Introducing The 'Sex & Cash' Theory

I just read Hugh MacLeod’s book ‘Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys To Creativity’. I saw Hugh at Pam Slim's session at SXSW earlier this year but didn’t pay that much attention to the bloke in the cowboy hat who went by the name of Gapingvoid. When I was back home I wondered what all the fuss was about. Who was this guy who draws ‘cartoons on the back of business cards’? Once I checked out his site I ‘got it’.

And his book is great; it’s my kind of book. It’s a quick read, it’s eminently dippable with short punchy chapters and the advice might not be rocket science but it really resonates, and its message is powerful (hopefully, a bit like my own books then).

Here’s one takeaway I want to leave you with, it’s Hugh’s ‘Sex & Cash Theory’:

“The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: one is the sexy creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will also play center stage. It will never be transcended.”

I talk about this theme in my own book ‘Juggle!’ – stuff we do for love and stuff we do for money, but Hugh has another point here and it’s all in his last line above. It’s that whatever your success in life, whether you are a struggling waiter or a movie star, you won’t be immune from this duality.

“As soon as you accept this. I mean really accept this, for some reason your career starts moving ahead faster…. It’s the people who refuse to cleave their lives this way… well they never make it”.

So maybe ignore everybody, but it’s still worth listening to Hugh MacLeod.

Don’t Listen To Anyone Who Says ‘No’ To Your Dream Or Goal

Yesterday I started reading Hugh MacLeod’s book ‘Ignore Everybody’; he makes some good points about the genesis of ideas, that ‘good ideas have lonely childhoods’ because people just don’t get them at first so you have to ignore resistance and just persevere.

The same principle applies with any other dreams or goals you may have; ignore anyone who says they can’t be achieved. It was like the time I wanted to apply for a promotion to be a manager in a company I was working for at the time. My boss memo’d back that he didn’t think I was up to the job, I didn’t have enough experience. But I persevered and over a pub lunch persuaded him that I was the right guy for the job. I had the same tenacity when I was trying to get my first book published; some people said that’s its so tough trying to get published, don’t bother. Someone else said my chances of working with a company were ‘1 in 100’. But that didn’t deter me trying; it motivated me to prove the naysayers wrong.

And it reminds me of a chapter in my book 'Leap!' about a discussion I had with my head teacher in my last year at school:

"When I was in my final year at school I told my headmaster I wanted to study media at university and planned to pursue a career in broadcasting. Sitting in his office the headmaster suggested that was an impractical goal and brought out a prospectus on a course in company secretaryship and said ‘here, you should do this course instead’.

To this day I have no idea why he did that, it seemed an odd piece of advice. But I ignored him anyway.

6 months later I was presenting the gig guide on local radio.

12 months later I was co-presenting a show on local radio.

10 years later I was asked to return to the school to advise students on careers in the media. Part of me felt like not supporting the school that had failed to support my own ambition; but a bigger part of me realised the students probably needed all the help they could get.

My booth had the biggest queues".

As Hugh MacLeod said to me yesterday on Twitter, ‘a dream is only as good as the number of naysayers who come out of the woodwork’.

So whatever you do, never give up.