It seems that everywhere you turn, someone today is encouraging you to be indispensable.
Universities.
Newspapers.
People I don’t even know.
Which is great, but be careful: there is an inherent arrogance to the concept of indispensability that will get you into trouble if you don’t watch it. Thoughtless adoption of “Yes, I’m indispensable!” may get people to do small, good deeds, but it quickly unravels into, “WTF, why is everyone pushing me around? I’m indispensable, dammit!” when the anticipated rewards don’t manifest.
So let’s be totally, brutally, unequivocally clear: you are not important enough to be indispensable.
You know that linchpin, that keeps the wheel from flying off? It’s a popular metaphor right now, but for the wrong thing. Linchpins cost a fraction of a cent and are manufactured by the millions. Linchpins are the ultimate in dispensability: important yet replaceable. Which is exactly how we should view ourselves.
Be great, be helpful, do what’s right. And, expect to get stepped on. Because you will. Why? Because you are dispensable. Remember that, stay humble, and whatever happens, let it slide.
Here’s a quick story to illustrate how the implied arrogance of indispensability corrodes the concept from the inside out:
There was once a prince who was going to see a neighboring king to ask for the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. On his journey, his heart, brain, lungs, and tongue got to talking about who among them was most important:
Lungs: I’m vital to the flow of oxygen!
Heart: Big deal. Without me pumping, that oxygen doesn’t get anywhere. Besides, people can live without a lung. If I go…
Brain: Please. If anyone’s indispensable, it’s me. I control everything!
Heart: I dunno… people can live a pretty long time in a coma.
Lungs: Well, I don’t see—
Tongue (cutting in): Hey, guys, I think I’m the most indispensable of all of us.
Brain, Heart, Lungs (all together): HA HA HA HA HA HA HAThe tongue was hurt. He had been taught that he was indispensable—a small, yet integral part of the organism, and he didn’t take too kindly to the others’ laughter. I’ll show them, he thought.
So the next day, when the prince had his audience with the neighboring king, the tongue flexed its muscle, and spat out, “Your highness, I have bedded your daughter and demand triple the promised dowry if you expect me to marry her.”
Just before the prince was executed, the tongue said to his neighbors, “I bet you’ll agree now I’m pretty darn indispensable!”
Get it?
Indispensability as an idea: good.
Indispensability as a sustainable, practical tool to drive human behavior, given the realities of human nature? Not so much.
The Romans liked to remind their generals, “Memento mori.”
Me? I prefer to keep it simple: Get over yourself.
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I'm Jason. I make people shine. My mission is to help 1 million people tell their stories better. 
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I like the same debate that’s played out in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, where it seems the anus has the last laugh… I’m sure there’s a metaphor there somewhere.
Lesson learned in the corporate world: indispensibility is in the eye of the beholder. If your boss thinks you are indepensible, ok. Same job, different boss = dispensible.
@Michael—Yep. Great reference… even Tucker Max would agree.
@Mary Jo—It can be very tough to get inside that boss’s head, tho… what do you make of an absentee boss? Are you the indispensable player who makes her life of leisure possible? Or are you dispensable and not on her radar? Maddening thought, really.
Wow. This one hit home. It’s a hard, cold, lesson to learn. Thanks for the gut-check.
@John—But a cheap lesson if you learn it in time!
I couldn’t agree with you more, Jason! I read once (and never forgot) the suggestion that if you take your finger out of a bowl of water, and then look at the water, you will see how indispensable you actually are. (In other words, the water will fill the place that your finger was occupying. And your position and/or job duties will be filled in much the same way – swiftly and not as painfully to the company as you wish it would be.)
Love the story. As always, you make the lesson easy to understand, and engaging.
And I hope Seth Godin doesn’t squash you like a bug. lol jk
Thanks, Karen. And though I would welcome what I can only presume would be a vigorous, well-parried debate with Seth, I do imagine he has better things to do with his time then respond to a post that doesn’t even link directly to him.
I’ve always been told, and tell others…
If you make yourself indispensable, you will never get promoted.
Thus, I do my best to work myself out of a job, and remind myself regularly that you may be loyal to your company, you may in fact be “indispensable to your company”, but your company is not loyal to you, they are loyal to the bottom line.
And that fact makes you dispensable.
