Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [1]
So the question is: Have you ever done that?
Have you ever found a shortcut that others couldn't find?
Solved a problem that confounded your family?
Seen a way to make something work that wasn't working before?
Made a personal connection with someone who was out of reach to everyone else?
Even once?
No one is a genius all the time. Einstein had trouble finding his house when he walked
home from work every day. But all of us are geniuses sometimes.
The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps
drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian
bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.
Reality
A guy is riding in the first-class cabin of a train in Spain and to his delight, he notices that
he's sitting next to Pablo Picasso. Gathering up his courage, he turns to the master and
says, "Senor Picasso, you are a great artist, but why is all your art, all modern art, so
screwed up? Why don't you paint reality instead of these distortions?"
Picasso hesitates for a moment and asks, "So what do you think reality looks like?"
The man grabs his wallet and pulls out a picture of his wife. "Here, like this. It's my
wife."
Picasso takes the photograph, looks at it, and grins. "Really? She's very small. And flat,
too."
This book is about love and art and change and fear. It's about overcoming a
multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness. It's about
leading and making a difference and it's about succeeding. I couldn't have written this
book ten years ago, because ten years ago, our economy wanted you to fit in, it paid you
well to fit in, and it took care of you if you fit in. Now, like it or not, the world wants
something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.
What if you could learn a different way of seeing, a different way of giving, a different
way of making a living? And what if you could do that without leaving your job?
This is not a book for the wild-haired crazies your company keeps in a corner. It's a book
for you, your boss, and your employees, because the best future available to us is a future
where you contribute your true self and your best work. Are you up for that?
One promise: the world to come (and this book) is neither small nor flat.
This Time It's Personal
This is a personal manifesto, a plea from me to you. Right now, I'm not focused on the
external, on the tactics organizations use to make great products or spread important
ideas. This book is different. It's about a choice and it's about your life. This choice
doesn't require you to quit your job, though it challenges you to rethink how you do your
job.
The system we grew up with is a mess. It's falling apart at the seams and a lot of people I
care about are in pain because the things we thought would work don't. Every day I meet
people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to
hold it back. They have become victims, pawns in a senseless system that uses them up
and undervalues them.
It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.
Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what's
in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have
achieved your potential.
For hundreds of years, the population has been seduced, scammed, and brainwashed into
fitting in, following instructions, and exchanging a day's work for a day's pay. That era
has come to an end and just in time.
You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is
precious. Only you can do it, and you must. I'm hoping you'll stand up and choose to
make a difference.
Making the Choice
My goal is to persuade you that there is an opportunity available to you, a chance to
significantly change your life for