Linchpin by Seth Godin

Linchpin (2010) is written by Seth Godin, who has a great blog. He writes short posts, usually a paragraph at most. Sometimes it’s simply a few sentences. I really like his blog. He points out things that are unique and enlightening. He has written a dozen books and is a renowned speaker. He’s the person who coined the term “purple cow”. Linchpin is written similarly to his blog. There are chapters, but in each chapter are short essays. In my opinion, Linchpin is a compilation of musings that could have, maybe should have, been on his blog.

The point of the book is to be a linchpin, someone who is indispensable. Being creative, going beyond what is asked, and overcoming fears of whatever is holding you back. The best part of the book to me was how he describes people as cogs in a machine. In school, we are told what to do, when to do it, and are evaluated on how well we followed the instructions. The same goes in the workplace. People are interchangeable parts in a factory. But that is only a short part of the book. The rest focuses on creating “art”, which he defines as emotional labor and tons of examples of people are who linchpins in their field.

While the book is short and an easy read, I found it to be fluffy and repetitive. I started the book a few months ago, but never got around to finishing it. It’s an easy book to pick up and keep reading because of the writing style of short essays. But it was difficult to get myself to finish it. This wasn’t a book I couldn’t put down. 

My rating for Linchpin: 2 stars out of 5. Read Linchpin here!