Evil Plans, Hugh MacLeod – Book Summary

Evil Plans, Hugh MacLeod – Book Summary

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Unconscionable Monsters is a book about how you should work hard and do your best for what you’re passionate about, regardless of what other people think. Life has meaning because you have your own love for work and dedication to that love.

Introduction

Everyone needs Magic Games. Everyone needs crazy, mythical ideas to be able to actually start doing what they love. And of course, nearly everyone around them – friends, family, co-workers – thinks they have a headache.

But a sly scheme must really identify work with love. Everyone finds their own mini-universe, you like it, it likes you back and everything happens.

I started by putting my cartoons online, on my blog. That’s my crap. Finally, I succeeded, sold some paintings, happy ending!

Your own tricks are one of the greatest things you can do during your short stay on earth. By doing what you love, you become who you really are, no matter what.

Welcome to the craving, you will have to trade with your life.

Craving to do something creative, magical. Craving to make a difference, to change the world. Craving for beautiful dreams, experiencing beauty. Craving to feel passion, express love.

Craving will give you everything, and it will take everything from you, but it will set you free.

The market of trust is indeterminate

The benefits that the product brings do not make us feel excited, only belief in people and human potential creates excitement. Our need for this matter is limitless.

It’s not enough for customers to love your product, they also have to love your manufacturing process.

So, branding becomes a spiritual exercise. Your soul, the purpose and beliefs that it carries make people pay their bills. Therefore, it is not important what you create, but what you believe in, this is the vital point of the business.

Create your own global sub-brand

A global sub-brand is an individual image: a writer, an artist, a work, a factory, a product, etc., famous around the world.

Today, with the Internet, it is easier to create global sub-brands than before. Through his personal blog, Robert Scoble has created a brand of himself that is worth far beyond anything one can pay him.

As I created my fledgling global sub-brand (with a blog), I set out to help others do the same. We know that anyone with a little bit of talent and good speech can get the message across, wider; without the need for established names or the goodwill of the mainstream media.

The global sub-brand is very durable. With it, you don’t have to bear the brunt of a single boss, company, industry, or local economy. What’s even more interesting is that it has nothing to do with your living conditions: maybe you’re in a remote area, maybe you’ve broken out of the vicious circle – urban, corporate – with a high salary but exorbitant costs, sweat is draining money and is crushed under the wheels of commerce.

So you have to find the global sub-brand for yourself.

Simplify, avoid complexity like avoiding evil

One day, on our way home to visit family, we stopped at Chappell Hill, Texas, a lovely little village of three hundred people. There’s a little shop called Chappell Hill Coffee & Meat Market, which sells delicious sausages and beef jerky. I said to the salesman: “You must be selling very well?”. “That’s right, I sell five kilos of meat every day,” she said.

I did the math in my head, and thought this was a world-class store, the margins were substantial, more than any of my friends in New York made. Since then, I’ve been yearning for a simple, elegant, money-making, and low-cost business model like this, which is the real content of the devil’s tricks.

Join the super extension class

Chris Anderson is an editor, book publisher, blogger, speaker, and manager of two more companies. He worked hard, had little sleep, was ignorant of politics, sports, and culture.

As for me, I also have a series of projects in progress: writing, fine art printing, blogging, consulting, cartoonist, wine company management. In 10 years, I did not have a good vacation, there was not a time when I took a break.

We are born to create, not to enjoy. Welcome to such a super extensible class. If you stay out of that class, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to make a living, let alone succeed.

Create world-class products

At the end of 2004, I changed jobs and lived in the village of Cumbria, in the North of England. These were bleak and miserable times, I was self-employed and lived frugally. In the village pub, I met Thomas Mahon, he was a good tailor, who had studied at Savil Row, London – the legendary tailoring address of England. Thomas was bored of life in the city, he missed the Cumbrian village, decided to return to the village to open a tailor shop. In the village, few people know about his talent, so his work is not very good.

Thomas told me wonderful stories about the people and work at Savil Row. I said, “Tom, these Savil Row stories are great, you should put them on the blog.”

Thomas doesn’t understand what a blog is yet. We came up with a devious plan, I showed Tom how to blog, he still wore a suit, I found a way to put information online.

Thomas tells his blog stories honestly, with passion and love. People love his blog, they are passionate about his innocence, ease, and innocence. He got a two-year waiting list just to get his first appointment.

Blogs are a great way to build a “global micro-brand” and develop a personal brand that’s become so important in one’s career.

Making art every day

Lots of creative young people, fresh out of college, doing jobs that don’t fit their profession just to make ends meet, and most of them struggle. My advice to them is to “make art every day”.

