You are an artist and a genius. Some of you may have raised an eyebrow at that. Others may have scoffed and rolled your eyes so hard it’s a wonder they didn’t fall out of your head. Others still, may have stopped reading and didn’t even make it to the end of this sentence.

Linchpin by Seth Godin espouses certain ideals and frames them in a relatable and inspirational way. My goal here is to share some of these ideas and hopefully spark inspiration inside of you to be your best, release your inner artist, and approach life with a refreshed vigor and tenacity!

The world is changing and the idea of job security is not as certain as it once was. Once it was commonplace to stay with the same company for years, and loyalty was valued as a key virtue. You could get away with showing up, doing your job well, and making an appearance at the company Christmas Party. This status quo is no longer enough. 

Are you indispensable in your job? How easy would it be for your company to hire someone else to do the work that you’re doing? Your answers to these questions might be “no” or “I don’t know,” but there is no need to worry. You have an amazing opportunity in front of you, but it will require approaching work and life with a different mindset. Read on to learn how. 

How We Got This Way

If you’re like most people, you grew up with a certain concept of how your life would go: Go to school, study hard, graduate, get hired by a company, get paid, work your way up – lather, rinse, repeat. Maybe initially you had grand dreams of doing something exceptional, like changing the world,or becoming that larger than life person. Whatever your ideas were initially, somewhere along the way the indoctrination kicks in and our goals become a little more… grounded. 

No one sets out to be average, and I doubt that you expected you would be exactly where you are today. However, almost directly in contrast to our dreams/desires/need to be exceptional is our requirement for stability. We want that well paying job that gives us what we need to live and lose the idea of doing something truly sensational. Somewhere along the way, the truly sensational becomes something that other people do. We tell things to ourselves like, “I’m not smart enough. I’m not talented enough. I don’t have enough money”. We say these things to rationalize the place we have ended up and use them as an excuse to remain safe and unremarkable.

We as a society have homogenized everything. We have become a society that values systems over human interactions and this is coming from a systems guy. I love developing complex processes and making organizations run more smoothly, but that’s my art. I bring my focus and creativity to those tasks and give the gift of my emotional labor to do something special for others. And you can, too. I’ll explain more below. 

We have raced to provide goods and services at a cheaper price. We’ve pushed our society to become more and more corporatized. As a result we’ve homogenized what makes us special and dehumanized many of our interactions. Before applying to most jobs, you must first transcribe your entire value onto a resume, and then make it past an algorithm that decides if you included the right keywords to be granted a first round interview with an actual human being. That’s the state we’re in now. However, this provides an opportunity for those courageous enough to take it. Our passion, art, and desire to be individuals is the splash of water that will wake us up from this vicious cycle. With homogenization becoming the norm, a premium has been placed on those who step outside of this status quo. Believe it or not, you have everything you need to do exactly that, today. 

Giving gifts & Emotional Labor

What can you offer: Knowledge? Facts? Skills? The thing is, there is always someone who can do it better than you. There is always someone who knows more, who is faster, who can jump higher, or provide a product/service cheaper. Certainly, these things are important, and there is a baseline of knowledge and skills that you should have and constantly improve upon. However, that’s not what makes you indispensable.

You may not be the smartest, most talented, or most charismatic person in the room. However, you have something that is valued above any other talent in the market, emotional labor. It is something that you can give freely to move you forward and gain a powerful edge. 

“Emotional labor is available to all of us, but is rarely exploited as a competitive advantage.”

Emotional labor is that little extra spice in the pie. It’s taking your current project, activity, or interaction and bringing everything you can to it. It’s having the courage to put yourself out there even though you may get nothing in return. It’s embracing fear and going the extra mile even when you’re not required to. Put simply, emotional labor is you giving a sh***.

All too often, we tunnel vision on trying to hone our craft. You want to change your life, but you don’t know how. Maybe you should learn to code or get that shiny new certificate so you can have a few letters at the end of your name on LinkedIn? Hours of time and energy are spent trying to polish a certain skill instead of focusing on the interactions and social dynamics that make us truly indispensable. 

Don’t misunderstand me, mastering your craft is important and should always be one of the three pillars of living with excellence (more in my upcoming post). However, you’ll get the most bang for your buck by leveraging your ability to do emotional labor and embracing your inner artist. 

