Robin Sharma, "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari": reviews, quotes, summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Only a hundred years ago, it was believed that if a person is noble and rich, he has 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 in every way, and an entire industry is even built on it. Every year, dozens of books are published in the world that promise the reader to discover the secrets of achieving a cherished goal. Among the most famous authors of such literature is the Canadian Robin Sharma. His motivational books are popular all over the world, but are they really as good as the many eulogies say?

Biography of Robin Sharma

At one time, Fitzgerald claimed that every writer has only one story, which he tells repeatedly. What is Sharma's story?

The future author was bornbestsellers in the Canadian town of Nova Scotia in March 1965. The Sharma family had Indian roots, so Robin practically absorbed many 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.

Growing up and striving to succeed, Sharma chose one of the most prestigious professions - a lawyer.

After receiving a doctorate in jurisprudence from one of the universities, the young and ambitious Robin began to build a career. His talent as an orator, charm and colossal ability to work helped him in this. That's just, achieving success, he did not feel the joy of 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 through India and other eastern countries, famous for their wisdom since ancient times, Robin gradually joined the culture of his ancestors, which he did not remember for a long time, striving to succeed in modern society. Having de alt 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 as a writer, public 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 by Robin Sharma. These books were soonmerits are appreciated by readers, and their author attracted the attention of the Canadian publishing company Harper Collins. They signed a contract with Sharma and in the future began to publish all his works in Canada and the USA. Having familiarized themselves with the content of the writer's works and having tried some of the techniques he proposed, the management of the publishing company quickly realized that the books written by Robin Sharma were very useful for personal development, and they would be a success with readers not only in Canada, but all over the world.

Sharma's first four works performed well, but the 5th book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, brought real 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 by Sharma, its author wrote many other interesting works that readers loved. However, this was not enough for their author, since he wanted to share his discoveries with others personally. Therefore, in parallel with his writing activities, Sharma began to lecture and conduct seminars on motivation. Over time, the former lawyer has become one of the best business coaches in the world, whose services are used by many we althy and successful famous people. Paradoxically, due to the fact that Robin Sharma found a way to apply Eastern methods of personality development to Western people, he became richer and more popular than if he had remained an ordinary lawyer. And most importantly, Sharma managed to keep peace with himself, which he considers his mainmerit. Today he is not only a successful writer and business coach, but also the happy husband of Alka and the father of Colby and Bianca. As Robin himself admits, his life is a full cup of abundance, which he generously shares with everyone.

Famous works of the writer

The parable "The monk who sold his Ferrari" is the most popular among readers among Sharma's writings. Its author has written many more entertaining works designed to help everyone put their spiritual state in order and achieve what they want.

After the story about the monk, Robin Sharma also published other books, the character of which was still the same former lawyer Mantle loved 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 Epistles 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 attention potential readers who might not have noticed the new edition if not for the mention of Julian Mantle in the title.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: Characters and Structure

A student and his mentor are in the center of the plot, and the form of narration is a dialogue between them, reminiscent of oriental parables in style.

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 thirty-year-old man full of strength. In a past life, he was an extremely successful lawyer, earning seven figures annually. He was respected and envied, however, all this did not bring happiness to the hero.

Determining to change his life, he sold all his possessions and became a wandering monk, sharing with everyone the knowledge he received in India. This character has many features of the author himself, but it is not worth completely identifying Robin and Julian.

The apprentice is Mantle's ex-lawyer partner John, who is also the narrator. Unlike Julian, he was the son of simple hard workers and achieved success with his work. At the beginning of his career, John took an example from Julian, whom he sincerely admired. As Mantle waned spiritually and lost his grip, the adoration of his young colleague grew into filial sympathy. After the return of the transformed Julian, his friend happily agreed to become his apprentice.

Another character in the book is Julian's mentor, Yogi Raman from Sivana. He is the same age as Mantle, but wiser. The book mentions that once the mentor's son died. Because of this, he treated Julian with paternal care, believing that the Universe sent him to replace the lost child.

"The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" Briefcontent

The story begins with Julian Mantle having a heart attack right in the courthouse. Doctors save him, but advise the hero to quit his job if he wants to survive. Julian leaves the practice of law, sells all his property for next to nothing, including the luxurious Ferrari, which he was very proud of for a long time. After which he leaves for India for 3 years.