The “art” I mean is whatever means the most, the most powerful to them. Not only painting, music, literature but also business, cooking, carpentry, fundraising… only they know what it is.

I remember, when I was in my twenties, I worked all day at an advertising agency. After work, instead of going home to watch TV or hanging out with friends, I stick to drawing cartoons even though I’m in a cafe. Although my paintings are not beautiful, they do not sell for a penny, and are teased by many people. But in the end my caricature was good, I sold it too.

So, whatever your sly plans, “make art every day.”

Fill in the blanks when telling a story

My friend Andrew, now about 40 years old, is a pretty successful photo director. I first met him when he was in his twenties. Back then, in New York, there were flies in the twenties about getting into the movie business.

In the late 1990s, Andrew was determined to enter the film industry. He spent all his pocket money to buy professional tools, and then became broke. It must be a long time before someone veteran of the film industry hires him, he thought. Unable to wait that long, Andrew decided to make pornography, not market-oriented but personal. Suppose, you and your other half want to create a special memento for love, you call Andrew, he and his staff come to film you and your other half acting; with editing, lighting and sound and various camera angles. Before he leaves home, he gives you the one and only version of the movie, he charges a few hundred, one fine day Andrew makes several thousand dollars.

I enjoyed Andrew’s story and told it to a journalist friend. After that, Andrew was put on a pretty famous magazine, making him even more famous. People inside and outside the industry shook hands with him. The story is awesome!

Recently, I asked Andrew for permission to use the story of “personal pornography” in a chapter of this book. He said, “Okay, go ahead, just one thing, nothing is real. I made it all up! Because of trying to get into the movie door, I have to have a story to tell people, it’s interesting, it’s different for people to notice. It was through that story that I got my first bit of editorial job in the industry. Well, a little success in the present will forgive all the past tense rubbish!”

I do not advise you to follow Andrew’s example and make up stories. Living in constant fear of being discovered, how can you live? Honestly the devil father, always. But storytelling is an essential tool for survival. And yes, Andrew has the ability to fill in the blanks when it comes to storytelling.

Don’t forget who you really are

You have three identities: the person you think you are, the person other people think you are, and the person God thinks you are. When life is really hard, remember who you really are. Remember the person that only God can see.

Think of it as an adventure – an adventure worth sharing

Whatever your diabolical plan, there has to be a little bit of risk in it, some spice of “victory over adversity,” because people don’t simply buy products and games. your devil, they need to buy the whole story you tell; The story is not only about yourself, but about them as well.

Success is more complicated than failure

Failure is a person without wisdom. Overall, this loser’s routine is pretty “simple”.

Success is a completely different game, hundreds of headaches they have to deal with. They have the ability to handle “complicated” situations.

“Simple” tends to make most people happy more than “complex”.

Sleeping on the shore, sleeping in the dust

Alternative Rock Band from Limerick, Ireland, their group consists of artists in their twenties. They drained their intestines and pulled out their livers and played music. They live on only a few dollars a day, all they have is packed in a trunk, they sleep on the shore, sleep in the dust. They continued to do so until they had spent the last penny before returning home. But a few years later, I still see them performing all over Los Angeles and are still very busy.

Are you brave enough to be like that? Are you ready to put all your efforts, ready to “sleep on the shore, sleep in the dust” to bring your plan to success?

“Social” Creation

We are primates, social beings, love to socialize. So, it’s not what the product does that matters, it’s how we communicate around it.

BoingBoing.net contains a lot of social elements inside. Those are great sharing ‘devices’, which is also why the iPhone has been so successful.

So you have to ask yourself, how will people “communicate” around your sly scheme?

Make snowballs

I draw cartoons, print pictures, write books, blog… all kinds of things. If there are ideas among them that receive “random manipulation” and then spread on the internet, others connect with the original ideas, they add, gradually forming spheres. the snow is large enough to make some sort of impact.

If you spend too much time worrying or controlling the destination of the snowball, you will fail. You have to understand that inside this equation there must be a lot of random traction, scheming schemes shouldn’t work here.

Avoid dinosaur language

Thanks to the internet, the market became smarter and more agile, the language also changed and the dinosaur language faced extinction. Talk like a human, not like a top Stalinist cadre, people will react positively to it.

Find your own “moment”

When I was young, I worked as an advertising creative in London. Me and my girlfriend went in for a drink at a bar. Standing at the bar is a young, beautiful, Chinese girl who has a difficult life, speaks English quite well, but not very well. I ordered a glass of wine for my friend and a gin tonic with four slices of lemon. I even held up four fingers for her to understand.

