Paul Arden’s book is on advertising and motivation. The presentation of this book is as important as the content. It’s optimized for sales: has a catchy title and cover, cheap price, is easy to carry around (small and thin). Content of the book is easy to read and easy to share: big fonts, lots of photos. Here are some highlights:

• Talent helps, but it won’t help you as far as ambition. Everybody wants to be good, but not many people are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great.
• You must develop a complete disregard for where your abilities end. Try to do things that you’re incapable of.
• You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arm around their exercise book or exam paper. Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.
• Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity.
• If you show him [client] what you want and not what he wants, he’ll say that’s not what he asked for. If, however, you show him what he wants first, he is then relaxed and is prepared to look at what you want to sell him.
• How you perceive yourself is how others will see you. The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it.
• Observe that an organization’s reputation is usually built on one or two key accounts.

Overall, it was a quick motivational read.