First off, Reid Hoffman knows what he is doing (or his team of helpers does). He has a great trailer, talks on youtube, and a website for his book. I love watching talks by authors after reading the book because you can get a sense of the points they wanted you to take away and you can put a face and voice to the inspiration. I’m going to be honest Reid Hoffman looked completely different than I thought he would. He was not the clean cut, fit, too-good looking successful career man I had pictured, which brought me to his section in the Start Up of you about networking. He is a very good speaker but his charisma is not the negative kind that I associate with networking-social climbing. He painted networking in a totally different light- building relationships, helping others before they help you. That certainly sounds like something I can do. The thought of asking for something from someone else before I help them first is horrifying to me, but networking it necessary and it does not have to be a negative using relationship. I also loved Hoffman’s emphasis on team work and pulling on other people’s strengths to get a better product. I mean, he wrote his book someone else and look how it turned out. Arden emphasized the same thing- share your ideas and you will benefit from others point of view (just don’t be an idiot about it). Both authors are honest and real, competition is crazy but you need to push yourself to adapt and improve but it is not all on you to complete every single success, you will use outside sources for inspiration and improvement. Also, thank you Hoffman for Plan A, B, and Z and giving short term goals to accomplish them at the end of the chapters. Plan Z is so realistic and so necessary. This book is for realistic dream achievers. I definitely appreciate that. I am still a little bit confused on what Plan B will look like or should look like but I think age may have something to do with that. I think my Plan B for now need to be skill acquiring (photoshop, relevant social media sites, languages) and then as I explore (with both internships and outside of my internships) I will be able to understand a more concrete vision of my Plan B. I never asked in class (to you, Michael Edmondson) what is your Plan B right now? I know Plan B’s change from person to person but I also imagine that they look very different based on the amount of experience you have.

 

Another moment from my internship: Another intern who is in his 30’s was asking about my classes because he went to school for advertising. I told him about marketing and how it was preparing us to ender a world of Career INSANITY and we had to be ready to adapt to change. He said that the only person who warned him of that was his art teacher when he was in college because he wanted to graduate with an art degree (and that stereotypically limits the jobs that will be available to you) but he said he wished every major would have taught that because once you get out there it is true. He said this class was a blessing.

 

Very reassuring.