The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari [ペーパーバック]

This is an interesting story. It is a story of a lawyer who appears to have it all - the corner office, the life style, the cars, women, ... Then he gives it all up and tours the East. While there he comes across this strange monk and monastery. He comes to live life in a much different way. Yet he is challenged by the monk who has trained him to go back home and share the message he has learnt, with the West. Julian, our main character, returns to his old law firm and to his prot?g? John. He tells him a parable; then the rest of the book explains the parable and how it relates to different aspects of our lives. The parable is rather simple and a little strange but as it is explained you will never forget it. Read it to find out how a garden, lighthouse, sumo wrestler, pink wire cable, stopwatch, roses and a winding path of diamonds are symbols of timeless principles and virtues by which to live your life. This book could help raise the quality of your life to a new level.

It is a great self help book which explains certain powerful ideas in terms of a fable. These ideas are applicable to anyone's life. Following is a summary of what I learned from this book.

We may not be able to control the weather or traffic or the moods of all those around us. But, we certainly can control our attitude towards these events.

Chinese character for `crisis' is composed of two sub-characters: one that spells `danger' and another that spells `opportunity'. There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such a thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self mastery. From struggle, comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.

Worry causes your precious mental energy and potential to leak, just like air leaking out of an inner tube. All of your creativity, optimism and motivation has been drained, leaving you exhausted.

Saying that you don't have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying that you don't have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving. Eventually it will catch up with you. 80% of the results you achieve in your life come from only 20% of the activities that occupy your time.

There is a tremendous power in a ritual. Sports stars who eat the same meal or tie their shoes the same way before the big game are tapping into the power of ritual. If you insert any activity into your routine by doing it the same way at the same time every day, it quickly grows into a habit. For example, this technique can be used to incorporate health fitness into our lifestyle. Similarly, any other good habit like reading for expanding one's horizons etc.

Voluntary deep breathing is a very good exercise and is useful all the time. Sharma explains why. He says that breathing is normally an involuntary activity which goes on in the background. But, that background activity is good enough for survival purposes. It is not good enough for all the energetic tasks we want to undertake. Voluntary deep breathing helps us in stepping beyond our comfort zones, defeats fatigue etc. This is one good lesson which I found very useful.

Confucius said "Good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly". Only a human being can step outside of himself and analyze what he is doing right and what he is doing wrong. Then set about making immediate improvements.

If you live every day as if it was your last, your life will take on a magical quality. I would like to pluck the following summary in Sharma's own words. You sow a thought, you reap an action. Reap an action, sow a habit, Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow your character, you reap your destiny.

This book can change your life if you want it to.

Definitely for the self-help shelf, Sharma has created an interesting story and method to teach the everyday rat race runner or high flying executive simple and understandable methods and tools that can totally redesign the way you live your life if you choose to. If you are a person that feels you are exhausted, depressed, overworked, aiming high and pushing hard but find yourself in limbo, feeling like there is too much month at the end of the money and in general feel that maybe you were meant for something else, this title might just have even one small thing just for you that will make a difference to your outlook on life.

Out of personal experience, this book truly uplifted me and taught me that there is more to life than social expectations, hell-bent ambition, the constant pressure of needing to succeed and of course making the tons of money we daydream about.

They say Money can't buy happiness, but just like air you cannot do without it? Read this book and find there are other ways to breathe!