Sunday, February 28, 2010

It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be. By Paul Arden

I just finished reading a book which is called "It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be". This book is great and gives you lots of inspirations. It’s a quick read and seems to the point throughout. It reminds you that you don’t know everything you think you know and to move forward in your career or life. You must open yourself up to criticism and make mistakes, and you control your own destiny. I like the thoughts about "It's wrong to be right. It's right to be wrong." I agree that being right is based upon knowledge and experience, but it's boring and is the opposite of creative. However, being wrong opens up the opportunity of trying new things and maybe becoming right.

I love the layout and the typo! The pictorial and the design is quite clever because not only conveying the message better, it also makes the book much more enjoyable to read. I strongly recommend this book to everyone, especially people working in design, advertising and marketing industries!

Here is some info about the book:

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be is a handbook of how to succeed in the world – a pocket 'bible' for the talented and timid to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. 

The world's top advertising guru, Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues as diverse as problem solving, responding to a brief, communicating, playing your cards right, making mistakes and creativity, all notions that can be applied to aspects of modern life.

This book provides a unique insight into the world of advertising and is a quirky compilation of quotes, facts, pictures, wit and wisdom, packed into easy-to-digest, bite-sized spreads. If you want to succeed in life or business, this is a must!

Paul Arden began his career in advertising at the age of 16. For 14 years he was Executive Creative Director at Saatchi and Saatchi, where he was responsible for some of Britain's best known campaigns including British Airways, Silk Cut, Anchor Butter, InterCity and Fuji.

His famous slogans include 'The Car in front is a Toyota' and 'The Independent - It is - Are You?'. In 1993 he set up the London-based production company Arden Sutherland-Dodd where he is now a commercials director for clients such as BT, BMW, Ford, Nestle and Levis.

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