I’ve Been Linchpined

My friend Blake sent me a link yesterday to the “Linchpin Index“.  I was a bit taken aback to see my photo on the page, then I was deeply flattered.  You see, Blake works for the community website Squidoo which was founded by Seth Godin.  On the Squidoo site, users can create their own pages called “lenses” to share their knowledge on all subjects.  Seth Godin is, well, he’s a thinker.  His views on marketing, media, fans, and platform vs. eyeballs have helped to shape the way I work.

In his new book, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” Seth describes that, “…in the old days, a linchpin was a tiny piece of hardware, very light in weight and low in cost that held the wheel onto the wagon. Without a linchpin the wheel would fall off. It’s the part you can’t live without.
And I use that as a talking point to get me started down this road of talking about how our economy has shifted from 150 or 200 years of industrial compliance in which a workers job is to feed the machine and keep the system running, to a new age which just dawned, a revolution, in which the employees we’re willing to pay, and the people we seek out, and the jobs that we care about, are done by people, not who follow a manual, and do what they’re told, but people who matter, who make a difference, who are linchpins, who we can’t live without.”

I’m thrilled to be listed with people who make a difference.  I guess it’s time to get to work!

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