Book Review – Ignore Everybody

Hugh MacLeod Offers Useful Insight for Embracing Creativity

Aug 3, 2009 Wendy Roltgen

Graphic designers, writers, artists, and other creative types will enjoy the honesty and insight provided by Hugh MacLeod in his book Ignore Everybody.

Author, Hugh MacLeod, takes readers on a creative journey in his latest work Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. Through the pages of this short, entertaining read MacLeod provides insight on where creative inspiration comes from, suggestions on what it takes to make a living as a creative person and ways to avoid mediocrity and stagnate creative thinking.

MacLeod’s distinctive cartoons are peppered throughout the book. The cartoons along with his brilliant insight make this a fun book to read and spark new approaches to challenges faced by individuals struck with the creative bug.

Embrace Unique and Original Creative Ideas

As captured by the title, the first tip provided in the book is to Ignore Everybody. MacLeod states “Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That’s why great ideas are initially resisted.” He encourages creative individuals to trust their gut instinct and pursue creative endeavors to satisfy their own needs and not the demands and structure often provided by others.

A key foundation behind MacLeod’s book is to encourage creative individuals to be original and avoid mimicking the work of other successful artists. MacLeod encourages writers, designers, and other artists to pursue a voice that is unique and to not be afraid of creating art that expresses in ways that no other work does.

Throughout the book, MacLeod encourages readers to embrace their creativity and accept that creativity is an integral part of who they are. MacLeod references that everyone is born creative, yet the creativity gets lost as individuals become adults. Then later in life, the “creative bug” strikes again and must be given a voice. MacLeod explains creativity is not something to fear or ignore, but rather a vital element that allows individuals to communicate in the purest form.

Other tips to help readers fully discover their creativity that is revealed inside the pages of Ignore Everybody include:

Good ideas have lonely childhoods.

Put in the hours.

Companies that squelch creativity no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

Write from the heart.

The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

About Hugh MacLeod

Hugh MacLeod developed his skills as a cartoonist while working as an advertising copywriter in Manhattan. The blog written and developed by MacLeod, Gaping Void has over two million visitors. His first post to the Gaping Void blog, “How to Be Creative” has been downloaded by over one million people and serves as the original inspiration to his book, Ignore Everybody.

MacLeod, Hugh. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, New York, New York, The Penguin Group, 2009.

The copyright of the article Book Review – Ignore Everybody in Self-Help Books is owned by Wendy Roltgen. Permission to republish Book Review – Ignore Everybody in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Ignore Everybody Provides Insight on Creativity