Why Seth Godin’s new book “LINCHPIN” is BRILLIANT and SCARY

By Rajesh Setty on Tue 26 Jan 2010, 12:01 AM – 6 Comments

Seth Godin is one of my heroes and my work is hugely influenced by his work. I couldn’t wait to read his new book “LINCHPIN.” ( It was an honor to see my photo in the inside cover)

I thought I will finish reading this book on the same day that I got my hands on it. Boy, was I wrong.

Today is the launch of Seth Godin’s new book “LINCHPIN.”

In general, it takes me a day or two to complete reading a business book. LINCHPIN was different in many respects. I couldn’t complete reading the book for full two weeks. It was not a comfortable read by any means.

Why?

First, it was a different kind of book.

Second, it was a different kind of book compared to Seth’s earlier books.

Let us look at the themes of some of the previous books by Seth:

1. In “Permission Marketing” talks about earning the permission of your audience before you sell something. If you don’t do that, you might not get the kind of results that you will get with permission. In other words, without permission marketing, results will be mediocre.

2. “Purple Cow” was about doing something remarkable. People will remark if you do something “remark”able. In other words, if you don’t do something remarkable, you will get mediocre results.

3. In “Free Prize Inside,” Seth’s focus was on how to make your offers better. What could you include that the audience would consider as “free prize” and get more attracted.

In LINCHPIN, Seth focuses on BEING rather than DOING. Seth’s compassionate plea is for everyone to “be” an artist – be a Linchpin rather than a cog in the wheel.

There is no premium paid for “being” a cog in the wheel. Not just that, your survival is at stake if you continue “being” a cog in the wheel. So, it is not like you have a choice on whether you want to do something different. You don’t have a choice but to start “being” a different person – an artist – someone who creates.

The book is BRILLIANT because it’s a wake-up call for most professionals. Wake up call to let them know that they are heading towards a cliff if they continue “being” who they are.

The book is SCARY because of the timing. It clearly shows that professionals neither have a choice or a LOT OF TIME to debate on this. They have to start “being” an artist NOW. No other choice.

Knowing how busy Seth is, I asked only one question to Seth and here is that question and Seth’s response.

Rajesh: Seth, I love LINCHPIN and am most certain that I will re-read it in the next few days. Knowing the speed at which the publishing industry works, I am sure you have thought about LINCHPIN after the book had gone to print. What are a few things that you would have included on this topic if the book went to print TODAY?

Seth: After you’ve written a few books, you realize that the publishing industry works at its own pace. A blog post takes three minutes to reach the world, a book takes 9 months (if you hurry). The book I wrote was written knowing that people might read it a year or two or ten after I wrote it. So I pushed myself to avoid the solace of recency and the shortcut of the immediate and instead tried to write something that might make you a bit uncomfortable (it certainly made me uncomfortable when I was writing it!).

The short answer is that I wouldn’t change a word.

Note:

I have scheduled a bunch of tweets starting 3am PST with some selected insights from LINCHPIN. There will be a tweet every 30 minutes. You can follow them here on Twitter: @UpbeatNow (under hashtag #LINCHPIN)

Related Articles:

• When is the best time to start – Seth Godin’s take
• IndyMac Bank – A scary lesson for everyone
• The culture of dissatisfaction – by Seth Godin
• The LINCHPIN in “3 Idiots”

Posted in the Announcement, Compelling Offers category.

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