Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [51]
better. Do it a lot and magically you'll discover that some good ones slip through.
You Don't Need More Genius. You Need Less Resistance.
The resistance is the voice in your head telling you to use bullets in your PowerPoint
slides, because that's what the boss wants. It's the voice that tells you to leave
controversial ideas out of the paper you're writing, because the teacher won't like them.
The resistance pushes relentlessly for you to fit in.
In difficult economic times, the resistance explains that we'd better get a steady job,
because the world is fraught with uncertainty and this is no time to do something crazy
like starting a company. And in great times, of course, the resistance persuades us not to
start a company because competition is fierce and hey, salaries are high. "Don't be
stupid," it says.
The resistance wants you to check your e-mail now, because something great may have
shown up (or more likely, something horrible). No time to sketch out a new product . . .
why are you always dreaming . . . we need to focus on getting that conference call
scheduled.
The resistance is so tenacious that it encourages you to speak up and drag down anyone
around you with the temerity to dream. "Sure, Bob's presentation was okay, but did he
make the quarterly numbers? We have stockholders to please."
The devil's advocate is actually a card-carrying member of the resistance. There are entire
corporations filled with people like this, people who work overtime to stamp out any
insight or art. In their quest for job safety, they are laying the groundwork for their own
demise.
The most pernicious thing (from an author's point of view) is that the lizard hates it when
you read books like this one.
Uncomfortable with Permission
When you started reading this book, did it make you squirm a bit when I called you a
genius?
A lot of people are uncomfortable with that sort of permission, authority, or leverage. If
you're a genius, after all, then you need to deliver genius-quality results.
You've almost certainly been brainwashed to believe that you aren't a genius, that you're
working at the appropriate level, earning what you're supposed to earn, and doing what
you're supposed to do. And some of that brainwashing has been consensual, because your
resistance sort of likes low expectations.
Once you've given a name to the resistance and you know what its voice sounds like, it's
a lot easier to embrace the fact that you actually are a genius. The part of you that wants
to deny this is the resistance. The rest of you understands that you're as capable as the
next guy of an insight, invention, or connection that makes a difference.
Freedom Feeds the Resistance
Cog workers have very little freedom at their jobs. Their output is measured, their tasks
are described, and they either produce or are fired.
So, cog workers don't wrestle much with resistance. If you go to your job at a chicken
slaughterhouse, you're going to behead chickens all day, or you won't have a job
tomorrow. It's lousy work, sure, but the lizard brain isn't often aroused while doing it.
Follow the rules, repeat.
The freedom of the new kind of work (which most of us do, most of the time) is that the
tasks are vague and difficult to measure. We can waste an hour surfing the 'Net because
no one knows if surfing the 'Net is going to help us make progress or connections.
This freedom is great, because it means no one is looking over your shoulder; no one is
using a stopwatch on you.
This freedom is a pox, because it's an opening for the resistance. Freedom like this makes
it easy to hide, easy to find excuses, easy to do very little.
Some Classical Musicians Aren't Artists
Classical music is a fascinating example of the resistance and its role in our corporate
system, because the rules are so clear and the results are so easy to measure.
For ten or twenty years, music students are taught (while living in fear of the resistance)
to play