10 steps to get what you want

Change Your Life

An honest, upfront guide to getting what you want from The Big Issue founder John Bird

his no nonsense approach to advice is a refreshing, genuine addition to the self-help game...his advice is down to earth and tangible

John Bird was born just after the Second World War to a London Irish family in slum-ridden Notting Hill. Homeless at five, he went on to spend three years in an orphanage before, at the age of ten, embarking on a spree of shoplifting, house breaking, vandalism and arson. Periods in jail were followed in his twenties by the birth of three of his children and his metamorphosis into a successful businessman. At the age of 45, using his own life and professional experience, he founded The Big Issue and over the last fifteen years has overseen its development into an international movement which stretches from Tokyo to Totnes.

If you wanted to be a successful chef you would read Gordon Ramsay's autobiography. He tells you how he became the successful cook and businessman he is today. His book provides you with a model of how he did it. Allen Carr's book does the same. It tells how he became a world-renowned therapist, helping millions of people to give up smoking. 
 
Change Your Life is for everyone else. Those who have the best will in the world, but never get round to using it. Those who start something, but don't finish it. Those who fail, and then fail again. 
 
Drawing on John Bird's own life experiences, this book outlines the mistakes he has made and the subsequent lessons he has learned along the way. Change Your Life is about getting lost, feeling self-pity, feeling a failure, disliking the world and oneself; and then climbing out of it. 
 
John Bird will teach you how to be a success.

How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps

Make a fresh start with this life-changing book by Big Issue founder, John Bird

John Bird was born just after the Second World War to a London Irish family in slum-ridden Notting Hill. Homeless at five, he went on to spend three years in an orphanage before, at the age of ten, embarking on a spree of shoplifting, house breaking, vandalism and arson. Periods in jail were followed in his twenties by the birth of three of his children and his metamorphosis into a successful businessman. At the age of 45, using his own life and professional experience, he founded the Big Issue and over the last fifteen years has overseen its development into an international movement which stretches from Tokyo to Totnes.

In this highly-accessible self-help book Big Issue founder John Bird explains his seven simple rules that could help you change your life. Whether you want to get a new job, quit smoking, stop drinking or go back to college, How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps explains how you can take what you've been given and turn it into something you'll be proud of, rather than spend your life wishing for everything you haven't got. 
 
For 99% of us life doesn't come knocking on the door; you have to go out and get it. But the trouble with aiming for the stars is that you're likely to end up in the gutter. John Bird has learnt through his work with the homeless that if you start by putting just 3% of your energy towards your final goal rather than a gutter-hitting 99% you will eventually make the changes you are looking for. 
 
John's six other rules are as straightforward as this first one, 'Start With 3%'. He writes with passion about the dangers of thinking like a victim and of not telling the truth; he shares with us the importance of thinking for yourself and never putting others down, and he encourages us not to define our successes by the failures of others and to recognise our own achievements. 
 
Written in his unique no-nonsense style this is a book about 'cutting through the bullshit and making the most of what you have.'

John Bird

No one is born deserving anything - you only deserve what you achieve by yourself. Drawing from this, John's philosophy is based on the idea that success is about deciding what you want, working out what is important to you and then going out to grab it. The beauty of this approach is that we can all achieve whatever we want; we just need to go after it. 
 
With unique lessons such as 'Don't be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Instead, make mistakes and learn from them' and 'Take responsibility for yourself as you are no one else's problem', The 10 Keys to Success shows us how uncomplicated success can be.

John Bird

Books by John Bird

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