They used to call themselves “self-starters.”
Then it was “disruptors.”
Now everyone in the tech set has a new self-description of choice: “high agency.”
Over the past year, high agency has becometheaspirational character trait of Silicon Valley.
On LinkedIn, a wide range of sectors, from solar to crypto, are suddenly seeking high-agency applicants.
High-agency people are rich, successful, or on their way to being both.
They’re action-oriented and find opportunities where others see roadblocks.
Take Musk’spurchase of Twitterin 2022.
It was, by definition, a classic high-agency move.
“But then they sell them as something everyone can handle, which is savagely destructive.”
“They allow people to self-select into that group, or not.
Today, “high agency” is gaining ground asa key quality that employers are looking for.
“High agency is someone who can take control of their own destiny,” Basso says.
“You’re looking for whether they take ownership or blame others for the project’s failure.”
Basso recently saw a candidate with 15 years of experience dropped from consideration for a head of sales position.
Not, in other words, the kind of high-agency person the job required.
But the trip proved vital to raising funds for his first startup and establishing his career.
He now screens for “high-agency” qualities when he hires.
High agency has also become a marketing buzzword one intended to convey a certain level of exclusivity and prestige.
Weinstein, the man who coined the term, acknowledged that high agency is not without its downsides.
But in the end, he argued, the risks are worth the rewards.
“These are my people,” he told Ferriss.
“And they’re tough to deal with, and I don’t always enjoy them.
But I do think that without them, it’s not much of a football team.
Dan Latuis a real estate reporter at Business Insider.
