Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness

The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha

The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha.

So much change: education, jobs and careers along with related transition between them. Authors Reid and Ben (R&B) suggest that to navigate in the new world of work, we tap into our inner entrepreneur and adopt the start-up mindset along with the its necessary skills. Basically, it's our job as individuals to take responsibility for our work and career and sail our own ship. 

B & R devote the first chapter to setting up the change and where we are today. They liken the demise of Detroit to where our careers could be now or are going to. And then they describe the Silicone Valley way:

Take intelligent and bold risks to accomplish something great. Build a network of alliances to help you with intelligence, resources and collective action. Pivot to breakout opporunity.

The Silicone Valley way is the essence of the entreprenuerial way. The lads suggest applying it to our career. And the rest of the book is about just that.

Develop a Competitve Advantage

In order to survive and thrive, we need to be able to stand out from every Tom, Dick and Sally. The way to do that is found at the nexus of our, assets, aspirations / values and market realities. 

Assets - We have two types. Hard and soft.

1. Hard - Our money and physical possesions
2. Soft - Our knowledge, connections, skills, brand, strengths, etc

Our asset mix is not set in stone. It's up to us to develop them.

Aspirations / Values 

1. Aspirations - Our deepest wishes, ideas and goals.
2. Values - What is important in our life.

Our Pole Star - Like navigating by the North Star, our Pole Star is a combination of our aspirations and values and helps to keep us on track. 

The authors talk about how our identity emerges as opposed to us digging inside to uncover some hidden and yet-to-be identified meaning. I love this part. Thinking about how way leads onto way, our aspirations are actually changed by our actions and experiences, according to the lads. 

The Market Realities

This is being real. Are people willing to pay money and or attention for your products and services? We can have unlimited passion and we can be really, really good at something, but if the market isn't willing to pay we're going to have a problem.

P 40 - Reid digs informational interviews.

P 42 - Matt Cohler and the importance of being a wingman.

P 42 - LinkedIn's founding belief - Individuals should own and manage their identities.

Plan to Adapt

If you were to ask me about important books in my life, I say What Color is Your Parachute? ranks high on my list. R&B illustrate how the primary purpose of this and other career advice books doesn't work today as we sail in a sea of chaos. The primary message of Parachute and other similar books is to listen to your heart and follow your passion. Create a mission and then develop a long term plan for its implementation. A fine plan for the 1960 or 70's. Not today.

Today, survival and thrival depend on our ability to plan, move forward, read the environment, tinker / adjust, move forward, repeat. In other words, adapt.

ABZ Planning - R&B's methodology to adapting.

1. Plan A - What you're doing now. You learn and iterate regularly.
2. Plan B - What you pivot to change course.
3. Plan Z - Your fallback position. If everything you're doing now falls apart, Plan Z is what you fallback to.

Learn - If business start-ups do not learn, they die. Simple as that. Same for you and your potential career. 

Do - Arguably the heart and soul message of The Start-Up of You. The lads say, "...actions not plans, generate lessons that help you test your hypotheses against reality."  

This is where Parachute takes the other fork in the river. As much as I love Dick Bolles and his teachings, I'm following R&B down their river channel*. Basically we can put great effort into planning our route, even build in contingencies. But once the ship gets into a part of the river that you had not anticipated, or realized that you were too far down the wrong channel, you're at a disadvantage. 

If instead, you just Do, just sail down your channel, and learn / make adjustments as you go, you're in a far better position to reap the benefits of your chosen path (not to mention how much you learned along the way).

P 64 - Maintain an Identity Separate from Specific Employers - Precious, precious advice!

p 76 - Create your own personal career policy. Explore, discover, learn, develop and cultivate an interest outside of your day job. R&B look at this as what could evolve into your Plan B. I view this as something you do when Exploring.

It Takes a Network

R&B:

What you are doing - what you should be doing - is establishing a diverse team of allies and advisors with whom you grow over time.

And if we need another way to view networking - cause of its association with sliminess, we've only to look at P 91: Build Genuine Relationships. The lads suggest we see the world from the other person's persepective and to think how we might be able to help and collaborate with them - as opposed to sizing up the other person and what we can get from them.

Our network consists of professional allies, weak ties and acquaintances. 

Professional Ties - This is someone we go to for regular advice; share and collaborate on opportunities together and as an ally, someone we promote to others.

Weak Ties & Acquaintances - People who we don't spend that much time with but we do connect with them on occasion. 

The fascinating subject of weak ties was covered by sociologist Mark Granovetter in a 1973 paper titled The Strength of Weak Ties. Malcolm Gladwell cited Granovetter's research in his book The Tipping Point.

Here's the thing about weak ties. If you have weak ties with people in your field, they are not particularly valuable. Why? Because you're likely to have access to the same knowledge, resources and connections that they have. Weak ties' value increases when they transcend your industry. 

How many people can you stay effectively connected with? On P 108, R&B cite Robin Dunbar and the magic number of 150.

P 111 - The lads talk about six degrees of separation and both Stanley Milgram and Duncan Watts's related work. They say that connecting with people who are within three degrees of you is most effective. Based on Reid's affiliation with LinkedIn, I'd say they are speaking from experienece here.

