Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?
By Seth Godin
Reviewed by Mike Gange (January 2012)
Inspiration for me lately has come from Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin: Are you
Indispensable?
Usually, I devour a book, plowing through four hundred or more pages in a few
days, a week, tops. But this one, a mere 244 pages, I savored, drinking in
words, ideas, inspiration and wisdom. In fact, I have been reading this book,
off-and-on, for a few months.
The general premise is that in a world full of cogs, we need to find a place to
be unique. We need to recognize how we can be different, and share that as a
work of art. It’s in the sharing of ideas and insight that we can build a
network on similar individuals.
In my tiny Canadian province there are 31 high schools. One of my friends in
Toronto remarked that there are more high schools in one single school district
in Toronto than in our entire province. And indeed, we are a small population.
In an area the size of Ireland, we have the population of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Not every high school in New Brunswick offers a course in media studies, but I
have tried to search out those teachers who do, and make some connections. I’ve
shared ideas and resources with my provincial media studies colleagues via email
links, at least 3 times each week since September. Occasionally, I hear back
from some of these colleagues, but I have not heard at all from those few who
are the closest to me, geographically. Someone who teaches down the hall never
comments on the gifts of resources she gets. Someone across town never says a
word.
“And what do you do when your art doesn’t work?” writes Seth Godin. “What
happens when the conversation doesn’t happen, the product doesn’t sell, the
consumer is not delighted…and people aren’t moved?”
The solution, Godin writes, is to “make more art. It’s the only choice, isn’t
it? Give more gifts. Learn from what you do, and then do more.”
The alternative, he writes, is to give up and become an old-school cog.
It is hard to be an inspiration. I am discouraged I have not stirred up more
passion, more ideas, more sharing.
Am I stopping my networking and sharing?
NO.
Welcome to 2012. Welcome to the year of the Dragon. According to Chinese
mythology, the Dragon is the sign of power, inspiration, passion.
It could not have come at a better time.