Putting in the Work.

I grew up being taught to be replaceable. I am not knocking on this thought process. It taught me to be humble, to implement good systems that I could easily share with anyone to replicate the work I was doing, and I’m sure a lot of other things that I don’t even realize. But what I am realizing today is it also taught me to doubt my individuality and to try to fit into a box. 

I think our parents and teachers grew up in a different world than us. The world is in the palm of our hands, literally. We can do just about everything we need for most jobs from our cell phones. Seth Godin goes further on this illustration in his book Linchpin by saying, “Today the means of production = a laptop with internet connectivity. Three thousand dollars buys a worker an entire factory.” That wasn’t the case 20 years ago. “The internet has raised the bar because it’s so easy for word to spread about great stuff. There’s more junk than ever before, more lousy writing, more pointless products. But this abundance of trash is overwhelmed by the market’s ability to distribute news about the great stuff.” So in a world of “trash” how do we stand out and become truly irreplaceable? That is the question I am wrestling with and I know so many others are too. I think the only true answers is by continuing to do what makes you uniquely you.

Seth goes on to say, “You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is the be different.” So I think the only answer is to keep doing you and your time will come. The right people will notice if you are putting out raw, authentically ‘you’ content, no matter what it is. So this is my encouragement to you, as someone who is struggling with this same issue, keep grinding and your time will come. 

Last thought, I’ll leave you with is this. Godin says “If the game is designed for you to lose, don’t play that game. Play a different one.”