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Linchpin – Applications For Teenagers

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One of the ways that I can bring value to my reading audience is by exposing them to great information and resources when I come across them. I just finished the book Linchpin by Seth Godin, and I wish that I had this information much earlier in my life. This is one of those books that will benefit teens and their parents alike, and you can buy Linchpin through my Amazon affiliate link at no additional charge to you. I’ll give you a little background on Seth, the top 8 ideas that you need to hear today, and links to additional resources.

Seth Godin has one of the longest-running blogs on the internet. He has been posting faithfully and regularly since January 20o2. To put that in perspective, this is long before Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or iPhones existed. You won’t find Seth’s follower information on his blog, but it’s safe to say that he reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each month. Godin doesn’t need statistics because he regularly publishes invaluable content that inspires others to read. He is an artist.

According to Godin’s website, Linchpin is the book that brings all of his ideas together. In the next few points, I’ll give you some excerpts from the book that spoke to me the loudest, and need to be heard by your teen. I believe this is the best manner for me to convince you why I think you need this book.

  • Linchpins make up the third category of teams in the workplace, along with management and labor. Linchpins are indispensable. The invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order our of chaos. (inside cover)
  • We are not born to be cogs in the machine, yet that’s what many of us settle for by how we were trained. Cogs perform a job. (p. 6)
  • We are all born artists. Artists inspire and change others. Artists create gifts, not commodities. (p. 32)
  • The job what you do when you are told what to do, following instructions and adhering to the rules. Your art is doing what you do when nobody can describe what needs to be done next. It is taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people. Those who are willing do the work (the art), which is much different from doing the job, are linchpins. (p. 97)
  • The resistance is what keeps us from doing our best work, taking a chance, unleashing the artist. And much of the resistance comes from our own brains as it operates in survival mode. (p. 110)
  • True leaders are linchpins; they forge a path and discover a route to a destination not yet visited. They show others the way to get there. (p. 174)
  • Linchpins exert emotional labor and they make a map. (p. 218)
  • Linchpins persist, they do the work, they create the art, and they ship. (p. 235)

Rediscover the artist in you. Change the world. Ship something remarkable. Get this book and read it, and share it with your teenager. It just might change the trajectory of their life, and yours as well.

Application Question – What if your son or daughter can find their genius, their true artistry, and deliver that to the world? How might their life differ from yours? How can you overcome the resistance and find your true art? 

In addition to the book and the video above, here are a couple of additional Linchpin resources that you might like.

Seth’s blog

The Linchpin Sessions Audio

Andy Traub’s unofficial Linchpin podcast

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You’ve Got Your Diploma, Now What?

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In the last couple of weeks, high schools across America have graduated the class of 2012. As the tassels were moved to the right side of the cap, thoughts about “what next” drifted through the minds of graduates and their parents alike. In this article, I’ll look at five of the most common scenarios for each year’s graduating class and give some tips that you might not have thought of for each.

An interesting article came out a couple of weeks ago on MSN Careers about what happens after high school. According to the article, fully 68% of all 2011 high school graduates were in college as of October 2011. Among black, white, and Hispanic students, each category averaged between 66% and 67%. However, 86.7% of all Asian students were enrolled in college, speaking to the cultural importance of education among the Asian community. As I build out my list below, I’ll work from what I perceive as the most common scenario to the least common.

You’re going to college in the fall. You’ve been admitted and orientation is just around the corner. Some points of consideration for students in this category revolve around how to pay for college and how to get off to a good start. I recommend enrolling for classes as soon as possible and buying books and required materials in the most economical manner. School-based scholarship deadlines have passed but students should continue to seek other resources like private scholarships to lessen the financial burden for the fall. Begin to look for part-time work; according to the article mentioned above only 38.8% of those in college were working or looking for work.

Not going to college, working instead. There is no shame at all in going straight to the workplace. According to the same article mentioned above, 68.7% of those students who did not continue on to college held some type of job. If you are working at this age, it likely is not the dream job that you someday hope to hold. However, don’t let that deter you; be taking stock of your talents, skills, abilities, personality traits, dreams, and passions and be proactively moving towards a career that matches all of those. Check out these books, both on my Resources page: 48 Days To The Work You Love (for job hunters) or No More Dreaded Mondays (for budding entrepreneurs) both by Dan Miller.

