Book Review: Shift

by Stephanie Sparks

Title: Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand
Author: Peter Arnell
Cost: $26.95

Shift is one of those books that aims to change your life because author Peter Arnell changed his life – one orange at a time. Yes, the kind you peel, juice or munch on between phone calls. Arnell doesn’t think of this as a radical regimen (eating a diet almost entirely of oranges to lose 250 pounds) but instead as a personal rebranding challenge.

In between examples of his brand expert prowess (he’s worked with Banana Republic, McDonald’s and Samsung among many others), he shares the story of how he “shifted” people’s perceptions of him by achieving his weight loss goal. The story is engaging, because who doesn’t enjoy reading about someone getting in control of their life? His conversational style makes for a quick read, but he tends to use catchy phrases and wordplay that will haunt you like any solid ad campaign: “Weight loss always starts with a decision. I didn’t need an in-cision. You have to make a de-cision to change your life.” Then again, that does speak to his talent as a branding consultant.

Arnell’s ultimate message seems to be to encourage people to climb out of their old grooves and “reinvent the obvious.” “Bring out your best self and minimize what you don’t like that others may think about you,” he writes. “In our world, perception often is reality.” Not everyone is open to reinvention, mind you – if you recall the controversy surrounding the rebranding of fruit drink Tropicana, you may also recall Arnell was the man behind the new (failed) brand.

Shift is a business book that reads like a self-help book, a brief history lesson on branding and almost-but-not-quite like Arnell’s autobiography. That way readers never tire of reading just one of those elements over 26 chapters.

One warning, though: you may crave oranges within the first few pages.

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