10 things I learned from The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman

I have been consuming a lot of Reid Hoffman material recently: he just wrote a book using ChatGPT4 and he is an early investor there. He is a bigger deal in Silicon Valley than I thought and also seems to be a genuinely nice person.

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1. Investing in soft skills for yourself has more value than investing in hard assets/stocks and bonds

2. Invest in your strengths and outsource your weaknesses

3. The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people that are already where you want to be

4. Better connected is better than most connected

Knowing the right person is more important than knowing a lot of people.

5. A good performer that gets along with everyone and is a good team player is more valuable than an outstanding performer that does not play well with others

6. Inauthentic people are obsessed with authenticity

The salesperson that repeats your name over and over, etc.

7. The more information that you consume the more likely it is that you will find something to get excited about

And also cross reference information. I have found this to be true!

8. Taking action on an opportunity that you have right away is more likely to lead to success than waiting for the right opportunity: utilize serendipity

9. Not everyone should be an entrepreneur but everyone should be entrepreneurial about their careeer

10. As the founder of Linked In and one of the PayPal Mafia Reid Hoffman is a big believer in and beneficiary of professional networks! He says that within 6 degrees of separation everyone has millions of potential connections through LinkedIn

I avoid LinkedIn but maybe I should learn to use it better. I have accumulated over 400 connections but I hardly ever interact with anyone on that platform.