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by
Reid Hoffman
you have bugs, that there’s new development to do on yourself, that you will need to adapt and evolve.
for many people “twenty years of experience” is really one year of experience repeated twenty times.
Permanent beta is essentially a lifelong commitment to continuous personal growth.
Being better than the competition is basic to an entrepreneur’s survival.
it’s first, only, faster, better, or cheaper—it’s not going to command anyone’s attention.
They are able to finish the sentence, “Our customers buy from us and not that other company because …”
you are selling your brainpower, your skills, your energy.
the first step is being able to complete the sentence, “A company hires me over other professionals because …”
How are you first, only, faster, better, or cheaper than other people who want to do what you’re doing in the world?
What are you offering that’s hard...
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What are you offering that’s both rare...
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Instead, compete in local contests—local not just in terms of geography but also in terms of industry segment and skill set.
What we explain in this chapter is how to determine the local niche in which you can develop a competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage underpins all career strategy.
Your competitive advantage is formed by the interplay of three different, ever-changing forces: your assets, your aspirations/values, and the market realities, i.e., the supply and demand for what you offer the marketplace relative to the competition.
As Jim Collins put it, this is your hedgehog...what are you best at, passionate about, and can you build a sustainable economic engine?
Assets are what you have right now.
you need to articulate what you already have going for you—as
Soft assets are things you can’t trade directly for money. They’re the intangible contributors to career success: the knowledge and information in your brain; professional connections and the trust you’ve built up with them; skills you’ve mastered; your reputation and personal brand; your strengths
Hard assets are what you’d typically list on a balance sheet: the cash in your wallet; the stocks you own; physical possessions like your desk and laptop.
specifying, explicitly and clearly, what they are able to do because of those two years of experience.
Often it’s when you come in contact with challenges other people find hard but you find
easy that you know you’re in possession of a valuable soft asset.
A competitive edge emerges when you combine different skills, experiences, and connections.
Your asset mix is not fixed. You can strengthen it by investing in yourself—that’s
Start developing them.
inexperience tends to be energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to work and hustle in order to learn.
Turning weakness into asset
Aspirations and values are the second consideration.
Aspirations include your deepest wishes, ideas, goals, and vision of the future,
regardless of the state of the external world or your e...
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you should at least orient yourself
a compelling vision that acts as a pole star is a meaningful piece of a company’s competitive advantage.
Attracts and compels talent and teams to work
Aspirations and values are both important pieces of your career competitive advantage quite simply because when you’re doing work you care about, you are able to work harder and better.
But your aspirations are themselves shaped by your actions and experiences.
You remake yourself as you grow and as the world changes. Your identity doesn’t get found. It emerges.
Whatever your values and aspirations, know that they will evolve over time.
your skills, experiences, and other soft assets—no matter how special you think they are—won’t give you an edge unless they meet the needs of a paying market.
How badly do they need what you have to offer, and if they need it, do you offer value that’s better than the competition?
the success of all professionals—the start-up of you—depends on employers and clients and partners choosing to buy your time.
Markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked or how passionate you are about an aspiration:
If someone won’t pay you for your services in the career marketplace, it’s going to be a very hard slog. You aren’t entitled to anything.
Being in a position to ride them—making the market realities work for you
A good career plan accounts for the interplay of the three pieces—your assets, aspirations, and the market realities.
you’re not going to be most competitive unless your own passions and strengths are in play.
So evaluate each piece of the puzzle in the context of the others.
But it’s equally effective to place yourself in a market niche where your existing assets shine brighter than the competition’s.
it presumes a static world,
Deciding where you want to be in ten years and then formulating a plan for getting there might work if our environments were unchanging.
this philosophy presumes that fixed, accurate self-knowledge can be easily attained.
It’s unwise, no matter your stage of life, to try to pinpoint a single dream
just because your heart comes alive at a calling doesn’t mean someone will pay you to do it.
