Ignore Everybody
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.
We all know the magic of serendipity when some people appear in our lives precisely at the moment when we need them the most. Whatever you call it - fate, luck, coup de chance - it happens. And it happens with books too. It happened to me this week when by pure chance I discovered "Ignore Everybody" by Hugh McLeod. Reading this book felt like having a timely conversation with a good friend or mentor. Realistic, encouraging, inspiring, and fun.
My Key Takeaways
Ignore everybody. The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS. THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.
The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. The more amazing, the more people will click with your idea. The more people click with your idea, the more this little thing of yours will snowball into a big thing.
Put the hours in. Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina. 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.
Good ideas have lonely childhoods. the better the idea, the more “out there” it initially will seem to other people, even people you like and respect. So there’ll be a time in the beginning when you have to press on, alone, without one-tenth the support you probably need. This is normal. Good ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. Good ideas exist in a social context. And not everybody has the same agenda as you. Good ideas can have lonely young adulthoods, too.
If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain. Thanks to the Internet, you can now build your own thing without having somebody else “discovering” you first. This means when the big boys come along offering you deals, you’ll be in a much better position to get exactly what you want from the equation. Big offers are a good thing, but personal sovereignty matters a whole lot more over the long run.
You are responsible for your own experience. Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.
Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Your wee voice doesn’t want you to sell something. Your wee voice wants you to make something. There’s a big difference. Your wee voice doesn’t give a damn about publishers, venture capitalists, or Hollywood producers. Go ahead and make something. Make something really special. Make something amazing that will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.
Keep your day job. THE SEX & CASH THEORY. The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. The second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.
Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity. If you’re creative, if you can think independently, if you can articulate passion, if you can override the fear of being wrong, then your company needs you now more than it ever did. And now your company can no longer afford to pretend that isn’t the case.
Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. You may never reach the summit; for that, you will be forgiven. But if you don’t make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness.
The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. There’s no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada.
Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you. 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.
Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside. The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards and vice versa. Even if your path never makes any money or furthers your career, that’s still worth a ton.
The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do from what you are not. It is this red line that demarcates your sovereignty; that defines your own private creative domain.
The world is changing. Some people are hip to it, others are not. If you want to be able to afford groceries in five years, I’d recommend listening closely to the former and avoiding the latter.
Stop worrying about technology. Start worrying about people who trust you.
Merit can be bought. Passion can’t. The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.
Sing in your own voice. The really good artists, the really successful entrepreneurs, figure out how to circumvent their limitations, figure out how to turn their weaknesses into strengths.
Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more “commercial” will just make people like it less. It’s hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.
Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay, etc., especially if you haven’t finished it yet. And the ones who aren’t too busy you don’t want in your life anyway.