One evening, an unknown young man comes to John's office. Looking closer and hearing the visitor's voice, the owner of the office is surprised to recognize the rejuvenated Julian in him. 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 his lessons and, after saying goodbye to his friend, leaves. John, on the other hand, notices his empty cup on the table, 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 a story about various methods of self-improvement. So the main character Julian invites his ward to perform certain rituals for 21 days, which should help him take a different look at the world to find spiritual harmony and happiness. Herethe main ones:

• "Loneliness". It is important for a person to be alone at least a few minutes a day, in silence, 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.
• He althy Eating. The food a person eats affects their spiritual state.
• "Early Wake Up". Six hours of sleep is enough for the human body to function normally. The best is to wake up at sunrise and meditate in the morning, as well as thinking about your plans for the coming day.
• "Dive into knowledge". For the development of personality, it is necessary to constantly acquire new knowledge. This promotes self-improvement and will help others to be useful.
• "Your reflection". One must not forget oneself, because a person is not capable of experiencing love for others without loving and respecting himself.
• "Music". Listening to musical compositions can not only cheer you up, but also add strength.
• "The spoken word." It is constantly necessary to say aloud positively tuning phrases - mantras. They help to focus and set your thinking in the right way.
• "Harmonious character". Every day you need to monitor your character and work on its improvement.
• "Simplicity". You need to be able to find joy in everyday little things. At the same time, you need to clearly define what you live for and constantly follow this goal.

"The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" Quotes

In the text of the parable there are many catchphrases of famous authors: from Bernard Shaw to Confucius. In addition, a collection of motivating quotes is placed on both endpapers of the publication.

There are other original design features of the book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". An annotation to it is a collection of statements about this work by other famous writers. By the way, among them are the words of Paulo Coelho, whose novel "The Alchemist" is Sharma's favorite.

It is worth mentioning that for many well-known politicians is the reference book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". The positive feedback from these readers and their use of Sharma's principles is the best advertisement for this manual.

Positive feedback from readers

Most bookstore websites on the internet have enthusiastic comments 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 what they wanted in life and not lose spiritual harmony on the way to the goal.

It is noteworthy that we althy people in their reviews characterize Sharma's parable as a guide that helped them learn to relax and enjoy simple everyday little things again. And less successful readers, who are still ahead, appreciate the methods in this work, how to achieve the desired goal. However,the first and second call Sharma's work a real revelation, teaching the pragmatic people of the West to use the ancient secrets of the Indian sages.

On most commercial forums, you can find the most enthusiastic responses from 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-commercial sites and forums you can find very different opinions about this book.

The opinions of those who did not like the work

Unlike positive, negative ratings are more informative about the real advantages and disadvantages of the essay "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari".

Reviews of those who did not like the story of Mantle's transformation often mention that the first part of the story is more interesting, but the second is much inferior to it. In other words, while John is telling his friend's story, it's exciting, but when Julian begins to discover the secrets of success, it becomes boring. Most often, readers explain this by the fact that for people familiar with the religious teachings of the East, the presentation of information by the writer seems superficial. At the same time, the majority notes that if they had read this essay at an earlier age, perhaps it would not have seemed boring.

The design of the covers of some publications, which depict a monk in an orange robe, is a separate criticism. The fact is that, according to the plot of the book, both Julian and the sages of Sivana wore scarlet robes with bluehooded.

Pros and cons of the piece

The main advantage of the parable of the monk is that he simplified and adapted the basic postulates of Eastern beliefs for business people who do not have time to delve into something for a long time. At the same time, this is a huge weakness of this work, because for readers who are familiar with classical fiction and spiritual literature, this manual will seem like just a collection of torn 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 overly fixated on physical he alth as a sign of spiritual balance. But practice shows that many successful people do not have ideal he alth.

For example, Mother Teresa, during her most famous years, suffered from heart disease and, despite this, continued her work. Steven Jobs had pancreatic cancer in recent years, which did not prevent him from successfully promoting Apple products for 8 years. And the famous Christian preacher Nick Vuychich, who was 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 has written several motivational books that everyone should read.

Another feature of Sharma's composition is that it is good for people in rich countries and much worse for poor people.

After all, according toMaslow's pyramid (which serves as a clear illustration of human needs), first the individual has basic needs: food, clothing, safety, love - and only then the thirst for success and self-expression. It turns out that when citizens of rich countries (such as the USA and Canada, where Sharma's work was most successful), provided with everything necessary, begin to look for themselves - the parable of the monk can help them. However, to the inhabitants of countries in which the majority of the inhabitants barely make ends meet, all the searches of the protagonist of the work will seem like the stupidity of a snickering rich man.

Weighing the positive and negative aspects of Robin Sharma's book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari", we can say with confidence that this essay will be interesting to read for those who are not familiar with motivational literature. For such readers, this book will open up many new and useful things.