time of traditional players. The result is that they are getting many
times the brand exposure of their traditional competitors, with
fractions of their ad spend. For example, with less than 1 percent of
L’Oréal’s Google keyword purchases, NYX has five times L’Oréal’s
organic visibility. In sporting goods, niche players in categories such as
skis, mountain bikes, and running shoes are grabbing chunks of the
high-margin enthusiast market by signing up young influencers, deft
online promotion, and uber-fast product introductions.
The Myth of Balance
There are people who are successful professionally while managing a
food blog, volunteering at the animal shelter, and mastering ballroom
dance. Assume you are not one of those people. Balance is largely a
myth when establishing your career. The slope of the trajectory for
your career is (unfairly) set the first five years post-graduation. If you
want the trajectory to be steep, you’ll need to burn a lot of fuel. The
world is not yours for the taking, but for the trying. Try hard, really
hard.
I have a lot of balance now. That’s a function of the lack of balance
in my twenties and thirties. Other than business school, from twenty-
two to thirty-four, I remember work and not much else. The world
does not belong to the big, but to the fast. You want to cover more
ground in less time than your peers. This is partially talent, but mostly
endurance. My lack of balance as a young professional cost me my
hair, my first marriage, and arguably my twenties. And it was worth it.
Are You an Entrepreneur?
I began this chapter describing some of the characteristics I see across
the board in successful people in the digital age. But along our varied,
digital-age career path, many people will at some point consider an
entrepreneurial opportunity, whether it be starting their own business,
joining an existing start-up, or launching a new business with a larger
organization.