December 2009

I bought It’s Not What You Think
by Chris Evans not because I was particularly interested in the life of the man, although I’m not disinterested in it either – that would just be rude! And rude I am not! No, the reason I bought it, is love him or hate him, the man is incredibly successful and I wanted to discover why.

Chris Evans, for anyone living outside the UK, is a very high profile broadcaster on both radio and TV. He is without doubt an key innovator and has had a hand in changing the face of modern broadcasting, but such genius comes at a cost. He has his good days and his bad days like everyone else… When he’s at his best he’s charming and funny, at his worst he’s an annoying tosspot. But frankly I can forgive him that.

It’s tempting to write him off as a big-headed gobshite but there’s more to the man and the book gives an insight into the person behind the larger than life public persona.

I was expecting him to carry this persona through to the pages of the book but was pleasantly surprised to find that Chris Evans actually comes across as a humble man, grateful for what he has in life. He acknowledges he’s made some mistakes and appears to have done what he can to make amends.

It took me a while to get into the book and I had to force myself to read the first few chapters without skipping over bits of it, but I’m glad that I did. The story of his early life is written well enough but his writing style doesn’t really come alive until he starts to tell us about his love for radio – after which point I couldn’t put the book down.

One thing I hadn’t realised is how successful he’s been with women. I was somewhat irked by this because it’s not like he even tries that hard. To be fair though, he doesn’t boast that he can’t beat them off with a shitty stick or paint himself as God’s gift, in fact he suggests that his success is something of a surprise to him.

Another thing I hadn’t realised is how hard he worked to get to where he is today. Until I read the book I had no idea how driven he was from a very early age. I’d always believed he was a face plucked from a crowd of young thrusters to be the next big thing – when the truth of the matter is he worked his backside off, took personal and professional risks and made personal and professional sacrifices.

As I said earlier, I bought the book to find out what makes him the man he is and I came to the conclusion that it was his winning mindset. A mindset that he cultivated right from his early days.

Here are just some of the things I picked up on (but there were many more):

• Do what you love.

• Be the best.

• Play to your strengths.

• The money is nice – but it’s not everything.

• Being grumpy is a waste of time.

• We’re only here or a short time – wring every last drop out of life.

This is only the first part of his autobiography so when I reached the end I was left wanting more, but then I suppose that was the aim. I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment.

It’s Not What You Think by Chris Evans is an amusing, enlightening and enjoyable read. He comes across as honest and sincere and as a result I have a new respect for the man as both a fellow human being and a broadcaster.

He’s still a gobshite though.

Selfish Blogger

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