Why LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman Predicts Your 9-5 Job Will Be Extinct By 2034 (What You Need To Do)

Chasing your dream life is the only safe option.

Your 9-5 job is struggling on life support.

In less than 10 years time, it’ll be gone.

That’s what the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, has predicted.

Here’s why…

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A change of the generation

I’ve been traveling Asia for the last 100 days.

Through my adventure, I’ve met loads of people under 30.

But these weren’t random backpackers looking for a good time and travel experience.

I met solopreneurs, creators, and freelancers.

They all rejected:

• Working a stale 9-5 job.

• Being stuck in one place forever.

• Competing for a 5-10% annual raise.

My experience is not unique.

Results of a new Gen Z survey from Upwork Research Institute:

“Gen Z represents the fastest-growing generation of workers, which is increasingly rejecting conventional 9-to-5 jobs and embracing freelancing as a career choice.”

The future of work is here.

People want more:

• Choice.

• Freedom.

• Flexibility.

Humans aren’t meant to work 40+ hours for someone else.

Solopreneurship brings human back to our evolutionary upbringing. Small, nomadic tribes who worked alone but hunted together.

Chasing your dream life is the only safe option.

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I can fit my entire business in my backpack.

All I need is my laptop, charger, and wifi.

Even if I don’t have wifi, I can draft articles, emails, and other content offline on my Notion and sync it later.

I can build my business while on a plane, train, or bus.

My requirements are minimal.

I could technically run my business off my phone.

My point is:

Technology has always changed how we work.

• The plow transformed farming.

• The factory transformed manufacturing.

• The modern office transformed information.

Now, the internet and AI is transforming humanity.

The challenge? Most people aren’t aware of this change.

They still believe in the programming of:

Go to school, get into debt for a degree, work a job.

They are still trapped in the old ways of working.

It would be like training to be a farmer, when the world was moving towards supercomputers.

If you’re waiting for the news to tell you, you’re too late.

If you’re reading about it on LinkedIn, you’re too late.

No one is coming to tell you.

You need to see it for yourself.

I could never discover these trends while sitting in my bed in Melbourne. I had to leave and travel Southeast Asia.

Get out there. Learn. Fail. Try again.

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I haven’t used a resume in 5+ years.

Clients never ask for one.

Customers don’t care.

What do they care about?

• Demonstrated proof of results.

• Testimonials from previous clients.

• Content that validates my authority.

People don’t buy because you have a fancy degree in useless theory, or some random letters after your name.

They buy results, not qualifications.

They buy transformations, not your hours.

Stop selling yourself. It’s not about you.

Start selling outcomes. It’s about your customer.

I worked with a guy who had this fancy MBA and ‘20 years’ of experience.

But when push come to shove, he couldn’t:

• Adopt to new technology.

• Retain any clients.

• Close any sales.

I even worked with a CPA Accountant who couldn’t manage basic cashflow.

They hid their incompetence behind ‘qualifications and decades of experience’ but were utterly useless in practice.

Practical & real-world results > fake qualifications.

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I’ll never have one source of income

I’ve got clients in:

• Asia.

• Europe.

• America.

• Australia.

I’m currently living in Southeast Asia but get paid in USD.

I’ve got an audience size over 90,000.

I’ve got plans to move my business to Singapore in 2025. And open bank accounts in multiple countries.

My point?

Diversification is the only safety.

The odds of all my clients leaving me at the same time is close to zero. Even then, I could use my existing audience and email list to get new clients relatively quickly.

The logic of a 9-5 job being safe and secure is garbage.

You are a line on a spreadsheet. One decision from a clown in HR or cold algorithm and you’re out. You aren’t a family. There’s no loyalty.

Relying on one person, company, or salary gives me anxiety.

With the internet, you now have access to a global market place of opportunity. Your high-value skill can be resold multiple clients for more money than your job.

Only having a 9-5 job is the biggest risk you can take.

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What you need to do:

Don’t quit your job tomorrow.

Leverage it.

Use it to:

• Learn high-value skills.

• Build a broad network.

• Create your personal brand.

• Provide a financial runway.

In 3-6 months you’ll be a new person.

In 12 months, you’ll be unstoppable.

Build today for a better tomorrow.

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👉 I’ve previously sold a one-person business and I’m in the process of scaling another one to $20k per month. If you want my one-person business growth system, I’ve created a FREE email course for you to get started.