This Christmas, my girlfriend and I got this little book called It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.

This book is mainly directed to (advertisement) designers, but since I feel that designers and developers do have a few things in common, we both like to create things, I also read it.

The content of this book is a collection of Paul Ardens observations on business and life presented in a very consumable format. As it turns out, although I am not part of the target audience, a good amount of his thoughts can be applied to software development as well.

Find a few of these thought-provoking quotes below.

If you are involved in something that goes wrong, never blame others. Blame no one but yourself.

Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.

Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity.

The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.

If you get stuck, draw with a different pen.

Don’t be afraid to work with the best.