How the Book "Ignore Everybody" Helps the Artist

What is an artist? I say it's someone who expresses themself creatively. In his book "Ignore Everbody", Hugh Macleod includes references to the creative person (artist in my terminology)in a broader sense which includes the creative person with a new idea to express, wether it be an idea for a business, a painting, a piece of music, a dance...the list could go on and on. Macleod is a cartoonist, though he wasn't always one. In a sense you could say there's an artist (or aspiring one) in all of us. We all have talents and skills of various kinds. The difference lies in what we choose to develop. Two ideas from this book stand out especially to help the artist/creative person. The first one he recommends is to not quit your day job, if you are starting a new creative project/idea, and the other is to keep your joy. He also shares his experience of well-meaning others in his life who tried to steer him in directions he didn't feel right about going. His concern was that following their suggestions would take away the simple joy he got from drawing his cartoons. This is always the concern of the truly creative person, in all walks of life is to maintain one's interest and spontaneity in their creative endeavor - even if it means keeping your day job.