“Why do we believe that jobs where we are paid really good money to do work that can be systemized, written in a manual and/or exported are going to come back ever?” writes Seth Godin in his blog.

According to the NY Times, there are only 1.2 Billion good jobs in the world – and 6.9 Billion people are fighting over them! Ever seen Shift happens?

Education is getting slaughtered in the US – and maybe that is a good thing because free education was set up by Edison and Crew to provide skilled workers for their factory jobs – jobs that have moved overseas. Maybe home schooling, internships and mentoring programs are the way to go. Even with a Chemistry degrees, I didn’t have the skills for a job until I took extra workshops in specific equipment to get certified with marketable skills. The same is true today where a number of jobs did not exist ten years ago — and education certainly won’t fix that.

The key is to be coachable, learn a lot fast, know how to market yourself, communicate, handle the complex — in a nutshell: Be a Linchpin!

Good Luck!

The whole idea of giving more than 100% is goofy. How do you give more than all?

With the passing of Trey Pennington over the Labor Day weekend, a few blogs wrote about the pressure they were under in today’s economy and ever changing marketplace.

I’m confused by that. While I am not as well known as some social media personae, I am a consultant, marketer, author, speaker and an event planner.

I strive to give my best. Every time. I want every event to leave the audience with an A-ha moment. I look for improvement at every opportunity. I try to write better, clearer, more concise. I try to leave my audience with valuable take-aways.

The blog is part of not only the fremium revenue model, but the gift that I give to my audience. Actually to my tribe. I don’t write for everyone. I don’t create events for everyone. I do what I do for the success of my Tribe.

There’s a concept in math of getting closer and closer but never reaching the target. Each step is half the other. Each step is as hard or harder than the last. Yet never quite reaching the target. That target for some is perfection. It’s great to strive for, but it is overwhelming and exhausting to be obsessed with perfection.

You can’t top every speech.

Every blog won’t get a favorite in someone’s reader.

Every tweet doesn’t get a RT.

Maybe the social media audience allows for immediate feedback, but for many they don’t even see your posts in their stream.

If you have 20K followers how many actually pay attention?

You should be focused on your Tribe.

In Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about being an Artist, a Genius and shipping. Good enough often is.

I’m not saying do sloppy work. I am saying focus on your Tribe – not everybody. If everything you do – blog, speak, plan, write – is done with the intent to improve the business of the tribe members, then it will all work out.

Seth Godin gives 9 Things about Sales that Marketers need to learn. (And then some lessons on Referrals as well).