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The reading time for The End of Jobs varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of The End of Jobs?

The author of The End of Jobs is Taylor Pearson.

Career & Success

The End of Jobs Book Summary - The End of Jobs Book explained in key points

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The End of Jobs summary

Name: The End of Jobs
Rating: 3.9 (36 reviews)
Author: Taylor Pearson

Taylor Pearson

Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5

3.9 (36 ratings)

18 mins

Brief summary

The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson argues that traditional jobs are becoming obsolete due to technological advancements, and that individuals should instead focus on entrepreneurship and building personal brands.

Topics

Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents

The End of Jobs
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Understand why now is the time to become an entrepreneur.

Ever since our childhood we’ve been told to go to school so we can get a good job. A sentiment that still holds strong. But does it hold water? Given that more people than ever before have a college degree and the whole world is just a few keyboard clicks away, it might be time to reconsider this sentiment.

Something has indeed changed. In our globalized modern world, a job is no longer the safest route to financial security. From outsourcing to unemployed college graduates, it looks like we are in a recession, but we could also be witnessing the limits of a decaying system and the beginning of a new one: a paradigm shift and the end of jobs as we know it.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how the English King Henry VIII made capital more important than land;
why great entrepreneurs think like poker players; and
how population growth in the U.S. has increased unemployment.

Every system has a limit that can be surpassed.

There are many variables that determine how society progresses. One variable particularly worth examining is the limit of the systems we live and work in. Software entrepreneur Eli Goldratt came up with this theory of constraints in the 1980s.

According to Goldratt, every system that has a goal also has a limit: a part of the system that restricts growth. So if your factory has two assembly lines that produce 100 units of a product and one that produces only 50, that third line would be the limit.

In order to progress, then, we need to work on this limit. For example, if you have a great product but nobody’s heard of it, you won’t boost sales by improving your product. Here, the limit you need to improve on would be your marketing strategy.

According to systems thinker Ron Davidson, the last three major changes in the Western economy occurred when the limits changed.

Back in fourteenth-century England, the agricultural economy was based on land, and since the Catholic Church owned the lion’s share of it, they controlled the economy. Therefore, the limit was land until the sixteenth century, when Henry VIII appointed himself head of the Anglican Church and revoked Rome’s control over it.

Then, at the dawn of the industrial age in the 1700s, bankers became more powerful than kings, shifting the limit from land to capital, and forcing land-owner and Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III to ask bankers for a loan to finance his wars.

Later, in the 1900s, we shifted from a capital economy into a knowledge economy. Knowledge, proliferated by technology, became the new limit, making companies like IBM extremely powerful. This was evident in 1975, when IBM successfully issued a billion dollars in bonds, despite their bankers at Morgan Stanley refusing to cooperate.

Since the early 2000s, though, we’ve seen a weakening of the knowledge economy as a burgeoning entrepreneurial economy gains momentum. Read on to find out why.

While baby boomers only needed credentials to succeed, today a degree doesn’t guarantee financial security.

Jobs are becoming increasingly hard to come by and, believe it or not, those in their fifties today are partly responsible for it.

After WWII, the economic boom pushed the knowledge economy to its limit, and it began morphing into a new system.

Today, knowledge-based jobs can be outsourced or mechanized, which can actually be advantageous.

Aside from the dearth of jobs in the U.S., there’s another reason finding work has become so difficult: the possibility of outsourcing.

Modern communication technology and increased global education has released us from our office cubicles and the number of people with university degrees has dramatically increased, making degrees less valuable. In fact, the number of college graduates in the world increased from 90 million in 2000 to 130 million in 2010. But what does this mean? Well, when we add technology like the video calls of Skype into the mix, this means that qualified talent can be hired and work from anywhere in the world.

Being an entrepreneur now is actually more profitable and safer than having a job.

The benefits of having a steady job have been drilled into our heads since we were children, but what if we were misinformed?

A steady job today means exposing yourself to an insidious risk that is out of your control. In our current economy, your steady income can disappear at the drop of a hat, leaving you clueless as to how to recover.

Modern technology has made entrepreneurial investment easier and safer than ever before.

Starting a business is for highly intelligent business types with piles of cash, right? Actually, thanks to modern technology, anyone has the possibility to do anything from designing furniture to publishing a novel. Apple mogul Steve Jobs even said that entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily smarter than the average person.

One thing that has changed the game of business is, of course, the internet. One way it has done so is by dramatically reducing production costs.

Unlike the obligation of a job, being an entrepreneur allows you to work on what is meaningful to you.

Prehistoric hunter-gatherers didn’t work like we do today: they worked to survive. But this changed at the beginning of the agricultural revolution. After that, work became an obligation.

When we started creating farming communities, we worked to collect foods we could store or trade. Tilling the land was arduous, constant work to amass wealth rather than to survive.

The Stair Step Method is one way to become an entrepreneur and start your own business.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t always a walk in the park, but it’s not as treacherous as you may think. Rob Walling, leader of three software companies, used his experience to create a useful entrepreneurial method known as the Stair Step Method.

The first step involves creating and launching a single product, selling it for a one-time fee, and using just one marketing channel.

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What is The End of Jobs about?

Drawing from our history over the last few centuries and from hundreds of interviews with entrepreneurs, Taylor Pearson reveals in The End of Jobs (2015) why being an entrepreneur is safer and more profitable than ever. He explains why so many graduates have such a hard time getting work, and why becoming an entrepreneur in our increasingly globalized world gives us more meaning and freedom than working a conventional 9-to-5.

The End of Jobs Review

The End of Jobs (2015) explores the changing landscape of work and offers insights on how to thrive in the new economy. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Provides a fascinating analysis of how technology is disrupting traditional jobs and creating new opportunities for those who are willing to adapt.
Offers practical strategies for individuals to navigate the uncertain job market, build their own businesses, and create multiple streams of income.
Through thought-provoking examples and stories, it challenges conventional wisdom and invites readers to reconsider their notions of work and success.

Best quote from The End of Jobs

Entrepreneurship is connecting, creating and inventing systems – be they businesses, people, ideas or processes.

—Taylor Pearson

Who should read The End of Jobs?

Anyone seeking an alternative to their 9-to-5 job
Students and recent graduates looking for work
Entrepreneurs wanting to grow their business

About the Author

An entrepreneur, marketer and consultant, Taylor Pearson advises authors, entrepreneurs and CEOs on how to expand, clarify and market their businesses.

Categories with The End of Jobs

Career & Success Money & Investments Entrepreneurship

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