Today is March 26 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How good do you want to be?” Do you even ask yourself this question?
Maverick British advertising legend Paul Arden asked himself that question on a daily basis.
In fact, his first book was “It’s Now How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be” Arden challenged readers to think about the answer to this question and gave them five choices: do you want to be pretty good, good, very good, the best in your field, or the best in the universe.
Arden wanted to be the best advertising mind in the universe.
To accomplish this he thought differently than others.
“Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of what other people might think, fear of losing our job. All the things that look like insuperable obstacles, Paul just didn't see them; he went right through them as if they weren't there. So they weren't.”
When he was diagnosed with an incurable lung condition, a condition that eventually restricted his movements to the length of the oxygen tube stretching from his breathing machine, he directed commercials, wrote advertising campaigns, opened and ran a photographic gallery, and wrote three best-selling books.
When Arden wanted to quit his job as a creative director at one agency to be an art director at Saatchi, it didn't look like a smart move to some people since it was a step down to go from creative director to art director.
But he wanted to work at an agency that he admired, with people he admired, so he saw it as a step up.
And in his first year at Saatchi, he won a prestigious D&AD award for a brilliant Health Education Council ad highlighting old people dying from hypothermia. He said he wanted to learn to be great at TV ads, not just press ones.
“Paul didn't want the predictable, or the expected, the ordinary, or dull, or safe – what was the point? He wanted the risky, the unusual, the daring, which brought with it fear, insecurity and adrenalin. Wasn't that the whole point of being alive?”
Paul Arden asked himself ‘how good he wanted to be’ and lived a life answering that question – the best in the universe.
As you go about your day consider asking yourself how good do you want to be?