Ignore Everybody

When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog - gapingvoid.com - and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures. MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person? Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample: *Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less. *If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain. *Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one. *The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. After learning MacLeod's 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

Limitless helps innovators, idealists, and iconoclasts get "unstuck" -- and achieve extraordinary results. This book is like a high energy masterclass and brainstorming session all in one - with actionable tips to transform your vision for your career and doing work with purpose. What if success doesn't equal happiness? Many of us spend our lives pursuing a singular idea of success, one that was created for us by someone else. We give votes to those who shouldn't even have voices and strive to go faster and faster even as we find ourselves falling further and further behind. We chase gold stars, we check all the boxes, we Lean In - and we still feel incomplete. This is not a story about failure, but it might as well be. When we don't define success in our own terms, finding our purpose and carving our own path becomes impossible. How do you break the cycle so that you can be better at work and life? In Limitless, Laura Gassner Otting teaches you how to ignore the rules that created your limits, align your energies and your actions, and do work that really matters so that you can live your best life. Often described as "a kick in the ass surrounded by a warm hug," Laura brings both tough love and wisdom and offers a no-holds-barred look at what it really takes to get out of your own way and earn your success today. If you ever dreamed about discovering and crushing that personal goal that is so big and so scary that you've only dared whisper it to yourself, this book is the permission you didn't even know you needed to live into it as only you can.

This is a book about freedom. Specifically the personal freedom I discovered from the wonderful world of blogging, the freedom I hope everybody will eventually discover for themselves. The freedom that, I believe, will permanently and irrevocably change the world for the better. Having a blog, a voice, having my own media, utterly changed my life. Suddenly my career as a cartoonist wasn’t dependent on other people: “The Gatekeepers”—publishers, editors, Hollywood executives, etc., etc. Sud­denly I had direct contact with my audience. They had direct contact with me. I could just do my thing, without having to wait for some­body else to give me the “green light.” I didn’t have to wait around for somebody else to deem me “worthy.” This was the freedom I spent most of my adult life searching for, the same freedom I believe we’re ALL searching for, in one way or another. Careerwise, blogging gave me everything. Even in the early days, the ben­efits of blogging were so glaringly obvious to me, I couldn’t understand why more people weren’t doing it. Ten years later, I still can’t. So I decided to write a book about it; maybe I can help other people find this freedom, too. —Hugh

"Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she's there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace's old friend. She can't bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can't bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace's death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence."--Amazon.

The writer behind the popular blog GapingVoid delivers edgy and humorous adice on maximizing creativity in a world that often thwarts it.

Mission Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose aims to help the jobseeker -- whether a student, a mid-career professional or a retiring Baby Boomer -- take advantage of the many career opportunities burgeoning in the non-profit sector by answering these questions and more: • Is now the right time for me to transition into the nonprofit sector? • Will my skills transfer to the nonprofit sector? • How do I even begin to move from the corporate to nonprofit sector? The nonprofit sector is changing to accommodate the enormous richness of experience all of these individuals can bring with them. This book endeavors to help each of them find their place in the new nonprofit sector.

The inspirational bestseller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our WHY Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time—with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the WHY of their organization. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever. START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn't ask to be the target of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far. But Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos--the prison his grandfather couldn't escape--where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It's dangerous and wild, and it's a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside? Michael L. Printz Honor recipient A.S. King's smart, funny and boldly original writing shines in this powerful novel about learning to cope with the shrapnel life throws at you and taking a stand against it.

They’re often behind the scenes, letting their work take center stage. But now Nathan Williams, founder and creative director of Kinfolk magazine and author of The Kinfolk Table, The Kinfolk Home, and The Kinfolk Entrepreneur—with over 250,000 copies in print combined—brings more than 90 of the most iconic and influential creative directors into the spotlight. In The Eye, we meet fashion designers like Claire Waight Keller and Thom Browne. Editorial directors like Fabien Baron and Marie-Amélie Sauvé. Tastemakers like Grace Coddington and Linda Rodin. We learn about the books they read, the mentors who guided them, their individual techniques for achieving success. We learn how they developed their eye—and how they’ve used it to communicate visual ideas that have captured generations and will shape the future. As an entrepreneur whose own work is defined by its specific and instantly recognizable aesthetic, Nathan Williams has a unique vision of contemporary culture that will make this an invaluable book for art directors, designers, photographers, stylists, and any creative professionals seeking inspiration and advice.