Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

 

“The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it’s a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art ‘the work.’ It’s possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that’s how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.”

 

 

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If you haven’t noticed by this post and my last, I think I’ve officially become one of Seth Godin’s newest fans and followers. For good reason. In short, he’s got a lot of valuable stuff to say.

Buy his books. Check out his talks on YouTube. Read his blog. It might change your life.

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“Perhaps your challenge isn’t finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.”

 

“The secret to being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.”

 

“Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.”

 

“If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you’ll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.”

 

“The competitive advantages the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.”

 

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

 

“The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.
People will follow.”

 

 

“In a battle between  two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.”

 

“Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.”

 

“‘Everyone will think it’s stupid!’
‘Everyone says it’s impossible.’
Guess what? Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong.”

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Also, check out Seth Godin’s fantastic and inspiring talk at Creative Mornings:

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

 

“Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent–all depending on who wields it and how.”

 

“If you learn how to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible. Because there is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction.”

 

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

 

“Good ideas alter the balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.”

 

“Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is. ”

“If you’re creative, if you can think independently, if you can articulate passion, if you can override the fear of being wrong, then your company needs you more than it ever did. And now your company can no longer afford to pretend that isn’t the case. So dust off your horn and start tooting.”

“If your business plan depends on suddenly being ‘discovered’ by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.”

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And finally:

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“Have a story. And make sure it’s a good one. A DAMN good one.”

The Tipping Point

 

“There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.”

 

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I am, admittedly, a Malcom Gladwell enthusiast, fanatic, and devotee. Ergo, I’ve provided some fascinating videos of him below. So even if you don’t have time to read The Tipping Point or any of his other remarkable books, you can still have a little dose of Malcolm in your day.

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“You have to reverse the normal human tendency, which is, to edit.”

“As human beings, we need to be reminded that every little micro-universe is different…The minute you look below the surface, things are different–than A) what you thought they would be, but B) they’re different from your own experience.”

“Popularity is only a tiny fraction of the universe of things that are great.”

Break Your Own Rules

 

“Doing everything by the book is required to perform CPR or to make a perfect soufflé. In business, however, you have some latitude to do things differently. Change-makers and radical thinkers, after all, aren’t generally the pushovers in the crowd.”