It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book

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Summary: Inspirational advice for creative individuals!
Review: "The world's best-selling book" (the tongue-in-cheek subtitle), is a great little collection of ideas, suggestions and practical advice from a man responsible for many successful British advertising campaigns over the last 25 years. Although there is a practical bias towards the business world of advertising and media, this book is likely to appeal to any individual who is interested in creativity and thinking for themselves. It is beautifully designed and very entertaining.

In the first few pages, Paul Arden encourages you to set your goals high and aim beyond what you believe you are capable of. Then there are "The Fundamentals" such as "Do not seek praise. Seek criticism", "Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you", "Don't promise what you can't deliver". My favourite is "It's right to be wrong", where Arden points out how anything is possible when you're not trying to be right. The risk is greater, you are in the unknown, but "there's more chance of it being amazing".

A combination of "common sense", awareness, business advice, communication skills, positive thinking, a few presentation tricks and some quirky strokes of genius. Great stuff.


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Summary: simply hit the mark!
Review: 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.

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Summary: only for folks in advertising
Review: I have no knowledge of the advertising business and no interest in learning how to get ahead in that world. You wouldn't know from the book's cover that the author's experience and advice are narrowly limited to that field. As an outsider, I could not understand some of the terminology and concepts. That is in part because of the industry niche, and also because of the British vocabulary (Persil Automatic?).

There's certainly value in motivational books like this, to get you all fired up when you need inspiration. It's just that this one will only be helpful to those in advertising, and specifically folks who work in small ad agencies and understand that language and culture. Outside of that narrow culture, many of the recommendations would prove disastrous indeed to one's career.


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Summary: You'll be quoting this over and over again
Review: I received this as a gift from a voracious reader like myself--had never heard of it or it author but found the advice very useful, which revolves around goal setting/accomplishing and innovation in a crowded marketplace, no matter what your field. Very clever in its pictorial/aesthetic design I might add. Worth it.

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Summary: Get moving!
Review: It's a shot in the arm and a kick in the pants. This is a to-the-point book that helps you "conquer the high dive".

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Summary: Get moving!
Review: It's a shot in the arm and a kick in the pants. This is a to-the-point book that helps you "conquer the high dive".

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Summary: How good you want to make that presentation
Review: Needed a mind boots, think well, think how good you can be and how good you want to be. The author Paul Arden who work in the advertising industry, have put his thoughts about good, very good, excellent, best in your field and best in the world on paper to help you boots your mind when you're feeling down and out. Specially yo when try to find a solution to a problem or you have you're next mind block. When it seems you're on the wrong side of the meeting table whit your new ideas and know one seems to be interesting. Well just take your time off during the hectic business routine and read this book. The size of the book makes it easy to find a space in your car or somewhere in your desk, just in case you needed. Is easy to read and is written in plain language. If you feel that your ideas time and time is neglected and you feel out of space out of place, but you know somewhere there the entrepreneur fire in you, this pocket mite do the trick. It will take about three hours to read. My advise, include this material in your presentations specially if you have to deliver a presentation about entrepreneurship or just let your audience know what the leadership of today is made off.

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Summary: ...yeah
Review: So far, this is the only book I've ever read that I've bought more of to give to other people. And I read a lot of books.

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Summary: Best-selling book?
Review: The world's best-selling book? Presumably the cover line is being clever and this is merely the world's best-selling book that has been written by Paul Arden.

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Summary: Never a dull moment.
Review: 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.