In London I bought a book by John Hegarty, an iconic British PR-manager and advertiser. The book has only 125 pages, but it’s the most captivating piece on creative thinking I’ve ever read. I ate it during my three hour flight to Moscow, and funny but literally can eat this book, 'cause it’s printed without ink.

Hegarty breaks all templates and familiar patterns that stuck in our heads, and reminds about simple truths we know, but we are too afraid to follow.

The book is written in a modern and clear language. Anyone with an intermediate level of English can easily read and understand everything Hegarty says. Here’s one of the feature quotes from the book:

Screw the rules, go hard.

I will not write a summary of the book as it’s too short. I outlined some quotes that stroke me with its power and certainty. Some of them are perfect to be typed in a beautiful font, printed and hung over your working desk.

Quotes from the book

1. The greatest strategy you can employ is the truth. It is handy also, because you can always remember what you’ve said.
2. When I’m asked, When do you do your best thinking? My answer is always, When I’m not thinking.
3. When you are intent on putting a great wrong right, creativity will often exceed all expectations. Out of conflict comes purpose.
4. Use juxtaposition.
5. By looking in the opposite direction, you might just find something new.
6. We must always remember technology is not an idea. It’s the means to express an idea. So under no circumstances should you become overawed by it.
7. Don’t be afraid of technology
8. So be careful. Don’t surround yourself with people who want to bury your ideas.
9. The greatest creative people are great precisely because they hold on to a childlike simplicity and urge to question everything.
10. So ask yourself. What excites me? What drives me?
11. So take off your headphones and let the world in.
12. Read shit, you’ll think shit and you’ll create shit. There’s no doubt you get better when you surround yourself with great things and great people.
13. So, do respect what’s gone before. But revere it? Never.
14. Constantly chopping and changing your speciality with hinder your success. Keep your focus!
15. Practice only makes perfect if you make progress.
16. Collaboration is great for sex not for creativity.
17. Our brains still operate in an analog world.
18. Spotting a right idea is as important as having it.
19. Henry Ford said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”.
20. You can make your own timing.
21. Plan on failing. But when you do, don’t dwell on it.
22. Money doesn’t have a soul. It’s a tool not a philosophy.
23. Don’t read anything about yourself or your work in the press.
24. Doing something quickly is not the same as doing it well.
25. Every McCartney needs a Lennon.
26. Your success will, in fact, distance you from the very world that stimulated the ideas that make you successful. It will isolate you.

---

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter and Telegram channel to receive new posts about writing, management, and leadership on this blog.