BOOK A WEEK 1: Linchpin by Seth Godin

As part 1 of my BOOK A WEEK Series, I started reading Linchpin by Seth Godin.

Quickly, let me back up. I’m really getting old. And by old, I mean mid-20s. Time for some self-improvement. Plus, I just really miss reading. Inspired by my friend Meg’s 52 cups blog, I’m going to try to read one book a week and post something about the message that I take away.
I might not finish all of the books (actually, I’m off to a rough start, I skimmed part of Godin’s), I might get off track, life might get in the way, but I’m going to give it a try.

Which brings me to Godin’s Linchpin. One particular passage truly struck me:

“Organizations seek out people who are fearless, but go out of their way to weed out the reckless. What is the difference? Fearless doesn’t really mean ‘without fear.’ What it means in practice is ‘unafraid of things that one should not be afraid of.’ Being fearless means… being willing to take intellectual risks and to forge a new path. The fear is about an imagined threat, so avoiding the fear allows you to actually accomplish something.”

Godin goes on to ask “If you seek to become indispensable… ‘Where do you put the fear?’ Most of us feel the fear and react to it. We stop doing what is making us afraid, Then the fear goes away. The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds.” (Seth Godin, Linchpin, pages 64-65).

Taking risks is difficult. The reason is quite simple in an organization: people are afraid of messing up, costing the organization money, and getting fired. The reasons for being risk adverse in life, though, are a bit more complex. For me, it is getting derailed from my goals. But, if you don’t have a little fun along the way, make a few mistakes, what’s the point? Godin argues that in order to become fearless (in work, and I would argue, life), you have to harness those things that make you feel uncomfortable, tackle problems, and make mistakes. But be smart about it.

Since graduating in May, Lansing has been more than good to me. I have enjoyed my job, my friends, and the wonderful community of ‘doers’ here. But, I don’t think that I have been truly challenging myself to achieve more and be risk taking. (And the reason I haven’t been blogging? Things have been stagnant and a little boring.)

Part of the reason I haven’t been challenging myself is that I have been trying to focus on getting adjusted to post-grad life and being an adult in a college town. Which, I think was extremely valuable and necessary. Now that I am adjusted, though, I find myself wanting new life challenges. I have been afraid of messing up, and afraid of taking risks.

So in work and in life, I am trying to actively harness fears, tackle problems, and most importantly, actively take risks and make mistakes. I’m 23, now is the best time to be fearless and expect more.

Fear is hard to wrangle, but if I allow it to stand in the way of personal happiness and goals, my biggest fear of all will be realized: my fear of average. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty typical for Gen Y, right?

So, in the immortal words of Emerson, “Do what you are afraid to do.” I’ll let you know how it goes.