Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hoffman is the cofounder of LinkedIn, the online community of professionals and in this book there is some excellent advice for the modern professional. Some of it, such as the reality that there is no such thing as lifetime employment anymore, is well-known but still bears repeating. The best item of advice and one that I have never heard elsewhere, is the value of the weak link.
The authors split the connections that a person has into strong and weak links. A strong link is a person that you know very well and they know you and your skill set very well. People in this category also tend to have a skill set similar to yours. A weak link is someone that fits into the category of acquaintance, a person that knows of you and something about what you can do, but they do not have detailed knowledge and generally have skill sets distinct from yours.
Weak links are considered extremely valuable because they dramatically extend your reach into unfamiliar areas, which is essential in the modern world where your employable skill sets must be changed or improved on a regular basis. Furthermore, many new job descriptions are a synthesis of categories formerly considered distinct. They can provide the powerful peek into an area that you otherwise would not consider.
It is natural that there are many references to the LinkedIn model but they are well-embedded in the sense that they do not detract or overshadow the advice. The authors also are very positive in their discussions of the free-lance or itinerant worker. As a member of that category of workers that has encountered skepticism from people unfamiliar with such a work pattern, I appreciated the defense of that group of workers. Although we don't have a full-time job with one company, our continued ability to earn a living is more secure than many with full-time jobs.
The future is approaching even faster now than ever before and the image of the former present receding in the mirror just as fast. New jobs are created and vanish at a rapid rate and the modern professional must be adaptable to the new circumstances. It is a scary and exciting environment and this book can help you survive and thrive in it.

No matter what you do, think of yourself as an entrepreneur. Be willing to take risks. Accept failure and learn from it. Keep trying, and you'll succeed.

If this all sounds familiar, then you'll be as disappointed as I was by The Start-Up of You, a generic career advice book churned out by two tech elites who could have done better. Rather than drawing directly on their experiences as founders and venture capitalists, Hoffman and Casnocha make a rote journey through modern Silicon Valley-themed business book territory. When they tell the stories of successes like Apple, Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, and Zappos, it feels like they're going through a checklist. There's far less original substance than in Casnocha's My Start-Up Life, which benefited enormously from his being a teenager who knew little beyond his own experiences. He could tell it like it is, rather than drawing on played-out archetypes. The older Casnocha has tailored his book to the broadest possible audience, with all the mediocrity that entails.

Simply put, I'm tired of hearing "They told him he was crazy..." stories. You know the type:

1. They [potential investors] told him [the entrepreneur] he was crazy.
2. He kept going. For years, he poured his heart and soul into his dream.
3. Today, [company he started] is valued at $x billion.

The problem with these stories is that there's only so much you can learn from them. The moral isn't "If they tell you that you're crazy, you're probably on to something"--to the contrary, if they tell you that you're crazy, you're probably crazy. "They" are often smart people like Hoffman and Casnocha. The moral is in the second part of the story: You're not going to succeed unless you put your time and effort where your mouth is. Hopefully, you already knew that.

Still, "The Start-Up of You" gets the essentials right: The US economy is no longer adapted to reward loyalty with job security. There are no more risk-free, high-reward options on the table. You can't just work your way up within a static hierarchy. You have to be constantly prepared for change. In short, every worker is now an independent contractor to some degree. You have to make sure that you're always supplying something that's in demand--just as startups do. That's a lesson worth learning. You just don't need this book to do it.

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha have written a book for people with normal jobs. Corporate jobs. What they call the "escalator model." Show up for 9-5 every day, get a steady paycheck, and earn promotions every so often.

The two explain that the classic model is dying. Then they explain in understandable way, that you need to embrace your personal brand, engage with the people 'around' you in a meaningful way, and have an eye on the adjacent possible (what they call, in classic bizbook lingo, ABZ planning).

To that segment, this is a pretty decent call to step it up, hustle as they say, and own their careers. So if you know someone still in that mindset, send them this book.

