I found out about my marketing director’s side business the way most business owners do—by accident. A mutual contact mentioned her newsletter, the one with several thousand subscribers that she had been running for two years without a word to me. My first reaction was exactly what you would expect from someone who signs the paychecks. I felt betrayed and a bit worried. Where was that energy going? Whose time was she building it on? How long until she quits?
Then I remembered something inconvenient. I wrote my first book while working for someone else. My research happened on weekends. I wrote the drafts at 5 a.m. The ambition and ideas behind it happened everywhere, all the time, including at my desk. My employer never knew until the book deal was announced.