Aspiring to Create Art in your Work
Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors. I love reading his blog, and one of his books was a catalyst for driving me to finally quit my job to chase my entrepreneurial dream. Here I am, however, 6 years (almost to the day) after that faithful day when I resigned from Lockheed Martin to start a business that would eventually fail in year 3, and I am in need of more inspiration.
I’m no longer living that entrepreneur life, but instead living that freelance/contractor life. Not exactly where I want to be, but I’m closer to my goal. Nevertheless, Seth Godin just gave me a map to help me chase another buried treasure.
This treasure is much different than the startup treasure I chased 6 years ago. This treasure is within me. It’s within all of us. This treasure is our ability to create ART.
This is the primary thesis that Godin makes in his book “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?“
Two passages in the book sum this point up nicely:
If you find that you are unable to create art in your work sitting behind a desk, or providing customer service, or whatever, then I highly recommend you spend the next 10 days reading Linchpin. If you are an entrepreneur who’s lost their way like me, take two of these and call me in the morning.
Linchpin is a blueprint for finding happiness in your work and working towards happiness in a life well spent. It makes no sense to waist any more time working for the sake of just making money. Let the other guy do that. Your job and mine is to transform what we do into ART, and make our vocation our vacation.
