Linchpin by Seth Godin
Have you ever read a book that covers information that you’re really interested in and enjoy learning about, but is just a little too basic for you. A superb book that covers information that you already know and believe. That is how I feel about Linchpin by Seth Godin. It’s well written, important and if I had read it a few years ago, it might have been life changing, but the message has already been received and I’m working to implement it and so while it’s always good to be reminded of things while reading this I thought about other people who could benefit from it as much as I did about the message itself.
Linchpin is more a manifesto than a book. It doesn’t have a lot of prescriptive advice. Instead, it focused on the broader points. What it says is that we no longer live in a world where you can get ahead by just being a useful cog in a machine. You might be lucky and get by that way, but if you want to advance in your career, you need to become linchpin. You need to do something that no one is doing and take it over. It gives examples, and while some of those examples may apply to you, that never seems to be the point. He talks about a waiter who connects to his customers far more than he needs to, being friendly and kind to people who will not give him anything and employees who come to work ready to do extra because they’ve chosen to be excited about their job.
While there wasn’t a lot new in this book for me, one thing that stuck out was his definition of art. One that makes sense. Art, according to Seth Godin, can’t be mass produced, and it needs to be given away. This doesn’t mean an artist shouldn’t or can’t get money for his art, but that once it becomes the point of doing art, it stops being art and becomes a product. I’m not sure if this is universal, but artists do far better when giving away their art than they do when they worry about how they will make money. And he even explains the more selfish way to look at it. When you give someone something there is a natural desire to repay that kindness and while you shouldn’t use that to manipulate people if it allows you to feel better about giving away things, then that’s perfectly reasonable.
The only real negative for me was that its focus is on convincing people of the importance of stepping out and becoming more important in their job. About how important it is to take the risk. These are all good things that I have already been convinced of. I’m willing to take the leap and try to come up with a plan on the way down because I believe that taking the risk has value. I believe in trying to make the personal connections he talks about.
I enjoyed Linchpin by Seth Godin more than I probably should have for a book that covered so much material I’ve already seen. And I want to clarify that I really believe what is in this book and that if you have a job you don’t care about or want to improve, this book can be a significant step to improving your work and your life. But it isn’t a book that will solve everything for you or give you a script. It’s the book that tells you you have to solve it yourself and write your own script. That you have to actually engage with the world or it will use you like a cog in a machine and the thing about a cog is that no one cares when it gets replaced.
