The Startup of You

The Startup Of You
by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
•“Silicon Valley revolutionizes entire
industries through the way we work. It is
now time to export our playbook to the
rest of the world. The Startup of You is
that key playbook: it will help you
revolutionize yourself and achieve your
own career breakout.”
- Marc Andreessen

Prepared by Colin Post – find me at
www.expat-chronicles.com

Slideshow put together by:

Colin Post
post.colin@gmail.com
Freelance Vendor and Marketeer
Freelance writing


Invest in Yourself

• Actionable steps from each chapter of The
Startup of You.
• Steps are designated to do in the next day,
week, or month.


Round 1
In the next day:
1. Update LinkedIn summary to articulate competitive
advantages. “Because of my
[skill/experience/strength], I can do [type of
professional work] better than [specific types of
other professionals in my industry].
2. How would other professionals you work with write
the above sentence (describe competitive
advantage)? If there’s a gap, you have self-
judgement problem or marketing problem.


Round 1
In the next week:
1. Identify 3 people striving toward similar
aspirations. How did they get there? Bookmark
their LinkedIn profiles, subscribe to their blogs
and tweets. Track their evolution, take insight
and inspiration.
2. On LinkedIn and Twitter, follow companies
you’re interested in. Track emergence of new
opportunities and risks.
3. List your key assets in context of market reality.
Examples: I excel at public speaking (BAD). I
excel at public speaking on engineering
topics, compared to other engineers (GOOD).

Round 1
In the next month:
1. Review how you spent your last six Saturdays.
How you spend your free time may reveal true
interests and aspirations.
2. If you stopped going to the office, what would
NOT get done? What’s a day in the life of your
company without you there? That’s where you
add value, your strengths.
3. Create a soft-asset investment plan that
emphasizes learning about growth markets and
opportunities (trips, conferences, new classes).
Email your plan to three trusted connections to
hold you accountable.

Round 2
In the next day:
1. List your uncertainties, doubts, questions
about your career. List hypotheses around
these uncertainties – what do you need to
figure out in order to know whether you stick
with Plan A or pivot to Plan B?
2. Write out your current Plan A and Plan Z, and
note what possible Plan B moves are
available to your current situation.
* Plan Z is ultimate backup plan (moving in with parents, waiting
tables, cashing out 401k)

Round 2
In the next week:
1. Meet someone who used to work in your niche who
pivoted to a new career plan. How did they make
the shift? Why? Was it a good move? What were
the signs that the time was right?
2. Plan to develop more transferable skills which are
broadly useful to other jobs. Writing, management
experience, tech/computer skills, people smarts,
international experience or a second language.
Once you’ve chosen, make a concrete action plan to
stick to.

Round 2
In the next month:
1. Begin a side project for nights and weekends
oriented around a skill or experience that is
different but related. Ideally, collaborate on
this project with someone in your network.
2. Establish an identity independent of your
employer, city, industry. Reserve a personal
domain (yourname.com). Print business
cards with just your name and personal
email.

Round 3

In the next day:
1. Identify 5 people you spent the most time with
in the last 6 months. Are you happy with the
influence those 5 people are having on you?


Round 3
In the next week:
1. Introduce two people who don’t know each
other. Then think of a challenge you’re
dealing with and ask an existing connection
for an introduction to someone who could
help. Offer a small gift.
2. Imagine you got laid off today. Which 10
people would you email for advice? Reach
out now.

Round 3
In the next month:
1. Pick a weaker tie in your network who you’d
like to forge a stronger alliance. Help him or
her by sending interesting articles, helping
with a presentation, or forwarding jobs.
2. Create an “interesting people fund” for
coffees, lunches, and travel costs to meet
new people and shore up existing
relationships.

Round 4
In the next day:
1. Budget time for randomness. Read a book
you wouldn’t otherwise read, take a
coworker from a different department to
lunch, attend a speech or seminar in different
field.
2. Take the most curious person you know to
lunch, and try to get infected by their sense
of awe.

Round 4
In the next week:
1. Find an industry event or ideas conference to
attend in the next six months.
2. Set aside a “yes day” – say yes all day and
note the serendipity that results.
3. Identify those in your network who always
find interesting opportunities. Try to
understand why they’re hubs of opportunity
and resolve to meet more people like them.

Round 4
In the next month:
1. Start your own group of association. Regular
luncheon, one-time meetup – what’s
important is you convene friends and
exchange ideas. Create a simple wiki or
LinkedIn group to organize and share details.
2. Subscribe to pubs like Wired or MIT Tech
Review. Identify friends who are early tech
adopters. Understand tech, social, econ
trends that might create new opportunities.

Round 5
In the next day:
1. Reflect on risk in your life. Rank your projects
from most to least risky. Think hard about the
real downside and upside possibilities and be
sure you’re not exaggerating overall riskiness.
Where there’s uncertainty, are you
mistakenly ascribing risk?


Round 5
In the next week:
1. Identify and take on risks that are acceptable
to you but others avoid. Are you okay having
less money in savings with a low-paying but
high-learning job? Or maybe a month-to-
month contract as opposed to something
long-term? Find a project with these kinds of
risks.


Round 5
In the next month:
1. Plan to increase the short-term volatility in
your life. How can you take on new projects
(or jobs) that involve more ups and downs –
more uncertainty?
2. Revisit your Plan Z. Is it still viable? If your
Plan A were to unravel, will you still be in the
game? Consult your mentors to help think
through contingencies.


Round 6
In the next day:
1. Adjust LinkedIn feed to show most helpful
info. Select which types of updates you want.
Save search queries on relevant topics at
linkedin.com/signal.
2. Are you following the right people on
Twitter? Adjust if necessary.


Round 6
In the next week:
1. Sort your connections into domain expertise
categories. Who do you know very well? Who is
very smart in general? Who’s your go-to person
on technology? Interpersonal issues?
2. Make a list of 2-3 top issues you think about.
Keep related questions in mind to raise in
conversation.
3. Post one article a week to an email
list, blog, Twitter followers, FB friends, or
LinkedIn connections. Pushing interesting info
increases chances of receiving valuable info.

Round 6
In the next month:
1. Schedule 3 lunches in the next few weeks: 1
with someone higher than you in same
industry, 1 with old friend, 1 from adjacent
industry. Engaged conversation leads to
serendipitous intelligence.
2. Become a go-to person for other people in
your network. Make your interests and skills
known via blogging, email, discussion groups.

The End
Colin Post
post.colin@gmail.com


The Startup of You

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