Reid Hoffman–Risk taking is a must for success!
I met Reid Hoffman in TiECON. That day, I was assigned as an official photographer for the event and he is the panelist for the 3rd day afternoon session. Maybe because I was too concentrate on taking photos. I didn’t feel the panel discussion is too interesting.
Later, the media interviewed him in a private room. Of course, I am part of the media. So I went in and listened to their questions. People asked about how Twitter’s grow will affect Linkedin. Reid said it’s different approach. So he won’t worry about it. People asked how he likes the event. He said it’s amazing. For me, still not that impressive.
I actually listened to his Standford Podcast series before I went to the event. But I didn’t feel it’s so interesting until today, I listened to it for the 2nd time, then 3rd time. Then I find out this guy is really knows what he talked about.
I didn’t realized that he is also the founder of Paypal before. I think nowadays Paypal generate the most revenue for Ebay. In this podcast, he talked about how this legacy starts. Very interesting.
He talked about willing to take risks is very important in life. He is kinds of against the idea of going for a MBA before you become an Entrepreneur. That’s an interesting thought.
Also, he is joking about his degree in Philosophy. He said it’s a must take for Entrepreneurs. Somehow I find out it’s really interesting. Since my friend Yu-kai Chou also mentioned before that to make a better programmer, he suggested to take a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. That’s really interesting! Both of them are mentioning about the same subject for a different career approach. Guess I need to take some course in Philosophy too. 
When he talked about Linkedin’s revenue model. He said Linkedin is profitable due to three methods: Job Posting, Subscriptions and Advertising! But lots of people didn’t even notice that there is advertising in Linkedin. See, they are truely masters of doing it.
I like the way he ended the speech. He said the experience in Entrepreneurship will builld up a solid foundation for any career path. Which is very true. Since being an entrepreneur, you are trained to well rounded and can handle things from different aspect.
I think anyone become successful for a reason. From Reid Hoffman, he approved this philosophy again.
thanks for it
Hi Serbay, hope you also learned something from Reid. I personally do! I went back to listen to that podcast the third time yesterday. Maybe I have more to say now!
Why Philosophy and what exactly did they get out of it? If you can ask these two gentlemen, I’d love to hear the response. Is it about building the foundations of logic and critical thinking?
For me, philosophy is the art of doing thing. It is the highest class. I see lots of successful entrepreneurs, they are very like philosophier. For example Jack Ma.
Later I am going to write another blogpost about Tony Hsieh, he gave a keynote speech in TiECON too. The topic is Pursuing Happiness. For him, at the end of all the goal, targets and results, the true meaning is happiness. I consider that’s philosophy too.
Yu-kai Chou might have some different opion to me. So I will leave it some space for him to share his thougts here.