Lazy book review the first – Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

Ok, I know some of you are waiting for the family feud post, but that’s going to take a bit of writing, evidently.

So, let me tell you about a book that is worth more than my lazy review of it.

Business advice and creativity advice and cartoons

Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist, mainly producing cartoons on the back of business cards.

He’s pretty good at it.

He’s also been running a creative business for over a decade, been on the internets for some considerable part of that, and has some interesting lessons to share.

His book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
started as a long internet essay, and now has been published. To my delight. I, like, found it in the real-life bookstore. I know. (Then bought it on the Kindle, but hey ho, I’m modern, me.)

Being a blogger, a writer, and someone with an interest in building a business based around a presence online, this book really interested me.

And, let’s face it, 40 short chapters with scathing, bittersweet, snarky cartoons in between each one?

What’s not to like?

Ignore Everybody – my lazy review

I am a big highlighter – well, actually, underliner and margin-liner – of books.

My new Kindle (yay) allows me to do this – and then export the clippings as a file.

So here is Hugh’s wisdom in his words – the parts that I thought to clip as I read.

Buy his book – either on paper, or the Kindle version.

A totally lovely read – equal parts cheering and challenging, for me, anyway.

====

Being good at anything is like figure skating—the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. Ever. That’s what the stupidly wrong people conveniently forget.

***

All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.

Blind faith in an oversubscribed, vainglorious myth will only hinder you.

***

Frankly, I think you’re better off doing something on the assumption that you will not be rewarded for it, that it will not receive the recognition it deserves, that it will not be worth the time and effort invested in it.

It’s hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.

To me, it’s not about whether Tom Clancy sells truckloads of books or a Nobel Prize winner sells diddly-squat. Those are just ciphers, external distractions. To me, it’s about what you are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth.

***

If you’re arranging your life in such a way that you need to make a lot of fuss between feeling the itch and getting to work, you’re putting the cart before the horse.

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.

(That inspired me to carry a voice recorder to capture blog posts as I’m walking)

***

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.

Why? If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.

***

[On artists finding their voice] It was the fact that somehow while playing around with something new, suddenly they found they were able to put their entire selves into it.

That’s what people responded to. The humanity, not the form. The voice, not the form.

***

If I had to condense this entire book into a line or two, it would read something like, “Work hard. Keep at it. Live simply and quietly. Remain humble. Stay positive. Create your own luck. Be nice. Be polite.”

***

Nice, right? Clever. Funny. Insightful.

His cartoons are also cool: to to GapingVoid.com and check ‘em out.

***

And yes, that link to the book is an affiliate link – that means if you happen to buy it from Amazon from clicking that link, they give me a few cents. Good, eh?

But… buy from your local bookstore if you have one. Much better.

And stay in school, kids.

(Phew, this blogging lark’s easy, huh?)