“Ignore Everybody” – a creativity manifesto from Hugh MacLeod

This entry is part of a series [click to expand]: How To Be Creative - Hugh MacLeod»

I love this book.

MacLeod has achieved the pot of gold that we artists (and everyone) all seek – the ability to make a comfortable (or more than comfortable) living doing what we love – and he shares the tips and revelations he found along the way.

Hugh MacLeod’s book “Ignore Everybody” offers that much-needed inspirational kick-in-the-pants we creative types (a.k.a everybody) need every once in a while… ok, maybe every day for some of us. A list of creativity how-to’s, sanity checks, realism, reassurance – tips from someone who has lived the life, slogged through the trenches, and found his own niche and artistic identity, a very successful and rewarding career (in $ and satisfaction). MacLeod has achieved the pot of gold that we artists (and everyone) all seek – the ability to make a comfortable (or more than comfortable) living doing what we love – and he shares the tips and revelations he found along the way in his much-acclaimed creativity manifesto.

“Ignore Everybody“ is actually the updated and published version of his very successful blog series, “How To Be Creative”. I first found his blog version years ago and found it so helpful that I shared his list of creativity tips in my blog, highlighting the ones that resonated more powerfully for me at that time, and directing my readers back to the author’s blog for his additional insights on each one.

This was July 2008. It was very interesting for me to go back today and revisit that list and my highlights to see if my short list had changed. Many of them are still the same, some have changed… I’ll share more about that in a follow-up post(s). See the series list at the top of this post for more articles in this series.

“Ignore Everybody” (listed here in his blog) is his #1 creativity tip (which also became the title of his book). It resonates much more powerfully with me today than it did when I first read his blog back in 2008 – it’s not one of the ones I highlighted back then. But I must have taken his advice for “Ignore Everybody” to heart – I’ve been living it without realizing it until I re-read the book and his blog. [more about that in a later post]

Note: In “Ignore Everybody”, his published book, he added to his list of creativity tips and shares additional nuggets of wisdom. I was thrilled to find it on Kindle recently and just finished re-reading it. I love having it instantly accessible in my iPhone Kindle app for the occasional quick pick-me-up.

GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.

~ Hugh MacLeod