Robin Sharma

I read this book for a challenge. One of the worst things I have ever read.

A badly written, ultra-orientalist regurgitation of common sense, factual inaccuracies and downright dangerous declarations.

1. Most of the points of "wisdom" in this book are everyday commonsense points repackages for credulous readers.

2. The Eastern Mysticism bit is so overblown - everything is 5000 years old, everything is mystic - its utter rubbish. India is not the land of wise sages dispensing ageless wisdom - show more sure we have our share of philosophers, but so does most cultures. This entire "bunch of ageless people living on the top of the mountains" is a very old, very overblown myth.

3. Some things are hilariously inaccurate - no sandalwood does not grow on top of the Himalayas, and no vegetarianism is not "how nature intended things to be" All those carnivores are supernatural or something?

4. Some things are downright dangerous

a. be totally fearless. No. Fear can be healthy. It often functions as a survival mechanism.

b. Sunbathe in the Indian Sun. No. If you don't have a lot of melanin, that's how you get cancer. Even if you do, and you try this at anytime except winter you will die of a neat combination of sunstroke and dehydration.

c. Do not think negative thoughts, don't even allow them to enter your mind. No. That's how you become narrow minded. Rather consider the negative, find out whats causing it, examine it in detail, find out how to deal with it. See? I can write self help book too!

5. Weirdly enough in this entire lecture this book never talks about how this magical monks get things to eat. Do they practice agriculture? Hunter gatherers? Not really stated. As a fantasy reader such shoddy worldbuilding offends me.

6. Also among so much advice, there is nothing about sex or relationships except the standard "spend time with your loved ones" line. Seems to be a pretty glaring omission in a book about life.

So in conclusion, this book does not deserve the status of a book. show less

I’m conflicted, so I’m not putting a rating.
It’s awful, but life-changing at the same time.

This is one of the most over-written books I have ever picked up. It was almost painful to read. So many unnecessary adjectives. Needed a more vigorous editor, or a ghostwriter. It made me feel sorry for primary school English teachers - they have to read writing like this every day.

But, the flip side is that some of the messages landed hard. As one of the characters says on page 24; “We show more only hear what we’re ready to hear”.

For me, the lessons were worth wading through the syrup. show less

I tried. I really tried. I read many self-improvement and inspiration books. Some have used the storytelling technique that this book uses but I can safely say this has been one of the most boring books to read in a while.

Ignoring the characters and the 'tale' that are used to tell the story, it felt like the main points that stuck with me are quotes by other people. I did appreciate the 60/10 principle and the 20/20/20 idea (though I feel it won't work for everyone) but all of the good show more stuff could have been summarized in 50 pages of less.

The rest is very boring, annoying characters that really just made the book hard to read.

What I would suggest is reading a summary of the book instead of the book itself. I really wanted to like this. show less

Sorry, Robin: while your formulas for success seem simple and straightforward enough, your delivery could really use some work. This self-improvement book was written through a fictional story, which I simply couldn't get past. It was a distraction of cheesy lines and unbelievable plot, making light of the actual strategies he was trying to get across to the reader. I just couldn't take this one seriously. Get the Cliff's Notes version, and call it a day.