Peter Arnell - Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand

For my family

Part One

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

Part Two

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

You need dreams to live. Its as essential as aroad to walk on and as bread to eat. I wouldhave felt myself dying if this dream wouldhave been taken away from me by reason.
PHILIPPE PETIT
Reflecting on his high-wire walk between the World Trade Center towers on August 7, 1974

PETER ARNELL IS ALL ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS . He creates. He thinks. He learns. He teaches. He invents. And he reinvents.

Few of us do as much in a lifetime as Peter can do in a decade. Give him two decades, or three, and the productivitythe changes wrought, the new things envisioned, the fresh ideas devised, the unthinkable accomplishmentsis mind-boggling.

The original and authentic work that Peter and his companies have so beautifully createdthe branding, the products, the reimaging, the experiences, the environmentsis legendary in fashion, electronics, automotive, and consumer marketing and manufacturing. And now Peter has added a new dimension to his work: the personal shifting of the manhimself.

Always an avid student, an inveterate researcher, and a passionate collector, Peter focuses his attention in this book on what one can do oneself that will change forever ones personal landscape, in order to live a better, more fulfilling, more interesting, and more balanced existence. Famous for the extreme, Peter has written how he has turned that penchant for the extreme into a positive and new direction for a different kind of life, while never sacrificing his quest for being the best.

If it meant learning how to invent a dietary regimen based on consuming an extreme number of oranges and quantities of raw fish and vegetables in order to shed more than 256 pounds, then Peter learned.

If it meant defying all the odds by inventing the Peapod, a new type of car that would use far less fuel and leave a much smaller carbon footprint, or HomeHero, an eco-friendly fire extinguisher, then Peter defied them.

If it meant adapting to a new lifestyle and living it every day in order to cope with weight loss, a much leaner body, and a new wardrobe of beautiful clothing, then Peter adapted.

Shift is about Peters business acumen. Its about extreme thinking with practical applications. Its about taking what is there and mixing it all up and emerging with something so much better, so much more modern, so much more useful and sensible, that one cannot imagine that anything different was ever there in the first place.

Shift is an idea that everyone can use. Its about moving forward, not looking backward, and changing for the better and forever.

Good luck with your own Shift!

Martha Stewart

Italy, August 2009

A room service waiter walked into my room. He brought me a big bowl of navel oranges, as I requested. A few hours later, he came back with another bowl of oranges, which I had also requested. He asked why I ate so many oranges, so I told him how I lost 256 pounds and changed things about myself as a person that were making me unhappy. Every day he brought me my bowl of oranges, on multiple occasions. Then, one day, he told me that he had started eating oranges himself. He was already thin and didnt look like he needed to lose weight, so I asked him why he started eating oranges. He said, Everyone can use some change for the better in life. So since oranges work for you and make you happy, I thought I would try them, too. By the time my stay at that hotel was over, the waiter said he was feeling buonissimo.

IT ALL STARTED with oranges. Many oranges.

If I were to reach out right now to shake your hand, you would probably be surprised to see the color of my hands. People always stare at the deep orange glow my hands give off. Its a loud, warm orange, not a color that anyone expects to see on someones hands. But since I look fit and trim and healthy, people usually just wonder, ask nicely, or shrug it off. Fact is, my hands are orange-colored because for years I have been peeling and eating as many as fifty oranges a day.

I cant pinpoint the moment I went orange and set about transforming myself and changing my life. As much as I talk about oranges as if they were part of a careful plan, the truth is that I started eating a lot of oranges mostly because I liked the way they tasted, they were available anywhere in the world, and I liked the way peeling and eating an orange kept me focused. The oranges became a ritual as much as a healthy snack. They became almost a touchstone for change. I knew I was 100 percent serious about transforming myself, and eating many, many oranges, from all over the worldin season, out of season, organic, or conventionalhelped me keep on track.

Wherever I go, I strike up conversations about all the oranges I carry around with me; I also get some of the most curious looks. In a business meeting, walking around, traveling, driving in the car, or watching TV, I always have oranges with me. I carry them in a small wicker basket or paper bag, which never fails to elicit the question Whats in there? They get everyone talking and are a great way to open up a conversation. Oranges have become my symbol for change. Now, when people I know visit me, they bring me oranges. For my birthday, holidays, thank-yous, greetings, and all other kinds of reasons, friends send me bags and boxes of oranges. On the road in various far-off cities, while other travelers find themselves welcomed in their hotel rooms with bottles of wine or champagne or baskets full of crackers and chocolate-covered strawberries, I am welcomed by a big beautiful bowl of oranges.

When I plan my travel to cities where I need to go, I think about the great places I have discovered where I can load up on the best orangesWhole Foods in L.A., Sembikiya in Tokyo, Fauchon in Paris, Peck in Milan, Harrods Food Court in London, and Chelsea Market in New York. On long international flights, I bring as many as fifty oranges. Usually I cant eat all of them, so at the end, I offer some to the flight attendants, who seem to love them. When I show up to see my friend Frank Gehry, the architect, at his office in L.A., his staff announces me as Orange Man.

Im constantly peeling oranges. But truth be told, the oranges peeled me as well. Thats what theyve done for a long time. They peeled away layers within me. They convinced me that I could change. That I didnt have to remain the way I wasa 400-plus-pound man in what should have been a 150-pound body. Of course, Im not forgetting the physicality of the orangesthe vitamins they contain, their sweetness, and their acidity. But they are far more than food to me. Oranges have become a talisman, a touchstone. They delivered me from my previous life, from the hope and disappointment that accompanied my earlier efforts to lose weight. They helped to give me back my 150-pound body.