Nicholas Bate

Summary of Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

If you’ve not yet discovered Hugh MacLeod's site you’ll have the joys of plenty of archives to explore and you’ll be able to see at work the mind behind his splendid book: Ignore Everybody. Hugh pursues many avenues and makes money at several of them; he practises what he preaches. There are many books on creativity and they tend to fall into two camps. The first is dominated by Edward de Bono and is the technique camp (Thinking Hats, po etc); these are certainly useful. The other is the ‘we are all creative‘ camp which tends often to lack substance. Hugh’s book is much more of the second camp but does what has been generally lacking in the past: he gives hard-hitting substance. Hard-hitting in that much of our concern about creativity is addressing out views of ourselves; Hugh doesn’t mess around and helps us (re-) realise that fundamental truth: the only real blocker to what we want is ourself. Hugh lightens the load by telling his own story which is a roller-coaster ride in itself. There are 40 excellent points in the book: get you own copy, mark it up and create your own cartoons. In the mean time, here’s my micro-summary. The seven point summary is my own and is not Hugh authorised nor approved. The quotes are his and the numbers refer to the relevant chapters in the book. Get it now.

MacLeod Creativity Rocks 7

1. You’re on your own. “The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a Wolf is loneliness” (1,2,6,9,10,11,12,23,26,28,32);
2. Work hard. “If someone in your industry is more successful than you , it’s probably because he words harder at it than you do” (3,4,5,16,37,40);
3. Creativity is in your genes.  “go ahead and make something. Make something really special. Make something amazing that will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.” (7, 17, 29, 31);
4. Understand ‘Sex & Money’. "the tense duality will always play centre stage. It will never be transcended" (8, 14, 16, 24, 34, 35);
5. Accept the Pain, then it cannot hurt you . “The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it’s going to….that being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have….(13, 25, 30);
6. Change The World. “Merit can be bought, passion can’t” (18, 38);
7. Do it your Way. “Quality isn’t job one. Being totally f*cking amazing is job one” (20, 21, 22,27, 39);

 

Why We Love The Beatles 1-100: 99

The Beatles left us an outstanding opus, that’s a given. But they didn’t leave us a long-tail of self destruction to tarnish the magic. And that‘s often forgotten.

Post break-up, it was hard. Why wouldn’t it be? That’s what a break up includes. But it was done quietly-as much as the press would allow- and with-as much as John’s drug-fuelled rants would permit-with good grace. So a great story has only a slightly unhappier ending. Because they came out of it relatively unscathed and didn’t blame us despite the demands we put on them. They packaged up the legacy. They even generously produced amazing stuff on their own. They got on with the day job, their real passion: music. Sir Paul now knocks our socks off with what he continues to do. And Ringo is as steady as ever.

And for that we are grateful.

And if there’s one thing we never seem to learn, don’t wait until someone’s gone to fully appreciate them.

That's another reason we love The Beatles.