@Tammy—”Indispensable to the organization, yes; indispensable to the job, no.” I’ll agree with that 100 out of 100 times, and even wrote as much in H2SD.
Alas, too bad humans tend to absorb information in fly-by formation and many won’t appreciate the rich, subtle distinctions implied by your comment.
This is a great insight, and one that’s essential to remember.
Everyone is dispensable at all times. The question is, will you be missed?
Steve Jobs would be missed. Delores at the 7 11 in Long Island who sells more coffee than anyone in the chain would be missed. Lots of people in between.
It’s something to shoot for. To stand out instead of to fit in. To do work that matters, that connects people. And most of all, to seek out opportunities to be human, not a cog.
Thanks to Mr. Godin (author of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?) for offering his take (if the really WAS him replying…wonder if there are Fake Godins out there?)
It seems to me that we are using “indispensable” interchangeably with “irreplaceable”. I don’t think Godin’s book (for example) is claiming that employees should view themselves as irreplaceable. In fact, on page 35 of Linchpin, Godin says, “No one is irreplaceable, of course, because over time someone can be trained to fill a linchpin’s shoes.”
Rather, I think the premise is about creating usefulness. In that way, the word indispensable makes more sense in the context of how people view themselves in the workplace. So, if the question on the table for discussion is, “do smart people think they’re irreplaceable?” then yeah, they should get over themselves.
However, if the question is, “how can people create the most value for the organization that they provide service to (as free agent, vendor, employee, etc.)?” then I believe that’s a discussion worth having.
@Seth—Thanks for your insights. You are always welcome.
@Jennifer—You just put your finger right on the crux of the matter. Ideally, people would ask the question you pose and not get your notion of irreplaceable mixed up with your notion of indispensable. Alas, human nature has scarcely met a subtlety it didn’t smother into oblivion…
Hi Jason:
I enjoyed your post. I authored a similar piece a few weeks ago that you might be interested in: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/indispensable-i-think-not/ Best wishes Jason…
@Mike—Thanks for the heads up! Loooks like I could’ve saved myself some trouble had I just read your piece ahead of time…
Wow, Jason… we agreed on something.
This is me… picking myself up off the floor.
Seriously, it probably wouldn’t be so subtle if I didn’t speak in sentences when paragraphs are needed. Sometimes, I think like a boy. ~grin~
@Tammy—C’mon, now… Anyone who works an Avatar reference into a blog post about staying true to your principles—even if it means ending your career—is bound to agree with me *some*times!
The irony of being an entrepreneur is that your business isn’t really worth that much until it can run without you!
@Mike–LOL… Yes, we actually reward people for making themselves dispensable to a venture they created!
Jason, I strongly disagree with you. Where would JasonSeiden.com be without Jason Seiden?
@Thomas, interesting point. I guess there is a flavor of how you look at this one. As an individual human, we are each indispensable. As day to day job workers, we are certainly indispensable. If we focus on the latter, we tend to do what Jason is getting at, we build an arrogance. If we can focus on the former, we can gain a self appreciation that only helps to distinguish ourselves more. Whether we build arrogance out of that, I think depends on many other things so it may not be this straight forward.
Overall, I’d agree with you Jason, I had this thinking in my early career and become quite egotistical. I’ve had to work very hard to get myself out of this cycle, so I know the dangers first hand.
@ Mike
Who likes self-centered, egotistical boors? I don’t. But at the same time, someone must be accountable to get work done or else things fall apart. That takes accurate knowledge of your worth, skill, talent. Where would we all be without Geo. Washington, Lincoln, FDR, or [insert your hero's name]. Perhaps Patton is a good example; he might have been arrogant but I can’t imagine WWII without his strategic and execution abilities. One person’s indispensability is another’s leadership that’s critical. Else, we’d have a result completely different.
@Mike–Careful, Thomas can’t be brushed off so quickly… This is a man who
knows his stuff!
@Thomas–jasonseiden.com could not exist without me. Some would say that’s a good thing, btw. But without me, folks would still find career and leadership and communication guidance… Someone would step into the (gapingly large) void… Just as Eisenhower stepped up to the plate after Patton ticked everyone off… And just as Washington forced others to do by laying down his sword not once but twice. You’ve forced me to think about thus at a deeper level, and I appreciate that. I know you understand the paradox and subtlety here, so let ms jump to the punchline: indispensibility can be a dangerous concept if taken at face value. It’s only after a discussion like this that it truly begins to take shape.
