| Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future |  | Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: Piatkus Books
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 305
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0749953357
EAN: 9780749953355
Publication Date: February 4, 2010
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
Give Seth a Chance... March 12, 2010
Sugarboy (Merseyside, United Kingdom)
This is my first Seth book and I would put it near the very top of my 'life-changing' books. Most of its strengths and weaknesses have been very well covered by other reviewers. But all I wanted to add is that the physical book is a very handy way of bringing together the many blog entries on his site. It also makes it quite easy to read in manageable chunks. Ideal for commuting for example.
Also, I think the basic message is a universal one: whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are, you'd better consider how to stand out in what you do. The office is the new factory (oh yes indeed!). He is very good at highlighting that many environments (school, college, and increasingly the workplace itself) inculcate the impulse to fit in, conform and hit targets. I have increasingly felt that this makes for a stultifying and unsatisfying passage through life and he puts this across very well. It is a 'personal' book rather than a 'Marketing' book and you will pick and choose what helps you. I don't know how many other books there are like this, but this is a stimulating read and it certainly challenges you.
Four stars because it is occasionally too US-centric in tone and the examples quoted for we Brits. But for me, this will probably be a permanent fixture in my briefcase for quite a while to come. Just in case the Lizard Brain kicks in!
 Are you indispensable? March 8, 2010
Forlornehope (Devon)
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you need to read a book like this you are not, and never will be, indispensable.
 Lightweight, with some nuggets March 5, 2010
Andy Middleton (Wales, UK)
This book doesn't read well and feels as thought because it's a straight transcript of Seth Godin's blog. Whilst this is an easy way to generate book content, it doesn't add to the quality or flow.
Too many of the statements are repetitive truisms that you could find in dozens of other books on this site. Read his blog instead occasionally, and save yourself the cost of buying this book.
 points us in a new direction February 23, 2010
K. Mitchell (Essex, UK)
I love the direction Seth Godin is going with his recent books. Firstly 'The Dip' and now this complete gem. He takes a new angle on excellence and as always his ideas are fresh and invigorating. For most of this book I was feeling a bit confused as how on earth I could make this relevant to my job/career, but towards the end the ideas were flowing. Have blazed ahead and already received positive feedback on my work and have a new sense of direction. For someone seasoned in success & self management literature this was a welcome kick up the backside! Seth writes like a real person, not a jargon-filled boffin. This book goes deep as well, and I mean Pema Chodron deep. Should be given to kids at school it is that important. Buy for everyone (and your kids if they can read!)
Godin's most important book...thus far February 9, 2010
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Others have their own reasons for praising this book. Here are five of mine. First, this is by far Godin's most personal book in which he reveals more of his emotions and "soul" (for lack of a better term) than he has in any of his previous books. Also, from the beginning, he establishes a direct and personal rapport with his reader. I felt that he had written this book specifically for me. Although he and I have never met, I felt as if he were speaking to me and discussing ideas with me as if we were engaged in a face-to-face conversation.
Moreover, unlike in most of his previous books, Godin does not climb up into a pulpit and launch a tirade, engaging his audience with a confrontational tone and Old Testament vehemence. He obviously cares deeply about the thoughts and feelings he shares but is at all times respectful of his reader. He repeatedly explains that everyone has several choices and urges his reader to make those only choices that are in her or his long-term best interest.
In addition, meanwhile, Godin creates a multi-dimensional context, a frame-of-reference, in which to anchor his insights and recommendations throughout the narrative. He skillfully uses what I describe as a bi-polar strategy: passively but alertly observing what is happening (and not happening) in order to recognize and understand the ever-changing realities of the world that we share and then actively challenging whatever demeans and diminishes anyone's dignity. Finally, Godin utilizes the manifesto genre as a means by which to celebrate humanity at its best, not as an ideal beyond human fulfillment but as an attainable destination if (HUGE "if") vision, faith, courage, integrity, and commitment are sufficient to the formidable challenges that await each pilgrim.
Near the downtown area here in Dallas, we have a Farmers Market at which some merchants offer complimentary slices of fresh fruit as samples. In that spirit, I now provide three brief excerpts from Godin's book.
On becoming indispensable to customers: "Here's the win (actually, there are two).
"If you want customers to flock to you, it's tempting to race to the bottom of the price chart. There's not a lot of room for profit there, though...In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way to win is to race to the top. When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect directly with customers, it becomes indispensable....
"Second, the people that work for you, the ones you freed to be artists [i.e. creators of unique, compelling, and substantial value], will rise to a level you can't even imagine. When people realize that they are not a cog in a machine, an easily replaceable commodity, they take the challenge and grow. They produce more than you pay them to, because you are paying them with something worth more than money....
"As a result of these priceless gifts, expect that the linchpins on your staff won't abuse their power. In fact, they'll work harder, stay longer, and produce more than you pay them to. Because everyone is a person, and people crave connection and respect." (Pages 35-36)
On résumés: "If you don't have a résumé, what do you have? How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects? Or a sophisticated project an employer can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you? Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up? Some say, `Well, that's fine, but I don't have those.' Yeah, that's my point. If you don't have these things, what leads you to believe that you are remarkable, amazing, or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don't have more than a résumé, you've been brainwashed into compliance. Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for - those jobs don't get filled by people e-mailing in résumés." (Page 73)
On the power of being genuine and transparent: "Virtually all of us make our living engaging directly with other people. When the interactions are genuine and transparent, they usually work. When they are artificial or manipulative, they fail.
"The linchin is coming from a posture of generosity; she's there to give a gift [no-strings support of your efforts to succeed]. If that's your intent, the words almost don't matter. What we'll perceive are your wishes, not the script.
"This is why telemarketing has such a ridiculously low conversion rate. Why corporate blogs are so lame. Why frontline workers in the service business have such stress. We can sense it when you read the script because we're so good at finding the honest signals." (Page 214)
For various reasons previously indicated, I hold this book is very high regard and conclude my review of it with one more observation: The person whom Godin characterizes as "indispensable" is defined by what is indispensable to that person. It could well be, for example, a sincere desire to be of service to others. Or it could well be a sincere desire to offer unconditional "gifts" of trust, faith, respect, and candor. Those whom Godin characterizes as "artists" possess the vision, faith, courage, integrity, and commitment needed to create -- in collaboration with others -- a "post-commercial world that feeds us, enriches us, and gives us the stability we've been seeking for so long." That said, it would be a serious mistake to underestimate or ignore the importance of self-interests. Those who create the world to which Godin refers also feed and enrich themselves as well as those whom they serve and with whom they share a community of faith. Only then can they obtain for themselves as well as others the stability they have been seeking for so long. That should be our vision and Godin challenges us to fulfill it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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