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

by Reid Hoffman

So the first thing you want to ask of a possible opportunity is, If the worst-case scenario happens, would I still be in the game? If the worst-case scenario is the serious tarnishing of your reputation, or loss of all your economic assets,

or something otherwise career-ending, don’t a...

When it’s not clear how something will play out, many people avoid it altogether. But the biggest and best opportunities

frequently are the ones with the most question marks. Don’t let uncertainty lull you into overestimating the risk.

Warren Buffett has a mantra: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

You make money in the stock market when you believe something others do not.

“The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.”

Our educational system trains us to memorize facts stored in textbooks and then regurgitate them on an exam. This formal philosophy of learning treats knowledge like a fixed asset: learn, then you have it forever! But as a modern professional, you can’t acquire knowledge this way, because the knowledge you

need isn’t static—it’s always changing. You can’t cram your brain with all the relevant information that might possibly be relevant to your careers, then deploy it on exam day. In the world of work, every day is exam day—every day brings new, unpredictable challenges and decisions. Stockpiling facts won’t get you anywhere. What will get you somewhere is being able to access the information you need, when you need it.

What you get when you tap in to other people’s brains is called network intelligence.

For centuries, literacy meant the ability to read and write. Those who could read books—and write them—held the power in a society. Then the Internet came along and massively multiplied the amount of information created and

indexed on a daily basis. Power shifted to those who, in addition to being reading-writing literate, could also wade through billions of bits and find the best information online. Author John Battelle calls this search literacy—the ability to enter the optimal search terms, wade through the ocean of results, and follow the links that lead to the best information.

Today even search literacy is not enough. The bigger advantage is gaine...

So she posted a poll to her LinkedIn network (see this page). A broad, relatively generic question such as the one on the next page is best asked as a mass email or as a poll on a social network because many people have relevant experience—lots of people have negotiated salaries and could share helpful anecdotes. Thus

you get exposed to a large pool and wide range of viewpoints. Plus, posing a question broadly in this way invites conversation. So you reap the benefits not only of multiple perspectives, but also of a dialogue and interplay of these perspectives.

For example, on LinkedIn you can sort your connections to show everyone you know who works in a specific industry or lives in a specific region.

I found domain experts I also knew professionally by searching my first-degree connections for the keyword “author.”

Finally, pushing interesting information out to your network increases your chances of serendipitous intelligence. Post an article, email a quote, forward along a job offer, and in other ways share small gifts to your network. Your friends will appreciate it, and you will increase the chances that those same people respond in kind and send you intelligence later on.

Adjust your LinkedIn newsfeed to make sure it’s showing the information that’s most helpful. Select which types of updates you want to see from your network. Go into Signal (linkedin.com/signal) and save search queries on relevant topics.

Sort your connections into

domain experts, people who know you well, and people who may not have specific expertise but are just smart in general.

Post one article each week to an email list, blog, Twitter followers, or your LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends. Remember that pushing interesting information out to your network increases the chances that other people will send you valuable information.

You absolutely need to take control of your career, but you also need to invest in the careers of others in your network who will help you and whom you will help in turn.

Better still, involve yourself in organizations that try to systemically improve society at a massive scale. Kiva.org enables global micro-lending to alleviate poverty; Endeavor.org promotes entrepreneur ship in developing markets; Start-Up America helps support entrepreneurs across the U.S. I’m on the boards of all three.

One of the key messages we hope you’ve taken away from this book is that you are changing, the people around you are changing, and the broader world is changing—so it’s inevitable the playbook will evolve and adapt.

www.startupofyou.com/start

Connect with Us On the book’s website, www.startupofyou.com, you’ll find more information and advanced strategies for how to invest in yourself, strengthen your network, and transform your career. You’ll also be able to connect with other professionals, also in permanent beta, who will help you move from ideas to action, from knowledge to implementation.

1. A free PDF with advanced techniques for using LinkedIn to implement some of the strategies in this book. 2. Video interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Pincus, Joi Ito, and other top executives from different fields reflecting on their careers and sharing lessons learned. 3. An executive summary of The Start-Up of You—all the key points summarized and formatted in a way that’s easily shareable. (It makes a good “small gift” to someone in your network!) On Twitter, you can find us at @startupofyou. Append the hashtag

#startYOU to your tweets about ABZ planning, networks, competitive advantage, or any other idea from the book. We’ll reply to and promote the best questions, comments, or ideas that circulate on Twitter. See you online!

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