Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential by America's Master Communicator, George Lois Mass Market Paperback – March 12, 2012

This book is for those in business, advertising, design, or creative fields, or anyone seeking timeless advice on success, influence, and meaningful work.George Lois’s book offers valuable advice and inspiring life lessons, highlighting creativity and confidence. He’s often accurate, despite appearing overly confident. Here is some excellent advice from his book.Focus on the Big IdeaEvery Trend Can Be a TrapAvoid Following the CrowdEmbrace RisksSimplicity is KeyStay True to Your ValuesPersist with Passionate CommitmentTommy Hilfiger hesitated about George Lois’s billboard ad, but it elevated him among top designers, exceeding expectations. Calvin Klein was upset, saying it took 20 years to reach Hilfiger, but George replied, “Why would it take twenty years when you can do it in 20 days?” Did he deserve that confidence?Success isn’t just about creativity. George aimed to win the Quaker Oats Company in Chicago, but their customer thought New York was too far for quick meetings. After hanging up, he and his partners rushed to catch a flight to Chicago and arrived before lunch. The client was impressed and awarded him the business immediately. His takeaway? “Woody Allen was right: 80% of life is showing up!”You don’t have to agree with him on everything. For instance, George was strongly against spending time on Twitter (now X). Ironically, I learned about George Lois through Twitter. His book is easy to read, straightforward, and very engaging. A truly excellent book, I will read over and over.

I read the book, and I just read all the reviews as of April 2, 2011. I agree with all of them, except perhaps the one on whether George Lois is, or is not, racist. I can't say.What I can say is that this book is MOTIVATIONAL. It motivates you to get excited about advertising, about your job, about life. Lois is a New York talker - he puffs himself up to be bigger than perhaps he really is, puffs up the contrasts between himself and others to be more dramatic than they really are... No doubt. But he motivates you to believe in yourself, to toot your own horn because if you don't toot it, no one else will.This book is INSPIRATIONAL. George Lois is one of the most successful people in advertising, and he gives lots of BELIEVE in yourself, do your best, don't compromise sorts of advice. Yeah, probably a lot of it is BS, and again probably puffed up by George to be bigger than it probably ever really was. But he's an ad man, what do you expect? He puffs up an ad cover on Andy Warhol to make it seem bigger than Warhol's art itself. Yet it inspires you. Or at least it inspired me, to try to be better at what I do (I teach SEO / online Internet marketing - just Google 'Jason McDonald' to find me), and to be inspired to try harder, go farther, do more with less. Yada Yada Yada as George might say.And yes this book is EGOTISTICAL. George is very full of himself, as other reviewers have indicated. Lots of photos of himself, he even thinks he's better looking than Don Draper for example. But, again, what would you expect from an ad man.Finally, this book is fun to read. It has lots of pictures, lots of fun, crazy quotes. I read it on BART on my way to and from San Francisco, and I laughed out loud many times. It's a fun book, it's a great book. It's not a "how to" book. It's not a book meant to teach, but to inspire.It inspired me. I hope it will inspire you.

In the days of twitter, where 140 characters pass for guru status-and bloggers like Seth Godin have millions of followers, without really having done anything truly big-you come to this "book" and think- for a man with so many profoundly big ideas- he was slacking just a bit with this book....but, then again- if you want insight into someone who did revolutionize the ad industry- this is a lightweight guide.It's the kind of book you want to have around- to inspire you, push you, prod you into doing the best work possible.Sure, Lois has chutzpah in spades- but- if you'd done what he's done- it comes naturally.I was halfway through it- and bought a copy for everyone in my shop. Within a day- someone had torn a page out and posted it on the wall (what page.... well, that's our little secret).For the money- there is some good advice- and a few pieces of truly great advice.The most important takeaway- reaffirming my rule about not doing work for people you don't respect, or products you wouldn't use.If you want more depth, deeper thoughts- read "What’s the Big Idea?"but- if you want easy- this is it.

I am in a creative - adjacent field (writing) and LOVE this book to inspire new ideas. I’ve had it for a decade and picked it up a dozen times over the years. It always spurs me to do bigger, bolder, better writing and to think about how to position my projects. Very rare that I write reviews, but this an absolute winner that has changed and improved my creative process.