A Dale Buss article from Brand Channel ( Available @ chttp://www.brandchannel.com/careers_profile.asp?cr_id=112) dished him for his failed rebranding of Tropicana OJ (Pepsi gave him $35 million dollars to redesign the carton) & dwelled on how “ Fiat unceremoniously delayed Arnell’s pet green-car project, Peapod, after taking over Chrysler last year.” They also discussed the book at length.
MSNBC did a great article on the weight loss aspect of the book:
“I used to be physically imposing — that’s a diplomatic way to say that I was obese. My obesity was what people noticed first when they met me. I’ve always loved food. I used to devour good food the way I devour life, savoring every new sensation (or new thought) that comes to me over the course of the day. I still do that in my life, but not with food anymore. Eventually, my love affair with food made me seriously overweight.
Even as I kept eating and adding pounds, in my heart I wanted to slim down. I tried diets. I tried exercise. I tried meditation. I asked people for help. I asked my dogs for help. Nothing worked. When I weighed more than 400 pounds, I was limited to wearing a loose, billowing shirt and huge baggy trousers, day after day. My clothing sizes were off the charts. My neck was 19.5 inches, my waist size was 68 inches, and my jacket was a 56 — then each piece was further let out by tailors to make them even bigger. My outfit never varied. That became my look, my brand. I could sense how prejudiced against me some people were because of my weight. Those people, who didn’t know me, judged the book by its cover and assumed I was lazy or weak. Some felt sad for me. Others saw me as an unfit man who couldn’t buckle his seat belt on a plane without an extender. But many times, they couldn’t see me for myself. My girth didn’t allow them to see beyond the surface.
When I made the decision to remove the barriers to change I had created for myself, when I freed myself to go from more than 400 pounds to around 150, I decided to stop blaming myself for past mistakes and take possession of today so that I could lose the weight. I know now that removing barriers is the first act in setting yourself free. But I discovered that it’s a long act; it can take your whole life, because as you eliminate one set of barriers, you will see others that you’ll want to change. This is the nature of shift, slight movements as made by the turtle, who knew that slow and steady wins the race.
I’m not comfortable telling you about the days when I weighed 406 pounds — I’d rather not — but it is necessary and part of paying change forward. Only when I decided to tap the power of what I had learned in my creative work about branding — about powerfully defining an idea and an emotional frame of reference — did I have the power to see my life in a new context and create a new set of realities about what was possible and not possible for me. It took me twenty years, constantly struggling with weight gain and weight loss, to finally click in to the idea that I, too, could benefit from some of my own branding and innovation expertise. I don’t believe I was simply slow to apply myself to myself. I think the thought came, as most inspirations do, attached to some higher purpose that was no longer merely my own.
‘Why not?’
It’s so funny, because we know these things when we are children. As children, enveloped in the golden light of curiosity, we embrace life without question or prejudice. But as adults, we are weighed down by our histories and past narratives. That baggage limits our ability to be open, to be truly and honestly alive, and to see things with the freshness that once came so naturally.
Truth is a difficult thing for us. We build mirrors in our lives that we think are reflections of our souls, but usually they are nothing more than distortions. The real trick is to devise a new mirror, one that can enable us to liberate our inner truth. Such optics can be painful, however — the truth is not always easy. You have to be able to face the truth head-on, without flinching.
After Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his brother Ted delivered a powerful and poetic eulogy. He finished with a quotation that both John and Bobby Kennedy had used, adapted from a line in a George Bernard Shaw play: “Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and say ‘Why not?’ ”
Why not? Believing “why not” is a way of life. If you want to crack open a sense of possibility in your life and work, you’re going to have a lot more luck if you show a willingness — a serious commitment — to “why not.” Don’t limit yourself or allow yourself to get stuck in the boxes others build for you. Don’t compartmentalize your life. If you want to feel a wide-open sense of possibility, you need to knock down the walls and open up your life into one giant space, encompassing work and home life and everything else. I call this space “One Life.” I think you’ll find that the sky is not the limit, nor is the universe.”
Excerpted from “Shift” by Peter Arnell © 2010 Peter Eric Arnell. Reprinted by permission of Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group.
© 2010 MSNBC Interactive
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37884107/ns/today-books/
These tips from Peter's upcoming book "Shift" will help you become your best self:
•Use past experiences: Acknowledge your past experiences and embrace them as a starting-off point for change.
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•Collect things: Spur your memory with triggers that allow you to think back as you move forward.
•Invite people to join your journey: When people are behind you, you won't want to disappoint them by quitting.
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•Use technology: Many resources exist online and through social networking; use them as much as you can.
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•Take risks and be prepared to fail: Remember, mistakes are only signposts along the way to success; use them to get back on track.
From The Martha Stewart Show, May 2010
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