Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The End of Jobs summary
Taylor Pearson
Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5
Listen to the first key idea
Key idea 1 of 7
3.9 (34 ratings)
18 mins
7 key ideas
Audio & text
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.
About the Author
An entrepreneur, marketer and consultant, Taylor Pearson advises authors, entrepreneurs and CEOs on how to expand, clarify and market their businesses.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 7
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.
Want to see all full key ideas from The End of Jobs?
Key ideas in The End of Jobs
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
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
Categories with The End of Jobs
Books like The End of Jobs
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers