Another author I have been reading lately and can highly recommend is Hugh MacLeod. Like Austin Kleon and David Byrne, MacLeod both inspires me and urges me to think through big questions related to my work.
MacLeod’s manifesto — Ignore Everybody, and 39 Other Keys to Creativity — began as a long blogpost — “How to be Creative” — which has been downloaded over 4.5 million times.
He begins by talking about the power of a good idea, a big idea.
We don’t know if our ideas are any good when they first emerge, he says, but neither does anyone else. We have to trust our gut, that fleeting feeling that we are on to something.
And good ideas, MacLeod notes, alter the power balance in a relationships, so they are always initially resisted. A big idea will change us, and since others don’t like that, they will resist our ideas to resist our changing.
Hence, he writes, good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people actually execute them.
Furthermore, he notes, the idea doesn’t even have to be big. It just has to be ours. The sovereignty we have over our work — the freedom and the responsibility to follow a good idea and execute it — gives the work power, and it inspires other people to develop their own sovereignty.
This website and the creative work behind it are emerging in a direct response to MacLeod’s invitation and challenge. I hope it inspires you to follow suit.
If so, get a copy of MacLeod’s book and study it hard. It is both gameplan and playbook.