The Start-up of You

by Hoffman, Reid; Casnocha, Ben

• ISBN13: 9780307888907
• ISBN10: 0307888908
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-14
• Publisher: Crown Currency

Summary

A revolutionary blueprint for navigating the new world of work Today, the career escalator is jammed at every level. Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Wages are virtually stagnant. Global competition for jobs is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over; job security doesn’t exist. Here, LinkedIn co-founder and chairman Reid Hoffman and author Ben Casnocha reveal a revolutionary new blueprint for how to survive and thrive in this new career landscape. How? By learning to thinking and act like an entrepreneur. In other words, the secret to moving up that jammed escalator, they say, is to run your career like it’s a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you. Why? Start-ups and entrepreneurs are nimble. They are innovative. They invest in themselves. They are self-reliant, yet build strong networks to amplify their strengths. They assess the needs of their target customers. They leverage their competitive advantages in the marketplace. These are the very same skills needed to get ahead in today’s fractured world of work. You will learn the best practices of some of the most successful start-ups on the planet, and how these entrepreneurial strategies can be applied to your career. Because whether you work for a giant multinational corporation, a mid-size company in a rural city, or a two-person operation run out of a garage, you need to know how to: -Launch career plans in conditions of tremendous uncertainty – and be nimble enough to iterate on these plans quickly if current ones aren’t working -Invest in your assets and establish a competitive advantage -Capitalize on breakout opportunities – and effectively manage the risk inherent in those opportunities -Develop genuine relationships and map these relationships into an effective professional network. -Tap your network for the information and intelligence that will lead to you smarter career decisions -And much more A groundbreaking guide to flourishing in the world we live in today, the Start-Up of Youempowers each one of us to be the founder of and CEO our own career, and take control of our professional future.

Author Biography

REID HOFFMAN is an entrepreneur and investor. In 1998, Reid Hoffman was a founding Board member and executive vice president of PayPal. In 2003, he co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service. He was an angel investor in Facebook and Zynga, and in 2009, he became a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. He currently serves on the boards of Airbnb, Apollo Fusion, Aurora, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Gixo, Microsoft, Nauto, and Xapo, as well as not-for-profits Kiva, Endeavor, CZI Biohub and Do Something. He hosts Masters of Scale, an original podcast series. He is also the co-author of two New York Times best-selling books: The Start-Up of You and The Alliance. He is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow, a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, and a graduate of Stanford University.
 
BEN CASNOCHA is an award-winning entrepreneur and author. He has written for Newsweek and appeared on CNN, the CBS Early Show, and Fox News. BusinessWeek named him one of "America's best young entrepreneurs.” He has spoken to more than ten thousand students and businesspeople in countries around the world.

Table of Contents

All Humans are Entrepreneurs	p. 1
The New World of Work	p. 4
Why the Start-Up of You	p. 8
Why Us?	p. 9
Why the Urgency?	p. 12
Sixty to Zero	p. 14
Detroits Are Everywhere	p. 17
The Path to the Future	p. 19
The Start-up of You Mind-set: Permanent Beta	p. 21
The Start-up of You Skill Set	p. 23
Develop a Competitive Advantage	p. 25
Three Puzzle Pieces Inform Your Direction and Competitive Advantage	p. 30
Your Assets	p. 31
Your Aspirations and Values	p. 33
The Market Realities	p. 36
Fit the Pieces Together	p. 38
All Advantages Are Local: Pick a Hill That Has Less Competition	p. 41
Plan to Adapt	p. 47
Adaptive Start-Ups, Adaptive Careers	p. 52
Abz Planning	p. 58
Plan A: Almost Ready, Aim, Fire, Aim, Fire, Aim, Fire…	p. 64
Plan B: Pivot as You Learn	p. 68
When to Pivot: To Pursue Upside or Avoid Downside	p. 70
Where to Pivot: To an Adjacent Niche, Something Different but Related	p. 74
How to Pivot: Start It on the Side	p. 75
Plan Z: Jump on Your Lifeboat and Regroup	p. 76
It Takes A Network	p. 81
IWe (I to the We): You and Your Team	p. 86
Context Matters: Relationship Building in Professional Life	p. 88
Build Genuine Relationships	p. 91
The Structure and Strength of Your Existing Network	p. 96
Professional Allies	p. 97
Weak Ties and Acquaintances: Expand the Breadth of Your Network	p. 104
Your Extended Social Network: Second- and Third-Degree Connections	p. 110
The Best Professional Network: Cohesive and Diverse	p. 118
How to Strengthen and Maintain Your Network	p. 121
In Touch and Top of Mind	p. 125
Navigate Status Dynamics When Dealing with Powerful People	p. 131
When to Let Go	p. 136
Pursue Breakout Opportunities	p. 141
Mind on Fire: Be Curious	p. 147
How to Find and Generate Career Opportunities	p. 149
Court Serendipity and Good Randomness	p. 149
Connect to Human Networks: Groups and Associations of People	p. 153
Do the Hustle	p. 162
Take Intelligent Risks	p. 173
Assessing and Managing Risk	p. 177
Pursue Opportunities Where Others Misperceive the Risk	p. 182
Short-Term Risk Increases Long-Term Stability	p. 185
Who You Know is What You Know	p. 193
Navigate Professional Challenges with Network Intelligence	p. 196
How to Pull Intelligence from Your Network	p. 199
Pose Questions to Your Entire Network	p. 203
Target Direct Questions to Specific Individuals	p. 204
Ask Good Questions	p. 207
Occasion Serendipity	p. 210
Synthesize Information into Actionable Intelligence	p. 212
Conclusion	p. 221
Connect with Us	p. 227
Further Reading	p. 229
Acknowledgments	p. 237
Notes	p. 239
Index	p. 249
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