Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

The following are excerpts from this book by former advertising copywriter, cartoonist, and pundit Hugh MacLeod.

"Ignore everybody … The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you … trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is ... what [feelings] tell us and what the rest of the world tells us are often two different things." (pg. 1)

“… trying desperately to pry my career out of the jaws of mediocrity … It was so liberating … to have something that didn’t require somebody else’s money, or somebody else’s approval, for a change.” (pg. 6)

“… if somebody wants to rip my idea off, go ahead … unlike me, you won’t be doing it for the joy of it. You’ll be doing it for some self-loathing, ill-informed, lame-ass mercenary reason.” (pg. 10)

“What a happy coincidence. God hates the same people I do.” (pg. 13)

“… the problem of selling a new idea to the general public can sometimes be a piece of cake, compared to selling a new idea internally to your team. This is to be expected: having your boss or biggest client not like your idea and fire you, hits one at a much more immediate and primal level, than having some abstract housewife in rural Kansas hypothetically not like your idea, after randomly seeing it advertised somewhere.” (pg. 15)

“Good ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. Good ideas exist in a social context. And not everybody has the same agenda as you.” (pg. 16)

[On the creative impulse] “Your wee voice doesn’t want you to sell something. Your wee voice wants you to make something. There’s a big difference. Your wee voice doesn’t give a damn about publishers, venture capitalists, or Hollywood producers.” (pg. 27)

“Keep your day job.” (pg. 30)

[On creativity by committee] “‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’” (pg. 36)

“You are the most important person in my life. Please stop laughing at me.” (pg. 38)

“There’s no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership … A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind.” (pg. 44)

“Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether … There’s no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.” (pg. 48)

“Is your plan unique? Is there nobody else doing it? Then I’d be excited. A little scared, maybe, but excited.” (pg. 50)

[On assuming that one’s creative efforts will not pay off] The obvious advantage to this angle is … if anything good comes of it, then it’s an added bonus. The second … is that by scuppering all hope of worldly and social betterment from the creative act, you are finally left with only one question to answer: Do you make this damn thing exist or not? And once you can answer that truthfully for yourself, the rest is easy.” (pg. 53)

“The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally, is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, from what you are not. Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.” (pg. 64)

“The market for something to believe in is infinite.” (pg. 75)

“The choice of media is irrelevant.” (pg. 85)

“It’s hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.” (pg. 91)

“He had original ideas once. But then he got famous.” (pg. 91)

“Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay, etc., especially if you haven’t finished it yet.” (pg. 93)

“Welcome to nobody cares. Population: 6 billion.” (pg. 94)

“Worrying about ‘Commercial vs. Artistic’ is a complete waste of time.” (pg. 96)

“Inspiration precedes the desire to create, not the other way around.” (pg. 99)

“You have to find a way of working that makes it dead-easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long ... Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something.” (pg. 100)

“Part of being a master is learning how to sing in nobody else’s voice but your own.” (pg. 103)

[On connecting with an audience/market] “You can’t love a crowd the same way you can love a person.” (pg. 107)

“… there’s really only one way to truly connect. One way that actually works: Write from the heart. There is no silver bullet.” (pg. 108)

“The best way to get approval is not to need it.” (pg. 110)

“Stay ahead of the culture by creating the culture.” (pg. 115)

“Anyone can be an idealist. Anyone can be a cynic. The hard part lies somewhere in the middle – that is, being human.” (pg. 117)

“It’s not what the software does. It’s what the user does.” (pg. 118)

[On frugality] “Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.” (pg. 124)

“… which do I think is a better career choice: ‘Creativity’ or ‘Money’? I say both are the wrong answer. The best thing to be in this world is an effective human being. Sometimes that requires money, sometimes it doesn’t. Be ready for either when it happens.” (pp. 129-130)

“Beware of turning hobbies into jobs … ‘A man needs both …’” (pp. 132-133)

“Savor obscurity while it lasts. Once you ‘make it,’ your work is never the same ... It’s hard to invent a new language when a lot of people are already heavily invested in your work (including yourself).” (pp. 136-137)

“If you are successful, it’ll never come from the direction you predicted. Same is true if you fail.” (pg. 149)