Hugh MacLeod doesn’t attract READERS with his short book on creativity entitled Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. He attracts USERS.
Reading Ignore Everybody is akin to having a few beers with an interesting, worldwise stranger. Time passes quickly. Streams of consciousness weave into philosophy. Secrets of the universe are scribbled on the back of napkins — or, in this case, business cards.
One of the central themes of MacLeod’s book, and lifestyle, is to explore the possibility of balance — feeding the need to be uncompromisingly creative, while at the same time feeding your family. In Hugh’s world — the real world — it’s possible for anyone (everyone?) to be uniquely creative. It’s less possible, in his words, for people to dedicate their life solely to their creativity — without making the kinds of compromises that lubricate a slipperly downward slope.
“The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: one is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills,” he said. “Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.” To do your most creative, personal and uncompromising work, you’ll need another source of income.
Why? It takes separating your ‘financial needs’ from your strongest ‘creative needs’ in order to make your best, most creative work possible.
Why? Most people don’t give a shit about your creative vision. If you need to sell it, you’ll probably need to change it. The more you change it, the less creative and the less ‘yours’ the work is. It’s worth suffering this separation, according to Hugh, because if your best creative work can remain pure — there’s a chance that it will EVENTUALLY be discovered for what it is — an instanely great and uniquely creative idea.
It’s not just ok to have a day job and call yourself creative. In hugh’s mind, it’s preferred. He recommends it. He preaches it. He lives it.
At 150 pages, with more than 80 business card illustrations (examples above and below), It’s the most enjoyable read for working creativity seekers since Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. Buy Ignore Everybody. Read it. Re-read it. Read it again.
Need more convincing? Really? Read the Hugh Train Manifesto from Hugh’s Gaping Void website. Then, buy Ignore Everybody. Read it. Re-read it. Read it again.
Don’t be one of Hugh’s readers. Be one of his users.
Hop on The Hugh Train
Inspired by the “how to be creative” manifest by Hugh Macleod, enjoy this design clip made by c-md students (Toon Gorissen, Niek Kosten & Martijn Pillards)
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