Are You Indispensable?

The world has changed (again) and the stakes are higher than ever.

Now we're facing a full-fledged revolution - a hypercompetitive world involving art and gifts and fear and the ability for you (for anyone) to make an indispensable contribution to something you care about. If you're not indispensable (yet) it's because you haven't made that choice. 

My goal is to help you see that the choice is yours.

So says Seth Godin.

If you have a job, you need this book. If you are looking for a job, you really need this book. If you have friends who need a better job, you ought to read this book. What is this book? Linchpin. (Click here to Amazon.com for lots of insightful reviews, and to purchase...)

It's a call for people like YOU to make the kind of choices that make YOU indispensable at work. But to become indispensable requires that YOU make the kind of choices that bring humanity to your work, your whole-self. Think about it: what would make YOU indispensable where YOU work? This book seeks to light a raging fire of motivation for YOU to be the kind of person who is indispensable.

I'll be posting more blog entries in the weeks to come as I work my way through the book. Here's some ideas from the beginning of the book:

A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck.

So the question is: Have you ever done that?

Have you ever found a shortcut that others couldn't?

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 each 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.

This book is about love and art and change and fear. It's about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy 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. 

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?

Go to the library and check out this book. Better yet, borrow mine when I've finished reading it. Or buy your own - it's worth the investment. Just get the book in your hands, the ideas in your brain.

These days everyone is worried about keeping their job or getting a job or their concerned for their friends and family how are having employment woes. It's rare to find someone who loves their job. And yet, that love (art, gift, humanity) is going to be the key to the future of work. Not because you close your eyes to the hardships of your workplace, but because you bring a new attitude, a new perspective, a new resolve as to what kind of indispensable person you are going to become - and the gift you are willing to give.

Work can't just be about wage. That demeans you and everyone else involved. Work is supposed to bring meaning to your life and those who benefit from your labor. Become indispensable where you work.

Try it, try becoming a Linchpin.