“It’s easy to be against something that you’re afraid of. And it’s easy to be afraid of something that you don’t understand.” Seth Godin
There’s one thing that I learned from bestselling author Seth Godin’s new book titled LINCHPIN: Are you Indispensible?
It’s that I’ve been on the right track by always being on the wrong track.
Definition of Linchpin: A linchpin is somebody who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—their role is just far too unique and valuable.
And I would add: Someone who thinks and acts apart from the crowd.
There’s a path that’s taught here in Western society by our parents, churches and schools. If we are to fit in and be accepted, we must follow this path:
- Go to College
- Get a Job
- Get Married
- Buy a House
- Have 2.1 Children
- Retire
- Take a Vacation
- Die
On my day of birth many years ago, I sidestepped that path at the entrance. It didn’t look inviting. I thought it was stupid to get married right when you’re having fun in your 20’s. And having children young would put a damper on my backpacking trips to Europe.
I quit college when I realized that I was making more money than my friends with Masters Degrees and big college loans to payoff. And instead of taking one big vacation in my golden years, I’ll be taking an adventurous trip overseas every year until I die. (Why wait to surf the waves of Bali when in your 70’s? Do it when you’re young!)
Most of my life I’ve felt like a triangle trying to fit into the cog-hole of every job that I had. Take for example the insurance industry where I worked for 15 of my adult years. The men I worked with were dolts who couldn’t think for themselves. And nothing pissed them off more than to have a woman come up with ideas that sounded smarter than their own. I’d come up with an innovative idea that was sure to be a step forward for the company, bring it up in a meeting, and six people would tell me why it couldn’t be done and three would give me dirty looks when the boss attempted diplomacy by suggesting that we TRY the idea. But it always fizzled out. No one wanted to change anything, because that meant they would have to actually work.
Eventually, after being stomped on so many times, I stopped sharing my ideas there. And I started dreaming up plans of my own, in the business of art, and I quit my lucrative but soul-less position in the insurance industry.
It was scary leaving that comfy job and steady paycheck for uncertainty and hard work! But, the trade-off is that I get to take my crazy ideas and run with them. I work hard but it’s not really “work” if you love it, right? I traded the cubicle for freedom to travel several months every year, to take on projects that I love (like writing this blog) and I can pick up my son from school every day. The best part: my husband and I work together and everything we do we benefit 100% from our hard work, rather than handing it over to someone else.
In LINCHPIN Seth Godin talks up the glory of setting yourself apart from the crowd by doing things your own way, and in that sense, by making yourself indispensible. But, you might get a lot of criticism for it.
Most of the systems in our society are set up to reward the sheep and punish the maverick. If you do what you’re told in school, college and the office, you’ll fit in and be rewarded. If you fall out and try to be different, you’re punished. I never saw that more than in the cubicles of the last company I had a “real job” with. The sheep had the job security, and I was just a trouble maker.
However, in this current time, the tables are turning. The sheep are being fired and the mavericks are finding success. Seth claims that to not be a linchpin these days is economic and career suicide.
Many sheeples are being blindsided, because all those who followed the rules are now seeing it bite them in the ass.
There is much more to Seth’s book, which covers things like the Lizard Brain which holds us back from accomplishing things because of feeling fear, and what he calls Shipping (getting things completed).
I found a great review and summary of the book on www.squaredpeg.com . If you read it, you probably don’t have to buy the book, because the review is so thorough!
If you find that you don’t fit into cliques and groups and structured societies, then feel good about yourself. You are probably a Linchpin and don’t even know it. Most of my readers are!
PHOTO CREDIT: This photographer, Rebekka Guoleifsdottir, is without a doubt, a Linchpin. Her photos are amazing, and just the freshest display of fearless creativity.
Maria xxoo
16 Responses
Thanks for the link to my Linchpin review! Glad you enjoyed it. Keep doing great things!
I think I’m lucky that the fashion industry is so fickle that I never stayed at a job for more than 3 years. I think I maybe could have settled in and led a life of quiet desperation. Though it’s been hard to constantly proving myself to get the next opportunity, it’s been a strengthening experience and I’m in a good place now. I have a friend with the blessing/curse of having worked at a demanding job for nearly 15 years. I hope someday she can break free and take care of business on her own!
Aileen, it is hard proving yourself constantly – but I think it’s just part of the game. You do a great job of proving your worth and talent. So many people love your artwork! (including me)
Maria:
Reading this blog post made me feel like you looked into my soul.
As a child, I was considered “gifted” and was an excellent student.