But for those of us who have already embraced this approach, or, honestly, will probably never know any other, this book will read like like a primer. That's not a knock, especially since I haven't found the perfect book on this topic, but something to be aware of.

the cradle of human civilization, as well as America, is intimately connected with the birth and success of entrepreneurship

when documented, the start-up approach to economic/social organization has often been linked to a cult of the individual, triumphantly overcoming insurmountable obstacles -- but these hurdles have often been static, and the 'lone entrepreneur' has reached the summit alone

in the past 50 years, the start-up handbook has been re-written in Silicon Valley. the thesis hoffman and casnocha submit is that the primary lesson this modern hive of economic activity has for each of us, as "entrepreneurs of our own lives", is to understand ourselves as actors in a fluid/chaotic system; and moreover, one in which the better-trodden path to success is massively impacted by others -- our network. in a profound sense, then, the "i" is really a "we" ... and everyone will find nuggets in the authors' practical and insightful counsel on what this means to chart a more flexible, and ultimately more rewarding, course in our professional lives

This book is written by R. Hoffman and B. Casnocha. It is about being an entrepreneur, and about taking charge of your future business career, and about professional networking in general. Reid Hoffman is a co-founder of Linkedin, and as such he is eminently qualified by first hand successful experience on these topics.

What's good about the book: Hoffman and Casnocha give good advice to all professionals, especially to the young ones. After they get out of college, I am going to suggest to my sons that they read this book. In the book, there is a lot of good information about what kind of plans to make and how to make them. The authors detail the risks and the contingencies of the process. They explain the topsy-turvy nature of the start-up business, and they propose that you as an individual treat your career as a start-up, even if you have not (yet) started up your own company, or even if you are not (yet) working at a start-up company. This sort of thing is not for everybody, but I think everybody can learn a thing or two by reading the book.

What's not so good about the book: Unfortunately, the list is rather long. I will select a few of the most important eyesores:
a) Starting with Chapter 4, the book turns into a commercial for Linkedin. You will read page after page about networking in general, and how powerful it is and what kind of wonderful things it can do for you. Some of that is certainly true, but the discussion is extremely hyped-up in the book. In fact, the authors go as far as thinking that it is the natural state of all human interaction. They also discuss why some people may be put off by networking. They mention a few examples that can be easily dismissed (and they dismiss them accordingly). But they never ever discuss the top public concern of Networks of any kind: privacy. This is especially glaring, because unlike in some other social networks, your personal data is not restricted to your connections in Linkedin. Anybody with a sufficiently large wallet can browse everything you put into your profile.

b) After reading the book, it is clear to me that Reid Hoffman is an extrovert in the extreme (this is fine, I wish I was too). But he seems to make the mistake that everybody should be (or become) extroverts. He simply does not understand (or intentionally ignores) the life perspective of introverts. The creative activity of introverts does not necessarily center around building and nourishing large networks of connections. Many introverts prefer to go very deep on some subject instead of gaining a superficial knowledge of a lot of different areas. In fact, most scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs are made by introverts who become part of a handful of the world's top authorities on narrowly defined areas of expertise. This issue should have been discussed in the book.

c) The book is about start-ups, which is necessarily about taking calculated risks. The authors discuss this in great length with many examples, but the choice of their examples leaves much to be desired in my opinion. Let me start with the example of Steve Wozniak. He gets mentioned in the book only twice very briefly. His contribution to the last 30 years of high tech start-up activity was merely that Steve Jobs needed him. According to the authors, Wozniak was nothing more than a useful tool for Jobs. They treat the Google founders Page and Brin with equal dismissiveness. They get mentioned once along with Donald Trump, and the sentence reads: "Page and Brin were in a computer science doctoral program". This is supposed to explain why they started Google and Donald Trump went into real estate. What about thousands of others who were also in doctoral programs in computer science? Why did they not start Google? Interestingly, Page and Brin were never mentioned again in the book. (Could it be because they are introverts?)

d) In contrast to Page and Brin, who are the real geniuses behind Google, the book mentions Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Goggle, many times. But even that pales in comparison to the story of Sheryl Sandberg, first of Google, then of Facebook. You will read about Sandberg for many pages on and on several times. What is ironic in all of this is the fact that she is the perfect counter-example to the inventing, risk-taking start-up founders. She moved to Google (and Facebook too) after they became multi-billion Dollar companies. Where is the risk in that? The success is already assured, the money flowing like a river, the company culture already set in concrete. So, I am totally puzzled by Hoffman's fascination with Sandberg. (Don't get me wrong, I think she is a great COO for a large company, but she is no entrepreneur.)

