Keep Your Day Job ~ Guest Blog by Hugh MacLeod

I first found Hugh MacLeod in my iGoogle “Motivational Quotes of the Day” widget, and went looking for the book that sparked the great quote. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the great quote came, not from a book, but from his BLOG gapingvoid! I later learned that Hugh is known for his prolific cartoons drawn on the back of business cards, as well as his refreshing creative perspective. His manifesto How to Be Creative is the most-read page on gapingvoid, and I highly recommend that you check it out. Hugh’s gapingvoid cartoon widget is also included below.

Keep Your Day Job
by Hugh MacLeod

I’m not just saying that for the usual reason i.e. because I think your idea will fail. I’m saying it because to suddenly quit one’s job in a big ol’ creative drama-queen moment is always, always, always in direct conflict with what I call “The Sex & Cash Theory”.

THE 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 in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.”

A good example is Phil, a NY photographer friend of mine. He does really wild stuff for the indie magazines- it pays nothing, but it allows him to build his portfolio. Then he’ll go off and shoot some catalogues for a while. Nothing too exciting, but it pays the bills.

Another example is somebody like Martin Amis. He writes “serious” novels, but he has to supplement his income by writing the occasional newspaper article for the London papers (novel royalties are bloody pathetic- even bestsellers like Amis aren’t immune).

Or actors. One year Travolta will be in an ultra-hip flick like Pulp Fiction (“Sex”), the next he’ll be in some dumb spy thriller (“Cash”).

Or painters. You spend one month painting blue pictures because that’s the color the celebrity collectors are buying this season (“Cash”), you spend the next month painting red pictures because secretly you despise the color blue and love the color red (“Sex”).

Or geeks. You spend you weekdays writing code for a faceless corporation (“Cash”), then you spend your evening and weekends writing anarchic, weird computer games to amuse your techie friends with (“Sex”).

It’s balancing the need to make a good living while still maintaining one’s creative sovereignty. My M.O. is gapingvoid (“Sex”), coupled with my day job (“Cash”).

I’m thinking about the young writer who has to wait tables to pay the bills, in spite of her writing appearing in all the cool and hip magazines…. who dreams of one day of not having her life divided so harshly.

Well, over time the ‘harshly’ bit might go away, but not the ‘divided’.

“This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.”

As soon as you accept this, I mean really accept this, for some reason your career starts moving ahead faster. I don’t know why this happens. It’s the people who refuse to cleave their lives this way- who just want to start Day One by quitting their current crappy day job and moving straight on over to best-selling author… Well, they never make it.

Anyway, it’s called “The Sex & Cash Theory”. Keep it under your pillow.

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Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist and professional blogger, known for his ideas about how “Web 2.0” affects advertising and marketing.

After a decade of working as an advertising copywriter, Hugh started blogging at gapingvoid.com in 2001. He first started off just publishing his cartoons, but as time wore on he started blogging about his other main interest i.e. marketing.

In 2004 he wrote “How To Be Creative” and “The Hughtrain”, which both got widely read in the blogosphere.

In 2005 he scored his first major blog marketing success with EnglishCut.com, a blog he started with Saville Row tailor, Thomas Mahon. It tripled Thomas’ sales within six months.

Since mid-2006 Hugh’s main occupation has been helping a small South African winery, Stormhoek “rise above the clutter” in the wine market by using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out. Sales have gone up fivefold since then, thanks to Hugh’s marketing efforts.

Since 2006 Hugh has been constantly engaged as a public speaker, giving talks in both Europe and the US, talking about Web 2.0 and the ramifications it has on business.

Hugh’s basic mantra about blog marketing is “Blogs are a good way to make things happen indirectly”, a point lost on many corporate types.

Photo credit: David Sifry

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