Highlights from “Ignore Everybody”
I loved the book “Ignore Everybody” by Hugh MacLeod. Recently, I reread it and here are few highlights from the book.
- Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.
- The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. How your own sovereignty inspires other people to find their own sovereignty, their own sense of freedom and possibility, will give the work far more power than the work’s objective merits ever will. (Social beings)
- Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.
- The definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy.
- Big offers are a good thing, but personal sovereignty matters a whole lot more over the long run.
- The more compelling the path, the lonely it is.
- Your wee voice doesn’t want you to sell something. Your wee voice wants you to make something.
- The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
- Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid the crows altogether.
- Questions how much freedom your path affords you. Be utterly ruthless about it. It’s your freedom that will get you to where you want to go.
- Do you make this damn thing exist or not? And once you can answer that truthfully for yourself, the rest is easy.
- The first rule of business is never sell something you love.
- Stop worrying about technology. Start worrying about people who trust you.
- The only people who can change the world are the people who want to. And not everybody does.
- Don’t make excuses. Just shut the help up and get on with it. Time waits for no one.
- Diluting your product to make it more “commercial” will just make people like it less.
- Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
- How a person nurtures and develops his or her own “creative sovereignty”, with or without the help of the world at large, is in my opinion a much more interesting subject.
- If you have something to say, say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts.
- Put your whole self into it, and you will find your true voice. Hold back and you won’t. It’s that simple.
- The best way to get approval is not to need it.
- The minute you become ready is the minute you stop dreaming. Suddenly, it’s no longer about “becoming”. Suddenly, it is about “doing”.
- If you have a creative urge, it isn’t going to go away. But sometimes it takes a while before your accept the fact. (from Tim Burton)
- Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.
- Meaning scales, people don’t.
- The size of the endeavor doesn’t matter as much as how meaningful it becomes to you.
- No matter where your adventure takes you, most of what is truly meaningful is still to be found revolving around the mundane stuff you did before you embarked on your adventure.
If you like books written by Steven Pressfield, James Altucher, and Scott Berkun, then you will certainly love this one.
