Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future

by Seth Godin

People smell it on you. They react to it. They’re less likely to hire you or buy from you or have fun at your party.

The only way I know of to become a successful linchpin is to build a support team of fellow linchpins. The goal is to have an impact, and while it starts with the person (this is my gift, my effort), it works only when it is gratefully accepted by your team and your customers.

Yet being generous keeps you from going hungry. Hence the conflict.

The East India Company or the fashion houses of France or the banks of Italy could never have existed in a world that honored a ban on usury.

When someone invests in your business and takes some founder’s stock, he gets closer to you. He is on your side, because when you win, he wins.

Generosity

generates income.

“No one washes a rental car before they return it.”

Hyatt Hotels is now treating different customers differently. Since they know who their best customers are, they’re working not to charge them more, but to give them more. They’re setting out to randomly cover bar tabs, offer free massages, and provide other services that they could otherwise charge for.

The gift of art instantly creates a bond between the artist and the recipient.

Other people might need to consider the economic benefits first. These are people who were brainwashed by the last five hundred years of history, people who want to know what’s in it for them, people who believe there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch and every man for himself.

These people have no art in their life because they’re unable to give a true gift. They want something in return. They want security or cash or both.

Some people think that you can’t be generous until after you become a success. They argue that they have to get theirs, and then they can go ahead and give back. The astonishing fact is that the most successful people in the world are those who don’t do it for the money.

When you cut your expenses to the bone, you have a surplus. The surplus allows you to be generous, which mysteriously turns around and makes your surplus even bigger.

Respect is the gift you can offer in return.

If you are fortunate enough to find an artist, you should work hard to pay him as much as you can afford, because if you don’t, someone else will.

If you accept that human beings are difficult to change, and embrace (rather than curse) the uniqueness that everyone brings to the table, you’ll navigate the world with more bliss and effectiveness.

The ability to see the world as it is begins with an understanding that perhaps it’s not your job to change what can’t be changed.

We lose because the act of teaching someone a lesson rarely succeeds at changing them, and always fails at making our day better, or our work more useful.

One of the fascinating aspects of business and organized movements is that there’s some correlation between the passion and effort that people bring to a project and the outcome.

The linchpin has no time or energy for whining or litigation. Instead, she’s obsessively focused on the projects that have a likelihood of changing the outcome.

The few who can see the truth and become aware of it often hesitate to speak up. You don’t want to upset the status quo.

She was looking for opportunities instead of hiding from blame.