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

by Reid Hoffman

In the next day: • Make a list of your key uncertainties, doubts, and questions you have about your career at the present moment. Make a list of the hypotheses you’re developing around these uncertainties—what are the things you’re looking for to figure out whether you should stick with your Plan A, or pivot to Plan B? • Write out your current Plan A and Plan Z, and jot some notes about what possible Plan B moves might be in your current situation. In the next week: • Schedule a coffee meeting with someone who used to work in your professional niche who pivoted to a new career plan. How did he or she make the shift? Why? Was it a good move? What were the signs that the time was right? • Make a plan to develop more transferable skills, those skills and experiences that are broadly useful to potential other jobs. Writing skills, general management experience, technical and computer skills, people smarts, and international experience or language skills are examples of skills with high option value—that is, they are transferable to a wide range of possible Plan B’s. Once you’ve figured out which transferable skills to invest in, make a concrete action plan you can stick to, whether by signing up for a course or conference, or simply by pledging to spend one hour each week self-learning. In the next month: • Begin on an experimental side project that you work on during some nights and weekends. Orient it around a skill or experience that is different but related—something that ...