I've Served Sixteen Years In LI

?? Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. 16 years on LinkedIn - Talk about a rut.

I've just been notified that my 16 year LI anniversary is today.

On the 24th back in 2008, LI announced its mobile version. LinkedIn. On a phone. Was worth a press release.

That same year, Sequoia Capital,?Greylock Partners, and other?venture capital?firms purchase a 5% stake in the company for $53?million, giving the company a?post-money valuation?of approximately $1?billion.

The prior year, LI reached 10 Million users.

What's it been like? What is the one thing I've learned, or observed in nearly two decades of LI? More than one, but here are three:

There are NO EXPERTS.

This entire realm, from Google to MySpace is a contrived, artificial, narrative that supports manmade constructs.

Nothing wrong with this...it got us to the Moon, won a couple of world wars, and continues the greatest social/political/human experiment in all of history.

The pace of change is too fast to become an expert. 10,000 hours? The world changes every revolution - that's 24 hours, BTW.

Nothing is free, you are the product.

We all know this now. If the platform doesn't charge for use, yet drives revenue and profit, YOU and your data are the product. Again, there is nothing wrong with this model, it is the Way. In 2023, LinkedIn revenue peaked at $15 Billion. Yeah, with a 'B'. Way back in 2017, revenue for this 'resume service' was $2.2 Billion. Yeah, right...

Today, 2024, LinkedIn is the De Facto business Platform

Microsoft owns LI. I've heard some say, "we are reconsidering our website, and thinking about making LI the one place prospects go for information about our company and services..."

Wow.

Change, real change, hits like a bolt - even if the 'bolt' takes 20 years.

One thing about becoming "De Facto" anything, you are primed for disruption, oblivion. Tower Records, K-Mart, Honeywell, Palm, Compaq, IBM on and on. One Golden Rule is that one day, "Your greatest strengths become your biggest weakness."

Xerox was at one time the best manufacturer of photocopiers. A great advantage and strength, until workers stopped coming into offices and making copies.

LinkedIn is next.