Yesterday, I finished the book The Startup of You, written by Reid Hoffman, one of LinkedIn’s founders.
While most business books espouse similar principles, this book was particularly inspiring and actionable. Instead of suggesting that you should know what you want down to the tiniest detail, it instead suggests invoking serendipity through leveraging your contacts and leaving your house.
Simple enough – right? Instead of doing your work holed up alone, go to a coffee shop. Instead of reading the same books that all your friends are reading, choose something weird in an unrelated field. Instead of admiring that cool person on Instagram from afar, send them a message – heck, become friends!
While I’ve learned the above lessons overtime, sometimes it takes words from the founder of LinkedIn to re inspire you. Often, we know what we need to do deep down, but it usually takes another person (or book) telling you to do it for you to actually follow through (or maybe it’s just me – idk).
In spirit of the action steps outlined in this book, I’ve put together 5 ways I’m going to be putting these principles into cation.
1.Leave your house
I am already great at this. I’ve always been an introvert, but I love to do my work in public spaces. However, I tend to gravitate towards the same coffee shops / workspaces. Now, I’m going to open my horizons to new communal work areas! Believe it or not, I’ve had numerous friendships and relationships with people I’ve met at coffee shops and libraries – you never know.
2. Read cool things
Through my show, I always ask for book recommendations. As a result, I’ve become very well-versed in the world of business books (case in point, this whole article). However, I really want to start reading more things in French. I think it will expand my mind, and reading French Vogue isn’t exactly a chore.
3. “invite a stranger party”
I have been meaning to do this for ages, but I am making a Facebook event as we speak. The best way to make new friends is through people you already know, so why not have them bring one person you’ve never met before? Simple but genius. Will report back on how this goes. While I didn’t get this precise idea from the book, I remembered it when the author mentioned the importance of facilitating introductions.
4. join (and post) in a niche Facebook group
London Fashion Creatives is my favourite to engage with, but I am definetly looking for more. If you know of any, let me know!
5. interesting people fund
This was 100% taken from the book. If you take anything away from this blogpost it should be this. It’s so important to budget money for taking people who inspire you to coffee / lunch etc. As cliché as it sounds, it’s truly an investment in your mind, career, and will to go on.