-profit like this can be expensive, and we’re looking for donors to help. If you’re interested in supporting this passion project, feel free to reach out to me by replying to this email or by clicking this link. Thank you.

Recommended Reads

If you’re looking for enjoyable novels with a twinge of grief but with fairly happy endings, I recommend reading these two novels I read in March.

• Maame by Jessica George

• Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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I’m trying to write more newsletter editions — most of which will be really short. If you have anything you’d like me to write about, feel free to reach out to me. As always, all grammatical errors in the newsletter are solely mine. Till next time!