It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be: The world's best-selling book by Paul Arden (DESIGN): 0000 Paperback – Illustrated, 30 May 2003

I bought it over 10 years ago, when I first started my career. I read it once or twice, then I shoved it onto my bookshelf and never read it again through all these years. Today I wanted to give a farewell gift to two team members who were leaving the team and who I thought had really good potential, and I thought of gifting this book. I picked it up from the bookshelf again and found that all the advice in the book were exactly what I have been believing and practicing through my career and would want to share with my teammates. And that’s why I put purchased two more copies of the same book today - to give to my teammates.TL;DR - Read it once, remember it and use it the whole career. That’s just how powerful this book is.

This book was recommended to me by the legend that is Casey Neistat, I think at least.I ordered the book because the title is exactly how I think about success and I'm pleased to say that it arrived earlier than expected. The book is smaller than the average book, it has a really nice sheen cover to it and the layout is very nice. The book itself is excellent, the layout inside is very different to a normal book and that's why it works for me, it's not page after page of text, but rather it;s laid out into short chapters that usually last the length of the two pages you're viewing at the time.It has different fonts, different images on each page and some pages are different colours. Overall, visually, the book is amazing to look at.I would say that this type of book is designed for the casual on-the-go readers, if you're ordering this book expecting a 600-page dissection of the world's most successful people, you should look at another book.I love it.

This book by Paul Arden has been dubbed by many to be a fantastic motivational book that is capable of turning people into super human geniuses. In reality this book takes only an hour or less to read through and unless you really attempt to apply any new ideas will be a waste of your time.Much of the book to me was useless and some of it I already knew, however it is still a good book for getting you thinking in another way. Really the author is telling you to throw out everything you think you know and listen to his ideas of what made him successful, and some of the ideas are very good.I have found a few of the ideas in this book very useful and have used the ideas such as 'Do not seek praise seek criticism' are simple but good. Many people are unable to open up and be wrong and make mistakes and learn from them, especially people in positions such as management who feel they have to be seen as always correct in front of their staff.This book really is an individual thing, It may be of massive help to you or you may completely disagree with the ideas put forward. Either way you have to look at this book as one mans ideas and decide for yourself whether to apply them or take them onboard in your life. Worth a look at the price being asked for it.

should be in every school library

Paul Arden was a character of the advertising industry. As an executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi during its heyday, he was responsible for some iconic British advertising campaigns, including British Airways. Billed as `a pocket bible for the talented and timid to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible', this book was written for advertisers, designers and marketeers; but in reality the wisdom in the book is applicable to anyone who wants to succeed.Although the book is small (you could almost say unassuming), it's got plenty of tips. The book is organized into 8 sections, including the introduction and covers topics such as having ideas, solving problems, presenting, making a difference, and winning new business. The advice and ideas in the book are very widely known - there's nothing revolutionary here, and there is a lot of repetition, but it's not brainwashing; merely coming back to the main point the author wants to make (that you should be unconventional if you want to succeed). Tips are either a simple statement or a few paragraphs of text. You're not going to get any in-depth analysis or facts to back anything up. Everything in this book has come from the author's experiences in life.This is not one of those tedious self-help books that claim to make you rich, and it won't tell you the secrets of the world. But what it will do is to make you think about what you want from your life and/or career and provide tips that could possibly help you to attain your goals and succeed in your endeavors. It's an easy read - lots of big text and pictures. I went through it in less than an hour. The reason for three stars is because although I may re-read the book again if I feel I need a quick fix of 'how to succeed', it's not a classic and it's probably not a book I'm going to keep coming back to.If you know anyone who works in an advertising agency, this would make a great gift.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the business world and wants to try and gain a career from it. It's cleverly written, gives you ideas for interviews, doing your job and realise you don't have to have straight As or be talented to achieve your goals and be "successful"

a very easy and interesting read. I bought this book for myself about 4 years ago and have just purchased it again as a gift. The short true anecdote style of this book is simple yet inspiring.

Great little book.Succinct.Entertaining.Well written.It's a little bible for anyone in a creative profession.Some of the 'tips' are a bit obvious. But then again, the best ideas usually are; people just don't see it's obviousness initially.