Book Review: Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

Yesterday afternoon, I had stumbled upon a young California freelancer’s website. From the website, I was compelled to read the blog.  Michael Kelley is a 23 year-old Real Estate photographer that really has his shit together. His website is clean, attractive and easy to navigate, and his work speaks for itself. He’s successfully transitioned into sustainable full-time photographer with a lot of hard work and determination. A little bit o’ luck and charm never hurt nobody neither. Stories like Michael’s are inspiring to me. As I was scavenging Michael’s blog posts, I found some book recommendations. So off I went to Barnes & Noble to find out why Michael was so excited about these books.

Ignore Everybody was in the Business Management section at B&N, but its essentially a self-help book. I purchased two other books, but I started reading this one on the subway ride home. I read about a sixth of it by the time I got back to my neighborhood, and after a meal and a basketball game, I ended up plowing through the rest of it by 2:30am.

Hugh MacLeod was a bright eye’d bushy-tailed kid who came to The big city in search of success and acclaim. (basically what all of us seek) He worked as an advertising copyrighter for a few years with some success. While he was living the fast-paced New York Lifestyle, he found himself doodling on the backs of business cards while sitting at bars. He did this for years until he had accumulated literally thousands, and some people started to notice. His cartoons spawned a website, a cult following and eventually the book I just read.

The book focuses on the struggles and misconceptions associated with the starving young artist who is thirsty for success and recognition. The read is quick, dirty and to the point, just like MacLeod’s drawings. Macleod admitted that his book started out as a long essay for his blog, and that’s exactly how it feels. There are forty chapters, but each chapter is basically a bullet-point with some elaboration. Ignore Everybody is as blunt and unapologetic as it sounds. MacLeod delivers some old lessons from a fresh perspective, with a healthy dose of realism. Some of my favorite key points with my personal comments:

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

So many of us seem to get caught up in an impending epiphany or moment of sheer genius, that it often never comes. MacLeod reminds us that ideas start off small, and are carefully nurtured through personal effort. Rome wasn’t built in a day, etc.

11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

“Props” as in material possessions or specialized tools & equipment. Not as in “proper recognition” in the urban sense. You’ve heard this before countless times. Its not how expensive or advanced the car is, but how the race car driver bends it to his will. It doesn’t matter how many megapixels your camera has. If you can’t take a photo worth a shit, what good is it? The same is true of all our “pillars” as MacLeod calls them. These are veils we use in life to mask our insecurities and shortcomings as professionals, or as people. I’m guilty of using “pillars”, and so are you. But how conscious of it are we? Why did you really buy that SUV? Do you really go off-roading that often in Brooklyn? Or does it just make your penis feel bigger? Why did you buy that tiny-ass handbag, when your wallet doesn’t even fit in it?Relying too much on pillars to supplement talent and drive with false prestige only hinders advancement.

15. Dying young is overrated.

This is one of my favorites. As the late, great Notorious B.I.G. put it so eloquently, “…You’re nobody till somebody kills you”. He was right. We are all fascinated by great artists who died young. We romanticize their fast-lane lifestyle and try to walk in their holy shoes. We have fiery, polarized coffee shop discussions on their accomplishments. Some of us try to emulate their successes by following in their footsteps. Drugs, heavy drinking, and other risqué lifestyle choices are suddenly justified because they are largely attributed to the successes of many young, brilliant and dead artists. Key word: dead. I’ve had many debates with friends about the supposed genius-inducing effects of drugs and alcohol on art. Any many of them will cite names like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Biggie, 2pac, etc. All great artists who died young because of a risqué lifestyle.

But let’s take a magic spaceship to an alternate universe for a second and imagine a different scenario. If Biggie and 2pac were never shot, they’d likely still be making records today. But would they be as good or as memorable or as relevant as they were in their hungry heydays? I can answer this question with complete confidence: No. Let’s take a look at NaS for example. NaS is probably my favorite rapper of all time, just a notch above 2pac and Biggie in my opinion. He started out in the same era as his dead friends, and he was just as profound. And he still makes music today, but I’m not in love with it they way I was with his early work. I may be partially to blame for this, as I’m growing older and I’m less accepting of newer music. But NaS isn’t really resonating with teens and twenty-somethings either these days. Its not his fault either. Its just the way things are. Music industry artists have a very short apex. It’s usually somewhere in the beginning of their careers when they’ve mastered their craft and are pouring their heart and soul into instruments and microphones. They have the energy to tour non-stop while supporting a coke habit. They’re determined to change the world and they’re unstoppable. Their style and confidence attracts us and defines eras in our lives.

NaS is no longer defining eras the way he, Biggie and 2pac did simultaneously in the 90’s. He’s almost been forgotten. I will still buy any new album he makes until he stops making music, because I’ve been a fan for a long time. But I still find myself scrolling to his older work in my iPod. He’s not as hungry or as energetic as he once was. If Biggie, 2Pac and Jimi Hendrix never died, they may have met the same fate. I digress a little. Dying young does not make a great artist greater. It just emphasizes the body of work that has been produced until that point. During the apex. That’s it. Drinking lots of alcohol and snorting a lot of coke just makes your body feel crappy. There are a ton of healthy, living artists that consistently put out strong work. These should be role models. Chuckle. Try telling a 15-year old that.

34. Being Poor Sucks.

Macleod points out what is constantly being swept under the rug. Young people are increasingly underestimating how competitive the world is growing by the minute. I can vouch for this, as I was comfortably asleep throughout most of my twenties, spending a lot of easy money that was made from a booming construction industry and neglecting my studies. When the well dried up, I was forced to downgrade my position, income and lifestyle and in turn, reevaluate myself. I had not adequately prepared for the future.

Some notable movie references:

In 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta plays Tony Manero, a young Brooklyn kid who works a dull job at a local  hardware store. He lives only for dancing at the disco on the weekends and blowing his whole paycheck on a good time. One afternoon Tony asks for an advance on his pay so that he can secure a swanky new outfit for the upcoming friday night festivities. When his older, wiser employer denies the favor and mentions that he should start saving for the future, Tony brashly responds, “FUCK the future”. To which his employer replies, “No Tony, you can’t fuck the future, because it comes back and it FUCKS you!” This simple idea always was and always will be throughout human history.

Although 50 cent was always just an OK rapper to me, I kind of like the movies he’s been making. His first big stab at Hollywood came in 2005 with Get Rich or Die Tryin’. In a behind the scenes interview, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson mentioned the story was inspired by his upbringing. When he was a boy growing up in Jamaica Queens, his mom had a decent amount of money, and was able to provide him with with nice clothes and fancy shoes. These material things that are often paramount in the confidence and social status of a teen. When his mother was killed, he didn’t have the financial support anymore, but he wanted to maintain the lifestyle he was use to, so he decided he’d get it on his own, He turned to a life of crime, while rapping on the side, until he was shot 9 times, and you know the rest. Apparently, almost dying young is good for jump-starting one’s career.

These are just a few of the great pieces of advice that Hugh MacLeod gives in his book. There are also dozens of his business card cartoons littered throughout the text. Its an insightful and entertaining read. Perfect for rainy days like today.

[gapingvoid.com]