Glossary

The 9-to-5 Cure Equation—A blueprint for a groundbreaking career strategy that combines Lifestyle Design with the Patchwork Principle for lasting personal and professional freedom and success.

balance—The sense of stability individuals experience when they determine what factors are relevant to them and to what extent they give each priority.

beginner’s mind—Derived from Zen Buddhism, an openness to new ideas, free from assumptions or foregone conclusions.

business identity—Visual aids developed for a client to illustrate and define a business and the products or services offered.

career myopia—Loss of function in a person’s imagination that results from an inordinate amount of time spent focusing on work life; a narrow field of vision fixated on surviving instead of thriving.

consultant—An employment classification assigned to an individual with specialized skills who is hired to complete or provide insights about a specific project.

crowdsourcing—The act of outsourcing micro tasks to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call [to work]. Individuals perform narrowly defined tasks in exchange for per-piece payment.

cultural skills—The skills needed to interact with various business communities, each of which has its own unique values, norms, assumptions, acceptable behaviors, and tangible artifacts.

cure—A complete or permanent solution or remedy.

Eagle Eye approach—The Patchworker job search strategy in which the individual carefully analyzes a potential territory, identifies key opportunities, methodically researches to learn more about the organization, and then crafts a pitch that proposes a customized solution.

elevator speech—A compelling overview of what an individual can offer to a potential employer that the individual can present succinctly enough to take place during a short elevator ride. Also known as a personal positioning statement.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)—A person’s ability to manage his or her own emotions and the emotions of others.

employee—An employment classification assigned to an individual with a regular and ongoing commitment from an employer.

Employee Identification Number (EIN)—A federal identification number assigned to a business that is used for paperwork filing and is required to receive payment from an employer; it is used in much the same way that a Social Security number is used by the traditional employee.

evaluation—The final step in the fishing process, in which the Patchworker sizes up opportunities and determines how closely they align with the priorities that matter most.

expert skills—Skills to which a person has dedicated 10,000 hours, either in concentrated amounts or in small chunks over the course of a lifetime.

fishing—To cast out inquiries in search of job leads. The four basic steps include reflection, observation, identification, and evaluation.

flow—Completely focused motivation in which emotions are positively aligned with the work being performed.

free range—Having the freedom to work outside of the constructs of an office cubicle.

Freelance Dance—Refers to the pace and predictability of a Patchworker’s career and lifestyle, determined by how they choose to schedule work performed for multiple employers and likely in multiple position types.

Gigaverse—The bleak employment arena of a gigger.

Gigonomics—A career approach adopted by a once upwardly mobile workforce, known as giggers, in which individuals complete an ongoing series of gigs (such as freelance projects) that they “stitch together” in order to make ends meet.

identification—The third step in the fishing process, in which the Patchworker focuses on finding work that is both enjoyable and a good fit with their lifestyle framework.

independent contractor—An employment classification assigned to an individual hired to perform a specific function in an at-will capacity.

inspirational skills—Those abilities associated with securing work, maintaining it, and generating future business with the same client.

interpersonal skills—Those abilities attributed to interacting well with others.

Kaizen—A continual process that marks forward progress. Translated from Japanese, Kaizen means “improvement” and in a business context means “continuous improvement.”

Lifestyle Design—A framework that prioritizes an ongoing quality of life over waiting until retirement to pursue one’s wildest dreams.

location independent—A lifestyle choice that values the ability to move from one geographic location to another at will without it compromising one’s work.

micro task—A crowdsourcing term used to describe small tasks that workers choose to do in exchange for per-piece payment. Examples include image tagging, image sorting, and data transcription.

mobile crowdsourcing—Micro task outsourcing that workers complete by using their cell phones.

mobile money—A crowdsourcing term that describes the compensation paid to workers in the form of credits redeemable for local currency or cell phone airtime.

momentum—Success that builds on itself, leading to results with ever-increasing ease. Within the context of the Patchwork Principle, it is a dynamic form of client building.

multibranding—Coming to the marketplace with a portfolio of individual brands, in which each brand has its own image.

No-Vacation Nation—A term used to describe the United States, which is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation.

observation—The second step in the fishing process, in which the Patchworker strategically looks for and identifies unadvertised and unrecognized opportunities.

operational skills—The skills needed to interact productively with clients, including those who help you to sustain your business, and the employees in each of the key administrative offices at the organizations you work with.

The Patchwork Principle—A freelance career strategy based on the simple idea that working for a number of employers simultaneously presents unique business opportunities and insulates an individual from sudden and total job loss. Enjoyable work in abundance is the signature of this business model.

Patchworker—A freelancer who selectively accepts work based on lifestyle factors that they determine to be personally important.

Patchworker mindset—The mentality of a mindful entrepreneur, committed to operating a successful business within the parameters of lifestyle design.

pitch—The proposition a Patchworker makes to a potential employer.

The plug—A temporary, full-time, or part-time position born of a recent change within an organization due to a staff member’s sudden departure.

The quick fix—An ad hoc position created with a well-defined purpose in mind. This position typically includes project-based work that is generally founded on immediacy.

re-entry shock—The phenomenon associated with individuals distancing themselves from a familiar environment and then coming back to it with new experiences for a unique perspective on familiar surroundings. Also known as reverse culture shock.

reflection—The first step in the fishing process, in which the Patchworker decides what kind of work he or she wants to find.

reverse outsourcing—An arrangement in which overseas companies hire American workers.

Seagull Scavenge approach—A Patchworker job search strategy in which the individual searches for opportunities among a wide array of businesses, getting the word out about themselves to a large number of decision makers in hopes that opportunities will present themselves.

soft skills—Interpersonal skills such as coaching, teaching, motivating, negotiating, leading, and socializing that enable a person to effectively interact with others.

The stand-in—A previously full-time position that is eliminated on one side of the books and added back in on the other side but without benefits and other costly perks.

The star—A position providing the Patchworker with an opportunity to perform a specialized task on an ongoing basis, for which the Patchworker charges a premium.

Survivalnomics—A desperate economic reality that people readily accept as the norm, whereby both employers and employees struggle to survive in a zero-sum business environment in which both parties are in a perpetual state of fight or flight and believe they must constantly prove themselves in the workplace if they are to survive.

telecommuter—An employee who works from a remote location, such as a home office.

thrive—To take hold of one’s dreams in a literal sense; to prosper.

Type A personality—A theory describing a person who is often considered to be a high-achieving workaholic, who multitasks, drives himself or herself with deadlines, and is unhappy about delays.

Type B personality—A theory describing a person who is often considered to be patient, relaxed, and easygoing; generally lacking a sense of urgency.

Unretirement Index—A survey tracking the number of people who continue to work after becoming eligible for full retirement benefits.

Virtual Assistant (VA)—An entrepreneur who provides support services from a remote location. Services typically include general office support such as reception, executive assistance, word processing, and typing or specialized support such as bookkeeping, advertising, or paralegal services.

visualization—The idea of deliberately and carefully crafting an objective and then focusing one’s energy and thoughts on that goal in order to achieve it.

The walk-on—A part-time or full-time position that a company creates on a trial basis.