Hugh MacLeod Quotes

Have a story. And make sure it’s a good one. A DAMN good one.

...the best Evil Plan offers something much more for people — a chance to buy into an idea that matters, and share it with people who matter to them.

The hunger will give you everything and it will take from you, everything. It will cost you your life, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. But knowing this, of course, is what ultimately sets you free.

The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

The old ways are dead. And you need people around you who concur. That means hanging out more with the creative people, the freaks, the real visionaries, than you're already doing. Thinking more about what their needs are, and responding accordingly. Avoid the dullards; avoid the folk who play it safe. They can't help you anymore. Their stability model no longer offers that much stability. They are extinct, they are extinction.

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kidergarten. Then wen you hit puberty they take te crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on agebra, history, ect. Being suddenly hit years later with the 'creative bug' is just a wee voice telling you, 'I'd like my crayons back, please.

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 price of being a sheep is boredom,
the price of being a wolf is loneliness,
choose one or the other with great care.

I work extremely hard doing what I love, mainly to ensure that I don't have to work extremely hard doing what I hate.

Your idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. The more amazing, the more people will click with your idea. The more people click with your idea, the more it will change the world.

If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

A lot of people in business say they have twenty years' experience, when in fact all they have is one year's experience, repeated twenty times.

The best way to get approval is not to need it.

Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it.

It's good to be young and full of dreams. Dreams of one day doing something 'insanely great.' Dreams of love, beauty, achievement, and contribution. But understand they have a life of their own, and they're not very good at following instructions. Love them, revere them, nurture them, respect them, but don't ever become a slave to them. Otherwise you'll kill them off prematurely, before they get the chance to come true.