94 linchpin quotes which will make you more creative

This is a summary of 94 quotes from Seth Godin taken from his book linchpin which will help you to be more creative by thinking about your job differently. Definetly recommended read. Check out my review for my details.

1. "You can train yourself to matter"
2. "The goal was to leverage and defend the system, not the people"
3. "There no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do"
4. "A house like yours would have taken half a dozen servants to maintain before electricity"
5. "The linchpins leverage something internal, not external, to create a position of power and value"
6. "It was always easier for management to replace labor than it was for labor to find a new factory"
7. "As you travel up the hierarchy, the work gets easier, the pay gets better, and the number of people available to do the work gets smaller"
8. "Now the only way to stand out is to create something worth talking about, to treat people with respect and to have them spread the word"
9. "You don't become indispensable merely because you are different, but the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people"
10. "If you want a job where it is okay to follow the rules, don't be surprised if you get a job where following the rules is all you get to do"
11. "You can see your marketplace as being limited, a zero sum game, a place in order for one win person to win, another must lose. Or you can see it as unlimited."
12. "Of course you can do do something that matters. I guess I'm wondering if you want to"
13. "In a factory, doing a job that's not yours is dangerous. Now, if you're a linchpin, doing a job that's not getting done is essential."
14. "or, just maybe, would you be more successful if you were more artistic, motivated, aware, and genuine?"
15. "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."
16. "We train the factory workers of tomorrow. Our graduates are very good at following instructions"
17. "The problem lies with the system that punishes artists and rewards bureaucrats instead"
18. "What they should teach in school. Only two things: 1. Solve interesting problems, 2. Lead"
19. "Leading is a skill, not a gift. You're not born with it, you learn how"
20. "Each business stands next to plenty of other businesses, each striving to be like the other, but maybe a little better"
21. "When people realize that they are not a cog in a machine, an easily replaceable commodity, they take the challenge and grow"
22. "The rule is, if in doubt, give a refund"
23. "Doesn't matter if you're always right. It matters that you're always moving."
24. "Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth."
25. "Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works."
26. "Assume before you start that you're going to create something that the teacher, the boss, or some other nitpicking critic is going to dislike"
27. "Krulak's law is simple: The closer you get to the front, the more power you have over the brand."
28. "If all you can is the task and you're not in a league of your own at doing the task, you're not indispensable"
29. "Where do you put the fear?" What seperates a linchpin from an ordinary person is the answer to this question."
30. "It if wasn't a mystery, it would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't be much worth."
31. "He smiled, stopped for a second, and told me,"I work for blessings."
32. "Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs poeple kill for - those joibs don't get filled by poeple e-mailing in resumes."
33. "You are not your resume. You are your work."
34. "There are two ways the linchpin can use "No." The first is to never use it. Amazingly there is a second kind of linchpin. This person says "no" all the time."
35. "Art changes posture and posture changes innocent bystanders:"
36. "If he waits for a job to be good enough to deserve his best shot, it's unlikely that he'll ever have that job"
37. "Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient."
38. "Art is unique, new, and challenging to the status quo. It's not decoration, it's something that causes change."
39. "It takes art to construct a business model that permits people in the United States to play poker online."
40. "The moment you are willing to sell your time for money is the money you cease to be the artist you are capable of being."
41. "When it is time for layoffs, the safest job belongs to the artist, the linchpin, the one who can't be easily outsourced or replaced."
42. "Passion isn't project specific. It's people specific. Some people are hooked on passion, deriving their sense of self from the act of being passionate."
43. "Certain forms of art make us cry without embarrassment."
44. "If you don't pinpoint your audience, you end up making your art for the loudest, crankiest critics."
45. "Back to the basics. What do I want? What do I want to see in the world?" And create that.
46. "Nobody cares how hard you worked"
47. " The easier it is to quantify, the less it's worth."
48. "The job is not the work."
49. " Real artists ship"
50. "Any project worth doing involves invention, inspiration, and at least a little bit of making stuff up"
51. "Thrashing is essential. The question is: When to thrash?."
52. "One part of your brain worries about survival, anger and lust. The rest of it creates civilization."
53. "Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently."
54. "The temptation to sabotage the new thing is huge, precisely because the new thing might work."
55. "They think they are being mature and realistic when they're actually cowering in fear."
56. "Becoming more average, more quick, and more cheap is not as productive as it used to be."
57. "If you have three great job opportunities, you can be a lot more comfortable in each interview."
58. "Don't ship on time. Late is the first step to never. Ship early, sending out defective ideas, hoping they will be rejected."
59. "And as every successful person will tell you, the ideas are not the hard part. It's shipping that is difficult."
60. "I'm saying that if you become indispensable, you'll discover that you get a better boss."
61. "Waiting isn't easy, which is precisely why it is so effective when engaging with other people."
62. "When i put myself on an Internet diet(only five checks a day, no fifty), my productivity tripled. Tripled."
63. "In the Pacific Northwest, Native american tribe leaders established their power by giving everything away."
64. "As soon as it is part of a system, it's not art."
65. "The only way I know to become a successful linchpin is to build a support team of fellow linchpins."
66. "A contract isolates individuals, with money as the connector. The gift binds them instead."
67. "After 150 friends and fellow citizens, we can't keep track. It's too complicated."
68. "When we meet a stranger, we do business. When we encounter a member of the tribe, we give gifts."
69. "Now the tribe is composed of our coworkers and best customers, not only our family or our village or religious group."
70. "Given the choice between an insider or outsider, we choose to work with insiders."
71. "Generosity generates income. This works whether you are selling paintings or innovation or a service."
72. "The hardheaded selfish capitalists among us will enjoy the next sentence: Artists are indispensable linchpins."
73. "They say, Payme. Artists say, "Here."
74. "The performer seeks the people who choose to stop and watch and interact and ultimately donate."
75. "It was a gift. If you want to repay it, do something difficult."
76. "So many times we want someone to tell us exactly what to do, and so many times that's exactly the wrong approach."
77. "None of us knows the absolute truth, of course, but the goal is to approach a situation with the least possible bias."
78. "Experienced travelers know that when the system breaks it's broken. Bail!"
79. "That's why outsiders and insurgents so often invent the next big thing - they don't start with the tangled past."
80. "First of course, you have to be able to see the truth. This takes experience and expertise and, most of all, a willingness to look."
81. "in the circus, the only way to make it as a trapeze artist is to leap. And what the linchpin who leads change is able to do is just that: leap."
82. "Linchpins don't need authority. It's not part of the deal. Authority matters only in the factory, not in your world."
83. "The linchpin is able to invent the future, fall in love with it, live in it - and then abandon it on a moment's notice."
84. "When your people do what they do because they love it, it works. Even if they're not as technically adept as the competition."
85. "Every day is a new chance to choose."
86. "It's not merely about hours worked. It never has been. Do the work and get whatever help you need to do it as well as you are able to."
87. "The ultimate gift you can give, the one that will repay you today and tomorrow and heal our world, is that gift. The gift of connections, of art, of love - of dignity."
88. "Honest Signals are the only signals that travel"
89. Linchpins do two things for the organization. They exert emotional labor and they make a map.
90. Some fancy marketers might call this a positioning statement or a unique selling proposition. Of course, it's not that. It's a superpower.
91. If I don*t know your superpower, then I don't know how you can help me (or I can help you).
92. The challenge lies in knowing your market and yourself well enough to see the truth.
93. The act of deciding is the act of succeeding
94. so what's smart? Living life without regret.

Further reading

If you want to become more productive I highly recommend that you try meditating for 10 minutes each day for seven days after getting up. Here is a free spreadhseet to print and out on your fridge to keep track.