Only a hundred years ago it was believed that if a person is noble and rich, he achieved everything. But today, in most countries of the world, an indicator of a person’s status is his success. The cult of success is stubbornly promoted by all means, and the whole industry is even built on this. Every year, dozens of books are published in the world that promise the reader to discover the secrets of achieving their cherished goal. Among the most famous authors of such literature is Canadian Robin Sharma. His motivational aids are popular all over the world, but are they really good, as they say in numerous laudatory annotations?
Robin Sharma biography
At one time, Fitzgerald claimed that every writer has only one story, which he tells many times. What is the story of Sharm?
The future best-selling author was born in the Canadian town of Nova Scotia in March 1965. The Sharma family had Indian roots, so Robin practically absorbed many of the traditions of the East with his mother’s milk. However, life in a country like Canada requires certain stereotypes of behavior from a person, and the future writer was no exception.
Having matured and striving to achieve success, Sharma chose one of the most prestigious professions - a lawyer.
Having received a doctorate in law from a university, a young and ambitious Robin began to build a career. His talent as a speaker, charm and colossal ability to work helped him in this. That's just, achieving success, he did not feel joy from it. Realizing that he needed to understand himself, Robin Sharma decided to leave his law practice for a while and go to the homeland of his ancestors.
Traveling in India and other eastern countries, which were famous for their wisdom since ancient times, Robin gradually joined the culture of his ancestors, which he did not remember for a long time, trying to achieve success in modern society. Having dealt with the problems, the man decided to share his discoveries on how you can improve your life and gain peace of mind. To do this, he wanted to write a book.
Career writer, speaker and business coach
Unfortunately, none of the publishers believed in the beginning writer. Then he collected the necessary funds on his own and published his first few manuals on motivation and self-improvement Robin Sharma. These books were soon appreciated by readers, and their author attracted the attention of the Canadian publishing company Harper Collins. They signed a contract with Sharm and in the future began publishing all his works in Canada and the United States. After reviewing the content of the writer's works and trying out some of the techniques he proposed, the management of the publishing company quickly realized that very useful books written by Robin Sharma for personal development, and they will be popular with readers not only in Canada but throughout the world.
The first four works of Sharma proved to be quite good, but the 5th book, “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,” brought true success and reader love. A parable about the fulfillment of desires and the search for one's destiny ”(1997).
After the success of this work of Sharma, its author wrote many more interesting compositions that readers liked. However, this was not enough for their author, since he wanted to share his discoveries with others personally. Therefore, in parallel with the writing activity of Sharma, he began to give lectures and conduct seminars on motivation. Over time, the former lawyer became one of the best business trainers in the world, whose services are used by many wealthy and successful well-known personalities. Paradoxically, due to the fact that Robin Sharma found a way to apply the Eastern methods of personality development for Western people, he became richer and more popular than if he remained an ordinary lawyer. And most importantly, Sharma managed to maintain peace with himself, which he considers his main merit. Today, he is not only a successful writer and business coach, but also Alka’s happy husband and father of Colby and Bianchi. As Robin himself admits, his life is a full bowl of abundance, which he shares with everyone with a generous hand.
Famous works of the writer
The most popular among readers among the works of Sharma is the parable “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. Her author has written many more entertaining works designed to help everyone to put their spiritual condition in order and achieve what they want.
After the story of the monk, Robin Sharma also published other books, the character of which was still the same former lawyer Mantle, beloved by readers. In fact, in the titles of most of his subsequent works, their author simply made a reference to his most famous book.
An example is the title of the manual “9 Messages of the Monk Who Sold his Ferrari”, translated into Russian in 2015. By positioning this book as a continuation of the parable of the lawyer-monk, its author in this way attracts the attention of potential readers who, perhaps they would not have paid attention to the new edition, if not for the mention of Julian Mantle in the title.
“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”: Characters and Structure
In the center of the plot are the student and his mentor, and the narrative form is a dialogue between them, reminiscent of the style of oriental parables.
The teacher is Julian Mantle, a hereditary lawyer. At the beginning of the story, he is fifty-three, but he looks like a seventy-year-old man. Returning from India, outwardly he becomes like a full-bodied thirty-year-old man. In a past life, he was an extremely successful lawyer, earning seven-figure amounts annually. He was respected and envied by him, however, all this did not bring the hero happiness.
Deciding to change his life, he sold all his property and became a wandering monk, sharing with every knowledge gained in India. This character has many features of the author himself, however, Robin and Julian should not be fully identified.
The student is John Mantle's former partner in advocacy, who is also a storyteller. Unlike Julian, he was the son of simple hard workers and achieved success through his labor. At the beginning of his career, John followed suit with Julian, whom he sincerely admired. As Mantle became spiritually exhausted and lost his former grip, the adoration of his young colleague grew into filial sympathy. After the return of the transformed Julian, his friend joyfully agreed to become his student.
Another character in the book is Julian’s mentor himself, the yogi Raman of Sivana. He is a one-year-old Mantle, however wiser. The book mentions that once a son died at a mentor. Because of this, he treated paternal care with Julian, believing that the Universe sent him in return for the lost child.
“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”: Summary
The story begins with how Julian Mantle had a heart attack right in the courthouse. Doctors save him, but they advise the hero to quit his job if he wants to survive. Julian leaves the practice of law, sells all his property for nothing, including the luxurious Ferrari, which he has been very proud of for a long time. After which he leaves for India for 3 years.
One evening, an unknown young man arrives at John's office. Looking closely and hearing the voice of the visitor, the owner of the office is surprised to recognize in him the younger Julian. John really wants to know how his friend managed to achieve such an appearance and he agrees to become his student. Since then, Mantle often comes to his ward and tells him about the secrets of a happy and fulfilling life, which he learned in the lost village of the eastern sages - Sivan.