Creating Art

Art is valued above all else. It’s also something that anyone is capable of, but that makes it harder to achieve. Our society has developed in such a way that we do not grow and breed artists. Art has become something exceptional. 

First, let’s define what I mean when I say art and when I call you an artist. An artist is anyone who puts their heart and soul into what they do. They bring their creativity and passion to their work, job, task, or life. In other words, they show up and leave it all on the table. An artist does not work transactionally; they do not complete a task just to receive a payment. On the contrary, money is the last thing on an artist’s mind. 

An artist works to create and leave their stamp on the world. An artist brings passion to their work, instead of waiting for passion to appear. They don’t wait for the perfect job, project, painting, poem, or interaction before they turn on their passion. They actively bring it and then seek to give it away.

“Passion is caring enough about your art that you will do almost anything to give it away, to make it a gift, to change people.” 

You’re an artist if you bring your genuine self to your work every day. An artist is the YouTuber who tirelessly makes videos for a small audience. He takes the effort to provide the best production quality he can and the care to genuinely answer as many comments as possible. An artist is the electrician who shows up with a smile and asks about your day. He leaves with the wires neatly organized with twist ties, despite the fact that they’re covered by a wall and will seldom be seen. An artist is the aspiring writer who interviews her mother to chronicle her life in words, for the pure joy of it. An artist is the customer service representative who approaches each customer interaction with empathy and care. You know the one; we’ve all gotten off the phone with a certain customer service rep and been a little happier for the interaction. The artist goes the extra mile and brings her passion to create an exceptional experience.

Unfortunately, art is not always immediately recognized and appropriately valued, despite the critical need for it. We have developed in such a way that art often becomes an afterthought, and is considered after the more technical or functional qualifications of a job are met. From a young age, we learn through our school systems the way to succeed is to pass a test with objectively right or wrong answers to receive a passing grade. That grade is then used to decide which college we get into, which affects our job, which affects our career, etc. 

We have had very little chance to truly understand the merits of creating art. Now, I’m not here to espouse the follies of our school system or adjudicate changing our evaluation criteria. However, can you imagine a world where teachers and professors assigned a grade based off of “Did you do art?” or “Did you embrace creativity, think outside of the box, and bring your genuine self to this project?” Of course not. The average person does not perceive their work this way. You have to be the first one to value your art. You have to be the one to care about it before anyone else will. 

The good news is, despite all of this, there is no better time than now to start creating your art. Wherever you are, it’s time to get started! Even if your art isn’t doesn’t immediately translate into more money or tangible gain. Over time, you will get better and better at your work and your art will become more valuable. That’s when you can truly turn your art into something life changing and you can be more discerning about who you give your gift of emotional labor to. Ironically, at that point, you won’t even care. You’ll be driven by something more.

The Resistance

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You sit down to write an essay, a report, read a script, start a work project and you’re met with a flood of emotions and alternatives:

• A craving to check social media
• Mind fog
• A desire to overthink
• Perfectionism
• Fear
• Indecision – Should I outline first? Brainstorm? Create smoke signals?
• Should I look up a video on how to do this first?
• Maybe I should clean first

These manifestations are otherwise known as resistance. Resistance will assume any form. It is whatever it takes to get you to stop doing your work, and it always comes from within. The resistance, as well as all of the aforementioned traits, are often a disguise for fear. 

Even worse, is that the resistance can manifest itself into seemingly productive tasks such as meetings, emails, cleaning, researching, even doing work itself (more on that later). We have an uncanny way of convincing ourselves that these others tasks are worthwhile and need to be done immediately. Doubtless, they may indeed need to be accomplished eventually. No one is saying that you can avoid all of your responsibilities and chores, but the Linchpin focuses on the tasks that will move the needle. She engages with those tasks with every ounce of her being. Be honest with yourself and you will realize that you’re doing tasks that don’t require a lot of emotional labor. Whatever you are caught working on ask yourself “Does this help me make art?”

