我们通常在上学期间就为自己设定了职业生涯，但在以后的生活中却逐渐放弃了那条看起来略显狭窄的道路。现在，这种情况一去不复返了。如今，职场生存法则要求我们从思想到行动上都要具备企业家的创业精神，时刻保持灵活和警惕，愿意接受动荡，同时对市场的供需状况保持高度灵敏的嗅觉。
多年来，我指导过的企业家和创业家有很多，因此，我经常发现成功的职业经理人和企业家其各自在职业生涯发展和企业经营上有一些相似的地方。Reid Hoffman （雷德•霍夫曼），人际关系网的合伙人，用他最新的畅销书《如何开启你自己》帮我将这些相似点清晰地梳理了出来。
1. 培养永远不够好的心态。“完美”应该成为我们都厌恶的一个词。我们应该追求工作的不断进步。在我们的生活和职业生涯中，每一天都意味着有机会可以学到更多，做得更多，变得更好。在工作中永远保持不够好的心态，会让你认为还有待完善，想要提高自己。
2. 每隔一段时间就重新定义和提高自己的竞争力。竞争力是三种不同的、经常变化的因素相互作用的结果——资产、抱负和价值观，以及市场的供需状况。聪明人会经常研究市场状况，并相应增强和丰富自己的各种技能。
3. 学习时做好迎接动荡的准备。改变是这个世界上唯一不变的，每次改变都是一个学习的机会。每天要学会适应和接受这种变化，不要在学习或考虑改变之前等着看它失败。面对动荡，最好的方法是抓住向好的变化，而不是避免向坏的变化。
4. 建立关系网并利用你的关系网。世界上最好的职业人不会一个人独自闯荡，就像玩单打游戏的人往往会输给团队。成功的企业家通常是那些组建了最好团队的人。把比你聪明的人纳入关系网，有效的关系网让聪明人的智慧也成为你的智慧。
5. 追求突破性的机会。成功始于机会，但这只限于当你好好利用它时，否则机会没有任何意义。许多人认为那些突破性的机会要靠运气，但实际上这些机会是努力达到正确的心态、正确的时间和正确的地点之后的产物。因此，保持你的求知欲和自信心，并且要主动学习。
6.明智地去冒险。其实我们都在冒险，但不同的是，不是所有人都那么聪明，知道自己冒的是什么险。世界变幻莫测，将风险最小化是我们所做的最充满风险的事情之一。最聪明的冒险意味着潜在危险是有限的，而潜在益处可以说是无限的。后者就是每个公司都争先冒的险。
7. 保持紧迫感。企业家都知道，职场的各种变化往往主宰着最好的大公司，连刚成立的公司都不得不保持紧迫感来避免公司走下坡路。对每一个职业人而言，机会来无影去无踪，因此，只有持续的紧迫感才能让你时刻保持警惕。
除了你和自己的关系网，还有一个更宽广的环境影响着你在职场上的潜力。那便是你所处的文化和社会环境。因此，慎重地选择你将生活和工作的城市，和创业的地点。你的最大潜质可能需要发挥在世界上另一个地方，或发挥在志愿者而不是被雇佣者的岗位上。
从更远来说，我坚信每个人生来都可以成为企业家，只要我们把握好以上所说的几项法则，去不断成长和丰富自己的人生。你最近使用了其中的哪几项应对工作中的变化呢？
The days when you locked and loaded your career in school, and then blasted away down that same narrow path the rest of your life, are gone, never to return. Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand.
Over the years I have spent mentoring entrepreneurs and startups, I often notice the similarities between successful professionals managing their careers and successful entrepreneurs building a business. Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, helped me crystallize these similarities with his new bestseller “The Start-up of You.” Here are key survival skills for both lifestyles:
1.Adopt the mindset of a permanent beta. “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 in our lives and careers. Keeping your career in permanent beta forces you to acknowledge that you have bugs, and intend to improve yourself.
2.Regularly assess and refine your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage is the interplay of three different, ever-changing forces – your assets, aspirations and values, and the market realities of supply and demand. Smart professionals constantly assess the market, and strengthen and diversify skills.
3.Plan to pivot as you learn. Change is the only constant in this world, and every change is an opportunity to learn. Plan to adapt, and start it every day on the side. Don’t wait for something to fail before you learn, or before you consider a change or pivot. The best pivots are to take advantage of an upside, rather than avoid a downside.
4.Build and use your network. World-class professionals don’t try to take on the world alone. People playing a solo game will always lose out to a team. Successful entrepreneurs are ones who put together the best teams. Build your network with people smarter than you. With effective networking, who you know is what you know.
5.Pursue breakout opportunities. Success begins with opportunities, but these mean nothing unless you execute on them. Others taking breakout opportunities can be dismissed as lucky, but more often it’s the result of their work to be at the right place at the right time, with the right mindset. Be curious, confident, and willing to learn.
6.Take intelligent risks. We are all risk takers. But we are not all equally intelligent about how we do it. In a changing world, minimizing risk is one of the riskiest things you can do. The most intelligent risks are those where the potential downside is limited, but the potential upside is virtually unlimited. Those are the risks every business jumps to take.
7.Maintain that sense of urgency. Entrepreneurs know that in business, change overtakes the best of big companies, and even startups have to maintain a sense of urgency to stay ahead of the curve. For every professional, opportunities come and go at an astonishing speed, so only a continuing sense of urgency will keep you alert.
In addition to you and the network around you, there is a broader environment that shapes your career potential. It’s the local culture and society around you. So think carefully about where you choose to live and work, or where you choose to start a business. Your maximum potential may be in another place in the global environment, or as a volunteer versus an employee role.
In the bigger picture, I’m convinced that we were all born as entrepreneurs, with the instincts listed above to survive, grow, and prosper. How many of these career survival instincts have you used lately to deal with the changes we all see?
