Linchpin – Book Review

In addition to The War of Art, I also read two other books last month, one of which was Linchpin 🙂

This book was recommended to me by TK Coleman (one of my Praxis advisors).

First impressions – I liked it.  It was well written and easy to follow, and the points presented made sense.

Basically, the book talks about how to become indispensable.  Being indispensable in a company means you are crucial to the success of that company.  They COULD survive without you, but they would rather NOT.  Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?  Your job becomes more secure and stable.

The only thing that bothered me about the book is that it didn’t really talk about being an entrepreneur that much…it focused more on being an intrepreneur.  I’m not against being an intrepreneur, I just prefer business ownership 🙂

However, if you cannot or are not willing to be an entrepreneur, I would HIGHLY recommend being an intrepreneur.  Create value within a company as if the company was your own.  That’s how you become indispensable.

“Just getting by” won’t cut it anymore – not if you want to be indispensable.  You have to try your hardest and stop quitting on yourself.

First, admit that you are a genius.  And while the author doesn’t say this in his book, I will say it here: you are a genius because you were created by a God who loves you and made you in His image.  If you don’t live up to your potential, if you squander your possibilities, you are wasting the gifts that the Lord gave you.  Your negative self-talk will try to convince you that you’re not good enough or smart enough – DO NOT listen to it.

Second, don’t be afraid to do things without asking permission.  Create plans of action, figure out ways to better the company and to add value to it, and then present these action plans to your superior.  Ask to implement them.  DON’T be afraid of failure!  You’re going to fail a lot more often than you succeed, so you’d better start doing stuff so you can get to those successes.

Third, ship on time.  HAVE A DEADLINE.  If the project isn’t “perfect” by the time you need to ship it, SHIP IT ANYWAY.  Better not perfect and on time than absolutely perfect and late.  And it’s probably better than you’re giving yourself credit for anyway, so just ship it.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be proud of what you’ve created.  Make sure you’re not being lazy, but SHIP ON TIME.

So, there you have it!

In short, I am grateful for the ideas this book provoked me to think about, and I look forward to implementing the above points to become an intrepreneur in any company I work for!

 

Until next time,

Hope Frances