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because you order them to. They're not going to seek out a new path because you tell

them that they must.

Linchpins don't need authority. It's not part of the deal. Authority matters only in the

factory, not in your world.

Real change rarely comes from the front of the line. It happens from the middle or even

the back. Real change happens when someone who cares steps up and takes what feels

like a risk. People follow because they want to, not because you can order them to.

Does Your Job Match Your Passion?

Or does your passion match your job?

Conventional wisdom is that you should find a job that matches your passion. I think this

is backwards.

I've argued repeatedly that your product should match your marketing, not the other way

around, and the same inversion is true here. Transferring your passion to your job is far

easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.

Fit In or Stand Out

There are countless people waiting to tell you how to fit in, waiting to correct you, advise

you, show you what you are doing wrong.

And no one pushing you to stand out.

If you add up all the books, scolds, back-benchers, bosses, teachers, parents, cops, coworkers, employees, religious zealots, politicians, and friends who can show you how to

fit in just so, it's sort of overwhelming. It's clear to me that we're really good at

establishing and reinforcing the status quo.

Fit in too much, though, and nothing much happens. Where are the self-appointed

agitators and firebrands, the people who will egg you on and push you to stand for

something?

They seem to be missing.

How Does a Linchpin Work?

In a world with only a few indispensable people, the linchpin has two elegant choices:

1. Hire plenty of factory workers. Scale like crazy. Take advantage of the fact that most

people want a map, most people are willing to work cheaply, most people want to be the

factory. You win because you extract the value of their labor, the labor they're

surrendering too cheaply.

2. Find a boss who can't live without a linchpin. Find a boss who adequately values your

scarcity and your contribution, who will reward you with freedom and respect. Do the

work. Make a difference.

If you are not currently doing either of these, refuse to settle. You deserve better.

If Only . . .

Corporate coach Deanna Vogt challenged me to fill in the sentence, "I could be more

creative if only . . ."

"If only" is a great way to eliminate your excuse du jour. "If only" is an obligator,

because once you get rid of that item, you've got no excuse left, only the obligation.

I could see the situation more accurately if only . . .

I could lead this tribe if only . . .

I could find the bravery to do my art if only . . .

Nostalgia for the Future

For many of us, the happiest future is one that's precisely like the past, except a little

better.

We all enjoy nostalgia (the real kind, nostalgia for the past). We gladly suffer from that

bittersweet feeling we get about events that we loved, but can't relive. Nostalgia for the

way we felt that day in high school, or for the bonhomie of a great team, or for a

particular family event.

We'd love to do it again, but we can't.

Nostalgia for the future is that very same feeling about things that haven't happened yet.

We are prepared for them to happen, but if something comes along to change our future,

those things won't happen and we'll be disappointed.

If your company lays you off, you may very well get another job, but it won't be the job

that one day was going to get you the promotion you were imagining that led to the event

that you were hoping for in that office you were visualizing.

We're good at visualizing this future, and if we think it's not going to happen, we get

nostalgic for it. This isn't positive visualization, it's attachment of the worst sort. We're

attached to an outcome, often one we can't control.

If you had a chance to remake