"Without the platform, are you nothing?"

This article is the 132nd original piece by Lu Canwei.

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Today I saw an article that said, once you leave the platform, you are nothing.

I used to think that way too, so what exactly is a platform?

Many people equate a platform with a company, believing that choosing a good company means choosing a good platform. But what are the standards for a good platform? Is it enough to just enter a big company?

Track

It’s not just about the size of the company. Many years ago, many people scrambled to get into companies like IBM and Oracle, while some went to the newly established Tencent and Alibaba. The results are well known; those who joined Tencent and Alibaba early on grew rapidly, while Oracle eventually withdrew, leaving chaos behind.

If we rewind ten years, during those years of group buying, self-media, big data, internet finance, O2O, live streaming, sharing economy, short videos, and now community group buying, these tracks were all considered hot spots. In the process of rapid development, you have more opportunities to learn and grow compared to people in other industries, allowing your abilities to improve quickly over the next few years.

If you choose a track that is already stable, then you won’t have many breakthroughs from 0 to 1 to learn from. For your growth, it becomes merely using your original experience to continue working. Once you find yourself in this situation, your competitiveness after leaving the company is actually worse than those coming from rapidly growing companies, and you will be older.

Business

Many people choose to enter a big company. In a big company with many businesses, being involved in new businesses can make you more competitive. Why? Because in stable businesses, your role is like a screw; it’s hard to have opportunities for rapid growth. However, stable businesses can help you become a good craftsman. For newcomers in the workplace, stable businesses can indeed deepen their professional skills.

But once business growth slows down, your time will be spent repeating various similar tasks. At this point, you need to consider whether to try innovative businesses, which gives you the chance to stir things up, try more things, and rapidly enhance your personal abilities. Moreover, big companies have relatively abundant resources. If you go to a small company, you will need to handle many foundational tasks yourself, spreading your energy thin and resulting in a negative cycle for your personal growth.

What is a platform?

The first two points seem unrelated to the platform; more opportunities are in small companies, while business diversity is more in big companies. So, we still haven’t answered the question of what a platform is.

A platform essentially empowers you. For example, if you create a product independently, it might only have 1,000 users, but if you rely on a platform, it could have 100,000 users. The challenges you face are different. If you want a place to live, doing it yourself means starting from buying land, then finding a construction team to lay the foundation, and slowly building the house. If you find a platform, it’s likely that you just need to do some renovations before moving in, or you can move in with just your luggage.

In other words, a platform must have growth, not just size. If what you are given is a dilapidated building, moving in poses significant risks. Additionally, there should be ample foundational infrastructure and resources, which can provide you with leverage to amplify your efforts many times over.

Finally

Returning to the initial question, if we leave the platform, are we nothing? As mentioned earlier, a platform is used to leverage your abilities. Without a platform, your foundational skills must be high; even without leverage, you are still valuable. And who says you must have ready-made solutions? You can also find faster and simpler ways to build your house.

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