More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Reid Hoffman
They are told to do a business they’re passionate about, but also to adapt to customer needs.
The successful ones do both.
They are flexibly persistent: they start companies that are true to their values and vision, yet they re...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
its founders were in constant motion early on, tried many things to see what would work, and nimbly shifted their plans based on what they learned.
thoughtfully tapping her connections to find the next opportunity,
she evaluated new opportunities as they presented themselves, taking into consideration her (ever-growing) set of intellectual and experiential assets.
“The reason I don’t have a plan is because if I have a plan I’m limited to today’s options,”
Have a plan and contingencies...expect to deviate, build flexibility into your plan
while entrepreneurial companies and people are always evolving, the choices they’re making are disciplined,
There is real planning going on, even if there are no firm plans.
It is an adaptive approach to planning that promotes trial and error.
It’s a process as important for someone in their forties or fifties as for a newly minted college grad.
you will always be planning and adapting.
Plan A is what you’re doing right now. It’s your current implementation of your competitive advantage.
Plan B is what you pivot to when you need to change either your goal or the r...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Once you pivot to a Plan B and stick with it, that becomes your new Plan A.
Plan A is the plan in the current environment. Plan B is predictable contingency plans.
Plan Z is the fallback position: your lifeboat.
So what’s your certain, reliable, stable plan if all your career plans go to hell or if you want to do a major life change? That’s Plan Z.
The certainty of Plan Z is what allows you to take on uncertainty and risk in your Plans A and B.
Career plans should leverage your assets, set you in the direction of your aspirations, and account for the
market realities.
The best you can do is articulate educated hypotheses about each. “I believe I am skilled at X, I believe I want to do Y, I believe the market needs Z.”
you want to make explicit the things that need to be true for your plan to work.
These hypotheses should lead you to specific actions.
in the long run, the logic goes, a person with a foundation of knowledge and skills will make more money and most likely live a more meaningful life.
Unfortunately, for far too many, focused learning ends at college graduation.
They focus, in short, on hard assets instead of soft assets. This is a mistake.
much as you can, prioritize plans that offer the best chance at learning about yourself and the world.
Ask yourself, “Which plan will grow my soft assets the fastest?”
Even simpler: “Which plan offers the most learning potential?”
For careers, too, you don’t know what the best plan is until you try.
Learn by doing.
generate lessons that help you test your hypotheses against reality. Actions help you discover where you want to go and how to get there.
Iterate bit by bit, learn experience by experience. Start with a trial period. Keep your day job.
A goal that can be achieved in a single step is probably not very meaningful—or ambitious.
“If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find [a] predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification.”
The best thing to do is to think and plan two steps ahead.
If you’re unsure what your first, or even your second, step should be, pick a first step with high option value, meaning that it could lead to a broad range of options.
a good first step generates a large number of possible follow-on second steps.
Establish an identity independent of your employer, city, and industry.
This way, you’ll have a professional identity that you can carry with you as you shift jobs.
And because product management is vital in any product organization, work experience in the area tends to lead to more diverse career opportunities.
Example of first step with many available second steps
It’s changing direction or changing your path to get somewhere based on what you’ve learned along the way.
Plan B wasn’t something random, like an online chat application. It stayed true to PayPal’s initial encryption roots while shifting to capitalize on what appeared to be the real market need.
If you find that the grass really is greener somewhere else, go there!
An inflection point at your company or industry usually will require you to either
change your skills or change your environment.
In other words, it will often require...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Build up your soft assets and proactively embrace new technology
Instead of waiting for an inflection point to disrupt his career, Gaines adapted. Rather than try to preserve what has always been, Gaines parlayed his skills into new media. Throughout, he never lost sight of his competitive advantage
The best Plan B is different but very much related to what you’re already doing.
