It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be

by Paul Arden

Book Overview

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 alike to help 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 endeavours...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0714843377
• ISBN13: 9780714843377
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.8" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Highly creative book about becoming more creative

This is a highly creative book about becoming more creative. It is filled with provoking thoughts and exercises. I recommend this book very much to anyone seeking to expand, enrich, widen their personal creativity. It could easily be a supplementary textbook for many courses in high school and college.

Title says all

I knew I had to buy the book when I looked through it at the store. It's pretty and designed well. It's dimensions are pleasing, and the size perfect for one sitting. Since Arden has experience in the advertising industry, he knows how to keep my attention. And that means it's not some how-to book with lots of text. The book is meant to stimulate you, not cram you full of advice. So, it's not "fluff." Though my copy was taken from me, I still remember many parts of the book and plan to buy another. This book is indeed for everyone, not just those in advertising. Arden merely uses his own experience in his field to make a universal point.

Great motivation for anyone doing anything creative

Before you get confused by the "World's best selling book" tagline, read the title of the book again. "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be." Obviously, Arden aspires to have this be the world's best selling book. All of the advice in this book comes out of Arden's experience in the advertising industry, but it has value for everyone doing work in creative fields. (And as many have said, business as a whole is a creative pursuit.) Even the advice that seems to be advertising-centric has wider relevance, if you open your mind a bit. There's a lot of very good advice in this book, presented in a very easy to digest format. I come back to this book again and again whenever I need a pep talk, and every time it works. How are being unafraid of failure, having ambition, and being open to new ideas not relevant to your life?

simply hit the mark!

5 seconds holding this book is enough to make you realize you need to change. After 5 seconds.. little did you know, you'd probably already somewhere in the middle of the book.A 'bible' for all goals specially for those who work in marketing and advertising world.

Never a dull moment.

There are lessons within this book that you may have learnt. But with that busy life of yours that once the idea had popped into your head, it popped right out. This just acts out as a little guide book, a reminder perhaps to get you through to remembering what you really want and how to get it. Though it draws on advertising mainly, it can be presented in many levels. There are great examples, pictures... Nothing too boring that would make you set it aside and never touch the damn thing again. Something easy to pick up when you've lost all hope and motivation. Its language and simplistic manner is set out so that there is no "drag time." There are books that span pages to get a point across, making it hard to pinpoint their exact meaning. Others too open to analogical readings. This is not one of them. Easy to reference, inspirational quotes, a great read really. An enjoyable one too.