I agree, and nice post. And by the way, it was great to see you last weekend!
@Alexandra—It was great to see you, too! I can always tell when I’ve said something well when I get kudos from my favorite resident WSJ columnist…
Holy commenting! Nice job!
I found this to be a refreshing counter-position, Jason! I am in the middle of Linchpin and though I find much of it inspiring, I have been sensing this underlying creepiness to it. You just nailed it.
@Amy—you know me well enough by now to know that there’s nary a “counter position” I’ve met that I haven’t liked… I look forward to your full review of Linchpin!
Jason:
More than just a gut check, you’ve brought the conversation into a room where it needed to go next, now that a bunch of us have digested Linchpin or are in the middle of doing so. We need to kick this stuff around and really make it our own, or not.
I am one of those “marketing guys” you refer to (altho very much not a guy) and link to (thanks for that, BTW) in your post. Here’s what I see it comes down to:
FEAR.
We don’t want to think we’ve got something interesting to offer up because then we’ll have to do it. It’s much easier to sit on the sidelines and be good enough.
But, I ask this: if you’re not going to do it, who will?
Jennifer M. is spot on — it’s easy to confuse indispensable with irreplaceable, but that notion is not what Godin, in my opinion, is going for.
Godin’s mass rally cry isn’t about everyone inventing a new shoe for Nike or opening up the new Starbucks. He’s talking about taking charge of your little slice — doing something that’s not in your job description, being generous to someone you don’t like or telling someone you think they’re wrong because they need to hear it.
And, that’s what you’ve done here. So, like it or not Jason. You are indispensable.
I say that if you believe you’re not important, you will act unimportant. If everyone believes that it’s the next guy’s job to be interesting, we will all be waiting around for that “guy” to do the job. And, how the hell can we get anything done if everyone does that?
1. Your last paragraph is spot on, and let’s loop it back to an earlier point you make: being interesting means being out in front, and being out in front is scary. My goal in life is to make that lead position less frightening so more people are willing to step up. It could be the worst idea for a career ever. We’ll see. It’s certainly one of the craziest.
2. I made myself indispensable by doing this? Dammit. Talk about failing spectacularly!
3. I actually agree with your assessment of both Godin’s point and my own. It’s not far off from Thomas’ point, above. The challenge is staying in this place over time, despite all of us having a human nature that is going to want to continue to feel significant even after we’ve developed a tolerance to the small things. And the answer is, as you not, actually inherent to the debate. The results don’t matter nearly as much as the actual engagement.
4. Thank you for the meaningful, thought-provoking comment.
Ha! I am JUST starting to get comfortable with failing. Has taken me all my 39 years to get there though. Your point #3 makes me think of James Carse’s book “Finite and Infinite Games.” It will make your head hurt because it will rewire your brain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_and_Infinite_Games
Your “worst idea for a career ever” just might be so! But the best things are never easy. My crew is grappling with this same worst idea that just feels so right. We started out (before my time) as a web and graphic design firm but realized that some clients came to us without a clear picture of who they are and what they wanted to be. Recommending any channel (print, web, etc.) before figuring this out felt (and continues to feel) like selling snake oil. For me, push marketing is dead. Any “campaign” that is 100% outbound without thought to interacting with your audience is a clear sign that you are not working hard enough to become indispensable.
At Fathom, we keep trying to check in with ourselves to make sure we’re not crazy. We have a long way to go, but we’re pretty psyched that the conversations we’re having with clients is more like “how can we do things better?” than “can you make my logo bigger?”
Thank you for your responsiveness. I can’t tell you how refreshing that is.
JSeiden –
Thanks for getting me to the right link for this! Good stuff here, and in contrasting what you focused on and what I got out of the book and reviewed over at my blog, I’m happy to say I agree with your points.
That said, what did I like about the book? I liked the focus on treating your work as art, focusing on things that can’t become commodities as your core competency, giving gifts and not expecting anything in return (which of course, you always benefit from – not every time, but certainly OVER time) and a focus on shipping product (whatever your individual product happens to be) to make yourself differentiated.
I liked those focus points a lot, and I also agree with your take. Good stuff, thanks for sharing… Nobody can be an indispensable Linchpin in one company, but they can make themselves valuable anywhere by focusing on some of the other concepts in the book…
Thanks – KD