I can’t describe exactly how you should overcome the resistance. It is different for everyone and varies by situation. I can however tell you that you must acknowledge it and then proceed. Don’t get trapped in trying to easily dismiss it. If you start doing something difficult the resistance will rise and stopping this action will make it go away. You will believe that you can’t start your work until you overcome your fear. You must resist this urge at all costs! Start your work and acknowledge the fear as part of it. This is a prerequisite for success and is non-negotiable. Resistance feeds into what is keeping you from actualizing your life and must be mastered. 

“The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.”

The resistance and fear will never go away. You must get used to fighting it constantly. Greatness is never bought, it’s rented, and the rent is due every day. 

The Urgent vs The Important

Ok raise your hand if this is you (slowly typing this one handed). You have an important project that you know needs to get done. It’s not due this week, or maybe even next so you have plenty of time to work on it. You sit down at your desk and start answering emails and then you get a call from your boss/spouse/colleague that needs something. By then, it’s time for lunch. Before you know it, it’s almost quitting time and all you’ve done are tasks that in a year from now won’t make a bit of difference. The tricky thing here is that for the most part, these tasks seem very important and need to get done. They certainly do, however, by letting these chores pull at you immediately, you are being reactive instead of proactive during your day. 

You are constantly being pulled in one direction to work on a task something that seems to be important. The issue is, by the time you’re done responding to these activities, you have very little energy left for the tasks that will truly move you forward in life. 

This is why it is so important that you periodically take moments to reflect and align yourself. Ask yourself, what is really important, lay out a plan, and make sure that you have activities and projects to back up this plan. More importantly, make sure that you are actively assigning your energy to these tasks and are budgeting time to take care of the more reactionary tasks that inevitably rise throughout your day.

The activities that will actively make us better people and help us level up are typically the most important tasks that involve our higher callings. Incidentally, these are the tasks where the resistance most often shows itself. It is as if it’s a force inside of you meant to pull you down and stop you from achieving what you are truly capable of. Don’t let it! Identify those actions/projects, recognize the resistance when it comes, and continue onward in the other direction away from the resistance.

Set Sails – Build To Ship

As Winston Churchill best put it back in 1940, “perfection is the enemy of progress” or as my old boss used to put it “Sometimes you just gotta ship.” We often spend way too much time tinkering and trying to get our projects to meet a high standard. I think that given the opportunity, many of us could spend forever working on a project. We are locked in an endless battle against our inner perfectionist. However, the Linchpin realizes that this is another form of the resistance manifesting itself. 

The resistance, in this case perfectionism, is stopping you from putting your work out there and making progress with your life. In 2015, Elon Musk announced theTesla Model 3, along with an array of lofty promises. He promised that it would be the “every man’s Tesla”. He said that it would be more affordable than any other Tesla in the line. It was going to be so advanced that the inside “looked like a spaceship.” However, when the car finally shipped in 2017, it was anything but. It was nearly double the price promised and the inside was almost spartan in it’s minimalisti simplicity. The autopilot feature, while useful, did not usher in anything revolutionary. And yet, Tesla’s stocks soared and thousands of people rushed out to buy the new Model 3. Today, it is one of the most popular Electric Vehicles and has indeed introduced people to the wonders of EVs at scale. 

Doubtless, Musk would have loved to deliver on his promises from the get-go. However, if he let that hold him back, we may not have the Model 3 to this day and Tesla would have lost thousands to cancelled pre-orders. Now, Musk and his resources are free to continue working on enhancements to get the Model 3 closer to his original promise, while expanding their efforts to other game changing ventures such as SpaceX. 

“The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship.”

Even now, as I write this, I can hear the resistance calling me. It is compelling me to delay publishing this article, because It’s not good enough and there’s so much more you should be saying. It makes me wonder, will anyone actually get any value out of this? Will these ideas mean as much to you as they do to me? The reality is that the resistance will always try to delay you from your work, in whatever way possible. Recognize the resistance and move on, while understanding that the ability to ship is as much a part of your art as anything else and without it you’ll never move forward. 

The Rest Is Up To You

You have an incredible ability within you. You have something that is more valuable than any class, degree, or credentials. You have the ability to create art and give the gift of emotional labor. The power to change your life is in your hands and where you go next is up to you. The world needs more people to step up and realize the greatness within them. The world needs you to embrace your genius and share your art. Personally, I can’t wait to see what your art and passion brings to the world.

References

1. S. Godin, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” January 19, 2010