Start-Up of You Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Brief Summary

"The Start-Up of You" by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha is a career guide that urges individuals to approach their careers with an entrepreneurial mindset. It emphasizes adaptability, continuous learning, building a strong network, and taking calculated risks. The book encourages readers to take ownership of their career trajectory and create their own opportunities in a rapidly changing professional landscape.

About the Author

Reid Hoffman is an American Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. He is the cofounder of Linkedin. He is currently a partner at venture capital firm, Greylock Partners.

He is on Forbes list of world’s billionaires with a net worth of 1.8 billion. He graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a degree in Symbolic Systems and Cognitive Science. He won the Marshall Scholarship. He earned with an M.St in Philosophy from Wolfson College, Oxford University in 1993 as a Marshall Scholar. He was a member of the board of directors during the founding of PayPal. He left SocialNet to become Paypal’s full-time COO. There, he was responsible for Paypal’s external relations, including payments infrastructure, business development, government, and legal. When EBay acquired PayPal, Reid acted as executive vice president.

During the first four years, Reid was Linkedin’s founding CEO. He then became chairman and president of products in 2007. Microsoft acquired Linkedin in 2016, and Reid because a Microsoft board member in 2017.

Reid acts as one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific angel investors. He invested in Facebook’s first round and also invested in Airbnb as well as other renowned companies.

Reid is a frequent lecturer at Stanford University, Oxford University and Harvard University.

Topics

Entrepreneurship

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Key Insights

Climbing the career ladder is not the same as it was in the past.

Nowadays, a lot of people get stuck in entry-level positions, which takes job opportunities away from recent graduates.

“Society flourishes when people think entrepreneurially.”- Reid Hoffman & Ben Cosnocha

In “Start-Up of You” by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, you will learn the importance of adopting a start-up mind in this day in age.

Find out why it’s important to be flexible, adaptable, and learn new skills in order to succeed in the modern professional world.

Find Your Advantage

With anything you do, there is competition. That’s why it’s important to find out what makes you stand out from the crowd, just like start-up companies do.

To find your competitive advantage, you need to look at the skills and assets you have at present. Note your education, background, and skill set.

You must also look at your goals and dreams. Passionate people are always noticed because they truly care about what they’re doing. So, finding something you love is key.

“The person passionate about what he or she is doing will outwork and outlast the guy motivated solely by making money.”- Reid Hoffman & Ben Casanocha

And finally, you should be looking at the market. What is the market demanding currently? If your competitive advantage is something no one is demanding, then it will not be successful.

These three areas are the key to finding your market advantage.

You must be adaptable as competitive advantages are always changing depending on you and the market around you.

Always Have A Plan

The market is always changing, so it’s important to have a Plan A, a Plan B, and a Plan Z to save you when things fall through.

For example, the photo-sharing app Flickr was once an online game that photos were shared through. The success of the photo-sharing combined with the CEO’s discovered passions throughout the years created the Flickr we know and love. Many start-ups begin one way and end up another because of new discoveries and pressure from the market.

“Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’. If you’re not growing, you’re contracting. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.”- Reid Hoffman & Ben Casanocha

Plan A describes the path you are on now. It is stable, but you are welcome to make minor changes along the way. A good Plan A is flexible.

Plan B is the plan you go to if Plan A isn’t doing so hot and Plan B seems like it will be more of a success. It usually isn’t too far off from Plan A.

Plan Z is your savior. This is the plan that can keep the company going if Plan A and Plan B fail miserably.

All About Breakout Opportunities

It is important to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that will allow you to take huge strides in your career in a short amount of time.

A great example of this is actor George Clooney. Clooney, after acting for 12 years and getting practically nowhere begged the producers to let him audition for the new show “ER.”...