Summary: Interesting book in terms of what you can learn from it. Unfortunately, it is not well written. The examples are not chosen with a lot of thought and justification. Worst of all, it is full of Linkedin propaganda.

I've read my fair share of career books. While each takes its own angle on the whole "job" thing, I find that oftentimes I get most annoyed in the section where authors - typically, at least - say "OK now, the first thing you need to do is follow your passion!" Luckily, this book takes an entirely different approach.

In the start-up of you, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha give a framework for how to think about your career. This framework, obviously, is adapted from the start-up world. The strategies that start-ups use to survive can also be used for individuals to survive (especially given the current state of our economy). And, because of this framework, the question isn't "what do you really, with all of your heart, want to do?" (which I appreciate, because how many people really have a good answer to that question?) The questions are: what are you good at? What resources do you have at your disposal (could be money, connections, location, etc)? What are the needs in the market? These are the same questions that start-ups must ask as they get going and pivot as needed.

I actually used these questions when I myself was looking for a job. Rather than staring at my computer screen thinking "hmmmmm maybe I could be a botanist?" I made lists of people I knew, their positions and their companies, and worked from there. This helped me map out my network and see what resources I had at my disposal, people-wise.

But these aren't just strategies for how to survive, they're strategies for how to thrive. Each chapter contains numerous stories of ultra-successful people from SIlicon Valley and how they used an entrepreneurial attitude to get where they are. And I'll give you a hint: none of them applied to jobs through Craigslist.

Steve Jobs once called Apple the "biggest start-up on the planet". Because of its success at systemizing disruptive innovation, it is the most scrutinized company in the world, especially by its competitors. As secretive as Apple is, there are plenty of books and articles that examine Apple's culture in great detail. So why are most companies -- especially large, established corporations -- incapable of applying these principles themselves?

I bring up this question because the first time I read this book, I was disappointed. So many of the strategies seemed so intuitive, so obvious, that I didn't feel like I had gleaned as much insight as I had hoped. But as I looked over my highlights, I realized that, like Apple's competitors, I'd missed the point.

What you need to adapt to the changing world of work aren't cheap tactics and off-the-wall ideas and quick fixes to hack your career. Often, the best ideas *do* seem obvious and familiar. But what is less obvious and less familiar and, thus, is arguably more important and more useful, is a framework or blueprint or system that makes it easier to build the habits required to consistently and sustainably implement those ideas with every decision you make, day in and day out.

The framework this book offers is this: you must think and act like you're running a start-up.

But what does that mean? Here's an example. One deceptively simple philosophy in the book is the idea of helping first -- that you should find ways to create value for others before seeking value for yourself. It's so simple and obvious that it's easy to gloss over it, and yet, it is fundamental to every successful entrepreneur or start-up in the world, because you'll never get a single customer until you solve a problem for someone.

So how does one apply this philosophy? Here's what Reid does: whenever he gets the chance, he asks a simple question again and again and again: "How can I help?" Think about it: It sounds simple, and yet most people don't approach their careers or their relationships with this empathetic mindset. How often do you find ways to solve problems for the people around you? And if it isn't often, how do you change that? What habits does Reid have that you need to do this, too?

"The Start-up of You" will give you Reid Hoffman's -- and Silicon Valley's -- secret sauce, but it's not enough to know it, just like it isn't enough for Apple's competitors to know its philosophies. You have to understand that an entrepreneurial mindset requires different habits of thought and action. This is what the authors mean when they say you have to think and act like you're running a start-up. If you were running a start-up, how would you create a culture that instills the habits of thought and action you want your people to have?

