“Linchpin” Book Review

Earlier this year, I ran a small guest series on things that need to change in American education. In “Linchpin” I loved how Godin pointed the finger at modern education as one of the culprits contributing to the epidemic of compliant workers, cogs in a corporate machine.

(Aside: I think all teachers should read this book.)

The book explains how we got here, how to become indispensable in the workplace, how to overcome the resistance and fear of the lizard brain, and the seven abilities of a linchpin. It might be the most important career book you will ever read. Here’s the review:

And here are eight of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Outsourcing and automation and the new marketing punish anyone who is merely good, merely obedient, and merely reliable.
• We’ve been trained to believe that mediocre obedience is a genetic fact for most of the population, but it’s interesting to note that this trait doesn’t show up until after a few years of schooling.
• The launch of universal (public and free) education was a profound change in the way our society works, and it was a deliberate attempt to transform our culture. And it worked. We trained millions of factory workers.
• Classrooms become fear-based, test-based battlefields, when they could so easily be organized to encourage the heretical thought we so badly need.
• Doesn’t matter if you’re always right. It matters that you’re always moving.
• Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re busing hiding out in the comfortable zone. When you’re uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.
• Here’s the truth that you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can’t tell you how to do it.
• Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.

Have you read the book? What did you think? What other career-oriented books would you recommend to the readers here at Ryan Stephens Marketing?