I have an acquaintance who went to Stanford. He was there in 2005-06, right when Facebook was taking over college campuses.
My acquaintance worked. All his friends worked.
His friends mostly worked in restaurants and retail — minimum wage jobs. His friends could take or leave the jobs. His friends’ employers could take or leave his friends. But my acquaintance figured something out. He lived in Silicon Valley. All over Silicon Valley, there were venture capitalists. Those venture capitalists needed to understand Facebook, because Facebook was growing like crazy.
If Facebook was going to keep growing, VCs might want to invest in a later funding round. If Facebook was going to keep growing, it would spawn an entire ecosystem of products and services around itself. If those VCs didn’t understand Facebook, how could they know what to invest in?
Venture capitalists have plenty of money, but not much time. And even if they had wanted to invest the time to figure out Facebook, in 2005 they literally couldn’t do it because the ONLY way you could get a Facebook account was to be a college student with a .edu email address. My acquaintance created a job for himself.He would go to VC firms’ offices and teach them what they needed to know about Facebook. He would pull up his own Facebook account, and show them how he used the product.His friends were making minimum wage at their restaurant and retail jobs. They weren’t making connections that would help later in their careers. Instead, they were waiting on whoever happened to walk through the door. Any joy they experienced in their jobs was purely coincidental.My acquaintance, on the other hand, was making good money. He was meeting high-level people and advancing his career. He took two things he loved to do — teaching others and playing on Facebook — and forged those seemingly-disparate interests into something valuable.Instead of getting a job, he created a job.And the difference was more than just the money.—That’s what Analytical IQ is to me.I’m trying to create something 1,000 times better than a standard, off-the-shelf job.When I get it right, I’m working with people who inspire me, who challenge me, and who are promoting health (not just healthcare).When I get it right, I’m doing things I love to do anyway (answering interesting questions with data, teaching, being an evangelist for cool technologies) and combining those things in a way that creates value for my clients.Creating a job is a lot more work than getting a job. The degree of difficulty is higher because the possibilities are infinite. There is a lot more potential for embarrassing and public failure when you create your job.Still, now that I’ve seen this side, I doubt I could ever go back. —
But my acquaintance figured something out. He lived in Silicon Valley. All over Silicon Valley, there were venture capitalists. Those venture capitalists needed to understand Facebook, because Facebook was growing like crazy.
If Facebook was going to keep growing, VCs might want to invest in a later funding round. If Facebook was going to keep growing, it would spawn an entire ecosystem of products and services around itself. If those VCs didn’t understand Facebook, how could they know what to invest in?
Venture capitalists have plenty of money, but not much time. And even if they had wanted to invest the time to figure out Facebook, in 2005 they literally couldn’t do it because the ONLY way you could get a Facebook account was to be a college student with a .edu email address. My acquaintance created a job for himself. He would go to VC firms’ offices and teach them what they needed to know about Facebook. He would pull up his own Facebook account, and show them how he used the product.
