Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
I’ve been reading a lot this year about new ways to survive in the current economic climate. I am now reading Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. Here’s a quote from the inside flap. “There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins…. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.”
Godin quotes Steve Jobs who said “Real artists ship.” In other words, do your work and send it out into the world. Don’t delay, procrastinate, form a committee, miss your deadline, hide in the crowd instead of standing out from the crowd. Do the work that you are passionate about, that you do as only you can do it. Put your soul into the work that you do.
Godin talks about the current education system that trains us to be consumers and to follow the rules. We are taught that the goal is to not make mistakes, otherwise we won’t get that 100%. We play board games like Candyland, where you draw a card and do what it says. We are taught that if we go to school, get a steady job, buy a house and car and stuff just like everyone else, we will have a good life. That’s the educational system devised by captains of industry decided a century ago. The industrial revolution made it possible to create more goods more quickly, and the factory owners had to create markets for the goods being produced. Henry Ford paid his workers enough so they could afford the cars they were producing. Who else would buy all those cars?
The book is frustrating to read because he doesn’t identify everyone he talks about, doesn’t document his stories, and it often feels like he’s continuing a conversation he had with someone else and he’s letting you listen in. Perhaps the book is a compilation of blog posts. But even though every idea is not explored thoroughly, the ideas are important. Perhaps his style is necessary for this era of information overload.