Reid HoffmanIt took 15 years after finishing college for Reid Hoffman to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up.
"When I graduated from Stanford my plan was to become a professor and public intellectual," he once said. "That is not about quoting Kant. It's about holding up a lens to society and asking 'who are we?' and 'who should we be, as individuals and a society?' But I realized academics write books that 50 or 60 people read, and I wanted more impact."
He sought out that impact by founding companies — including SocialNet, arguably the first social network — and joining PayPal early on. In December 2002, he cofounded LinkedIn, now a $20 billion-plus company. The rest is Silicon Valley history.
But how did he get there? And what lessons can today's young professionals learn from his incredible success?
To answer those questions Hoffman and Ben Casnocha coauthored a book called "The Start-Up of You."
Then, expanding on ideas from that book, they created a slideshow presentation for college grads called "The 3 Secrets Of Highly Successful Graduates," which they've allowed us to republish here.