Finally, the girl brought me 5 glasses, a glass of wine and 4 glasses of gin and tonic, a slice of lemon each. I should have just asked the girl to take away the 3 glasses of wine left over. Easy! But I didn’t do that. I asked: “Will this time be deducted from your salary?”. “Yes,” she replied. I said, “It’s okay, just add 3 slices of lemon to each glass, then I’ll pay for all three.”

I took a drink and found any 3 people in the bar to give them, for free. I received the greeting “good health to you!”

I decided to take a beating for the girl. I know, I’m not obligated to do that. But I don’t want to be that kind of person anymore. That was my “moment”.

Your business also has its “moment”. That’s the moment when, in the end, you decide not to cut, not to blame. Those times were gold dust. You cannot force the “time” to come. All you can do is “decide”.

Clinging to farming

Farming is never “just doing one thing”. Every day they have another job to do. Today take care of the sheep, plant potatoes, tomorrow make a local road. Summer grazing cows, mowing grass; hand-woven winter…

I inherited the farming mindset. I love being able to drop all the different balls into the air – caricature, painting, consulting, book writing, marketing, blogging… “Cling to farming” is a term, metaphor and saying It adds a lot, especially for those of us who don’t like working for a salary in someone else’s company.

Dao lacks

The biggest problem in the Western world is redundancy, don’t let it turn into your problem. So maybe the problem will be joining the “religious youth”. Let’s say there are 100 people who want to buy your product, let’s make only 90 items. Immediately stop producing the same items as others. This is not rocket science, but principles are needed.

Don’t be the “middleman”

One of the things that makes people uncomfortable when traveling is sitting in the middle seat on an airplane. The “middle seater” is a person in the airline industry whose job it is to find ways to sell as many middle seats to customers as possible. One day not far, he will lose his job, because people will no longer buy middle seats.

The “middle seat” metaphor for what customers don’t really want, never sell those things to them. I know there are a lot of “middle people” who will suddenly lose their jobs. I hope you’re not in it.

Cheap, easy, global media

I’ve been blogging since 2001, blogging is so cheap and easy. As I am writing this book, Twitter is gaining popularity, being mentioned by everyone, quickly following in the footsteps of Foursquare, then Facebook a few years ago, and then MySpace. Do you remember Friendster? Surely something else will appear next year. But what the blog showed back in 2004 will never go away. I’m not just talking about blogging, I’m talking about something much bigger, it’s here forever: cheap, easy, global media.

“List of twenty”: control dialogue by improving dialogue

Make a list of about twenty of the most important people in your field. If most of the people on the list are interested in you, others will too. Otherwise, you’re in for a bit of marketing trouble.

Create excellent articles, speak in voices like never before, with enough difference. Improve the dialogue by improving the wording. You will have a breakthrough in the marketing industry.

The “creative life” is no longer one of many economic options; Now it’s our only option

This issue is so obvious that no further explanation is needed.

What do entrepreneurs learn from artists, and vice versa?

Every artist is a businessman and every businessman is an artist. Although their tools and products are not the same, they are all in the same game – creating and selling work that matters to them personally as well as emotionally.

No, there’s no such thing as a lead and a fish

Especially if you want to do something important in a certain area, to be the best – even just really good – the sacrifice is enormous. “Having both a lead and a fishing rod?”. Nerve short circuit?

If your boss won’t let you use the trick during working hours, quit

Good bosses always want their employees to have their own sovereignty and destiny. So why should you put up with a boss who goes against it?

I once had a boss who didn’t like me blogging. He wanted me to be just a slave, a slave with a low salary. A few months later I quit my job.

I started a series of blogs on the topic of creativity, which attracted a large number of readers online, and later became the content of the work “Ignore it all & ignore it and live” in the top 10 books. bestseller.

How to make others hate me

When your devious scheme starts to gain traction, you’ll find there are people who love what you do and people who absolutely hate it.

The person who loves you will join your plan and wish that one day they will do something amazing.

The person who hates your plan is due to envy, jealousy. Your example gives them no hope but makes them more aware of their shortcomings. It is easier for them to attack you than to attack your own weaknesses. They are “the haters”. But these haters are signs that you’re doing the right thing. They helped you define your mission.

Steal time, every day

Napoleon once said: “It is always possible to regain lost lands. But you can never get it back even for a second.” There is no better word than that.

Pressure “don’t make junk”

The pressure of “don’t make junk” is forever present. The only thing we can do is decide how to deal with it; that makes it richer and more enjoyable to be alive, right here and now.

A delicious customer base is the best marketing plan

Social and personal identity is to share as much of the things that mean the most to you as the people who matter most to you.

