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

“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[...])

BOOK REVIEW:

The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari

by Robin Sharma

Almost fifteen years ago, my good friend Dr. Arnaldo recommended a book by Robin Sharma. He told me the story, written as a fable, was a fun, quick read. He said it was thought provoking and inspirational. And what really convinced me to pick up my own copy of The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari is that Dr. Arnaldo told me that the book changed the way he approached life.

More than a decade later, I’ve just finished reading Sharma’s fable for a second time and my friend’s recommendation rings as salient as it did back then. We so often ignore the messages around us, but thankfully I paid attention to what Dr. Arnaldo had to say about this book, and I took his advice in reading it.

Paulo Coelho, one of my favorite authors, wrote about this book: “A captivating story that teaches as it delights.¨ High praise from one of the world’s great literary figures, and well-deserved praise, I believe.

The plot begins with a successful attorney, Julian Mantle, as he journeys on a search for meaning after suffering a heart attack in the courtroom. Mantle sells his Ferrari and discovers a group of sages in the Himalayas. These sages, the Sages of Sivana, especially the Yogi Raman, adopt Julian as a student and entrust him with wisdom, which they insist he should pass on to others when he returns home. Julian’s experience with the Yogis revives a long-lost sense of purpose in him, and he finds himself reinvigorated after his time in the mountains. When he returns home he shares his wisdom, as the Sages had instructed, with his new protégé, John. This relationship develops into the main dialogue of the story.

The morality of the book, as exposed in this conversation between Julian and John, is rooted in the Seven Virtues of Enlightened Life. Julian reveals each of these one by one to his protégé. Overall, the gestalt of the message is that “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” Sharma privileges moderation, simplicity, positivity and goal-setting. Through Julian, he proposes simple suggestions for personal improvement. Julian urges self-awareness, happiness over success, ritual and meditation. He emphasizes the power of passion and the potential of the mind to attract health and happiness.

In the book, Julian also introduces the notion of “blueprinting.” By drafting blueprints in our inner worlds, he explains, we create opportunities in the outer world. This is one of the driving metaphors of the fable, and it’s become of one of the driving metaphors of my life.

Sharma writes, “Understand once and for all that your mind has the magnetic power to attract all that you desire into your life. If there is lack in your life it is because there is lack in your thoughts.” This idea is earth-shattering if you accept it.

The novel is a love story to human potential. It flirts with the mystic in search of practical approaches to living. It challenges our notions of reality by exploring themes we often ignore in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.

I encourage you strongly to take some time out of your day and pick up this book. You don’t have to sell your Ferrari and move to the Himalayas to reap the rewards of the main character’s words. It’s a fable the truest sense of that genre—entertaining and didactic. You’ll learn and you’ll enjoy learning.

With December upon us, the urge to make resolutions is strong. But resolutions are fleeting. This book explores real mission-building. Blueprinting, as Sharma puts it, is about more than the traditional external goal. It’s about a mindset. It’s about finding purpose within and channeling that purpose to achieve happiness out in the world. That message is especially important as awe all prepare for the new year.

Fifteen years later, I’m so glad Dr. Arnaldo first recommended this book, so now I’m recommending it to all of you. This was a message in my life and I hope it can be one in yours.

Last December, I met Robin Sharma. I took a chance and signed up for his Titan's Conference in Toronto. I didn't know what to expect, but I ended up getting so much out of the event. I’m excited to attend that conference again this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing Robin there. Maybe I’ll be able to share some added insights with you when I get back!

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.

Over the 76 years of my life I have read thousands of books on a wide range of topics. One of my favorite kinds of books includes self-help books with philosophical themes. I recently purchased this 198 page soft cover book (The Monk who sold his Ferrari: A fable about fulfilling your dreams and reaching your destiny by Robin S. Sharma) from Amazon for a bargain price after it was recommended to me by a friend.

Once I began reading this book it reminded me of a previous book I had read many years ago called “Lost Horizon” by James Hilton which was also made into a movie. This is a story about a work driven lawyer named Julian Mantle who realizes his life did not have the purpose he has been seeking for so many years. He quits being a lawyer and begins a quest which would take him to the mystical mountains of the Tibet in search of meaning to his life. He winds up meeting a mysterious and wise Monk who leads him to a place called Sivana, which sounds a lot like the “Shangri-La” in the book and movie “Lost Horizon.”

I never like to give away too much information and spoil it for the reader but the lessons in this book may inspire you to search for your own life’s purpose. There are 13 chapters covering the wakeup call, the mysterious visitor, the transformation of Julian Mantle, a magical meeting with the Sages of Sivana, the wisdom of personal change, a most extraordinary garden, kindling your inner fire, the ancient art of self-leadership, the power of discipline, your most precious commodity, the ultimate purpose of life and the timeless secret of lifelong happiness. Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Martial Art and Warrior Haiku and Senryu)

In "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari," Robin S. Sharma clothes sound advice for spiritual and personal growth in a thin mantle of fiction that delivers much instruction but minimal entertainment. However, Sharma's fictional approach makes for an easy read and good retention of his key principles.

Spiritual/metaphysical content: The narrator spends one revelation-filled night with Julian Mantle learning the fundamentals of spiritual growth. Julian imparts everything he has learned from his time with the Sivana monks, cramming a lifetime of wisdom into their short time together. Sharma structures the lessons into seven chapters based on a short fable full of symbols. Each symbol represents a key idea from the Seven Basic Principles for Enlightened Living. Each chapter ends with an action page that summarizes the symbol, what you need to remember, and techniques to try, such as the Ten Rituals for Radiant Living.

My take: Sharma calls his book a "fable" in the subtitle, but it is both more and less than that. The fable part takes place in the opening chapters of the book, in which we discover that the hard-driven attorney has moved to India, become a monk, and after three years has returned to pass on his wisdom to his protégé. That's the extent of the story, and character development fares little better. As a work of fiction, the book leaves much to be desired.

However, as a collection of easy-to-digest life strategies and pearls of wisdom, the book is quite satisfying. Sharma has organized the book around a short fable about a garden full of symbols (a fable within a fable), which makes it easy to understand and follow his 30-day plan to enlightened living. The give-and-take of dialog between Julian Mantle and his student rescues the story from the tedium of an instructional guide. If your primary goal as a reader is to quickly absorb the core of Sharma's life improvement teaching, then this book is a great place to start.