Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

With Linchpin: Are You Indispensable, author Seth Godin makes the case that we need to stand out from the crowd and be indispensable to be successful. While I appreciate this concept and believe that it's true to a certain point, Mr. Godin did not make a very strong case for it in this book, which is repetitive and unorganized.

The book begins by stating that we are all cogs in a giant machine, too timid to stand out from the crowd and be noticed. In fact, one of the early headings in an early chapter reads "We are Surrounded by Bureaucrats, Note Takers, Literalists, Manual Readers, TGIF Laborers, Map Followers, and Fearful Employees." While I agree that some people are 9-to-5ers, just doing what it takes to get by, I have a hard time believing that the majority of people are like that, although I admit that my perspective might be skewed by having worked in higher education for 30 years, as opposed to the corporate world that Mr. Godin is clearly referring to.

Another concept that I had trouble with is Mr. Godin's idea of art. He constantly refers to the goal of becoming artists, no matter what our job. A Starbucks barista is an artist when he goes above and beyond his responsibilities by making customers feel welcome, etc. I don't think this analogy was necessary, and strained his argument somewhat. Mr. Godin's main point is that people need to stand out, put more effort in, challenge the rules, offer edgy solutions, etc. to make others (i.e., management) notice them. If their solutions or creativity aren't rewarded, they should leave and find a company that recognizes what they can offer.

Mr. Godin devotes a chapter to what he calls The Resistance. This refers to our basic animal nature, the lizard part of the brain that is full of fear and afraid to do anything worthwhile. I also found this completely unconvincing. Admittedly, we all have some anxiety about taking risks in the workplace, but his indictment of people's reasoning and rationalization for inaction was overblown and overstated.

Finally, I found the book to be poorly organized. I read it over the course of three days, including a plane ride from Minneapolis to Albany, and over a weekend. It felt like I was reading a brain dump of overgeneralizations that were grouped together somewhat by chapters. It was repetitive and filled with anecdotes that weren't very convincing. It could have used the skills of an editor, although Mr. Godin does provide a long list of people in his acknowledgments, all of whom presumably read it and gave feedback. I really wanted to like this book, but in the end, it's not a strong contribution to the business self-improvement or management literature.

Seth Godin. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2011. 244 pages. ISBN 9781591844099.