Ignore Everybody

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod             Hardback Book:  176 pages                                   

Funny, witty, often irreverent,  Hugh MacLeod promotes the idea that everyone should stop trying to compare themselves to others in their field or not, stop trying to achieve what someone else has, don’t do what others want or expect of you, be creative, be yourself and go with your own thoughts and ideas.    Don’t get caught up in the notion of herd mentality.   Stand out.   Speak up.   Create your own destiny.    Quiet people get passed over and regret it.     People who make a case for whatever they believe in who stand up for their own thoughts who redefine normal are the people who make their mark in the world, who count who aren’t brow beaten and cowed down  by corporate suits.    Trying to go with what is commercial or expected makes YOU vanish.   The best way to get approval is not to need it.    If you are in a place where your creativity is stifled and your contributions are not appreciated then you are in the wrong place.    Ignore everybody that isn’t YOU and follow your own path, your own muse, stay ahead of what everyone is following or doing be the person who creates what everyone is talking about and wanting to be a part of.   He says your idea doesn’t have to be big it just has to be yours.    He highly recommends blogging – it is what led to his success.   A friend of his wanted to get into the proper social circles and meet the correct people to break into getting her writing accepted.   He suggested she start a blog and put a page or a chapter a day of her writing on it.    Once people read her blog and even if she ends up putting an entire book up on her blog for people to read for free her name would get spread around the internet and before long maybe two years she would be noticed by editors, agents and publishers who would get the buzz on her work and they would come to her she would not have to seek them out.   She said it isn’t done that way in France you have to be introduced properly through many introductions by appearing at the correct events and forming a raport with those in the field.  Cultivating such relationships is a slow process.    He said again his plan for her to circumvent all the red tape of French publishers and through a blog meet the world and be seen by readers, other authors, virtually everyone and gain a reputation as a compelling author based on her musings and her writings and not have to cultivate relationships that might or might not take.    By not caring enough to cowtow to the old way of doing things and taking her work to the world she would not be one of the crowd – she would be a star taking charge of her own work.    She did not take his advice, he thought she likely considered his idea gauche and that she really wanted to be a member of the Parisian writer crowd.  He felt such attachment would hold her back.    He has a lot of insightful ideas to impart.   A good read, kind of like a piece of clothing made out of wool– it feels really warm in the cold you just have to deal with the scratchy parts.