General Overview
“The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.” In bestsellers such as Purple Cowand Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is different. It’s about you – your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose. There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art. Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back. Linchpin will show you how to join the likes of… Keith Johnson, who scours flea markets across the country to fill Anthropologie stores with unique pieces. Marissa Mayer, who keeps Google focused on the things that really matter. Jason Zimdars, a graphic designer who got his dream job at 37signals without a r sum . David, who works at Dean and Deluca coffeeshop in New York. He sees every customer interaction as a chance to give a gift and is cherished in return. As Godin writes, “Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”
Why the President Should Read This Book
Those who see the economy as a finite pie–if you have more I must have less–are doomed to a life of bitter disappointment and feeling as though they’ve been robbed. Unfortunately, many of our leaders believe this myth or at least promulgate it for political gain. Seth does a credible job of showing us a different way of looking at the world and our place in it, a way that puts us in the driver seat and makes the labor vs. management struggle largely irrelevant. If the President read and understood this book, he would be more likely to get out of the way of business and let it run its course, constrained only by free market forces, rather than supporting and perpetuating the labor vs. management struggle that ends up harming workers, management, investors, retirees, and the economy in general.
In addition, an administration with an understanding of this book would lead a quick exit from the realm of public education and leave it to parents and the free market to innovate and create the systems and curriculum that will produce the leaders of tomorrow, as opposed to semi-mindless drones, suitable for little more than factory work.