Book Gems #8 Ignore Everybody

I keep seeing this book pop up on Amazon under "recommended for you", and I found the title intriguing. Knowing that Seth Godin respected the author, too, gave me incentive to buy this book (not to mention all the great reviews it received). So my next Book Gems is from the book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod. Enjoy!

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please’…

Your wee voice doesn’t want 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. If you try to make something just to fit your uninformed view of some hypothetical market, you will fail. If you make something special and powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.

The wee voice didn’t show up because it decided you need more money, or you need to hang out with movie stars. Your wee voice came back because your soul somehow depends on it. There’s something you haven’t said, something you haven’t done, some light that needs to be switched on, and it needs to be taken care of. Now."

To get your copy of Ignore Everybody from Amazon, click here. To get the Kindle edition, click here. Hugh's super-cool website can be found at GapingVoid.com. You can even sign up to get his daily cartoon (I do!).

-- Janet Boyer, author of Back in Time Tarot, Tarot in Reverse (Schiffer 2012) and the Snowland Tarot (Schiffer 2013)