Finding Success By Giving Up

It’s only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts. Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit.

Hugh McLeod draws cartoons on the back of business cards and gives them away for free. Sounds like an unusual business plan, right? He explains that, after seeing too many of his Big Plans fail to materialize, one night, “I just gave up. Sitting at a bar, feeling a bit burned out by work and life in general, I just started drawing on the back of business cards for no reason. I didn't really need a reason. I just did it because it was there, because it amused me in a kind of random, arbitrary way.

Of course it was stupid. Of course it was uncommercial. Of course it wasn't going to go anywhere. Of course it was a complete and utter waste of time. But in retrospect, it was this built-in futility that gave it its edge.”

He found it liberating to do something just for himself, without trying to impress anybody. “And of course, it was then, and only then, that the outside world started paying attention.”

Check out his blog where you can see more of his cartoons, read all about his peculiar business philosophy or order business cards with his cartoons on the back. I found him through his How to Be Creative manifesto, which I highly recommend. If you like PDF files (I don’t), a slightly different version is available for download at Change This.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved