The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny by Robin Sharma
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The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny

by

Robin Sharma

(Author)

4.6

-

15,013 ratings


Includes a bonus excerpt of Robin Sharma's upcoming The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

With more than four million copies sold in fifty-one languages, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari launched a bestselling series and continues to help people from every walk of life live with far greater success, happiness and meaning in these times of dramatic uncertainty.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari celebrates the story of Julian Mantle, a successful but misguided lawyer whose physical and emotional collapse propels him to confront his life. The result is an engaging odyssey on how to release your potential and live with passion, purpose and peace.

A brilliant blend of timeless wisdom and cutting-edge success principles, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is now, more than ever, a guide for the times, as countless Canadians dedicate themselves to living a life where family, work and personal fulfillment are achieved in harmonious balance.

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ISBN-10

0062515675

ISBN-13

978-0062515674

Print length

198 pages

Language

English

Publisher

HarperSanFrancisco

Publication date

April 01, 1999

Dimensions

5.31 x 0.5 x 8 inches

Item weight

5.8 ounces


Popular highlights in this book

  • ‘The only limits on your life are those that you set yourself.’

    Highlighted by 4,073 Kindle readers

  • ‘I am more than I appear to be, all the world’s strength and power rests inside me.’

    Highlighted by 3,825 Kindle readers


Product details

ASIN :

B005PMWLFU

File size :

719 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial reviews

Amazon.com Review

Everyone loves a good fable, and this is certainly one. The protagonist is Julian Mantle, a high-profile attorney with a whacked-out schedule and a shameful set of spiritual priorities. Of course it takes a crisis (heart attack) to give Mantle pause. And pause he does--suddenly selling all his beloved possessions to trek India in pursuit of a meaningful existence. The Himalayan gurus along the way give simple advice, such as, "What lies behind you and what lies before you is nothing compared to what lies within you." Yet it is easy to forgive the story's simplicity because each kernel of wisdom is framed to address the persistent angst of Western white-collar professionals. --Gail Hudson

Review

"A captivating story that teaches as it delights."--Paulo Coelho, author of "The Alchemist""Nothing less than sensational. This book will bless your life."--Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of "Chicken Soup for the Soul""Robin Sharma has created an enchanting tale that incorporates the classic tools of transformation into a simple philosophy of living. A delightful book that will change your life."--Elaine St. James, author of "Simplify Your Life "and "Inner Spirituality"

From the Back Cover

Wisdom to Create a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Peace

This inspiring tale provides a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance, and joy. A wonderfully crafted fable, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari tells the extraordinary story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life. On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he discovers powerful, wise, and practical lessons that teach us to:

  • Develop Joyful Thoughts,
  • Follow Our Life's Mission and Calling,
  • Cultivate Self-Discipline and Act Courageously,
  • Value Time as Our Most Important Commodity,
  • Nourish Our Relationships, and
  • Live Fully, One Day at a Time.

About the Author

Robin Sharma is one of the world’s premier thinkers on leadership, personal growth and life management. The bestselling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, ISBN: 0062515675, sold 40,000 in US; Who Will Cry When You Die?, ISBN: 1-4019-0012-7; and The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO hardcover, ISBN: 1-4019-0016-X. and four other books on self-transformation. Robin Sharma is in constant demand internationally as keynote speaker at the conferences of many of the most powerful companies on the planet including Microsoft, Nortel Networks, General Motors, FedEx and IBM. He is a resident of Ontario, Canada. For more of Robin’s knowledge, visit robinsharma.com, one of the Web’s most popular resources for success in business and in life.

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Sample

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

The Wake-Up Call

He collapsed right in the middle of a packed courtroom. He was one of this country's most distinguished trial lawyers. He was also a man who was as well known for the three-thousand-dollar Italian suits which draped his well-fed frame as for his remarkable string of legal victories. I simply stood there, paralyzed by the shock of what I had just witnessed. The great Julian Mantle had been reduced to a victim and was now squirming on the ground like a helpless infant, shaking and shivering and sweating like a maniac.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion from that point on. "My God, Julian's in trouble!" his paralegal screamed, emotionally offering us a blinding glimpse of the obvious. The judge looked panic-stricken and quickly muttered something into the private phone she had had installed in the event of an emergency. As for me, I could only stand there, dazed and confused. Please don't die, you old fool. It's too early for you to check out. You don't deserve to die like this.

