I just got back from Seth Godin’s The Linchpin Session in NYC.  The proceeds from the event went to the Acumen Fund.  Seth didn’t make a dime from the event, but he did it to launch his new book and his new platform of challenging workers to become more indispensible.

The session itself was quite illuminating.  He shed light on the history of industrialization and the transformation of the work we do from craftsmen to automatons.  Those are my definitions, but I think they work nicely with the overall theme of the book and his talk.

What an amazing platform he’s created, centered around liberating people and pushing them to realize that pursuing their ART isn’t going to be a nice to do thing, but a must do activity in the near future.

The talk covered most of the broad topics from the book.  As usual, I took a lot of notes.  I find that taking notes allows me to go back through my notebooks and instantly bring me back to the seminar or talk I attended.

The top buckets of conversation centered around:

• Fear and how to address it
• The Resistance, what it is and why it’s ruining your life (or keeping it the same as it ever was)
• The Lizard Brain
• Interchangeable people
• Schools as factories (and why the school system is broken)
• ART – The new kind of work we should learn to do
• The Mechanical Turk
• Why you should give yourself a “D” before you start anything
• How the lowest paid people in an organization are marketers
• Redefining gift giving
• How a day’s work does not equal a day’s pay
• Do Work that MATTERS
• Emotional Labor
• The importance of solving important problems
• The importance of LEADING
• The 7 qualities/activities Linchpins do: Interface, Creativity, Managing Complexity, Leading Passionate People, Inspiring the staff you work with, Deep Domain Knowledge and #7 which I didn’t catch, but was centered around you doing your thing and not trying to do someone else’s thing…better than they do it (that’s a recipe for disaster and/or futility)
• Real Artists Ship - This is a BIG theme in the book and something you need to learn about.  I’m sure I’ll write about it in the coming weeks.
• Go Make Something Happen

There are a lot of topics as you can see and Seth covered a lot of ground in an hour and a half.  I attended the VIP session, which a few dozen folks attended after the main session. 

I don’t want to give away too much in terms of what he covered, because I don’t think that’s fair to Seth.  However, I will tell you that the book is a must-read if you’re stuck in a rut at work and you’ve always wondered if you should be doing more to stand out at work and do something that matters.  The book is also a call to action for those people who have always wanted to start their own business or use their talents in a way they’re not able to on the job during the 9-to-5 grind.

The one idea that is currently buzzing around in my head is:

DO WORK THAT MATTERS!

What a great call to action, a reminder of sorts that the only work we should be doing is the kind that makes a difference to ourselves and to others.

Here’s to your success in putting these principles to work for you.

Now go do something amazing!