By Rachel Singh

Gaping Void blogger Hugh MacLeod doodles wisdom about work-life on the back of business cards. He’s turned those visual brainwaves into a new book that is part manifesto, part guidebook to unlocking your Creativity. Some are prosaic, some are things we all know but could use a refresher on, but all are choice bits of insight to something deeper and more meaningful than a corner office – the keys for opening the door to career sovereignty. Here are few I found. Read the book to find yours.

Gaping Void author Hugh MacLeod's corporate pyramid scheme

1. The secret to success = me putting the hours in. Quote/Unquote: Stamina is utterly important. And stamina is only possible if it’s managed well. People think all they need to do is endure one crazy, instance, job-free creative burst and their dreams will come true. They are wrong, they are stupidly wrong.
2. Doing what I love will be an emotional and financial roller coaster. Quote/Unquote: Good ideas have lonely childhoods… They alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.
3. Someone took my crayons away and I’d like them back. Quote/Unquote: Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
4. Always keep sex and cash under your pillow. Supporting thesis: The Sex & Cash Theory (page 32).
5. Human tapeworms have been feasting on my creativity. Evidence: The modern, scientifically conceived corporation (pages 35 through 37), that is churning out what MacLeod describes as non-autonomous thinkers. The “I don’t know, what do you think” people.
6. It looks like I’m going to have to climb the mountain. Quote/Unquote: Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb. Let’s say you never climb it. Do you have a problem with that?
7. I need a red marker to draw my red line. Quote/Unquote: 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.
8. Work for a boss who lets you hunt the woolly mammoth. Quote/Unquote: Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it’s a primal calling.
9. Mess around with insanely high ambitions. Quote/Unquote: One part of me thinks it’s good for kids to mess around with insanely high ambitions, maybe one or two of them will make it.
10. Careful when you’re messing around with insanely high ambitions. Quote/Unquote: Looking back I see a lot of screwy kids who married themselves to their “Art!” for the wrong reasons.
11. DIY.

Hugh Macleod’s book is published by Penguin Canada. His next book is tentatively called Evil Plans and will have insights gleaned from a “Seth Godin-meets-Jack Kerouac” road trip.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Life, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments

1. steve cunningham says:

   July 12, 2009 at 7:29 am

   Rachel – one of my favourites from the book was “sing in your own voice”. With so many people doing poor imitations of their favourite singers, artists, authors, etc, it’s refreshing to see a guy like Hugh become a great success. The entire book was fantastic.

   Thanks for the review!
2. rsingh says:

   July 13, 2009 at 2:03 pm

   Steve – I liked that one too. His point about Turner not being able to draw people forced him to improve his landscape paintings “which have no equal” brought to mind Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, mentioned in his book Outliers. Have you read it? Here is a Q&A that might be of interest if you’d like to learn more: http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html. Some interesting discussion around individual control over success.

   Rachel