“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
