It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be - Paul Arden

1. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be
	You can achieve the unachievable. Firstly you need to aim beyond what you are capable of. Make your vision of where you want to be a reality.
	If you are involved in something that goes wrong, never blame others. Blame no one but yourself. If you accept responsibility, you are in a position to do something about it.
	Somehow the more you give away (everything you know, ideas..) the more comes back to you. Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership.
	2. Don’t Look For The Next Opportunity. The One You Have In Hand Is The Opportunity. Whatever is on your desk right now, that’s the one. Make it the best you possibly can. It may not be great, but at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you did the best you possibly could, and you may learn something from it.
	3. Accentuate The Positive. Find out what’s right about your product or service and then dramatize it, like a cartoonist exaggerates an action. For example, you know a horse can jump a ditch, therefore you accept that it can jump the Grand Canyon.
	.., if you ask the right question, you get the right answer.
	4. Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver. .., pointing out the possible weaknesses and how to resolve them, should they occur, you are not only building a trusting relationship with your client but you’re able to solve any problems.
	5. Know Your Client’s Aim. Find out what the client’s real objective is. All clients aspire to status. .., but the politics that lay behind it.
	6. Don’t Take No For An Answer.
	When It Can’t Be Done, Do It. If You Don’t Do It, It Doesn’t Exist. A new idea can be either unfamiliar, or silly, or both. It can’t be judged by description. It needs to be done (made) to exist. I’ts exicitng. It’t difficult and it’s fun. If it was easy anyone could do it.
	7. The Person Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes Is Unlikely To Make Anything. ..failures and false starts are precondition of success.
	8. Don’t Be Afraid To Work With The Best. And if you are clear about what you want and strong about getting it, though there may be arguments, they will respect you (if not at the time, afterwards – I didn’t say it was going to be easy).
	Begin thinking and behaving like a winner. It will temporarily halt negative thinking and a defeatist attitude. Don’t expect top management to lead the way. They are too busy running he company. Realize that companies’ reputations are also built on one or two people. Aim to be that person or one of them. You are halfway there. You have made the decision to do it. Just do it.
	Every advertisement you show is another opportunity to print your idea in the client’s mind.
	Your priest is selling. He is selling what he believes in. God. The point is we are all selling. We are all in advertising. It is part of life.
	Creativity is imagination, and imagination is for everyone.

Phaidon Press Limited,

London, 2003