The bailiff, who earlier had looked as if he had been embalmed in his standing position, leapt into action and started to perform CPR on the fallen legal hero. The paralegal was at his side, her long blond curls dangling over Julian's ruby-red face, offering him soft words of comfort, words which he obviously could not hear.

I had known Julian for seventeen years. We had first met when I was a young law student hired by one of his partners as a summer research intern. Back then, he'd had it all. He was a brilliant, handsome and fearless trial attorney with dreams of greatness. Julian was the firm's young star, the rain-maker in waiting. I can still remember walking by his regal corner office while I was working late one night and stealing a glimpse of the framed quotation perched on his massive oak desk. It was by Winston Churchill and it spoke volumes about the man that Julian was:

Sure I am that this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength;that its pangs and toils are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us. Julian also walked his talk. He was tough, hard-driving and willing to work eighteen-hour days for the success he believed was his destiny. I heard through the grapevine that his grandfather had been a prominent senator and his father a highly respected judge of the Federal Court. It was obvious that he came from money and that there were enormous expectations weighing on his Armani-clad shoulders. I'll admit one thing though: he ran his own race. He was determined to do things his own way -- and he loved to put on a show.

Julian's outrageous courtroom theatrics regularly made the front pages of the newspapers. The rich and famous flocked to his side whenever they needed a superb legal tactician with an aggressive

edge. His extra curricular activities were probably as well known. Late-night visits to the city's finest restaurants with sexy young fashion models, or reckless drinking escapades with the rowdy band of brokers he called his "demolition team" became the stuff of legend at the firm.

I still can't figure out why he picked me to work with him on that sensational murder case he was to argue that first summer. Though I had graduated from Harvard Law School, his alma mater, I certainly wasn't the brightest intern at the firm, and my family pedigree reflected no blue blood. My father spent his whole life as a security guard with a local bank after a stint in the Marines. My mother grew up unceremoniously in the Bronx.

Yet he did pick me over all the others who had been quietly lobbying him for the privilege of being his legal gofer on what became known as "the Mother of All Murder Trials": he said he liked my "hunger." We won, of course, and the business executive who had been charged with brutally killing his wife was now a free man -- or as free as his cluttered conscience would let him be.

My own education that summer was a rich one. It was far more than a lesson on how to raise a reasonable doubt where none existed -- any lawyer worth his salt could do that. This was a lesson in the psychology of winning and a rare opportunity to watch a master in action. I soaked it up like a sponge.

At Julian's invitation, I stayed on at the firm as an associate, and a lasting friendship quickly developed between us. I will admit that he wasn't the easiest lawyer to work with. Serving as his junior was often an exercise in frustration, leading to more than a few late-night shouting matches. It was truly his way or the highway. This man could never be wrong. However, beneath his crusty exterior was a person who clearly cared about people.

No matter how busy he was, he would always ask about Jenny, the woman I still call "my bride" even though we were married before I went to law school. On finding out from another summer intern that I was in a financial squeeze, Julian arranged for me to receive a generous scholarship. Sure, he could play hardball with the best of them, and sure, he loved to have a wild time, but he never neglected his friends. The real problem was that Julian was obsessed with work.

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About the authors

Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma is one of the world's premier speakers on Leadership and Personal Mastery, recently named one of the World's Top Leadership Gurus. As a presenter, Sharma has the rare ability to electrify an audience yet deliver uncommonly original and useful insights that lead to individuals doing their best work, teams providing superb results and organizations becoming unbeatable.

For nearly 20 years, many of the most well-known organizations on the planet, ranging from Nike, GE, Microsoft, FedEx, PwC, HP and Oracle to NASA, Yale University and YPO have chosen Robin Sharma for their most important events, when nothing less than a world-class speaker will do.

