Linchpin Quotes

“The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you'll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“For many of us, the happiest future is one that's precisely like the past, except a little better”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“This is not a book for the wild-haired crazies your company keeps in a corner. It is a book for you, your boss, and your employees, because the best future available to us is a future where you contriubute your true self and your best work. Are you up for that?”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“Most people are each just another human being.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Becoming a linchpin is a stepwise process, a path in which you develop the attributes that make you indispensable. You can train yourself to matter. The first step is the most difficult, the step where you acknowledge that this is a skill, and like all skills, you can (and will) get better at it. Every day, if you focus on the gifts, art, and connections that characterize the linchpin, you'll become a little more indispensable.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?