Damn Good Advice (for People with Talent): How to Unleash Your Creative Potential by America's Master Communicator, George Lois, is a collection of pearls of wisdom derived from famous persons, as well as the author himself. For instance, Lois explains that great work must be shown to the people who can back it. The author is seeking great ideas that can change world culture by provoking the modern culture intelligently.
Lois advises thinkers to first express ideas in words before crafting visualizations of concepts pictorially. At bottom, even the most advanced tools have no real impact without an idea or concept to implement at some point.
Even the best ideas most be shown first before being sold. Given this basic assumption, the author explains the necessity of introducing sales pitches at some point in order to get people to buy a new product or process. In fact, the book takes this process a step farther by showing how to enlist celebrities to promote products.
Lois believes that trends are traps. Instead, there are times when the proverbial new direction turns out to be the only direction. The author is suspicious of collectivist thinking because it can lead to group grope or group think. In addition, he warns against overanalyzing alternatives which result in analysis paralysis and the failure to make choices on a timely basis or even at all.
Lois advises workers to do a good job consistently rather than simply seeking to keep a job for purely survival purposes. A corollary is that justification is a condition precedent to creating good work that will have a lasting impact. The author cites a related action that is required to do work. Most importantly, workers must show up consistently in order to be noticed and have their work cited or rewarded. President Lincoln advised potential writers to: "Think long. Write short."
Damn Good Advice is an excellent book which challenges readers to reach new frontiers in the area of big ideas, the selling techniques to close deals and the assertiveness necessary to get good results on a consistent basis.
Article comments