Linchpin

I've been reading the book Linchpin by Seth Godin and find myself highlighting a lot of the passages.  So many pearls of wisdom . . . Seth writes a lot about the importance of being remarkable.  Work, he proclaims, should be the employee's "art."  It is about moving beyond mediocrity and investing more emotion.  It is about going well beyond just showing up and, instead, making waves.  Very inspiring stuff.  Here are just a few of the passages I've made not of so far:

"The cause of the suffering is the desire of organizations to turn employees into replaceable cogs in a vast machine.  The easier people are to replace, the less they need to be paid.  And so far, workers have been complicit in this commoditization.  This is your opportunity.  The indispensable employee brings humanity and connection and art to her organization.  She is the key player, the one who's difficult to live without, the person you can build something around."

"Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities.  They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human.  Sure, you can always succeed for a while with the cheapest, but you earn your place in the market with humanity and leadership.  It's certainly possible for a shopper to buy food more cheaply than they sell it at Trader Joe's.  But Trader's keeps growing, because the combination of engaged employees, cutting edge products and fun brings people back.  Even people trying to save a buck.  The cheap strategy doesn't scale very well, so the only way to succeed is to add value by amplifying the network and giving workers a platform, not by forcing them to pretend to be machines.  The fickle nature of price-shopping consumers is bad news for many companies, the companies that tried to be the cheap at all costs, because now they must figure out how to make a profit from expensive, unique disobedient employees.  Those are the only two choices.  Win by being more ordinary, more standard and cheaper.  Or win by being faster, more remarkable and more human."

I like the idea of our own humanity pushing us to deeper connection not only with those around us, but also with our own sense of purpose in our professional lives.  Thank you Seth.