Don’t Be a Cog

About 3 years ago, I started on a quest to change my business and myself.  In reality, I was fine and my business was chugging along fine, but I was restless. Unsatisfied. Cranky.

I started my business in 2003 because I very tired of the 9-to-5 grind. I was tired of the kind of jobs I found myself in, working in offices with horrible florescent lighting, doing the same thing day after day. I jumped jobs often to relieve the boredom, to get a pay raise, and to see if the next  job might be “the one.”

And then one day I realized it wasn’t working. The job hopping was getting old. The jobs weren’t more challenging. And I was just getting more cranky by the day.

So, I got a mentor. Karen spent a few hours over a few months having coffee with me. And one day she looked at me and said, “You, my friend, need to be self-employed.”  A little more conversation, an injection of “you CAN do this” from Karen, and *poof* I started my business.

Those first three years were great. Challenging, satisfying, and fun.

And then, damn it, the restlessness came back again! The desire for more. The desire for change. The desire for a new challenge.

It’s been a long and bumpy road. But the change, the challenge, and the *more* have come together.

And beautifully, a book about the journey has been published! Of course, author Seth Godin did not write his book, Linchpin, about me or my journey.  But I so identify with his thought process and his observations that Linchpin surely could be about me and all that I’ve learned in nearly seven years of self-employment.

I’ve already tweeted many times quotes that really resonated with me. I’ve marked up my copy of the book to a point that loaning it out would be like giving my diary away for someone else to read.

Linchpin is a profound book – for me and for anyone else who really wants to make a life that is different, unique and very much their own.  It’s about thinking differently, acting differently, giving a shit about your life and about how you interact and influence others (using your powers for good, not evil).

My favorite parts of the book are where Seth discusses the “art” inside each of us. How we are all meant to contribute something unique and powerful for the benefit of ourselves – and most importantly – for other people. He delves into fear of failure (we need to fail a lot and get comfortable with it), fear of success (using our art, being seen), and fear of “shipping” (you’ll have to read the book to find out more about this).

And I like very much that he doesn’t harp on self-employment as the only way to tap into and create our “art.” He’s just as much in favor of maximizing opportunities in a job-job as he is in taking the leap and being your own boss.

“It’s a new world out there, people!” is something that Mr. Godin practically shouts from each page.  Even if you have a job-job, you can go from being a faceless, replaceable cog in the wheel of business to becoming a linchpin – someone irreplaceable that provides something unique, recognizable, and critical to a partnership, a team, or a whole company.

This book is about creating value in anything you do. That value is your ART.  It’s your gift, your reason for being. Your unique and special way to make an impact on the world.

Oh, and it took me forever to realize that art isn’t paint on a canvas, clay on a wheel, or a beautiful voice. Art is whatever you think it is, Mr. Engineer. Ms. Organizer. Mr. Project Manager.

Don’t know what your art is?  Keep looking, searching, testing and trying. You’ll find it, and when you do, life becomes so much sweeter (notice I didn’t say easier, necessarily). You find your “flow,” create that value and share your art.

For me? I found my art. I’m finding the “flow” more and more each day. And thank heavens for it.  I’m much less cranky these days!