Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [54]
So, what's left is to make--to give--art. What's left is the generosity and humanity worth
paying for. What's left is to take that resistance (the very same resistance we embraced
and rewarded for decades) and destroy it.
Proof of the Resistance
It may be the resistance that's keeping you from embracing the ideas in this book. (Or it
might be that I didn't make my case, but I'm betting on the former.) You're uncomfortable
or skeptical or outright angry, but you're not sure why.
I mean, why not try art? How hard would it be to try?
You call the resistance " hard-hearted capitalist common sense." Perhaps you call it
"being realistic about the system we live in." Better, I think, to call it stalling, a waste,
and an insidious plot to keep you from doing your real work.
Don't let the lizard brain win.
Fear of Public Speaking
Why is it that a common, safe, and important task is so feared by so many people?
In Iconoclast, Gregory Berns uses his experience running a neuroscience research lab to
explain the biological underpinnings of the resistance. In fact, public speaking is the
perfect petri dish for exposing what makes us tick.
It turns out that the three biological factors that drive job performance and innovation are
social intelligence, fear response, and perception. Public speaking brings all three
together. Speaking to a group requires social intelligence. We need to be able to make an
emotional connection with people, talk about what they are interested in, and persuade
them. That's difficult, and we're not wired for this as well as we are wired to, say, eat
fried foods.
Public speaking also triggers huge fear responses. We're surrounded by strangers or
people of power, all of whom might harm us. Attention is focused on us, and attention
(according to our biology) equals danger.
Last, and more subtly, speaking involves perception. It exposes how we see things, both
the thing we are talking about and the response of the people in the room. Exposing that
perception is frightening.
In a contest between the rational desire to spread an idea by giving a speech and the
biological phobia against it, biology has an unfair advantage.
Where Is the Fear?
If there is no sale, look for the fear.
If a marketing meeting ends in a stalemate, look for the fear.
If someone has a tantrum, breaks a promise, or won't cooperate, there's fear involved.
Fear is the most important emotion we have. It kept our ancestors alive, after all. Fear
dominates the other emotions, because without our ability to avoid death, the other ones
don't matter very much.
Our sanitized, corporatized society hasn't figured out how to get rid of the fear, so instead
we channel it into bizarre corners of our life. We check Twitter because of our fear of
being left out. We buy expensive handbags for the same reason. We take a mundane
follow-the-manual job because of our fear of failing as a map maker, and we make bad
financial decisions because of our fear of taking responsibility for our money.
It turns out that we're even afraid to talk about fear, as if that somehow makes it more
real.
Fear of living without a map is the main reason people are so insistent that we tell them
what to do.
The reasons are pretty obvious: If it's someone else's map, it's not your fault if it doesn't
work out. If you've memorized the sales script I gave you and you don't make the sale,
who's in trouble now? Not only does the map insulate us from responsibility, but it's also
a social talisman. We can tell our friends and family that we've found a good map, a safe
map, a map worthy of respect.
Fear Self-fulfills
If the meeting you're about to call is the biggest, most important, do-or-die moment of
your career, you're likely to feel some resistance and a lot of fear--which will not help the
meeting go better. In fact, in negotiations, presentations, and other interactions, the smell
of fear is the best indicator we have not to trust the other side.
The more you have to