This is not so much a manifesto, as a set of guidelines that Paul Arden published in his book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be in 2003.
His ideas are better read in the context of his book, but below is a quick selection of points...
1. Energy is 75% of the job. If you haven’t got it, be nice.
2. Do not seek praise, seek criticism.
3. If you are involved in something that goes wrong, blame no one but yourself
4. Do not hide your ideas away from others. Give away everything you know and more will come back to you. (if you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish)
5. Ideas are open knowledge, don’t claim ownership! They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s. They are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to pick them up.
6. Produce the best solution to today’s brief, not tomorrow’s, however boring. (don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity)
7. Accentuate the positive. Find out what’s right about your product or service and then dramatize it, like a cartoonist exaggerates an action.
8. Avoid knocking the competition
9. Do not put your cleverness in front of communication. Spend more time finding out what the problem is, to find the solution. If you ask the right question you get the right answer.
10. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Show that you understand the weaknesses, and how to resolve them to build a trusting relationship.
11. Do it the client’s way, then do it your way. Then they might look at what you’re offering. Don’t take no for an answer. If they don’t like your work, re-do it and show them again.
12. Do the work, bring it into existence – don’t wait for someone to back it. When they see it they’ll back it.
13. Make something. The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.
14. It’s wrong to be right. Being right is based upon knowledge that is provable but out of date, concrete and at times inflexible.
15. It’s right to be wrong. Start being wrong and anything is possible. You’re no longer trying to be perfect. Being wrong is nothing but being in the present.
16. Don’t concentrate on a good idea but then rely on fashion to finish the layout.