How The New Skill-Based Economy Has Changed The Game Forever

It’s time to face the music… times have changed.

No longer will a college degree land your dream job for you.

Forget puffed-up resumes and references that have been coached to say nice things about you.

Employers and customers want to know one thing — What results can you deliver for them?

People don’t care about the fancy title you held at your last company. They just want to know what skills you possess and if they can rely on you to get the job done.

Period.

Want to sign your dream client? Show them results you got from your last customer.

Need to beat out 12 other people applying for the same job? Knock the socks off of your potential employer by showcasing your superior skills in your portfolio of past work.

Freelancers on sites like Upwork are already doing this extremely well. In fact, I hired over 49 people that I knew had bad-ass skills, without ever reading a resume or cover letter.

Here’s a list of things I consider when hiring someone:

• Prior reviews of work — Are people happy with the work he or she has provided?
• Amount of hours or projects completed — Are they brand new or a seasoned professional?
• Portfolio — For positions like designers and writers, I want to see examples of their work. This is a fast way to find true talent in a sea of slackers.

Even if you’re not a freelancer, odds are your job is based on a core skillset…

Entrepreneurship is a skill.

Programming is a variety of skills.

Marketing, copywriting, and blogging skills that require practice and patience.

Creating viral videos requires a tremendous amount talent and skill.

I’d go so far to say that any job that doesn’t require a valuable skill will be completely eliminated or automated by technology.

For example, there has been a big debate around minimum wage, specifically if minimum wage should be raised to $15 per hour.

The fact is, no matter what your political beliefs, that most minimum wage jobs will be completed by autonomous computers.

For example, let’s take a look at the McDonalds worker…

McDonalds has started to roll out self-checkout terminals. While this doesn’t completely eliminate the need for McDonalds employees, it’s a sign of the times.

3 Steps To Develop Highly Valuable Skills

In past blog posts and podcasts I’ve explored the question, “Should you go to college?”, and found that people don’t need to spend $100,000+ on a college education to learn valuable skills.

From free coding schools to entrepreneur incubators, there’s a new era of resources to learn, develop skills, and get connected with people that can help make your dreams a reality.

There are three steps that everyone goes through when developing a skill:

1. Learn the basics — This is where you learn terminology, explore the moving parts and learn theory.
2. Practice and develop mastery — Once you know the basics, then it’s time to screw it all up. That’s right, developing mastery starts with making every mistake in the book. But over time you begin to make less mistakes and, through practice, start to flow.
3. Execute during “game time” — Once you’ve taken the time to learn and develop mastery, then it’s time to perform in real-life. This is similar to how a professional golfer needs to develop their skills at the driving range before he or she can ever expect to win a tournament. Once they’ve put in the “hard work”, then the pro has the potential to win the big prize.

For the past 15 years I’ve been obsessed with finding out what creates high performers. And this year I’ve partnered with expert mentors to launch the Skill Incubator, which provides training, mentorships, and investment opportunities for talented entrepreneurs, traders, and investors.

No matter if you’re an accountant, entrepreneur, nurse, or app developer, your core skills will determine your value in today’s economy. Take the time to learn and develop on a daily basis. An investment in yourself will pay the best dividends.

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