The Start-Up of You

The Start-Up of You explains why you need manage your career as if you were running a start-up to get ahead in today’s ultra-competitive and ever-changing business world.

For anything worth having, there is usually competition. Whether it’s jobs, dating, or waiting in line to get those Broadway tickets before they sell out, we all have to contend for what we want. When things get cut-throat, our best bet is to find where we have the upper hand.

Start-ups are forced to find their competitive edge to survive. To get that awesome new job, a shiny new promotion, or pay raise, you have to find your upper hand, too. This leverage is a cross between three things: your assets, your passions, and the realities of the current market. 

First, your personal assets give you an advantage over everyone else. They can also be your skills, experiences, or strengths. Whatever unique capabilities you have, they are always relative to the assets of the competition. Because of this, you need to seek out where your assets shine compared to your competitors.

Second, your values give you an edge over others. They can also be called your passions. Being passionate about what you are doing is crucial to success. Those who are excited about what they are doing will always excel and beat out those who aren’t. 

Third, the realities of today’s market are important because there needs to be a demand for your specific advantage over the competition. A competitive edge isn’t useful unless someone is interested in it.

When it comes to planning our careers, we need to be “flexibly persistent.” It’s best to do lots of serious planning and to strategize, just not to set firm plans, as things change. Our guide to doing this is called ABZ planning. Plan A is what you are doing at the moment. It’s your current job that should reflect what you now believe your competitive advantage is. It’s stable but flexible. A good plan A will lead to many possible plan B’s. Plan B is something related to plan A that you turn to if it shows more potential. It’s best that plan B is different than the first plan but related enough that you can take the lessons you learned from the first plan and apply them. Plan Z is your lifeboat. It’s not where you want to end up, but knowing it’s there will give you the confidence to switch to plan B because you know what you will do if plan B fails. This can be something like living at your parents’ house. Plan Z gives you the confidence to take the financial risks necessary to start your business because…