[...]... know that they will evolve over time The Market Realities The realities of the world you live in is the nal piece of the puzzle Smart entrepreneurs know a product won’t make money if customers don’t want or need it, regardless of how slick its form and function (think of the Segway) Likewise, your skills, experiences, and other soft assets—no matter how special you think they are—won’t give you an edge... for how you spent your last six Saturdays What do you do when you have nothing urgent to do? How you spend your free time may reveal your true interests and aspirations; compare them to what you say your aspirations are • Think about how you re currently adding value at work If you stopped going to the o ce suddenly, what would not get done? What’s a day in the life of your company with you not there?... brain; professional connections and the trust you ve built up with them; skills you ve mastered; your reputation and personal brand; your strengths (things that come easily to you) Hard assets are what you d typically list on a balance sheet: the cash in your wallet; the stocks you own; physical possessions like your desk and laptop These matter because when you have an economic cushion, you can more... innovative edge no matter how large they grow Steve Jobs called Apple the “biggest start-up on the planet.” In the same way, you need to stay young and agile; you need to forever be a start-up WHY US? I (Reid) cofounded LinkedIn in 2003 with the mission of connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful More than 100 million members (at the time of the LinkedIn IPO in May 2011)... that your summary statement articulates your competitive advantages You should be able to ll in this sentence: “Because of my [skill/experience/strength], I can do [type of professional work] better than [speci c types of other professionals in my industry].” • How would other professionals you work with ll in the above sentence (i.e., describe your competitive advantage)? If there’s a gap, you either... If you re not growing, you re contracting If you re not moving forward, you re moving backward The Start-up of You Skill Set The permanent beta mind-set alone won’t transform your career There are real skills involved in becoming the entrepreneur of your own life In the following chapters, we’ll introduce how to: • Develop your competitive advantage in the market by combining three puzzle pieces: your... work, and how they inform the career decisions we’ll talk about in the rest of the book Your Assets Assets are what you have right now Before dreaming about the future or making plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you as entrepreneurs do The most brilliant business idea is often the one that builds on the founders’ existing assets in the most brilliant way There are reasons Larry... Like the best entrepreneurs, they did more than just dream They went out and created the future they had imagined Collectively, in the latter half of the twentieth century, American carmakers produced hundreds of millions of innovative, stylish vehicles, and sold them to customers in every part of the world In 1955 GM became the rst corporation in history to earn a billion dollars of revenue.8 By the. .. years of experience working at a marketing rm …” instead of specifying, explicitly and clearly, what they are able to do because of those two years of experience One of the best ways to remember how rich you are in intangible wealth— that is, the value of your soft assets—is to go to a networking event and ask people about their professional problems or needs You ll be surprised how many times you have... and vision of the future, regardless of the state of the external world or your existing asset mix This piece of the puzzle includes your core values, or what’s important to you in life, be it knowledge, autonomy, money, integrity, power, and so on You may not be able to achieve all your aspirations or build a life that incorporates all your values And they will certainly change over time But you should . email specialmarkets@randomhouse.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hoffman, Reid. The start-up of you: adapt to the future, invest in yourself, and transform your career/by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha.—1st. like you re running a start-up: your career. Why the start-up of you? When you start a company, you make decisions in an information-poor, time-compressed, resource-constrained environment. There. START-UP OF YOU WHY US? WHY THE URGENCY? Sixty to Zero Detroits Are Everywhere THE PATH TO THE FUTURE The Start-up of You Mind-set: Permanent Beta The Start-up of You Skill Set 2 DEVELOP A COMPETITIVE