The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

by Reid Hoffman

shared experience

the interests and values that led ev...

Third, there’s geographic density.

Collaboration happens best when information and ideas can bounce quickly to and from all the interested parties, ideally in the same physical place.

Fourth, there’s a strong ethos of sharing and cooperation.

West Coast entrepreneurs were inclined to share their discoveries with others, even with competitors, in the spirit of collective progress.

high-quality people, a common bond, an ethos of sharing and cooperation, concentrated in a region and industry.

the only thing better than joining groups is starting your own.

Steven Johnson says, “Chance favors the connected mind.”

Connect your mind to as many networks

you’ll be one step closer to spotting and seizing those game-changing opportunities that ...

These situations call for the most entrepreneurial opportunity-generating strategy of this chapter: hustle.

This ethos is what we mean when we talk about hustle, and your ability to do it well can comprise a competitive advantage.

When you have no resources, you create them. When you have no choice but to fight, you fight hard. When you have no choice but to create, you create.

Definition of hustle

the “less money you have, the fewer people and resources you have, the more creative you have to become.”

whatever it’s called, it’s the entrepreneurial way to create opportunities for yourself in tough times.

the more you hustle, the more second nature it becomes.

Find a way to vault past them by getting introductions to people who can say ‘yes.’

Breakout opportunities come and go—if you don’t seize them, you lose them.

You may be tempted to “keep your options open” and continue to mull things over, as opposed to committing to the breakout you think you’ve identified or generated.

That would be a mistake. “Keeping your options open” is frequently more of a risk than committing to a plan of action.

Many failures in results can be chalked up to people trying to keep their options open.

Be confident, mostly right, and decisive...waiting is certain death, especially for a startup

making a decision reduces opportunities in the short run, but increases opportunities in the long run.

you have to c...

specific opportunities as part of an i...

“Risk” in a career context is the downside consequences from a given action or decision, and the likelihood that the downside actually occurs.

what sets the great entrepreneurs apart from the pack is not a high tolerance for risk per se,

but their ability to judiciously assess and manage it.

They strategically pursue only those ...

with enough upside to justify the poss...

“[I]f you are not genuinely pained by the risk involved in your strategic choices, it’s not much of a strategy,”

If you don’t have to seriously think about the risk involved in a career opportunity, it’s probably not the breakout opportunity you’re looking for.

Inaction is especially risky in a changing world that demands adaptation

Rather than avoiding risk, if you take intelligent risks, it will give you a competitive edge.

here are a few principles to keep in mind to help you evaluate how risky an opportunity really is, and how you manage the risk that does exist.

it’s probably not as risky as you think.

The first step is to remind yourself that the downside of a given situation is probably not as bad, or as likely, as it seems.

Is the worst-case scenario tolerable or intolerable?

most simply tried to get a handle on a single yes-or-no question:

Could they tolerate the outcome if the worst-case scenario happened?

ask of a possible opportunity is, If the worst-case scenario happ...

in the...

the worst-case scenario is ...

something otherwise career-ending, don’t ac...

as long as you have a solid and reliable Plan Z in place,

you will still be in the game, and should be open to taking on that risk.

Can you change or reverse the decision midway through?...

So when assessing a risk, if you realize you made a mistake, could you reverse your decision easily?

Could you get to a Plan B or Plan Z relatively quickly?

If the answer is no, the opportunity is riskier and should be approa...