Wanting to go to college but no solid plans. Maybe you didn’t perform as well as you would have liked in high school. Perhaps you were not admitted to your school of choice and gave up at the time, but now you’ve regrouped. Or, the money just isn’t there to go to your number one school. A great solution for those in this situation is to go to a local community college in the fall. The cost is much less than a four-year university and there are programs to ensure that your credits are accepted when you transfer. Please, whatever you do, don’t take out a student loan to cover any deficits. Read this article for reasons why.

Military. An excellent option, this one overlaps the working category. And if you have college plans, the Post 9/11 GI Bill is an AWESOME plan to go to school after you separate. While you are in the military, if you can choose a specialty that lines up with your talents, skills, abilities, personality traits, dreams, and passions, rather than simply taking the recommendation based on your ASVAB scores.

Service and volunteerism. The motivations and intrinsic rewards from service can be excellent, and everyone should be involved at some level in serving others. Especially since you’re giving your time away, choose something that you are passionate about and love doing. Be careful, though, not to hide behind your volunteer roles to avoid moving into the workplace and becoming independent. Reference the same books listed above to find work that fits you.

All in all, in whatever path you choose you are entering a new phase of life. College is certainly an excellent option but is by no means a guarantee of success, so if you aren’t starting in the fall then don’t let that discourage you. In fact, if you aren’t ready for college or don’t yet know what you want to do with your life, then exploring one of the other options will be much better than spending all that money to “find yourself.” Congratulations class of 2012 – go out and change the world!

Application Question – Are you or your new graduate accepting college without a plan? Have you considered the options listed above and the tips associated with each?

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Summer Activities For Your Child, Part 2

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In my last post I explored some of the more structured summer activities that are available for kids. Many of these are very time-intensive and require a level of commitment to participate, and others can cost quite a bit of money as well. As we wrap up this two-part series in today’s post, I’ll look at some activities and ideas that can be tailored to suit you and your child’s needs if you aren’t ready to commit to a formal program.

The local library has summer reading programs geared generally towards younger kids. These are also free and provide your child with some motivation to meeting the goals set out by the program. And it’s a great fallback to have when there’s rain. A way to bond with your child – you can participate along with your child and set a good example for them. Check out the post that I wrote last year on this topic.

Summer is also an excellent time to volunteer. Your teens in particular are probably building their resume for college applications and many of the activities listed above are always looking for volunteers. There are also community service projects and mission work opportunities that your child can participate in and do some good for others. Check out “Twelve Service Opportunities For Your Child” for the list that I compiled earlier this year.

For families who have the luxury of a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), you can get creative without breaking the bank. Run a mini neighborhood day camp with other SAHMs. Each home can take turns being host for the day and run different games and activities, giving the other moms a break for the day. Or explore your city with your child – attractions that are right in our own back yard are often the least visited by local residents. Many of these have free admission, so pick out two or three of these for a day and pack a picnic lunch.

Finally, it might be time for your child to work. You might cringe at the idea but the reality is that someday they need to learn what work is all about. Summer is an excellent time to introduce work without interfering with school. I named off a couple dozen work ideas in “Twenty-Six Jobs for Teens” back in February. And the best paying job for older teens just might be in the scholarship search process, discussed in this post.

However you decide to handle summer activities, be intentional about it. Without a plan, you’re likely to spend more money on a last-minute activity that isn’t exactly what you had in mind for your child. And remember, kids need time to be kids. Part of their growth and maturation process is in unstructured play and free time where they have to be creative in how they spend that time.

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Careers and grad school

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I’m currently in graduate school.  I love what I’m taking; it’s what has inspired me to do more with this blog.  I hope that it positions me for additional opportunities and responsibilities within my current industry.  Graduate school can be very rewarding and can lead to a very lucrative career.  However, I believe that there is a right way to approach graduate school and a not-so-right way.  We’ll touch on these in this blog post.

