Paul Arden

American creative director and author
7 April 1940 — 2 April 2008

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Paul Arden's books

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Be your own worst critic. When things go wrong it’s tempting to shift the blame. Don’t. Accept responsibility. People will appreciate it, and you will find out what you’re capable of.

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It's better to regret what you have done than what you haven't.

Good marks will not secure you an interesting life. Your imagination will.

In order to succeed in your failure, you have to think of your failed situation as a good place to start from.

It is better to live in ignorance than with knowledge. Solving the problem is the exciting part, not knowing the answer. Once a conjuring trick is explained it loses its magic. The excitement of a game of football is in not knowing who is going to be the winner. Some people have success and rest on their laurels. The lucky ones continue to live in ignorance.

Having too many ideas is not always a good thing. It’s too easy to move on to the next one, and the next one. If you don’t have many ideas, you have to make those you do have
work for you.

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If an idea is not taken up and used as a solution to a problem it has no value. It becomes a non-idea. Lying in a drawer it is useless. Worse than useless, it’s a complete waste of space. Ideas have to be applied before they are recognized as good ideas. Even a bad idea executed Is better than a good idea undone. The longer it is used the better the idea is considered to be. That is why the wheel is reckoned to be the best idea ever.

Good art speaks for itself. That doesn’t mean you have to like it. So the next time you go to an art show, or look at anything for that matter, observe what effect it has on you and try to form your own opinion. That way you become the critic and not a mouthpiece for someone else’s opinions.

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People are like sheep: they follow the leader, It is the leader who has a point of view about which way they should go. Having an original point of view or angle is a novelty. Recognising its value is intelligent. Having the courage to stand up for it in tlie face of public opinion is what makes you a winner.

There is a conventional or popular point of view. There is a personal point of view. There is a large point of view which the majority share. There is a small point of view which just a few share. But there is no right point of view. You are always right. You are always wrong. It just depends from which pole you are looked at. Advances in any field are built upon people with the small or personal point of view.

Meetings are for those with not enough to do. A meeting is a performance, an act to convince people of their own importance. The real players don’t need to act out the meeting game. They roll up their sleeves and get on with the job.

In a meeting you don’t have to worry about how you are coming across to colleagues, because they are busy worrying about how they are coming across to you.

How you present yourself is how others will value you.

If you show somebody a piece of your work and you ask them ‘What do you think? ’, they will probably say it’s okay because they don’t want to offend you. Next time, instead of asking if it’s right, ask them what’s wrong. They may not say what you want to hear, but the chances are they will give you a truthful criticism. Truth hurts, but in the long run it’s better than a pat on the back.

Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you’ve got, and fix it as you go.

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