Paul Arden

Paul Howard Arden or infamously known as Paul Arden, was an influential author of several books on advertising and motivation. His breakthrough work "It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be" has become a pocket bible to all creatives around the world. He was a former Creative Director for Saatchi and Saatchi.

He passed away on April 2nd 2008 because of a heart attack and once again, another giant in advertising has left a huge void in the advertising world.

Now when I was just a runt, another young aspiring creative, who was just about to jump into the world of advertising, I had this weird urge to send an email to Mr Paul Arden. It could be the book that inspired me to do so, or I was just plain ballsy, but I was lucky to receive a reply from the man himself. However, since I didn't know how to contact Mr Paul Arden, I sent it to his secretary, Ms Lucinda Gage. Bless her heart for forwarding this email to him. And this is what I wrote to him. Do mind the grammar. I didn't want to change its original content:

Dear Ms.Gage

I'm an aspiring yet humble beginner of a young art director and I'm starting to delve into the world of advertising almost half a year now after being exposed by a good friend of mine who is now a talented copywriter with a bright future.

Anyways, enough babbling about myself, and to the main point of this letter. I'm actually a huge follower of Mr. Paul Arden since the time he produce the book " Its not how good you are, it/s how good you want to be." I read thru the book almost frequently to understand his idea and his words of wisdom within the world of advertising and to be quite frank, I'm actually blown away by his book.

At first, I wanted to actually ask Mr. Paul Arden some questions thru email but my efforts was waylaid as I was focusing on my college and trying to join the accredited 4A's Award shows. Nevertheless , the time has come, as I'm soon to be starting an exciting experience in advertising soon and I wanted to be sure before I go off, I obtained some words of wisdom from Mr. Paul Arden and this is the time.

So, to end things off, I hope you, Ms. Gage can forward this letter to Mr. Paul Arden or maybe just let him see it because I know the man himself may not have time for these " fanmails" but if I can get a feedback from him , it would be a great honour and probably a great morale boost for me. One last question, I'm taking the path of Art Director's, is there any tips or hints you can give me for my road? I know i have to prove my technical skills but, how bout generating ideas? Do i have to focus on that too ?

Thank You for your time Ms. Gage

and to Mr. Paul Arden , if you ever had a chance to read this or skim it thru , I hope you know, that my intentions are to learn from you , so I can be better. Thank You

Sincerely
Rae

Age: 23
Country : Malaysia
Status : Junior Art Director for some advertising firm soon


And this is what he replied to me. Click it again if you can't read it.




Well, I hope this inspires you too in whatever your endeavor is.