"Dream jobs are more often created than found, so they're rarely attainable through conventional searches. Creating one requires strong self-knowledge."
- Business Model You, page 84
"Because they can't change the environment they operate in, companies must change their business models (and sometimes create new ones) in order to remain competitive."- Business Model You, page 21
Tim revives the classic example of Blockbuster declaring bankruptcy to prove a point. Redbox and Netflix had outmoded the old business model, proving that movies and games could be delivered better via the internet, postal mail, and vending kiosks than through the traditional retail environment.
Even with a rough economic climate, technological trends and societal mores still shift fast beneath our feet. Whether for-profit, non-profit, or government entity, every organization has a business model. The striking parallel between companies and people is that they cannot control their environment. Just as organizations must evaluate and change their business models during unpredictable times, people must change theirs as well.
You are your most important business model. Only those with strong self-knowledge and flexibility can truly grow personally and professionally.
If you’re already part of a great company or organization, can you spot how it has changed and innovated over time? Did it require you to change, too?
“Employees who care about the success of the enterprise as a whole (and know how to achieve it) are the most valuable workers — and candidates for better positions.”
"One problem with others' expectations, though, is that we might adopt them as our own; a desire for social acceptance can easily overwhelm our internal compasses."- Business Model You, page 88
Do we remember who we really are?
Tim suggests we ask ourselves this question before our 20s. This was the time when our passions were at their most potent before being smothered by passivity, peer pressure and the expectations of others.
He quotes Marcus Buckingham of Go Put Your Strengths to Work in order to illuminate the point: “Your childish clarity faded, and you started listening to the world around you more closely than you did to yourself. The world was persuasive and loud, and so you resigned yourself to conforming to its demands.”
Sometimes, it’s the ongoing burnout or crises in our lives which make us contemplate our true purpose. This deep self-reflection returns us to the distant past.
There are some questions which can kick off this re-discovery. What did we love? What invigorated us back then? These may be the games, hobbies, or little abilities and fascinations we picked up along the way, but never nourished. The trick now is to concoct all these early interests, desires, and events from the past, and to see what the combined significance may be in the present. This is the sweet spot.
“Reflecting deeply on who you are before crisis strikes rewards both you and your customers because it helps prevent burnout and disillusionment. When you’re personally satisfied, you’re more able to help others.”
"Everything you perceive about your career, your love life, and your family and friends, is not necessarily reality, it's merely your perception of reality."- Business Model You, page 166
Sometimes change is hard because there doesn’t seem to be any other way out. Overcome this by altering your perspective and transcending old mental models. Our perception of reality is just one angle. Pivot your view a little, and the real opportunities begin to appear.
To demonstrate, Tim presents a clever exercise which just might catch you off-guard:
Imagine a 3×3 dot pattern. The goal of the puzzle is to connect all nine dots in four (or less) straight lines… without lifting the pencil. The lines may be drawn at any angle, but you cannot exceed more than four straight lines.
Adhering to limiting beliefs, our minds default to the assumption that you must stay within the frame of the nine dots. But do you have to stay within the grid? If you break out of that grid, what happens?
This is a brilliant lesson on unspoken assumptions which radiates into our professional lives. Tim brings up a point that the frame — or confines of a situation — was invented by someone else. We’re so constantly exposed to it that we’ve just silently adopted them as the way things are. This draws upon a point in the book The Art of Possibility by Benjamin and Rosamund Zanders: that the dilemmas and dead ends we face only appear unsolvable. But enlarge the box or change the frame of the situation, and then suddenly the problems fall away. A new perspective appears and we discover a new set of opportunities.
There is always more than one way to accomplish something. Do you really know all your opportunities? Be brave enough to expand the box and see a new hypothesis emerge. Once that happens, the last question rests on you: Will you act on it?
Every time an exercise or experiment from the book is completed (and there’s plenty of them), you discover things about your personality and environment which you may have overlooked in the past. Your first prototype canvas becomes closer to completion. You start to realize that finding a “dream job” takes more than confidence and courage; it also requires a different way of thinking about your talents and strengths.
After working through the “canvas” process, you will no doubt want to manifest your new business model. Section 4 is titled Act and it is devoted to testing and executing, and is full of valuable insights as well.
Business Model You is visual and surgical, but it certainly leads to one thing: Clarity. It’s truly an architect’s workbook. Reinvent the ways your organization serves its stakeholders, or simply prepare yourself to do something new. Great organizations can be designed, and so can people’s careers. That’s the power of business model thinking and Business Model You.
Teaching and training is my lifework, and helping people with their personal business models is my specialty. Here’s what I believe:
