Linchpin_ Are You Indispensable_ - Seth Godin [84]
Once on the street, a new thought: Impossible, yes, so let's
get to work.
--fromMan on Wire, a must-read diary of tightrope walker Philippe Petit's conquest of
the World Trade Center
Everything you've been taught, everything you believe, is upended by the artist in
Philippe Petit.
You don't engage in breaking and entering, you don't mount a major trespass, you don't
risk your life, you certainly don't do it for no money, you don't dedicate your life to
accomplishing something manifestly stupid and simultaneously beautiful. Most of all,
you don't set out to do something impossible. Certainly not as a gift.
Unless you do.
And then you win.
Getting a New Job Without Leaving
One day, Binny Thomas stood up.
She stood up, spoke up, and started doing a new job. She didn't leave her organization,
didn't even get a new title or new responsibilities. Instead, she started doing her old job in
a new way. Binny stopped going to meetings with the goal of finding deniability or
problems to avoid. Instead, she started leaning in and seeking out projects where she
could make a difference.
Suddenly, Binny was inspired. She was looking for opportunities instead of hiding from
blame. She was putting herself on the line, pushing through the dip, and making things
happen. The fascinating (and universal) truth is that the opportunities came after she was
inspired--she wasn't inspired by the opportunities.
Binny's old job was just fine. She did it extremely well. She followed the map, followed
instructions, did what she was told and got paid what she was worth. Binny wasn't in
danger of losing her job, but she had already given up her soul. She had plateaued, this
was the end. Then she changed her mind.
Six weeks later, she got a huge promotion and another, even better new job than the new
job she had given herself. Binny is now running a worldwide program of motivated
scholars. All it took was a choice. Binny didn't ask for permission to do her job better;
she merely decided to.
The Banker to the Amish
Bill O'Brien is the most beloved banker in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He is the
leading banker to the Amish community there, and he says he's never lost a single house
to foreclosure.
Bill isn't Amish, but most of his customers are. He manages more than $100 million
worth of loans for HomeTowne Heritage Bank, and at least $90 million of that is in
mortgages for Amish farms.
O'Brien drives more than a thousand miles a week, visiting his customers and prospective
borrowers. They have no credit history, none of the usual tools of his business. "I'll find
out who his dad was," he says. "I'm also interested in who his wife's father was. It takes a
team to make a farm go."
Part of the reason that his loan-and-hold approach is so successful is that he doesn't have
much choice. He's legally forbidden from reselling the loans, because the houses have no
electricity and no traditional homeowners insurance. As a result, if HomeTowne makes a
loan, HomeTowne owns the loan.
That means that over the years, Bill has ended up on a first-name basis with almost all of
his customers. Here's a banker who's making millions of dollars a year for his bank, doing
business face to face and making each connection more human, not less.
New business is easy to find. The Amish community remains tightly knit, and when a
new farm is purchased, the family buying it can't help but hear all about Bill. It wouldn't
take very much to undo all this positive word of mouth, and as a result, Bill holds himself
even more accountable.
Bill doesn't own the bank. But he's indispensable. The asset that Bill has built goes far
beyond his book of business. He's a linchpin for his bank and for the Amish as well.
John Sells Insurance
I was standing at the bar of a hotel, killing time, drinking club soda and chatting with the
bartender before I went on stage to give a speech. It turns out that he was a full-time
insurance salesman moonlighting as a bartender