Hugh MacLeod is the author of the popular Gaping Void blog, where he draws cool drawings on back of business cards, as well as the popular book "Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity" , an essential guide for all creative people of the world - writers, artists, designers, filmmakers...this includes you all :-)


[From the 100 Ways To Be Being Remarkable Series, a special project that brings you business and self-development advice from The Success Manual. ]

Here are the main points from Hugh's awesome book:

1. Ignore everybody.You are all you got.
2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.
3. Put the hours in: If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s probably because he works harder at it than you do.
4. Good ideas have lonely childhoods.
5. If your business plan depends on suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
6. You are responsible for your own experience.
7. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
8. Keep your day job: The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.
9. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
10. 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.
11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props: Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me. A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers.
12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
13. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
14. 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.
15. Dying young is overrated: Every kid is a sucker for the idea that there’s a way to make it without having to do the actual hard work.
16. 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. What crap you are willing to take, and what crap you’re not. What you are willing to relinquish control over, and what you aren’t. What price you are willing to pay, and what price you aren’t.
17. The world is changing: If you want to be able to afford groceries in five years, I’d recommend listening closely to the (people who push change) and avoiding the (people who resist change).
18. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t. The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.
19. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
20. 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 strengths into weaknesses.
21. The choice of media is irrelevant
22. Selling out is harder than it looks: Diluting your product to make it more “commercial” will just make people like it less.
23. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
24. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time: To me, it’s about what you are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth.
25. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually: 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.
26. You have to find your own shtick: Jackson Pollock discovering splatter paint. Or Robert Ryman discovering all-white canvases. Andy Warhol discovering silk-screen. Hunter S. Thompson discovering gonzo journalism. Duchamp discovering the found object. Jasper Johns discovering the American flag. Hemingway discovering brevity. James Joyce discovering stream-of-consciousness prose. Somehow while playing around with something new, suddenly they found they were able to put their entire selves into it.
27. Write from the heart.
28. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
29. Power is never given. Power is taken: You didn’t go in there, asking the editor to give you power. You went in there and politely informed the editor that you already have the power. That’s what being “ready” means. That’s what “taking power” means. Not needing anything from another person in order to be the best in the world.
30. Whatever choice you make, the Devil gets his due eventually.
31. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
32. Remain frugal: Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.
33. Allow your work to age with you. You become older faster than you think. Be ready for it when it happens.
34. Being Poor Sucks. The biggest mistake young people make is underestimating how competitive the world is out there.
35. Beware of turning hobbies into jobs: James Gold-Smith once quipped, “When a man marries his mistress, he immediately creates a vacancy.” What’s true in philanderers is also true in life.
36. Savor obscurity while it lasts. Once you “make it,” your work is never the same.
37. Start blogging: Express yourself. Spread the word out. Build a following online.
38. Meaning scales: Create meaning.
29. When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.

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