Gradually, listening to the stories of his mentor, the student changed. At the end of the book, Julian finishes her lessons and, saying goodbye to a friend, leaves. John, on the table, notices his empty cup, which, as it were, symbolizes that, despite the wisdom achieved by the main character, he does not stop changing and working on himself.
Daily rituals from the book
The lion's share of the work is occupied by a story about various methods of self-improvement. So the protagonist Julian offers his ward for 21 days to perform certain rituals that should help him take a different look at the world to find spiritual harmony and happiness. Here are the main ones:
- "Loneliness". It is important for a person to be alone, in silence, at least a few minutes a day, in order to understand himself.
- "Physical perfection." Flesh and spirit are interconnected and constant training of the body contributes to the development of spiritual strength.
- "Healthy eating." The food that a person eats affects his spiritual condition.
- "Early Awakening." Six hours of sleep are enough for the human body to function normally. The best way is to wake up with sunrise and morning meditation, as well as thoughts about your plans for the coming day.
- "Immersion in knowledge." For the development of personality, it is necessary to constantly acquire new knowledge. This contributes to self-improvement and helps to be useful to others.
- "Your reflection." We must not forget ourselves, because a person is not able to feel love for others, not loving and not respecting himself.
- "Music". Listening to musical compositions you can not only cheer yourself up, but also add strength.
- "The spoken word." It is constantly necessary to speak out positively setting phrases - mantras. They help you focus and set your thinking in the right way.
- "Harmonious character." Every day you need to monitor your character and work on improving it.
- "Simplicity". You must be able to find joy in everyday things. In this case, you need to clearly determine why you live and constantly follow this goal.
“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”: Quotes
In the text of the parable, there are many winged phrases of famous authors: from Bernard Shaw to Confucius. In addition, a collection of motivating quotes is posted on both bookends of the publication.
There are other original design features for the book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.” An annotation to it is a collection of statements about this work of other famous writers. By the way, among them are the words of Paulo Coelho, whose novel Alchemist is a favorite of Sharm.
It is worth mentioning that for many well-known politicians it is a handbook "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari." The positive feedback from these readers and the fact that they use the principles of Charm is the best advertisement for this manual.
Positive Reader Reviews
On most online bookstore sites, there are rave sayings about the story of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.” These reviews contain numerous thanks and stories about how this work influenced the fate of readers and helped to achieve the desired in life and not lose spiritual harmony on the way to the goal.
It is noteworthy that wealthy people in their reviews characterize the parable of Sharma as a tool that helped them learn to relax and rejoice in simple everyday details. Less successful readers, who are still ahead, appreciate in this work methods of how to achieve the desired goal. However, the first and second call Sharm's work a real revelation, which taught the pragmatic people of the West to use the ancient secrets of Indian sages.
In most commercial forums, you can find the most enthusiastic responses of readers about the work "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari." These reviews, however, are often just a publicity stunt to draw attention to the book. Whereas on non-profit sites and forums you can find very different opinions about this book.
Opinions of those who did not like the work
In contrast to positive, negative assessments are more informative about the real strengths and weaknesses of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.”
Reviews of those who did not like the story about the transformation of Mantle often contain references to the fact that the first part of the story is more interesting, but the second is much inferior to it. In other words, while John tells the story of his friend - it carries away, only when Julian begins to reveal the secrets of success - it becomes boring. Most often, readers attribute this to the fact that people familiar with the religious teachings of the East, the presentation of information by the writer seems superficial. However, the majority notes that if they had read this essay at an earlier age, perhaps it would not have seemed boring.
Separately, a gripe is caused by the design of the covers of some publications, which depict a monk in an orange robe. The fact is that according to the plot of the book, both Julian and the sages of Sivan wore scarlet hoodies with blue hoods.
Pros and cons of the work
The main advantage of the parable about the monk is that his author simplified and adapted the basic tenets of Eastern creeds for business people who do not have time to delve into something for a long time. At the same time, this is the enormous weakness of this work, because for reading people who are familiar with classical fiction and spiritual literature, this manual will seem like just a collection of worn quotes from various sources.
If we analyze this work as a motivating tool for success, then it is much inferior to other books of this kind. The problem is that its author is excessively fixated on physical health, as a sign of spiritual balance. That's just practice shows that many successful people do not have perfect health.
For example, Mother Teresa, in the years of her greatest fame, suffered from heart disease and, despite this, continued her work. In recent years, Steven Jobs had pancreatic cancer, which did not prevent him from successfully promoting Apple products for 8 years. And the famous Christian preacher Nick Vuychich, born without arms and legs, managed, despite his disability, to become an example for millions of other people with special needs. By the way, this man wrote several motivating books that everyone should read.
Another feature of the work of Sharma is that it is well suited for the inhabitants of rich countries and much worse for the poor.
Indeed, according to the
Maslow pyramid (which serves as a visual illustration of a person’s needs), first the basic needs of a person come: food, clothing, security, love - and only then the thirst for success and self-expression. It turns out that when the citizens of rich countries (such as the USA and Canada, where Sharma's labor was most successful), provided with everything necessary, begin to look for themselves - the parable about the monk can help them. However, the inhabitants of countries in which most residents can hardly make ends meet, all the searches of the protagonist of the work will seem stupid to the rich rich man.
Weighing the positive and negative sides of Robin Sharm’s book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”, we can confidently say that this composition will be interesting to read for those who are not familiar with motivating literature. For such readers, this book will open a lot of new and useful.