Rousing Review Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Rousing Review Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity I’m not sure what I enjoyed more â€" the content in Hugh MacLeod’s first book, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity (he’s since published Evil Plans, which I have yet to read/buy) or the art. He hooked me straightaways with this cartoon: Ah yes â€" Hugh is speaking my language, and I have a feeling that he’s speaking yours, too. With 40 bite-size chapters (at 159 pages, it contains larger-than-usual type and plenty of cartoon-only pages), Ignore Everybody drives home to-the-point messages like: You are responsible for your own experience. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. Sing in your own voice. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. None of this is rocket science. To me, though, the chapter that most hit home is the very first, and shares the title of the book. It opens with, “The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you” and a few sentences later states, “There’s a reason why feelings scare us â€" because what they tell us and what the rest of the world tells us are often two different things” and ends with, “Good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people execute them. So few people can handle it.” Some other goodies scattered throughout are: “Put your whole self into it, and you will find your true voice. Hold back and you won’t. It’s that simple.” “Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful or worthwhile.” “If you try to make something just to fit your uniformed view of some hypothetical market, you will fail. If you make something special and powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.” “All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.” “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.(…)If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts.” Despite all this, there are some points that I disagree with, or that I feel aren’t a one-size-fits-all-solution. For example, in Chapter 5 (“If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail”) Hugh writes, “Nobody slowly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.” While the former part of the statement makes me wanna shout, “Hallelujah!”, the second part makes me wanna yell, “Says Who?!” While I understand that the experience of being a successful artist (or, really, having a successful career that you love, period) ain’t always a big bowl of cherries, the life coach in me wants to turn that perspective right around. If we’re looking to take the “starving” out of “artist”, why can’t we take the “pain” out of “artistic lifestyle/journey” (or “passionate and successful career”)? He often talks, too, about loneliness â€" especially in relation to how good/original you are â€" and I don’t think that we need to buy into that, either. Honestly, I would think that most people who become successful artists do so because they have a strong support system (although if anyone wants to run the numbers, I’d be intrigued to see them!). In fact, Hugh has a list of over a dozen people in his Acknowledgments page, most that he recognizes as encouraging and/or inspiring him “from an early age.” I think there’s a difference between doing something “weird” (like drawing cartoons on business cards and having that be your artistic medium of choice, which is what Hugh does) and having to listen to your own voice (because everyone else thinks you’re insane) telling you that It Can Work, while still having people that support you even though they don’t quite get it. If that makes sense. And he does encourage you to find the people who you trust and who believe in you, so gold stars for that perspective. Also, Hugh touts the benefit of keeping your day job even after you’re able to support yourself with your art, so that you can keep it away from being About The Money and more towards, well, whatever you wanna do about it. I don’t agree or disagree with that, but I don’t think that this advice is a one-size-fits-all answer, either. In fact, when you think about it, if you let Hugh’s 40 Keys sink in and follow ‘em, it’ll ideally lead to a profitable artistic business. Of course, there’s not an Action Plan here or a promise of success, but if you’re really able to grasp the concepts/perspective and pick up what he’s putting down, you’ll be onto something big, something unique, something yours. You’ll have to then decide for yourself if it’s something worth devoting yourself full-time to, both for the pleasure of it and the time you wanna devote to it. Bottom line: If The War of Art is a must-read for every creative type, Ignore Everybody belongs alongside it. I wish it would come in more of a coffee table book-style so the artwork can be bigger and glossier and more keepsake-able and giveaway-able, especially since they cost a pretty penny to buy outright. Hugh is the find-your-uniquity, be-true-to-yourself-and-the-art-will-follow, the-secrets-of-my-success teacher we all need to learn a lesson from, minus all the bullshit and hippy-dippiness. I have a feeling I’ll be recommending this book multiple times over and quoting from it annoyingly in both the near and far future, picking it up when I need a shot of Truth Telling along with a heavy dose of Just Trust Yourself Already. *******************************************************************************************************