One of the excuses that many folks make who are struggling with their career is that they need new skills, particularly those who have been in the job market for  some time and have been laid off by their company.  If you’ve been with a company for many years, you’ve probably risen to a level where you have a comfortable salary and are shocked by the pay for jobs that are available in your field.  Consequently, you may decide that to get a good salary then you have to go to school.  New college graduates who aren’t able to find a job may also fall victim to this thinking.  The rationale they use is that their degree is now a commodity and to separate themselves from the pack then they have to get an advanced degree.

In each case, the prospective student is approaching graduate school at exactly the wrong time – when they have no money.  The laid-off adult may have been provided a severance package which only lasts for so long and likely has a family to support.  Unemployment and other benefits they may receive run out after a period of time.  The last thing this person needs is to go to school.  For one, they will either take out student loans to pay for school or use their severance and savings to pay for school.  Either way, they’ve placed a huge financial burden on themselves.  Two, in all likelihood their family needs them making income.  Because the benefits run out at some point, health insurance, grocery money, and mortgage or rent will go unpaid.  For those who have families that are dependent on their income, this can be disastrous.

The newly graduated twenty-something may not yet have a family to support, but they probably have major student loans which need to be paid off.  Prolonging their entrance into the workplace only delays the start of their working years and the associated income.  Even if they don’t have to make loan payments while they are in school, student loans continue to rack up interest.  Immediately going back to school robs them of a chance to use what they learned in the marketplace.  Worse, if the new graduate chooses to go back to graduate school immediately, what if they find out that their chosen field of study isn’t the profession that they want as a career?  It is very important to experience the workplace and your vocation before graduate school to ensure that your educational pursuits align with your career goals.

In some cases, graduate school is required.  Prospective lawyers, doctors, and such have extensive graduate school requirements.  But in all cases, these should have been planned for well in advance.  For the working professional, the opportunity to go back to school which they can pay for outright is almost always a good idea.  The best single investment that you can make is an investment in yourself in the form of education.  But, you should make this investment in a planned, scripted manner that does not require loans or hardship.  This form of investment isn’t an investment at all because it wasn’t your money to begin with – it’s leverage.  With leverage, there is always risk.  When you have the pressures associated with unplanned education, you are more likely to drop out leaving yourself with huge debt and no education to get the “big job” to pay it back.  Graduate (or undergraduate) school in reaction to unemployment is almost never a good idea.  If you’re going to graduate school, make it part of an overall life plan.  Education is a luxury, not a necessity, and we should only buy luxuries when we can pay for them outright.

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So Why Not a Student Loan?

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How can you be a student without a loan?  So often these words are uttered, without thought to anything except the perfect scenario – graduate in four years with a degree and get a high-paying job.  How often in life does the perfect scenario play out, though?  I want to give you some things to think about before you commit to a loan for college.

First of all, graduation rates are not what you might think.  When you take out the most competitive schools from the list, according to Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges 2009, the six-year graduation rate nationally at four-year institutions is around 35%.  That means that for every three college freshmen who stepped on campus this fall, only one will graduate with their four-year degree.  And, because higher salaries on average belong to college graduates, those that do not graduate but have student loans can find themselves in severe financial distress even before they get out on their own.

Secondly, even if the student graduates, often the first “big job” after college does not provide enough income for the student to start a life of their own and pay back a student loan. Loans must begin to be repaid within six months after leaving school.  For many students who find themselves in this situation, their parents often find their children back home in their basement.  While you as parents may love and care for your children, I cannot imagine that many of you envision having them as boarders when they graduate from college.

Third, often the lending institution wants the parents to sign with the student when the loan is taken out.  Why?  Because lending institutions realize this; they know the statistics on student drop-out rates and the disparity between salary and student loan balance so they want a guarantee that the loan will be repaid.  This is becoming more prevalent even with federally-guaranteed loans.

Also, did you know that student loans may not be cleared through bankruptcy?  The only way a student loan is forgiven is through 100% disability.  Employers may offer to repay a loan after years of indentured servitude to them, but that should never be looked upon as a guarantee.  Plus, Sallie Mae will still want regular monthly payments while you serve out your years of service.

There is a better way.  Even if you don’t take out a loan or qualify for scholarships or grants, college can be paid the old-fashioned way – by working and paying as you go.  We’ll review these strategies in future posts, but as for the loan, whether the parent or student takes it out, or federally insured or a private loan, these are just a dumb idea.

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