Being Indispensable

IMAGES: Seth // Linch

I am reading Seth Godin‘s book Linchpin, that I originally heard about through a NY Creative Interns recommendation.  Right now I’m really into learning and reading as much about entering the business world as possible (… as much as I find not-boring), and Seth Godin falls right in there.  If you’ve never heard of Seth Godin, he’s an author and speaker who focuses on marketing, with a penchant for supporting the creative industry.  He also runs one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world. (Check it out.  Its, um, pretty good.)  Anyway, the book talks a lot about, not necessarily needing to change your job, but being indispensable in the workplace.

It got me thinking about stuff.

To me, the guts of the book emphasize: whenever you are working anywhere, it essential to input your identity and creativity into your work, because that is what makes you indispensable.  Its essential to do this, not just because it feels good, or creates a better experience for you, or makes you happier with your job, but because it is better for the company and makes you necessary.

Making yourself ‘indispensable’ means that if you left, they could not replace you as you.  I’m not saying they couldn’t get another nurse, junior graphic designer, store salesman.  I’m saying that they could not have another person that could add to their company in the same way you could – with your unique perspective and background and identity and creativity. (Because I don’t care who you are, EVERYONE can be creative.  And if you think you aren’t, then you are just either boxing in what you think ‘creative’ means, or being lazy.)  Your ‘replacement’ could even be someone very good, but they could not replace you in the company.  And that makes you ESSENTIAL to the company’s identity.

If you are a waiter, and you realize that its better to have all the wait-staff learn how to use the dishwasher incase the dishwashing worker goes to the bathroom and slows down the line, that’s creativity.  If you work at a mill and realize that it’d be faster to work in relay than to carry materials back and forth, that is inputing your identity and creativity into your work.

What are some of your qualitites that make you indispensible?  I think one of my best qualities is that I crave pushing the envelope, even when its easy to think realistically.  (I try to never be ‘realistic’, coming from a too-much-feasibility, engineering background.) Tell me about some of your awesome traits and creativity in the workplace. :)

The Inspiring Blogger Award

The Inspiring Blogger Award

I have been nominated for Inspiring Blogger Award by sonuduggal, and I am totally honored.

http://sonuduggal.wordpress.com/ Thank you so much for nominating me for this wonderful award.

The rules are simple: You MUST do this…
1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

So here are 7 things about KaleidoscopeBrain :

1) I started this blog on my road from engineering student, to design grad student, and I am so proud to announce that I have gotten into to grad schools!!! WOO

2) I enjoy ‘practicing’ pretty much every single different type of fine art or design.  From crochet to sculpture work to fashion to film.

3) I love baking without pressure. :) While watching a bad tv show or listening to an awesome podcast.

4) Enjoy traveling and antique shopping/thrift hunting and photography.

5) I suck at most sports… mostly because I never did any sports growing up, except for the ones we did in gym class.

6) I like that, although I may not look it, I’m pretty tough.

7) I’d love to write a short film one day.

Choosing 15 other Blogger’s is really a difficult task.  Here are my 15 picks that apply to how I’m feeling today.  (No particular order, and I tried to make it a wide variety of big guys and little guys, and varying topics.) Enjoy!

1)  Truth and Cake

3) Seth Godin

4) The Middle Finger Project

5)  HeyLookAFellowWriter

6) Jackson Sees Georgia

7) Moddea

8) Swiss Miss

9) Quiet Cassandra

10) Chris Guillebeau

11) Alex Beadon Photography

12) Dezeen 

13) Smitten Kitchen

14) DesignLoveFest

14) 1000AwesomeThings

15) The Better Man Project

16) Style Bubble

Thank you all so much for inspiring me throughout my pursuits.

Regards,

Dayna @KaleidoscopeBrain

Link Round Up!

1. Vintage Vogue Magazine Covers From The Early 20th Century. here.
2. Deb from smitten kitchen posted this recipe for her favorite brownies, and trust, when she posts it, it is gonna be good. Everything I’ve ever made from her site has turned out awesome! Plus, she’s one of the most famous and oldest food bloggers around! here
3. A creative review of the 2012 London Olympics. (for me, really interesting.. ) here
4. According to Vanity Fair these are the most fashionable films of all time.  WaxWane did an interesting post about a film they may have forgotten..
5. I her first 3 days Tina Roth Eisenberg (one of my favorite lady crushes of ALL-TIME) surpassed her financial goal in kickstarter! DAMN STRAIGHT I want to support this! I’ve mentioned Creative Mornings videos a couple times on my blog already (here, here), because they really are so good (note: IF you’re interested in working in the creative industry). They also just have a great concept behind them: get the inspiring feeling of a conference more often! And for cheaper!  You can get to the Creative Mornings Website kickstarter page here.
6. This pinterest board called ‘SPACE’. Amazing uses of space and light, and some awesome installations, if I do say so myself.
7. This song. Bang Bang He Shot Me Down by Nancy Sinatra. It kills me..
8. The quote above was said by Seth Godin on The Great Discontent and was found viaSwissMiss.
For this quote I did not want to use any fancy fonts or any graphic design. I could not bear even to use color in the background.  It all just looked so wrong. I just wanted the quote to speak to the world and to any of my readers that may happen upon it.  For you all, Pick yourself.