Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Linchpin

  • Are You Indispensable?
  • By: Seth Godin
  • Narrated by: Seth Godin
  • Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (557 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Linchpin cover art

Linchpin

By: Seth Godin
Narrated by: Seth Godin
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Psychology of Money cover art
The Icarus Deception cover art
Tribes cover art
Leap First cover art
All Marketers Are Liars cover art
The Dip cover art
Poke the Box cover art
$100M Leads cover art
The E-Myth Revisited cover art
The Orange Code cover art
Can't Hurt Me cover art
Principles cover art
Sometimes You Win--Sometimes You Learn cover art
Finding Success in Failure cover art
The McKinsey Way cover art
Think and Grow Rich cover art

Summary

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back.

As Godin writes, “Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”

©2010 Seth Godin (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"It's easy to see why people pay to hear what he has to say." (Time

"Thousands of authors write business books every year, but only a handful reach star status and the A-list lecture circuit. Fewer still - one, to be exact - can boast his own action figure. . . . Godin delivers his combination of counterintuitive thinking and a great sense of fun." (BusinessWeek

"If Seth Godin didn't exist we'd need to invent him - that's how indispensable he is! You hold in your hands a compelling, accessible, and purpose-filled book. Read it, and do yourself a big favor. Your future will thank you!" (Alan Webber, Founder, Fast Company

What listeners say about Linchpin

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    382
  • 4 Stars
    112
  • 3 Stars
    45
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    8
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    315
  • 4 Stars
    73
  • 3 Stars
    26
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    286
  • 4 Stars
    87
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing, simplistic US-style self help dressed up as insightful science

I like the narrator and there are some good elements of this story. However it is let down by shoddy examples and surprising citations. He claims that cancer can be reversed by the placebo effect and harps on about the cringeworthy genius of everyone, while at the same time being completely derogatory towards many professions. I found this to be populist and ill thought out. I’m sure it sold a lot!

Instead of this book, try something useful and well research like “how to have a good day” by Caroline Webb. Note that I like Seth, but I think it could have been so much better.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

repetitive

The same information could have been imparted, with greater effect, on fewer pages. Rather repetitive.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

How to be an artist.

This book it will remind you the artist you are and it will make you feel it that is necessary to pursue this art because average people any organisation can replace but an Artist is not that easy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Useless, obvious and sometimes downright offensive

I got this book as Seth Godin keeps cropping up as the biggest name when it comes to self-directed and new-age work. I was terribly disappointed. His writing is long winded, but not in the old style of scholars who take their time to make their point well, but by the new-age self-styled gurus who waddle on for page after page in an unstructured and meandering way. OK, so that is enough criticism for the structure, which is terrible.

Now for my real problem with this book: Seth Godin makes the big mistake of taking his ideas, which he thinks are great, and makes mental leaps involving making these ideas general advice without any scientific research.

Finally, his ideas around how formal education is harmful is utter BS. This book isn't just useless; it is harmful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking

This is a well narrated book which challenges us to think about where we fit in the work of our society, how we can make ourselves valuable and stay so in changing times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Profound

Listened to it twice already, and definitely not the last time. The depth of this work is evident of the very concepts being put forward here. Life changing, if you choose.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved how it made me feel.

Always inspiring Seth. So grateful to this man.
Looking forward to listening to the other books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Message received

Urgency for change has been seen. Not in an evolutionary way, but a radical change. The acceptance of what is. That what is within and seem to be perceived as out there.
I have seen the brainwashing within and seen the effect is has had on my life and the gift that are supposed to be shared through the me as a vehicle. Thank you for this. And thank you for reading. "Time to make a ruccus"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just beautiful

This was one of those books. Commute - listen, walk - listen, go to sleep - listeb, wake up - listen, go to the toilet... You get the idea. Seth always delivers, but this one hit that sweet spot for me. You don't need to be a marketer to love and need this book. You just need to be hunan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic Godin

I’m not going to lie, if you’ve read The Icarus Deception or Poke the Box, this book is not going to surprise you. Nonetheless it’s always good to listen to Seth methodically explain the nuances of what it means to be an artist and what it means to do great work. If you haven’t read Godin before - or have focused more on the marketing side of things - this is definitely worth the price of admission.

Having both read and listened to Seth Godin books, as well as listened to him on podcasts, there is definitely a significant value added in hearing his voice. Whereas many audiobook’s have a monotone orator reading the words of someone else, the words in this book resonate with the reader as a result of Seth’s thoughtful intonations and delivery.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!