by Seth Godin
9/10
Key Ideas:
Society brainwashes you into believing that your job is to follow instructions. This is not the case.
The more value you create in your job, the fewer clock minutes of labor you actually spend creating that value.
A linchpin combines deep knowledge and good judgement, makes work more personal, and collects, connects and nurtures relationships.
Other interesting notes:
If we can put it in a manual, we can outsource it. If we can outsource it, we can get it cheaper.
Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.
Learn how to lead and solve interesting problems.
Leading is a skill, not a gift. You’re not born with it, you learn how.
Your lizard brain, or the instinctive part of your brain, is the voice that keeps you safe.
However, it is also the voice that keeps you average rather than pushing you to be a genius.
When you meet someone, you need to have a superpower. If you don’t, you’re just another handshake. It’s not about touting yourself or coming on too strong. It’s about making the introduction meaningful.
Finding good ideas is surprisingly easy once you deal with the problem of finding bad ideas.
The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds.
Don’t dwell on your mistakes. We can’t control the past.
Failure is part of life. The issue is, failure often initiates our lizard brain. Do not stop trying things when you fail.
You must also be open to feedback. learn to understand the difference between implementable feedback and degrading criticism that won’t help you develop.
Five traits that are essential in how people look at us: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability. [big 5 personality test]
To be a linchpin:
Creativity – You want to be both original and useful.
Unique Creativity – Your creativity must also be focused on a specific domain.
Delivering Unique Creativity – You must ship your creativity. Create goals and accomplish them.
Managing a situation, organization, or customers of considerable complexity – Those who follow a map will fail during these times.
Inspiring staff – Inspire your staff to follow in your lead. They will leave to follow some orders to actualize your goals and inspire them to think for themselves.
Providing in-depth domain knowledge with intelligent decisions and generous contributions – Be generous in all you do.
Possessing a unique talent – You need to have a talent that is almost impossible to replace. Plus, you need to be brilliant at what you do.
Thoughts on the book:
Inspiring book, changed my career and life. Most points work even if you don’t work in a big company.
Great counterpoint to the E-myth revisited.
Longer summary/notes: TPM, NJ, Sivers, Seth’s presentation
If you like this, you’ll probably like: Navalmanack, So good they can’t ignore you, The practice, The war of art, Seth’s daily blog, books
Leo :) 