Be the Unicorn Summary and key ideas

Be the Unicorn, by William Vanderbloemen.

How does an ordinary person become unusually valuable at work? William Vanderbloemen answers with the image of a Unicorn: someone highly desirable but difficult to find, who stands out, is repeatedly sought and chosen, and becomes unusually valuable or difficult to replace. His executive-search firm gives him the vantage point for this argument. Over fifteen years, it studied more than thirty thousand interviews with high-caliber candidates. He presents the book as a data-backed manual, not a collection of inspiring biographies. The foreword makes an important qualification: studying successful people does not reproduce their success when some abilities cannot be learned. The book therefore isolates the habits that can be identified, practiced, and improved. Professional distinction is developmental, built through repeated effort rather than granted as a fixed gift.

That framework also explains why Vanderbloemen emphasizes soft skills. He points to human abilities such as reading people, communicating, inspiring, and collaborating. He expects automation to alter employment, perhaps displacing some work while creating new technology-related roles, and argues that people should redefine their value around capabilities artificial intelligence cannot yet perform. Those are the author’s expectations, not settled outcomes established here. His broader point is that technical competence alone may not be enough. In relational work, understanding people and guiding them through disagreement can matter as much as process training, accounting, or spreadsheets. He treats those human abilities as relevant across fields.

The book organizes this argument around twelve connected traits: Fast, Authentic, Agile, Solver, Anticipator, Prepared, Self-Aware, Curious, Connected, Likable, Productive, and Purpose Driven. They are not twelve disconnected personality types. Together, they describe ways of understanding yourself and other people, adapting, solving, anticipating, preparing, learning, building relationships, using time, and choosing direction. The traits are presented as practices rather than mysterious gifts. The book begins with Fast because responsiveness is the first visible mechanism for turning intention into action.

Blake Mycoskie illustrates that mechanism. After an injury ended his tennis career, he moved through several ventures and later founded TOMS, while continuing to pursue enterprises with social impact. His story is presented as a sequence of responses to changing circumstances. When one path ended, he acted on another possibility instead of waiting for a perfect, permanent plan. The lesson is not that every opportunity deserves acceptance. It is that opportunities can disappear while someone hesitates, whereas timely action keeps possibility alive.

Responsiveness sounds simple, but the author says it is difficult because fear makes uncertainty uncomfortable. People often wait for a first mover, prefer predictable situations, or postpone work because immediate pleasure feels more attractive than a planned task. Delay then creates room for distraction, rationalization, and more fear. One practical barrier comes even earlier: access. A person cannot respond quickly to an opportunity that cannot reach them. Vanderbloemen therefore recommends keeping at least one reasonable channel open, without being available everywhere all the time. An autoresponder can protect personal time while signaling that a delayed answer is not the same as ignoring someone.

Being Fast also requires discernment. The trait does not mean accepting every request or saying yes before thinking. The author’s opportunity-versus-distraction test asks whether an option moves you toward your goals, whether your considered judgment supports it rather than only an instinctive impulse, and whether the likely result is worth the time, money, and resources involved. Proportionate responsiveness can take different forms. An urgent message may need a quick acknowledgment before a complete answer is possible. A consequential or difficult-to-reverse choice may deserve a considered decision. An unsuitable request should receive a prompt refusal rather than a long silence. Speed is therefore calibrated judgment, not automatic agreement.

The same distinction helps with overthinking. Careful thought can improve a response, but fear-driven analysis can delay it until the response is no longer useful. Vanderbloemen suggests asking whether the matter truly requires an unimpeachable answer, whether the time spent is proportional to its importance, and whether the decision is actually irreversible. A routine choice does not deserve the same mental investment as a consequential one. Confidence does not mean certainty. It means gathering enough information to decide, committing to a direction, and accepting that mistakes can teach and often can be recovered from. Once the decision is made, moving forward prevents one choice from consuming every later opportunity.

Responsiveness becomes especially visible in hiring. Vanderbloemen says managers value candidates who answer next steps, complete paperwork on time, and move efficiently toward interviews and offers. His firm also uses a concealed text test. A candidate may receive an unexpected, sometimes strange sports question around ten-thirty at night. The firm observes not only whether the person answers quickly, but whether the answer is resourceful, engaging, and solution-oriented. Vanderbloemen acknowledges that the practice may feel like borderline entrapment, and he explicitly says that failing to respond does not automatically cost someone the job. Successful candidates are later told about the communication expectations. The firm’s stated norms include answering email within twenty-four hours when back at a computer, responding promptly to after-hours texts, and picking up calls. If those expectations would cause severe stress, the issue is fit, not moral failure. Responsiveness does not require constant availability.

Finally, the author treats speed as something that can be practiced. Some people respond naturally, while others must develop the capacity over time. He compares it with physical speed, which trainers describe as a use-it-or-lose-it ability. Repeatedly acknowledging important messages, making proportionate decisions, and refusing distractions promptly can make reliability easier to see. The goal is not impulsiveness or permanent reachability. It is to translate intention into timely action, so other people can observe that you notice opportunities, make judgments, and follow through before hesitation allows them to vanish.