You are sitting in the middle of a magnificent, lush, green garden. This garden is filled with the most spectacular flowers you have ever seen. The environment is supremely tranquil and silent. Savor the sensual delights of this garden and feel as if you have all the time in the world to enjoy this natural oasis. As you look around you see that in the center of this magical garden stands a towering red lighthouse, 5 stories high. Suddenly, the silence of the garden is disturbed by a loud creaking as the door at the base of the lighthouse opens. Out stumbles a nine-foot-tall nine-hundred-pound Japanese sumo wrestler who casually wanders into the center of the garden. As this sumo wrestler starts to move around the garden, he fins a shiny gold stopwatch which someone had left behind many years earlier. He slips it on, and falls to the ground with an enormous thud. The sumo wrestler is rendered unconscious and lies there, silent and still. Just when you think he has taken his last breath, the wrestler awakens, perhaps stirred by the fragrance of some fresh yellow roses blooming nearby. Energized, the wrestler jumps swiftly to his feet and intuitively looks to his left. He is startled at what he sees. Through the bushes at the very edge of the garden, he observes a long winding path covered by millions of sparkling diamonds. Something seems to instruct the wrestler to take the path, and to his credit, he does. This path leads him down the road of everlasting joy and eternal bliss.
(character Julian in "Monk who sold his Ferrari")
Okay, you might be wandering where am I going with this mystical fable. This intriguing fable disguises the essense of what the author wants to convey to us.
So what does the author want to share? Rest assured, I will leave that surprise to you. Let me just say that this self-help book is quite inspiring. Having said that, I also felt a sense of deja vu reading some of the concepts mentioned. Concepts like 80:20 principle(also called Pareto’s principle), "Imagine today is your last day on earth; how would you plan your day?", "we’re spiritual beings having a human experience’......have been spread around by earlier writers to the world.
Me thinks, the author Robin Sharma is deeply influenced by Stephen Covey’s "7 habits of highly Effective People" and his other books becauese so many of the writings here are also found(but presented differently) in the highly popular Covey ones. You can check out the author at https://robinsharma.com. Look at his pic; he has even hair-styled himself like Stephen Covey :)
Anyway, its still a worthy read. But, you do need to be patient. There’s tendency for you to fall forward into a deep slumber after being stuffed with so much of self-help jargons although the author tries to make the presentation lively by offering it as an engaging talk between the two characters Julian and John in the book.
The story has Julian, a high-flying extremely successful lawyer, collapsing one day on court due to sheer exhaustion. His failing health and broken marriage life shakes his spirit and discarding every asset he has including his prized Ferrari, this disturbed man ventures into the Himalayas to seek truth and everlasting happiness. Years later, he comes back more healthy and stronger than ever before and shares the secret of permanent success and joy to his best friend & lawyer John.
I heard that the book is going to be released as a major motion picture. Hmmm...I wonder how commercially successful it would be. Have you read the non-fiction bestseller "The Celestine Prophecy"? This inspiring read was also released as a movie few months ago. But it failed at the box-office and only a minority viewed it. Anyway, best of luck for any movie ventures about the Ferrari monk :)
So, if you have not read Stephen Covey yet, you will find our monk very enriching. Frankly, Stephen’s 7 Habits is better however Robin is also smart enough to put the thoughts across as a fable ’cause we tend to retain information better if it’s in the form of a story or image.
Verdict - hug(read) it without hesitation but CAUTION - you may end up selling your prized Ferrari, Ambassador, Mahindra or Innova :)