Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

I recently read Seth Godin's Linchpin: Are You Indispensible? for the marketing monthly book club I take part of.  Despite still waiting for the copy I ordered to actually arrive, I was able to head on out on a couple occasions to Borders and Barnes & Noble to give it a read. 

My feelings on the book are split.  I'm both skeptical of Godin's proposal and inspired by it.  I'll get the skeptical side out of the way first.  To explain, Godin says that we all must become "linchpins" or face a good chance of being an unhappy, uninspired, unprofitable cog in the corporate machine (you know, the machines that are doomed because of the rise of social media).  What is a linchpin?  To be a linchpin is to "be remarkable, insightful, an artist, someone bearing gifts.  To lead."  Oh.  OK.  Be extraordinary, intelligent, creative, and charismatic and you'll stand a good chance of being successful?  Not really breaking any new ground there, Copernicus. 

The inspiration I gleaned from the book came from one main point he actually takes from Steve Jobs: "Real artists ship."  What does that mean?  It means you have to actually produce your art.  It was his elaboration on how to produce your art and overcome the siren song of sloth and self-doubt that I found most valuable in the book.  To summarize: cut out everything that seems productive but isn't actually required to ship your art.  Contemporary target numero uno: the internet.  Dancing kittens are great, writing and commenting on interesting blogs are great, but do they get you closer to making your masterpiece?  Probably not.  So ditch 'em.  And when you finish your product, your art?  Start on your next project.  Don't get distracted with the zillion little attention-grabbers available to us these days.  Furiously brainstorm, get to work, and don't stop until you hit that ship date.  Then ship.  And give.  That's right, give it away.  Produce your art for its own sake, share it with the people who welcome it, and success will follow.  Why?  Because you're contributing something.  You're inspiring people with what you created.  And people like to be around contributors.  Will everything you do be a hit every time?  Of course not.  But let's say it takes ten bad books before you write one really good one.  If you never write books to begin with, you'll definitely never write a good one. Sweet.  It's time to just do it (TM Nike).

My question now is: how do you find a situation that allows you to fail enough before you succeed?  I guess that's why he also recommends that you keep your day job.  But try to be a linchpin there, too. 

BE AWESOME.  ALWAYS.  AT EVERYTHING.

What did I miss?