Book Review- It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be- Paul Arden

It’s Not How Good You Are… is a concise guide to making the most of yourself – a pocket ‘bible’ for the talented and timid to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. 

It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be is very different from the norm. For the start there are images- lot’s of images and quotes. It is a great way to pick yourself up when you are having an off day or need a kick up the ass.

How does it do that? Paul Arden does this by tapping into the unknown, he tells you why it is right to be wrong, why taking risks could pay off and a negative situation can be turned into a positive through positive thinking. This book essentially delivers cool career’s advice on the cheap.

Further examples include promising what you can’t deliver and learning to accept responsibility and that aiming high isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All the necessary techniques you need to boost your ego and make your work better. A great example of this is shown clearly on the front cover with the words ‘The World’s best- selling book by Paul Arden’. We don’t know if the book is a best seller or not by displaying that sentence instantly means to the readers that the book must be good.

Another example Paul Arden gives which sticks out in my mind is of Victoria Beckham. Victoria aspired to be more famous as Persil Automatic. Victoria wanted to be a brand and she went and worked for it. What originally sounded like a silly, laughable even dream turned into reality.  

As I said above, this book is perfect to dip in and out off, particularly for creative types as a lot of examples Paul uses are from his career in advertising. What did you think of the book?