Sharma's books such as The Leader Who Had No Title have topped bestseller lists internationally and his social media posts reach over six hundred million people a year, making him a true global phenomenon for helping people do brilliant work, thrive amid change and realize their highest leadership capacities within the organization so that personal responsibility, productivity, ingenuity and mastery soars.

Sharma has been ranked as one of the Top 5 Leadership Gurus in the World in an independent survey of over 22,000 businesspeople and appears on platforms with other luminaries such as Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Jack Welch and Shaquille O'Neill.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

15,013 global ratings

Brittany

Brittany

5

Very good read

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2024

Verified Purchase

This book was recommended to me by a mentor. A very great read for starting over and believing in your dreams. A great lesson to change your life in a new way. I’d recommend within a self help journey

2 people found this helpful

Brian Johnson | Heroic

Brian Johnson | Heroic

5

It's a fun, quick-reading fable that lives up to its subtitle.

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

“From tonight onwards, take complete control of your life. Decide, once and for all, to be the master of your fate. Run your own race. Discover your calling and you will start to experience the ecstasy of an inspired life.”

“When you run inspiring, imaginative pictures through the movie screen of your mind, wonderful things start to happen in your life. Einstein said that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge.’ You must spend some time every day, even if it is just a few minutes, in the practice of creative envisioning. See yourself as you want to be, whether this means serving as a great judge, a great father or a great citizen of your community.”

~ Robin Sharma from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Robin Sharma is one of the world’s top leadership experts—right up there with Jack Welch and Tom Peters. In fact, he was recently recognized as the #2 leadership guru in the world. He also happens to be a great author and a super cool guy.

When I was running Zaadz, our companies did some work together and I got a copy of his book, The Greatness Guide. AMAZING. I loved it so much I had autographed copies sent to everyone on our team immediately. Several months later Robin and I connected in Los Angeles. Our breakfast turned into me driving him to the airport to continue our chat and, after 4 or 5 loops around LAX buying some time before his flight, I finally had to send him off with an “OMG! I just met a soul-brother!” hug. (Love it when that happens! :)

It's a fun, quick-reading fable that lives up to its subtitle of being about “Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny.” (Think: The Alchemist with yogi-attorneys rather than a shepherd. In fact, Paulo Coelho, another one of my absolute favorite authors, said this about the book: “A captivating story that teaches as it delights.”)

Here are some of the Big Ideas:

  1. The 7 Timeless Virtues - of enlightened living.
  2. Invest In Yourself - It’s a good investment. :)
  3. Blueprinting - It starts in your mind.
  4. Secret of Happiness - Do what you love!
  5. Rise with the Sun - Tomorrow AM good?

So, here’s to creating a gorgeous little blip on the canvas of eternity glowing with the radiance of honoring our ultimate purpose in life.

(More goodness--including PhilosophersNotes on 250+ books at[...])

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16 people found this helpful

MellaD

MellaD

5

An easy inspiring read

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

I did enjoy reading this book. It is written in a conversational tone, very easy to understand but yet profound age old wisdom is given. It offers a lot to contemplate and gives great advice. However, it is nothing new or Earth shattering. It is another spin on the same old law of attraction, visualization and postive thinking philosophy. So if you are familiar with these concepts already this book may not offer anything new.

In a nutshell it tells us that the key to a better life is the following:

  1. Set goals. There are 4 steps to goal setting: -write down your goals -put pressure on yourself to achieve this by telling others or depriving yourself of something until it is achieved. -set a timeline -visualize achieving it. See the results you want.

  2. Meditation Start by focusing on an object. He proposes a rose but it can be anything. Try to sit quietly and focus on it without letting the mind wonder for 5 mins everyday. Then gradually increase. The ability to control and have a discipline mind is very important for well being, and growth.

  3. Visualization Spend a few minutes everyday visualizing what you want. See it in your mind, feel it with your senses.

  4. Practice postive thinking. When a negative thought creeps in your mind try to catch it and turn it into something postive. Do not entertain negativity.

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22 people found this helpful

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