5 Questions for Ben Casnocha, Emerge Summit Keynote Speaker
Why did you write The Start Up of You?
The career escalator was jammed at every level. Unemployment rates were sky-high. Creative disruption was shaking every industry. Global competition for jobs was (is) fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past. I co-authored The Start-up of You to provide a new playbook to individual professionals to grapple with these challenges.
Why is an entrepreneurial outlook important for young professionals?
It's important because an entrepreneurial disposition will lead you to reinvent yourself over and over again; to see yourself in a "permanent beta;" to acquire the new skills needed in order to adapt to economic change.
What advice would you give a young professional who has hit a glass ceiling in their career?
Find people who are thriving, study them, deconstruct their success, and apply the lessons to yourself. Better yet, befriend those people, or spend time with those people. Let them be an inspiration and let them help you - and find a way to help them in turn. Life's a team sport.
What excites you about speaking to young professionals in Sacramento?
Young professionals who are part of a network like the Sacramento Chamber are already self-selected to be driven and already grasp one of the most important principles of the new world of work: build or join networks around you (like the Sacramento Chamber) to go further and go faster.
What's next for you?
I'm thinking a lot about how companies can encourage Start-up of You instincts in their employee base. This is the subject of my latest book, The Alliance.
Get your tickets to hear Ben Casnocha and many other exciting speakers at Emerge Summit on Friday, March 27!
