Hugh MacLeod at gapingvoid found his moment of fame drawing cartoons on a back of a business card – and has since parlayed that into a useful and entertaining blog musing on marketing, individuality and what it takes to do Great Work.
He’s been writing an thoughtful series on Living on the Edges and is talking directly to those of us wrestling with how to do more Great Work. Here’s a couple of the points he makes:
4. The Herd. When sheep flock together, in order to protect the collective, the strong end up in the middle of the flock; the old, infirm and weak end up on the outside of the flock, leaving them easy pickin’s for any predators who may be nearby. If you read Mark Earl’s fabulous book, “Herd”, you soon realize that human beings aren’t that different. For all the heroic individualism Western society likes to idealize [almost to the point of fetishism], humans are surprisingly “Herd-like” in their behavior.
Just as sheep move to the center of the flock for purely survival reasons, so do human beings. It’s why we wear khakis and join tennis clubs. But some of us move to “the edges” for the exact same reason- Survival. “If we stay in the middle, we’re just going to get creamed like everybody else, once the market moves on.” I don’t think “Edgelings” consciously choose to be this way- like every other mammal out there, they just want to get on with their business without being eaten by wolves. Declarations like “Live on the edges or not at all” come after the fact- as Mark Earls would say, it’s more about justifying past behavior, rather than ensuring future behavior.
6. I’m agnostic. I see both “The Edges” and “The Middle” two sides of the same coin. Like the circle’s center and circumference, both need the other.
11. People often ask me, “How do you stay inspired over the long haul?” My answer: “By working hard”. Bliss through Toil, Baby. It’s all good.
You can read the rest of what Hugh has to say here and here.
And while you’re at it, you should also check out his How To Be Creative series.
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