Your brand is what people think about when they hear your name.The problem is, most people don’t realize that they can do better than work under someone else's brand. They just need to take some steps and build it. One should have a website under his/her name to establish a brand. A social media presence can also help.

Building Your Brand

<ul><li>Develop in-demand skills over collecting degrees</li><li>Focus your time and energy on developing profitable, in-demand hard skills rather than simply collecting academic credentials</li><li>Many rich entrepreneurs and investors do not have college degrees</li><li>Optimize for acquiring applied skills that provide value to employers or customers</li></ul>

Beyond Degrees

Great networking is not about the back-and-forth, it’s about giving without expectation of anything in return.There are two basic ways to find great connections<ol><li>Find people with great future potential and help them in reaching their goals.</li><li>Add some value to the life of someone who is already established or connect them to someone where a connection could create a win-win potential for both parties.</li></ol>

Making Worthwhile Connections

<ul><li>Be wary of excessive student loan debt that constrains your options</li><li>Find creative alternatives to gain skills without expensive formal education</li><li>Debt impedes freedom, risk-taking, and flexibility</li></ul>

Avoid Burdensome Educational Debt


<ul><li> Adults need a reason to learn something.</li><li>They are involved in planning as well as evaluation, more interested in subjects having immediate relevance, more interested in problem-oriented (as opposed to content-oriented).</li><li>They also prefer more self-directed education (as opposed to classroom instruction).</li></ul>

Investing for Success: Learning as an Adult

<ul><li>Actively network and build relationships with people who are successfully doing what you aspire to do</li><li>Learn from mentors - successful entrepreneurs and practitioners in your field</li><li>Insights from real-world experience are more valuable than academic theories</li></ul>

Learn From People Who Have Already Succeeded

Impact requires venturing into the unknown (whose risk most people avoid) and leadership (which acts as a multiplier of impact).Four steps:<ol><li>Get rid of debts, and have some savings.</li><li>Create room for experimentation in your current job.</li><li>Begin experimentation: Use money from step 1 to experiment around, while working.</li><li>Strike out on your own by following the direction set by a successful experiment from step 3.</li></ol>

Making An Impact: The Four Steps

<ul><li>The general perception of marketing is that it’s sleazy and manipulative.</li><li>The reality is that good marketing means making your potential customers know about you (or your company). Out of sight is out of mind.</li><li>A lot of businesses fail because they are not able to reach out to the right customers.</li></ul>

Marketing: Don't Let Your Company Remain Obscure

<ul><li>The best education comes from real world hands-on experience, not just passive classroom learning</li><li>Seek internships, apprenticeships, and other opportunities to gain practical experience</li><li>Starting your own ventures, even small side hustles, provides invaluable learning</li></ul>

Learn By Doing Through Real Experience


<ul><li>Raw ideas and determined execution matter far more than degrees or credentials in the real world</li><li>Many highly credentialed people plateau in the middle of their careers</li><li>Don't rely on pedigree alone - develop skills and hustle</li></ul>

Ideas and Execution Matter More Than Degrees

One can get better at a particular craft, but being able to sell oneself is equally important. <ul><li>Success is a skill – it consists of the skill of marketing, the skill of sales and the skill of leadership.</li><li>Sales are about knowing what a customer needs and, if you have a good solution/product, offering it.</li><li>Leadership is about being able to influence people, not control them.</li></ul>

Sales As A Leadership Skill

<ul><li>An entrepreneurial mindset focuses on contribution, outcome, and moves toward big decisions even without authority.</li><li>The employee mindset, on the other hand, focuses on entitlement, and output, and turns away even from small decisions.</li><li>Entrepreneurs see current circumstances as temporary, but employees see them as permanent.</li></ul>

Entrepreneurial vs. Employee Mindset

People don’t talk about the best-writing author; they talk about the best-selling author.

Some of the smartest, most successful people in the country didn’t finish college. None of them learned their most critical skills at an institution of higher education. And like them, most of what you’ll need to learn to be successful you’ll have to learn on your own, outside of school.Michael Ellsberg set out to fill in the missing pieces by interviewing a wide range of millionaires and billionaires who don’t have college de­grees, including fashion magnate Russell Simmons and Facebook found­ing president Sean Parker.This book is your guide to developing practical success skills in the real world: how to find great mentors, build a world-class network, make your work meaningful (and your meaning work), build the brand of you, and more. Learning these skills is a necessary addition to any education, whether you’re a high school dropout or graduate of Harvard Law School.