Book of the Week: The Start-up of You
11 Jul 2014
Instead of reading about startups this week, I read The Start-up of You by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and PayPal mafia member and Ben Casnocha, some other guy. Since Reid created LinkedIn, most of the book is about professional development in trying to find your career path through leveraging your skills and professional network. I would have stopped reading the book if it told me to pursue my passion, but I’m glad the book mentions that most people don’t know their passion. Pursuing your passion is a lie. If you want to know the truth about passion I recommend So Good They Can’t Ignore You. Before people used to work at one company until they died, but this is no longer the case because of globalization and technology. You’re either going to be replaced by someone in India or by some piece of software written by someone in India. This book would be a good gift for someone a year or two from graduating college. It takes time for things to sink in and to put things into practice. ABZ Planning Plan A is what you are doing right now. Plan B is what you pivot to from A that is close enough to be an easier transition. Plan Z is when all else fails. Having a Plan Z let’s you tolerate more uncertainty and risk. The worst things could be if you fail. They also make it a point to differentiate uncertainty and risk. Things can be uncertain, but not risky. Some people are bothered by uncertainty, so they don’t jump on opportunities. In the startup world, there are pivots that companies make when the company takes on a new business direction to survive. Netflix went to movie rentals by mail to dvd subscriptions by mail to movies over the internet to producing their own content. Flickr used to be an online social game. Groupon used to be a platform for people to pledge support to social or civic causes. By treating your own development like a startup, you can achieve bigger and better things. Specifics are in the book. Networks
Three degrees is the magic number because when you’re introduced to a second- or third-degree connection, at least one person in the introduction chain personally knows the origin or target person.
The book covers networking quite a bit, which is expected from the LinkedIn connection. There are a lot of little things that make your network more valuable. One thing that makes networking is easier is offering value to other people first. Another thing is keeping in touch with the person instead of only hitting them up when you want something. Common sense things that other people don’t do, but you should do.
A company doesn’t offer you a job, people do.
Ultimately it is about people and their relationships with each other that allow them to do amazing things.