"Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient".
                            
                         ~ Seth Godin

There is  an artist living in each one of us, no matter our professions or occupations.

Art is a mindset. It's the individual, unique way we approach whatever we are doing. You can be an artist at anything you do. Or you can be a cog in the wheel. If you are an artist, you will be "indispensible" and your job will be more secure. You can follow another person's lead, and do only what's expected of you and no more. Or you can emerge as a creative personality who gives an emotional and substantive value to others.

For instance, if your job is "customer service", do you trouble shoot, or just answer the questions you have been instructed to answer and leave the customer dissatisfied and frustrated? An "artist" customer service representative turns an irate customer into a happy, appreciative and loyal customer, who comes back to buy more product. An "artist" lawyer demonstrates bravura and originality. Wins the case? You bet, when a cog in the wheel lawyer might have lost it.

The "artist" worker is valuable because of that extra something that they give.

Our society, in the past has rewarded mediocrity. You'd be safe if you stayed under the radar, put your 8 hours into your job, gone home. And after a few years, you'd get a pension, a gold watch, and could retire, and sail into the sunset. That has all changed. Seth Godin describes this change in the marketplace, masterfully, in his book.
                       
I've been reading LINCHPIN, by Godin. Have you read it? It's full of insights regarding a shift in the workplace to include a new team and type of player called "linchpins". So now we have 3 teams in the workplace: labor, management, and linchpins. What is a linchpin? The linchpin is "an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create, and make things happen". I see it as the movers and shakers in every organization. It's the people who make things happen. It's Bill Gates, and it's Thomas Edison, and it's Jonathan Ive.

According to Godin, this is a time when you have an "opportunity to bring your best self to the marketplace and be rewarded for it". Godin feels that the average employee is being thought of as a commodity. As a commodity, this kind of worker is paid as minimally as possible, and easily dismissed at the whim of management. Not a safe place to be. The good news is that "average" is boring. The human psyche thrives on challenge. Each one of us has a unique genius and sometimes it's buried under years of brainwashing in schools, and social institutions. Time to wake up that genius and acknowledge what makes you special.

Whatever you are doing, be a "stand out". Perform even the most average task in an above average way.

Now is your chance to create real value and to make a difference. A linchpin is a person who makes a difference. A linchpin conducts his/her life as an artist.

According to Godin, "Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human".
"There are two choices. Win by being more ordinary, more standard, and cheaper. Or win by being faster, more remarkable, and more human".

As Internet Marketers, let's strive to be extraordinary.