Ben Casnocha, entrepreneur and coauthor (with Reid Hoffman) of The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career, says that entrepreneurial success today requires three types of literacy; the ability to read and write (of course); search literacy, the ability to acquire information on demand; and network literacy, to know how networks operate around you and how to leverage your relationships.

“People drive business,” Casnocha told theCUBE at IBM Vision 2015. “People drive change. With social networks and social technology, we’re able to keep track of who we know, stay in touch with those people and leverage those relationships to make great change happen.”

Think like an entrepreneur

In his keynote at IBM Vision, Casnocha advised all business leaders to think like an entrepreneur.

“What it takes to succeed and get ahead requires a different set of skills and talents than in prior generations,” he said. “It’s a very competitive, dynamic age. The best way to thrive among all the challenges is to study what entrepreneurs do when creating amazing businesses. When you create a business, you do so under conditions of great uncertainty, change and competition. Study how entrepreneurs adapt their business, how they build networks. Entrepreneurs take risks. Apply those same skills to your career. Think of your own career as a business of one.”

Taking risks and experimenting

For those interested in making the leap from employee to small business owner, Casnocha advises small steps rather than huge leaps and maxed-out credit cards.

“Take incremental risks, be experimental, start a side project and learn by doing,” he said. “You can inch your way toward whatever your dream company is. And know that you can’t do it alone. You have to have a team of people behind you. For those who think they don’t know anyone, remember you can go online and connect with people around the world.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Vision 2015.