Make a list of your key uncertainties, doubts, and questions you have about your career at the

Research shows that a team in the business world will tend to perform at the level of the worst individual team member.4

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

while entrepreneurial companies and people are always evolving, the choices they’re making are disciplined, not random. There is real planning going on, even if there are no firm plans. We call this kind of disciplined, adaptive planning ABZ Planning, and it’s what we’ll cover in the balance of the chapter.

Andy Kessler, “Is Your Job an Endangered Species?” Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2011,

your existing assets shine brighter than the competition’s. For example, top American college basketball players who aren’t good enough to play professionally Stateside frequently play in European leagues. Instead of changing their skills, they change their local environment. They know they have a competitive advantage in a market with lower-qualit

Relationship builders, on the other hand, try to help other people first. They don’t keep score. They’re aware that many good deeds get reciprocated, but they’re not calculated about it. And they think about their relationships all the time, not just when they need something.

All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in the caves, we were all self-employed … finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began. As civilization came, we suppressed it. We became “labor” because they stamped us, “You are labor.” We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.

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