The business professor Clayton Christensen once told graduating students at Harvard Business School, “If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find [a] predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification.”

market realities. (Chapter 2)

Set aside one day a week or month or even every few months to work on something that could be part of your Plan B. If you have a business idea you want to pursue, a skill you want to learn, a relationship you want to form, or some other curiosity or aspiration, start on it as a side project and see where it goes. At a minimum, just start talking to

“help interesting people do interesting things.” That

Winning careers, like winning start-ups, are in permanent beta: always a work in progress.

Develop your competitive advantage in the market by combining three puzzle pieces: your assets, your aspirations, and the

Use ABZ Planning to formulate a Plan A based on your competitive advantages, and then iterate and adapt that plan based on feedback and lessons learned. (Chapter 3) Build real, lasting relationships and deploy these relationships into a powerful professional network. (Chapter 4) Find and create opportunities for yourself by tapping networks, being

As Grove says, “[A] career inflection point results from a subtle but profound shift in the operating environment, where the future of your career will be determined by the actions you take in response.”6 An inflection point at your company or industry usually will require you to either change your skills or change your environment. In other words,

But as much as you can, prioritize plans that offer the best chance at learning about yourself and the world. Not only will you make more money in the long run, but your career journey will be more fulfilling. Ask yourself, “Which plan will grow my soft assets the fastest?” Even simpler: “Which plan offers the most learning potential?”