August 4, 2004
your new york world
(Early laminated business card drawing. NYNY, 1998. Drawn sitting at the lunch counter here)
Hugh MacLeod
Hi, I'm Hugh.
My life is committed to drawing little illustrations that spread messages, inspire people, help businesses kick butt & support causes.
Gapingvoid is based upon the science of how these cartoons work.
If we can help you or your business, please email us here.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
NY NY |
$275 |
Archive for August, 2004
August 3, 2004
thanks, everybody
My “How To Be Creative” list was the most talked-about meme in the blogosphere in the last 24 hours, according to Blogdex, Popdex and Daypop. Though I have a feeling Subservient President will be overtaking me later tonight. Heh.
Thanks to everybody for stopping by. Thanks especially to the folks who linked to me on their blogs. Wow. It really spread like wildfire. I’m still a bit stunned. I still have no idea why the meme went crazy like it did.
I’ll try to answer or discuss further as many comments as I can over the next few weeks. Looks like I’ll be busy.
I intend to write a lot, and I do mean a lot more about the whole creative thing. And I’m still drawing the cartoons as much as ever. So if you’re new to this site, I hope you’ll bookmark it, maybe add it to your blogroll, and continue to come back often.
And just for the record:
1. I tend to use the word ‘creative’ loosely. I may be an artist, but I don’t think that artists are necessarily more creative than plumbers, for instance. It depends on the artist, it depends on the plumber.
Right now the closest thing I have to a definition of the word ‘creative’ is “That place where work and play are indistinguishable.“
2. I am more interested in the subject of how one remains creative, how one retains one’s humanity, within the confines of the rat-race, far more than I am concerned with the subject of escaping the rat-race altogether.
Rather than quitting my current job to go off and do something ‘creative’- write a novel, open a bed & breakfast in Vermont, start a scented candle mail-order business, whatever– frankly I’d prefer just to keep on finding new and creative ways to get more from the job situation I already have.
3. You can be a good artist and have state-of-the-art equipment. You can be a good artist and have lousy equipment.
The same is true for non-good artists.
4. I am right about “The Sex & Cash Theory”. I am so right it scares me.
Thanks again. Seriously.
never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.
The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa. Even if your path never makes any money or furthers your career, that’s still worth a TON.
August 2, 2004
change the world
Just added another thought to “How To Be Creative”:
15. The idea doesn’t have to be a big one. It just has to change the world.(The two are not the same thing)
August 1, 2004
i
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
6. 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 books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I
i
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
6. 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 books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I
i
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
6. 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 books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, “I
put the hours in
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
3. Put the hours in.
Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. 90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.
I get asked a lot, “Your business card format is very simple. Aren’t you worried about somebody ripping it off?“
Standard Answer: Only if they can draw more of them than me, better than me.
What gives the work its edge is the simple fact that I’ve spent years drawing them. I’ve drawn thousands. Tens of thousands of man hours.
So if somebody wants to rip my idea off, go ahead. If somebody wants to overtake me in the business card doodle wars, go ahead. You’ve got many long years in front of you. And unlike me, you won’t be doing it for the joy of it. You’ll be doing it for some self-loathing, ill-informed, lame-ass mercenary reason. So the years will be even longer and far, far more painful. Lucky you.
If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s probably because he works harder at it than you do. Sure, maybe he’s more inherently talented, more adept at networking etc, but I don’t consider that an excuse. Over time, that advantage counts for less and less. Which is why the world is full of highly talented, network-savvy, failed mediocrities.
So yeah, success means you’ve got a long road ahead of you, regardless. How do you best manage it?
Well, as I’ve written elsewhere, don’t quit your day job. I didn’t. I work every day at the office, same as any other regular schmoe. I have a long commute on the train, ergo that’s when I do most of my drawing. When I was younger I drew mostly while sitting at a bar, but that got old.
The point is; an hour or two on the train is very managable for me. The fact I have a job means I don’t feel pressured to do something market-friendly. Instead, I get to do whatever the hell I want. I get to do it for my own satisfaction. And I think that makes the work more powerful in the long run. It also makes it easier to carry on with it in a calm fashion, day-in-day out, and not go crazy in insane creative bursts brought on by money worries.
The day job, which I really like, gives me something productive and interesting to do among fellow adults. It gets me out of the house in the day time. If I were a professional cartoonist I’d just be chained to a drawing table at home all day, scribbling out a living in silence, interrupted only by freqent trips to the coffee shop. No, thank you.
Simply put, my method allows me to pace myself over the long haul, which is important.
Stamina is utterly important. And stamina is only possible if it’s managed well. People think all they need to do is endure one crazy, intense, job-free creative burst and their dreams will come true. They are wrong, they are stupidly wrong.
Being good at anything is like figure skating– the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. Ever. That’s what the stupidly wrong people coveniently forget.
If I was just starting out writing, say, a novel or a screenplay, or maybe starting up a new software company, I wouldn’t try to quit my job in order to make this big, dramatic heroic-quest thing about it.
I would do something far simpler: I would find that extra hour or two in the day that belongs to nobody else but me, and I would make it productive. Put the hours in, do it for long enough and magical, life-transforming things happen eventually. Sure, that means less time watching TV, internet surfing, going out or whatever.
But who cares?
