Book Summary: The Start-Up of You - Adapt to the Future by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
This book can be summed up in on great quote by Jim Rohn - "Work hard on your job and you can make a living, work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.
" Reid is the founder of LinkedIn and he talks about this and the power of the network.
There is nobody better to articulate those benefits than Reid.
Why is this important to me? I am not doing this summary to waste your time.
It is my vision to provide concise action steps that you can adopt right now to enhance your financial life and career.
If you want to continuously improve, you have to be committed to continuous learning.
Lever the continuous learning with the right associations and you will succeed in your career.
Entrepreneurship is required today because the old adage of go to school, get a good job and retire, is dead.
You need to put yourself in a position to make sure you have security.
You need to help yourself first and then you can help others.
This is not a selfish act.
If you look at what Warren Buffett has done for charity, he created his fortune first and helped in a much bigger way later in life.
The start-up of you is broken down into 7 parts.
For the sake of time, I am going to focus on three.
1.
Develop a Competitive Advantage - All successful tech companies know this automatically otherwise they would not be successful.
What value do you bring to the table? What unique skills and insights do you possess? In the business world, this is known as your unique value proposition.
In our software company, we spent a lot of time creating a unique value proposition and it has made all the difference in the world.
You need to do the same for yourself.
This is true if you are going to start a business or work for a company.
People need differentiation.
A good litmus test for this, look at your competitors website and if you could simply cross off their name and put yours then your company is in trouble.
If you are interviewing for work then keep this in mind, creativity is required to get in and passion, work ethic and a desire for excellence will keep you there.
2.
I to the power of WE - This signifies the strength of your network.
Your network consists of strong links and weak links and both are very valuable.
In LinkedIn, if you have 170 first level connections then you are only three layers away from connecting to over 2 million people.
This is very important especially if you are looking for new opportunities or for specific expertise to advance your company or yourself.
The power of who you know makes all the difference and can shave years off of obtaining your goals.
Metcalf's law states that your networks' value is the square of the number of members.
In lay terms, this is why Facebook is worth billions.
They have 500 million members and that type of influence is strong.
There are more people on Facebook than the total population of the United States.
3.
Pursue breakout opportunities - This one is straight forward in theory but sometimes hard to execute.
How do you know if they are breakout opportunities? In our business we have sold products in the past that had very little market.
This is not recommended.
This was early in my career and there is nothing better than learning a lesson with a baseball bat.
This simple lesson costs us years in time and a lot of wasted money.
Have you ever watched the show Shark Tank? On the show, people have to pitch the billionaire panel and ask them for investments in their ideas.
These billionaire's sniff out in the first 20 seconds the market for the idea.
If the market is small or commodity then they do not invest.
Remember that as you pursue opportunities.
The Start-up of You is a really good book that I highly recommend you read.
Remember that one of the fastest ways to success is following somebody who has already done what you want to do.
This can save you years of work if executed correctly.
I hope you have found this short summary useful.
The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit.
Habits form in as little as 21 days.
One thing you can take away from this book is start building your network.
If you are not on LinkedIn then get on there and complete your profile.
I have been able to connect with really successful authors and business leaders that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to meet.
This is a great tool and I recommend you spend 15 minutes per day to master it.
" Reid is the founder of LinkedIn and he talks about this and the power of the network.
There is nobody better to articulate those benefits than Reid.
Why is this important to me? I am not doing this summary to waste your time.
It is my vision to provide concise action steps that you can adopt right now to enhance your financial life and career.
If you want to continuously improve, you have to be committed to continuous learning.
Lever the continuous learning with the right associations and you will succeed in your career.
Entrepreneurship is required today because the old adage of go to school, get a good job and retire, is dead.
You need to put yourself in a position to make sure you have security.
You need to help yourself first and then you can help others.
This is not a selfish act.
If you look at what Warren Buffett has done for charity, he created his fortune first and helped in a much bigger way later in life.
The start-up of you is broken down into 7 parts.
For the sake of time, I am going to focus on three.
1.
Develop a Competitive Advantage - All successful tech companies know this automatically otherwise they would not be successful.
What value do you bring to the table? What unique skills and insights do you possess? In the business world, this is known as your unique value proposition.
In our software company, we spent a lot of time creating a unique value proposition and it has made all the difference in the world.
You need to do the same for yourself.
This is true if you are going to start a business or work for a company.
People need differentiation.
A good litmus test for this, look at your competitors website and if you could simply cross off their name and put yours then your company is in trouble.
If you are interviewing for work then keep this in mind, creativity is required to get in and passion, work ethic and a desire for excellence will keep you there.
2.
I to the power of WE - This signifies the strength of your network.
Your network consists of strong links and weak links and both are very valuable.
In LinkedIn, if you have 170 first level connections then you are only three layers away from connecting to over 2 million people.
This is very important especially if you are looking for new opportunities or for specific expertise to advance your company or yourself.
The power of who you know makes all the difference and can shave years off of obtaining your goals.
Metcalf's law states that your networks' value is the square of the number of members.
In lay terms, this is why Facebook is worth billions.
They have 500 million members and that type of influence is strong.
There are more people on Facebook than the total population of the United States.
3.
Pursue breakout opportunities - This one is straight forward in theory but sometimes hard to execute.
How do you know if they are breakout opportunities? In our business we have sold products in the past that had very little market.
This is not recommended.
This was early in my career and there is nothing better than learning a lesson with a baseball bat.
This simple lesson costs us years in time and a lot of wasted money.
Have you ever watched the show Shark Tank? On the show, people have to pitch the billionaire panel and ask them for investments in their ideas.
These billionaire's sniff out in the first 20 seconds the market for the idea.
If the market is small or commodity then they do not invest.
Remember that as you pursue opportunities.
The Start-up of You is a really good book that I highly recommend you read.
Remember that one of the fastest ways to success is following somebody who has already done what you want to do.
This can save you years of work if executed correctly.
I hope you have found this short summary useful.
The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit.
Habits form in as little as 21 days.
One thing you can take away from this book is start building your network.
If you are not on LinkedIn then get on there and complete your profile.
I have been able to connect with really successful authors and business leaders that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to meet.
This is a great tool and I recommend you spend 15 minutes per day to master it.
Source...