After reading Seth Godin’s latest book What To Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn), a friend and I talked about it. She questioned why there is such a disconnect between how most people live their lives and the possibilities Seth talked about in his book.
It was a really smart question, and it begs another.
Does Seth Godin get it?
The reality we experience tells us otherwise. In our reality…
- The tallest blade of grass gets cut. So fly under the radar by keeping your head down.
- Generosity doesn’t scale. You gotta get your own in this world.
- Art doesn’t pay. Get a real job with guarantees and certainty.
- Picking yourself is a fool’s errand. Your energy is better spent getting the attention of the powers-that-be and persuading them of your worthiness.
- If you don’t know if it will work… don’t do it. It has to work or it isn’t worth the investment.
Seth’s book (as well as his long-lasting blog) tells us otherwise. His possibilities tell us…
- You owe it to the world to pick up the microphone and say something meaningful.
- It’s your turn to give a gift. Just because you can.
- If you are open to uncertainty, you can be a pathfinder for the rest of us. There is art in that.
- You have to TAKE your turn, because it’s rarely given to you.
- This might not work, and that’s OK. Dance in the duality of work/not work. Don’t run away from the fear, but don’t ignore it either. The ability to live in that tension and discover what you can do in the midst of that… that is artistry.
Godin is definitely seeing something else. The world he paints isn’t the one most people see when they walk into their slate gray cubicle on Monday at 7:59 AM. It’s not the one we see in the eyes of the department store clerk… partly because he won’t make eye contact with us to begin with. This isn’t the reality presented to us by television, human resources, our colleagues at the water cooler or by bureaucracy.