Be The Entrepreneur of Your Own Career

If you are looking for an innovative way to look at your career, you should check out the “The Start-Up of You” by LinkedIn co-founder and chairman, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha.  While the book is almost two years old, the career tips and insights are relevant for anyone interested in managing their career.

The premise of the book is that everyone needs manage their career as if it is a start-up business:

“The key is to manage your career as if it were a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you. Why? Start-ups – and the entrepreneurs who run them – are nimble. They invest in themselves. They build their professional networks. They take intelligent risks. They make uncertainty and volatility work to their advantage. These are the very same skills professionals need to get ahead today.”

If you don’t have time to read the book, you can read the executive summary in the Slideshare presentation below and still receive most of the insights to apply to your career.  This entertaining presentation is 190 pages long, but each page has a single useful snippet of advice or information so it is a quick read.

The chapters in the book cover these topics:

1. All humans are entrepreneurs
2. Develop a competitive advantage
3. Plan to adapt
4. It takes a network
5. Pursue breakout opportunities
6. Take intellectual risks
7. Who you know is what you know

You can find additional resources at the Start-Up of You website.