When your product is useful, good value, market-friendly, your customer base not only buys the product, but also focuses on attaching personal responsibility to your success, then sharing it. with the people who are important to you.

Continuity is key

To be successful, you need to have one thing above all else: plowing. Which means you have to work really hard for years to get any closer… because ninety percent of success is just showing off.

Create a capital that manifests

We first have human capital, then physical capital, then financial capital, then intellectual capital, then emotional capital, and finally expressive capital. It’s not just a matter of which product helps people get things done, but it’s also a matter of identity, helping its owner to present the most beneficial and powerful way to the world.

Good news! You are not dead

My friend Cindi, about 26 years old, graduated in graphic design; She has a simple scenario: a waitress at a restaurant. Here, she has a relatively good income, both living and saving. She uses her spare time wisely to build her design career slowly but surely. Only a few years later, with such talent and energy, she quit her job as a waitress, started looking for clients, and earned more money with her favorite design job.

“That’s it”

Telling someone to go into the “Promised Land” – where work and love unites – is easy, it’s much harder to do. But have to fight like crazy to get there despite everything, or you will never reach your goal. Be a real person doing your life’s work here and now, not waiting for life to begin.

“Pull the cream off the top, skip the rest”

My old friend Jerry talks about his career progression from a successful venture capitalist to a wealthy private business instructor. “Just take the ice cream out of the role I like best as a venture capitalist – helping nice people make a difference – and forget about the rest,” he says.

“Live at the market, not at the spreadsheet”

In the 1980s, coffee crop failure, prices skyrocketed, the crisis turned Starbucks’ economic model upside down, forcing Starbucks to choose between two options: 1. Start using cheap coffee, or 2. Raise prices sell.

If the quality is reduced by cheap coffee, only 10% of sophisticated customers will notice the difference. If the price increases, anyone will notice. The accountants choose option 1, it is better to give up 10% of customers than to lose 100%. But, Howard decided to choose option 2, increased the price with an explanation and also clearly stated that the option was not selected. Customers understand the reason and they are close to the business. When the price of coffee cools down, the price of the product also goes down. Starbucks weathered the storm. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything before starting your business

Many people put off their sly plans just because they don’t know enough about their field. They continued browsing the web, scouring magazines, researching everything; they want to get all the answers before they do. A little prudence is necessary, but too much leads to failure, for the following reasons:

1. Being an outsider but having too much insider knowledge will make you more likely to make the same mistakes as others because of too many things, just getting in the way.
2. Events. The larger the historical event, the more random and unpredictable the consequences. Therefore, you should only spend time managing what can be controlled such as attitude, positivity, hard work, fighting harder to keep the idea fresh.
3. Interesting destinies are rarely born just by reading the manual. The knowledge you read through your work is extremely valuable, so you must be ready to face the reality of the situation. The obvious truth always arises in the present moment.
4. Sometimes paranoia has all the information.

Die for toys

How do you carry out a sly plan with all your working energy and loving energy? Easy: love what you do.

The sooner you decide to love your work, the easier your plan will be to execute, the more likely it will be to create something.

Some are in their thirties; forty had to spend a lot of time and money on toys: nice cars, nice houses, golf clubs… to keep the outer shell from tearing, enjoy it commensurate with the effort, and gradually they only care about “toys”, hate what they do. They are finally crucified “toy death” is not really a way of life.

Everything begins with the act of giving a gift

Some famous bloggers are masters of the so-called “Gift Selling”. They present as gifts with good content, good ideas, good knowledge, good personal connections, giving a lot, for free.

I work hard, trying to focus my mind on having a daily gift for the world, just what it is, not a promotional message. If someone likes my gift, they will tell their friends, and the list goes on and on.

Do so, all your marketing dreams will come true.

Be an awakener

The awakener is naturally gifted. Being around them or their work makes you feel more alive, more inspired, and more alert.

The Awakener will constantly remind you how to truly live.

The awakener can be a great leader, a great artist, can also be a driver, a waiter, a teacher, a worker… what they have is a gift, not a job title. .

If you’re an awakener, that’s good news. Humanity needs you like it needs sunlight.

People are not in proportion

Oracle’s Larry Ellison may have a million times more money than me, but he can’t live a million times more than me. How can you watch more sunsets, drink fine wine, listen to Beethoven music… a million times more than I can. People are not proportional.

Demons are not products; These games are gifts

Why would you quit your steady job to go ahead with something crazy, your fiendish antics? Perhaps, deep down, your thinking is a feeling that you have something to offer your life and your cunning plan is a gift, an act of love, for love. is the only thing that matters.