In this highly-accessible self-help bookBig Issuefounder John Bird explains his seven simple rules that could help you change your life. Whether you want to get a new job, quit smoking, stop drinking or go back to college,How to Change Your Life in 7 Stepsexplains how you can take what you've been given and turn it into something you'll be proud of, rather than spend your life wishing for everything you haven't got.

For 99% of us life doesn't come knocking on the door; you have to go out and get it. But the trouble with aiming for the stars is that you're likely to end up in the gutter. John Bird has learnt through his work with the homeless that if you start by putting just 3% of your energy towards your final goal rather than a gutter-hitting 99% you will eventually make the changes you are looking for.

John's six other rules are as straightforward as this first one, 'Start With 3%'. He writes with passion about the dangers of thinking like a victim and of not telling the truth; he shares with us the importance of thinking for yourself and never putting others down, and he encourages us not to define our successes by the failures of others and to recognise our own achievements.

Written in his unique no-nonsense style this is a book about 'cutting through the bullshit and making the most of what you have.'

John Bird was born just after the Second World War to a London Irish family in slum-ridden Notting Hill. Homeless at five, he went on to spend three years in an orphanage before, at the age of ten, embarking on a spree of shoplifting, house breaking, vandalism and arson. Periods in jail were followed in his twenties by the birth of three of his children and his metamorphosis into a successful businessman. At the age of 45, using his own life and professional experience, he founded theBig Issueand over the last fifteen years has overseen its development into an international movement which stretches from Tokyo to Totnes.

Make a fresh start with this life-changing book by Big Issue founder, John Bird