SuperHero101

1. What if you decided…
2. …finally..
3. …at last..
4. …without further ado,
5. that:
6. …GASP!!!…
7. the world really needs to know about your particular super-power?
8. That, you can no longer…
9. KEEP IT A SECRET.
10. After all, humanity needs you.
11. The planet needs you.
12. You have simply got to make the world a better place!!!!!
13. Oh, what super power, are you wondering?
14. A little confused?
15. Sure, you didn’t get a bite from a radioactive spider;
16. nor get jettisoned in a pod from a planet far, far away-
17. (or best to keep it quiet if you did).
18. And heck:
19. green kryptonite-to be really honest-is easy peasy for you to deal with.
20. And no XXXXXXXXXL super robust shirts for you.
21. And the fuel consumption on that BatMobile is awful.
22. Nahhh. Yours is a more discerning, easy-oasy, Sunday morning kinda super power.
23. Discrete.
24. Difficult to observe in action.
25. No need for plain glass spectacles.
26. And yet.
27. It is absolutely life-changing.
28. And World saving.
29. And ecological, too.
30. It just doesn’t need a
31. Ker pow!!!;
32. or Zappp!!!!…….;
33. or darkened city back-drop;
34. or even a brooding baddie hanging around in a dark alley-way stalking the blonde in the gabardine trench-coat
35. to announce its entrance.
36. Of course,
37. like all super heroes….
38. you have your issues.
39. They have
40. green kryptonite OR
41. their bracelets being tied together by a man (of course)*
42. or simply their bad temper, to worry about.
43. *Wonder Woman, in case you were wondering.
44. You perhaps have:
45. your hellish commute
46. your college debt
47. a declining market.
48. But you can manage, heck conquer them.
49. So when are you going to let on about your super power?
50. Are you embarrassed because you only have one, not ten?
51. And you don’t have a utility belt?
52. Nor an invisible car?
53. It’s time to tell them. Time to tell the world. 
54. That you can do what is now a lost art. You can:
55. THINK!
56. Yes: THINK.
57. You can:  get pulses of electricity to move from synapse to synapse in your brain and take different routes from (i) a previous day (ii) another person (ii) and sometimes just to leap to the other side of your brain and create a B R E A K T H R O U G H!! And you can do this effortlessly and consistently.
58. WOW!!!!!.
59. I know. There, sitting up on high looking down from the Chrysler building, (Big Ben, UK version; Eiffel Tower, Euro version)) you notice that the majority of humanity has stopped.
60. Thinking that is.
61. It did have the power.
62. But TV, corn syrup, The Blackberry, free newspapers, open-plan cubicle offices, The Bill (UK  police ‘drama’), escalators & lifts, 98.6% of all politicians, 99.2% of all meetings, worrying about stuff which is out of their control, following celebrities…..have caused the art to be lost.
63. Your mission is:
64. to save the planet (er, should you accept it…)
65. by getting people thinking again.
66. You’ll challenge stuff in meetings.
67. Their crazy language such as
68. ‘they wont like it’(who exactly is ‘they'?)
69. ‘that’s not the way we do things around here’ (what about if we did?)
70. You’ll ask them why they are worrying about what the competition is doing instead of making a strategic breakthrough in their own business?
71. Bing? Er, bong.
72. You’ll suggest using the marketing spend in another way rather than two billion dollars on a ‘me-too’ twitter campaign.
73. You‘ll ask ‘how does this pension scheme actually work?’
74. You’ll go to shareholder meetings and ask difficult but vital questions…
75. ..write to politicians asking for explanations…
76. …challenge your clients…
77. And. You’ll challenge your own thinking.
78. Why exactly am I encouraging my daughter to do a business degree?
79. Could she just use the same money to actually start a business?
80.  You’ll sign your kids up to the public library as soon as they can walk. Heck, as soon as they open their eyes.
81. You’re not bothered who your daughter marries so long as he’s got an awfully big..
82. ..library.
83. ‘Are you crazy? I want a really good super power’, he screamed across the room…
84. ‘a flame thrower or an invisible car or something which allows me to by-pass airport security’
85. Trivial: thinking will get you any of those.
86. It’s the ultimate, definitive uber, meta, hyper, super, supra, con-catenated super-power
87. You’ve been a secret super-hero for too long;
88. it’s been bad for your health;
89. you missed out on one or two really nice girls (or boys)
90. and some good career opportunities.
91. No more Mr Nice Guy.
92. No more Ms Meek.
93. No more cover up.
94. So, get to it: there’s a planet to be saved.
95. Don’t expect quick and easy praise.
96. And don’t even think about re-ordering that Lycra suit.
97. Just start thinking.
98. Really thinking.
99. Creatively, laterally, radically, incisively, fully, synergistically, resourcefully.
100. For yourself.
101. You’ll like it, superhero.

Quality writing, quality thinking and

ever-improving Cultural Offering. SO MUCH good stuff.

Breakthrough Again 7

1. Walk almost everywhere and feel alive again;
2. Take total responsibility for whatever happens to you and feel a leader again;
3. Help all those you can and feel connected again;
4. Edit poor mental software (e.g. I can't) and feel liberated again;
5. Read and study everyday and feel wisdom again;
6. Dance and feel child-like again;
7. Smile and laugh and feel human again.

Pirate Coelho vs. Paolo Coelho

with Confused of Calcutta.

Jackson 5

1. Singer
2. Dancer
3. Loner
4. Intriguer
5. Thriller

Top Blogger Michael Wade

who runs the excellent blog Execupundit regularly shares tips, thoughts and links to stuff into your tool-kit for the world of management and leadership. But in this post he shares what he carries in his bag. And check out the comments for Michael's thoughtful view on inaccessibility.

Time and Energy Shift 5

From wishin' and hopin' on The Lotto to planning and acting on your finances.

From reading and talking about your start-up to calling and seeing potential customers.

From thinking and dreaming about your new career to writing and crafting your letters of application.

From supposing and wishing this quarter's business will happen to ringing and sweating that call list.

From vague and average to concrete and awesome.

The Challenges of being an Entrepreneur...

and books and a whole lot more with Barbara Winter.