Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is so short you can throw in a re-read every time you’re about to lend it out and it gets better every time because every time you’re just a bit older and different parts stay with you in new ways. I think I’ve already read it 4 times in random the years I’ve owned it just by picking it up and putting it down 30 minutes later having read it all and thinking about it anew. I like thinking outside the box in extreme ways, if not practically in my life at least in theory (figures: why else would I enjoy books such as this?) and Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite encourages that side of my character. It mostly comprises stories of bad decisions that in the long run proved to be good; of people finding out that the secret is letting yourself risk and tread new water no matter the (illusory) danger, ultimately reaping all the rewards. In the end, being different from others also means deciding irrationally, for everyone else tries to be rational and make decisions like that too.
Of course I should say that the ultimate capitalist dream is to be a unique, bleeding-edge entepreneur and Paul Arden seems to be preaching to precisely that choir in particular. His work has a “live and let die” vibe and the fact that a lot of his stories of success, creativity and “bad” decisions have to do with advertising, “making it” and getting rich, turns me off a bit. At the very least, it’s a different kind of inspiration from what would really get me going, what would really speak to my core. Still, it’s advice you can presumably use in many different aspects of life.
Amidst all this you can certainly be forgiven if you don’t really notice the top-notch graphic design that makes Arden’s words even sparklier and more alluring. The less is being said and the better its presentation, the more mysteriously seductive what’s being said is. It’s not just the power of the words alone, there are other forces at play here… Scary thought if you’re not willing to admit that humans are mainly weak, malleabe and inconsistent beings.