Unfortunately, I loved to learn but I did not care for formal schooling at all.
And this despite the fact that I was the teacher’s pet, popular, class clown, and was blessed with a wacky sense of humor (dry). I was also a poet and had my articles published in media outlets.
And yet, I felt miserable. I did not feel lonely, since I had too many friends, relatives and colleagues hanging on to my every word, if not breathing down my neck. I felt like Bo Derek in a bikini, exposed.
Why?
Obviously, because I was alienated. I love the outdoors; I love sports; and I feel turned on by the physicality of exercise. That’s what made me feel happy, and yet we were not allowed to do that, for the most part.
Instead, we had to stay indoors and listen to boring lectures, one after the other. And do well on tests and the usual conventions.
And white-collar jobs are designed in the same, conventional way (maybe with a few exceptions). We have to work out of a cubicle behind glass jars. (Now I know how animals feel in a zoo).
Only now are people like Howard Gardner discovering things about people with bodily or K-Intelligence, that is, people with good hand eye and motor coordination. People like me, for example, who can make a valuable contribution to society if only..or find an alternative.
Thanks for writing this valuable post. You are very insightful. Cheers!
I found a similar soulessness in my career as a graphic designer. It is supposedly a creative industry, but so much about what you are asked to do is conservative, tenative, rote. The last straw for me was a customer, a CEO of a successful company with a dynamic message, insisting that we brand him exactly like another popular company. He was paying us to throw away everything about his company that was unique and successful, just to jump on the latest business marketing bandwagon.
I fled, as did many of my co-workers. I fled to a business based on my own art, my own creativity. It is not a lucrative, but it’s a hell of a lot more satisfying. It can be tough being your own client, but at least I *believe* in what I am doing.
Daniel, that is a great story! Congrats on doing what you believe in and working for yourself. You are an inspiration to many, I’m sure.
Thanks Maria, I appreciate it. But honestly, I learned this from my Dad. And it is something I hope to pass on to my kids.
Wow, this is incredibly timely for me… Having done the college thing already, I’m wondering what to do next! According to your mainstream timeline, kids come next and I’m definitely feeling that pressure! I’ve always chosen passion over practicality (I took fine arts, not anything that would get me an actual job!), now I hace to figure out where my true passion lies. Thanks for the words of inspiration!
Great post. Like Archan, I received a battery of IQ tests in elementary school and promptly earned my label. I was a good student, and great things were expected of me… Now, diplomas and a degree later, I’m still looking for that oddly-shaped hole I fit into.
[One of my fave lyrics: “Where did that label go? I tried it out, but it did not work so I’ll choose the picture for myself.”]
But, for the sake of argument: if every person strives to be the “different one,” don’t you just end up with a crowd of people trying to be different in all the same ways? Teenagers and art students come to mind *cough*heheh*… After all, we are over 6 billion on this planet. Eventually all the differences just blend into multifactorial spectra and become similarities. There are bound to be at least a hundred people who are exactly as different and indispensable as you AND have nicer shoes. Then what?
Gonna have to read the book, I guess…
Miranda: You’ll figure it out! Go easy on yourself…
Sylvia: Great question you asked! If everyone strives to be different, than what?! I don’t think everyone is capable of being a Linchpin, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we do need them, so the people who are able to be Linchpins are being called out to show themselves!
You read it too…
That’s so great that I am finding so many people that are reading this book now or have read it. Definitely this book comes to us at the right time I have to say.
The only thing that I worry is that there’s so many people out there that are still so close minded, and it frustrates the heck out of me because they just want to keep doing what they are told and they think that is the only way. I don’t understand why.
I just hope that the Gen-Y can really take these ideas and run with them. It’s time we really shine with our passions and become linchpins.
Maria, I read Linchpin a couple of weeks ago. Seth says in the book that he started it a dozen times. I’m so glad he finished it.
I, like you – had a touch time following rules and not causing trouble in school. I always thought there was a better way to do anything than by following someone else’s directions. When they taught me long division in the 3rd grade, I secretly believed that “short” division existed, but they didn’t want us to know about it.
I’m a baby boomer, and have waited all my life to fit into the shape that fits me. Thanks for this blog Maria – it’s great to get to know others who feel the same way and are sharing online what gifts Seth has given us through his writing.
This post is close to my heart. Thanks for sharing it.
Hey very nice web site!! Man.. Beautiful.. Wonderful.. I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds alsoKI am satisfied to seek out a lot of helpful information here in the publish, we want work out extra techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing Hewins