R&B:

The value and strength of your network are not represented in the number of contacts in your address book. What matters are your alliances, the strength and diversity of your trust connections, the freshness of the information flowing through your network, the breadth of your weak ties and the ease with which you can reach your second or third-degree connections.

In order to strengthen our network, we must do things for others. This is about sharing knowledge, wisdom and ideas in addition to connecting people who could be of value to each other. For further insight into this I recommend the most excellent book Give and Take by Adam Grant.

I'm 51 & have a job. Do I still need to iInterview? (Informational Interview)

There are two reasons to conduct iInterviews - (Informational interviews).

1. To learn.
2. To explore jobs, companies and industries.

Notice I didn't say to promote yourself. There are a lot of slick Willies out there who preach promoting one's self while info interviewing. No worries. You'll promote yourself whether or not you try. When you try it becomes obvious that your main intention is to promote yourself and not to learn and explore. 

To Learn

You recognize that people have been on the road you're travelling longer than you. You understand that they are an excellent source of intel, intel that you'll need to navigate towards your future. 

For instance, someone passes you on the road heading in the opposite direction. You acknowledge them and move on. A half hour later and the road is under four feet of water. What if you were to have asked that person about the road ahead? You know that answer.

We iInterview to learn about the road ahead.

If one has passionate curiosity to learn, then age become irrevlent. The art of learning is a precursor to self-development. Do you want to grow within your profession? Do you want to grow within acadamia? Do you want to grow within life? 

If you want to learn, develop and grow, go out and talk with people on the road ahead of you. Go out and iInterview.

To explore jobs, companies and industries

My newspaper sold out and I was let go. After thirty years as a reporter, I think I'd like to do something different but I'm not sure how. What do I do?

Many career coaches advise people to explore themselves. Find out about their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, skill, talents and dreams. I suggest buying the book What Color is Your Parachute? and follow Dick Bolles' advice on this subject. 

While you are doing that however, I also suggest that you go out on the road and talk with people. Talk with people (iInterview) who are in positions and or career fields that your'e interested in. 

"What questions should I ask?"

There are a million Websites out there that all pretty much give the same advice on iInterviewing. Then there are a couple thousand college career centers Websites that apply a clinical layer of rhetoric on top that same advice. Then there is the most clear, concise and comprehensive site on iInterviewing in the universe - Quintessential Careers. 

You should ask the questions that satiate your curiosity. 

In order to warm up that onboard curiosity, stop by these two Quintessential Career sites: Questions to Ask at the Informational Interview and 200 Informational Interview Questions.

"I'm 51 & have a job. Do I still need to iInterview?"

Yes!

If you want to learn, develop and grow in your present and or desired position, the answer is yes!

If you have even the slightest notion of changing positions and or professional fields, the answer is yes!

If you have an inclination that you might want that slightest notion, the answer is yes!

Feel like making a comment on this post? Follow this link to our Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness  Facebook page and look for the post on this review dated 12/15/2013

A Foot In the Door: Networking Your Way Into The Hidden Job Market

A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way Into The Hidden Job Market by Katharine Hansen, PhD. 

A Foot in the Door is a book about the role networking plays for job seekers. Kathy, the author, story tells and teaches how networking turbo boosts job seeking efforts, smokes online resume submitters and produces positive results.

Networking is the process through which you get connected and build relationships with people who can help advance your career

A Foot in the Door is anchored by the most powerful and least known tool for job seekers - the informational interview.

The informational interview helps Explorers:

• Build confidence
• Build a rich resource network
• Learn how to converse with those with more experience
• Learn about various jobs and careers
• Learn how to become successful in various jobs and careers
• Learn how to interview

Chapter one though six are devoted to the What, Why, How, Who, Where and When of networking. Chapters seven through fourteen address the basics of networking:

• psychology of asking people to help you
• get your network to work for you
• help for those of us who are shy
• do's and don't of networking
• promoting yourself
• networking in a diverse culture
• keeping track of your network

In chapters fifteen through seventeen, Kathy covers networking on the Internet. Personal branding and social media come into play here. 

All things informational interviewing are seared into the last ten chapters. Sample topics are:

• what is informational interviewing?
• how to find and choose interviewees
• how to set up and prepare for interviews
• what questions to ask
• how to optimize the interview experience
• how to track and analyze informational interviews
• following up and networking with contacts

Do you believe there are people in the world who enjoy sharing wisdom, knowledge and information? Sure there are! But it's up to us to seek them out and ask for their help. A Foot In The Door is the perfect navigational guide to do just that.

I created this mind map for easy access to resources surrounding Kathy's book A Foot in the Door. 

Feel like making a comment on this post? Have a suggested link for me to add to the mind map? Follow this link to our Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness  Facebook page and look for the post on this review dated 12/12/2013

Isa Adney: Community College Success

I reviewed Isa Adney's book, Community College Success at Cultivating Awe.

Isa flat out embodies everything we're trying to do here at Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness. Not only that, but she articulates it better. It's almost like I don't need to write the Standing Out book. Almost.

I believe that every high school student should read Isa's book Community College Success and become familiar with the vast wealth of her resources. As most of my readers are not in high school or community college, I encourage those who care about our young adults to pass this information along. 

In order to help you with easier access to Isa's resources, I created this mind map. Enjoy!

By the way, if you feel like commenting on this, head over to the Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness Facebook page here and look for this post dated 11/15/2013.