think that the guiding principle is your own passion and your own search for meaning. What mission are you on? What is the mission that you are trying to fulfill in your life that gives your business meaning, that gives your work meaning?

It means that when you have an opportunity to learn and interact with something new, you should be running toward it instead of running away from

think the most important skill in the age of flux is the ability to get new skills. To constantly be open to new areas of learning and new areas of growth. That is what will make you most valuable to the employer, partner, start-up of the future.

In your career, good entrepreneurial risks include taking on side projects on nights and weekends, embarking on international travel, asking your boss for extra work, and applying for jobs that you don’t think you’re fully qualified for.

The other has built a balanced set of strong alliances and looser acquaintances. Your allies are the people you review life goals with, the people you trust, the people with whom you try to work proactively on projects.

Set a Plan A that’s your current implementation of building a competitive advantage (your current job, hopefully), but also have a Plan B—something you could pivot to that’s different from but related to your current work. Finally, have a steady Plan Z—a worst-case scenario plan in which you might move back in with your parents

Finished ought to be an f-word for all of us. We are all works in progress. Each day presents an opportunity to learn more, do more, be more, and grow more. Keeping yourself in “permanent beta” makes you acknowledge that you have bugs, that there’s more testing to do on yourself, and that you will continue to adapt and evolve.

It teaches us that we should begin by systematically developing rare and valuable skills.

These traits, however, are rare and valuable—no one will hand you a lot of autonomy or impact just because you really want it, for example. Basic economics tells us that if you want something rare and valuable, you need to offer something rare and valuable in return—