Well, it turns out you *are* running a start-up: your career. How do you train yourself to have the habits of thought and action you need to thrive in the 21st century?

Or, put another way, what would an entrepreneur do?

This book offers great tips on how to have a successful career based on entrepreneurial principles. It covers the theory that we have multiple experiences that make up our career and that not everything works out immediately. You have to constantly shift, go with the flow, reinvent yourself and develop a strong network. I'm confident that people will be talking about this book for the next decade because the economy will never go back to what it was a decade ago. No longer can you work for a company for two decades!

This book managed to do for career management what books like The Personal MBA did for business fundamentals: become the place to start. I've recommended this book to almost everyone I know that is going through some sort of professional crossroad, because it shows impressive comprehension of the realities of the job market nowadays. I was looking for a book that would stress the importance of concepts like serendipity, uncertainty, diversity and network intelligence when thinking of career decisions, and The Start-up of You does a great job at this. The lesson comes through: we need to manage our careers with the same principles that a start-up does to get ahead in the XXI century. 100% recommended.

Reid Hoffman, who is less well known than other Silicon Valley icons like Zuckerberg or Jobs, has been called "*the* role model for entrepreneurs" by tech publications, and for very good reason. He's a hugely successful investor who not only has had a hand in some of the most successful tech companies around today (including Zuckerberg's Facebook) but is also a hugely successful entrepreneur and founder - an incredibly rare achievement in today's tech world. He's currently chairman and co-founder of the professional networking site LinkedIn and was an executive at PayPal.

Ben Casnocha is an intensely curious young author. Anyone familiar with his extensive online writing and earlier book, My Start-Up Life, knows the quality of insight he provides. That voice certainly shines through in this book. Not only is he a true intellectual, he also has the business experience as a founder of his own software company to be able to write authoritatively on a topic like this.

Speaking of that topic, careers and career development is one of the most broad topics one can imagine, and considering the breadth of topics and points these two cover, the book is remarkably coherent and engaging. References to LinkedIn and how to use it effectively are tactfully sprinkled throughout the book and do not dominate the bulk of the discussion.

Two of the key threads:

- Relationships are the most important aspect of one's career.

The authors use a brilliant analogy for thinking about one's relationships: I-to-the-We. Your individual strengths matter, but when surrounded by the right individuals, your ability to effect change is raised exponentially by the power of your network.

A refreshing change from typical business books, the authors show how to build genuine relationships that benefit both individuals. They stress helping first and not keeping score.

This idea is epitomized by the little-known story that Hoffman actually introduced Mark Zuckerberg to Facebook's first outside investor and himself (Hoffman) invested in the very first round of financing. Facebook, for now, has the greater market cap and the larger member base. Their respective companies are often pitted against each other in the media, and Hoffman's willingness to help a young Zuckerberg building a competing social network shows Hoffman's commitment to follow his own advice.

- Have a bias towards action.

Straight out of the Silicon Valley playbook, this seems incredibly obvious once you hear the rationale, but is certainly not standard practice for folks in their careers today. As the pace of change accelerates all around you, if you're not moving forward, then you are in essence moving backwards.

Simply doing things, when you're guided by your best instincts, generates opportunities, new connections and most of all, helps you learn about yourself. Instead of thinking about whether you want to make a move to another industry, get out there and talk to the folks in that industry or take a small and reversible step in that direction by working in that industry on the side, testing your "strong hypothesis, weakly held" to see if it is in fact right for you.

To further this focus on action and to help the reader in his or her own career journey, the authors end each chapter with a section titled Invest In Yourself. It provides many eminently useful "action items" that the reader should take to implement the ideas in the book. Many business and self-help books falter when it comes time to turn ideas into action but these sections are a cut above the tired and obvious action items present in many books.

Overall, this is a hugely refreshing and remarkably coherent career book. Thoroughly researched and backed up by real-world examples, this is a must-read for anyone interested in advancing their career in today's working world.