Book Title - Family Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Author - Robin Sharma
Genre - Personal Development and Self-Help
Number of Pages - 176 pages (10 Chapters)
Reading time - (4 hours and 3 minutes as per Kindle suggestion)
My Ratings - 🍪🍪🍪
Introduction
In this book, author, Robin Sharma shares some simple yet striking insights that unlock the natural leadership potential in us as well as our family.
He asks us to use our talents to add value to this world and quotes Tolstoy by saying, 'Let's leave a legacy that has enriched and touched many lives in a positive way.'
I read the Kindle edition and having recently subscribed to Amazon Prime account. I got access to their Prime reading library, which allows me to borrow 10 books for free at a time. How cool is that! So, I'm making the most out of this offer! Now back to the review.
Robin points out how we all value a human being by the amount of wealth he's accumulated but in reality, is completely bankrupt in terms of inner significance. He suggests valuing a person not by the size of their wallet but by the size of their heart and the strength of their character.
To parents with young children (especially aged 3-6), Robin suggests using these early years of their lives to shape and develop their characters by lavishing them with great affection, wisdom, and time.
As young children are most affected by the process of neglect, when we are never home to be with our family or spend more time watching TV than connecting with our own children. Though living under one roof, it makes them feel like we are all living separate lives.
Main Takeaways
Leadership in your life begins with leadership in your home. You must inspire everyone to make the required contribution. You must show courage when facing your own personal weaknesses and choose to process the events that don't turn up the way you'd like in a rational manner without blaming others or excusing yourself.
Rethink the way you have been conducting yourselves, your priorities - as a partner, parent, and human being. Stop sculpting your life image by the way the world wants you to be and rather start living the lives you were destined to live.
In other words, sing if you feel like singing, dance if you feel like dancing, cry if you feel like crying, and rather wear your heart on your sleeve. Live completely in the present moment and enjoy every bit of it as life is a great gift. Enjoy these basic blessings of life as its path unfolds.
Love your work, give it your all and add value to other's lives in the process. Instead of making happiness/success your life goal, make enriching other's lives your life goal-then happiness/success will come. The more you have a heartfelt desire to give to others, the more you will ultimately receive yourself.
Ideas and Suggestions
Like any self-help book, the basic premise is that the reader makes an earnest effort to inculcate the ideas and suggestions in order to improve and change their life. Similarly, this book is no different it suggests the following:
Make time to cultivate the most important human relationships especially with your partner and your children. They need you to put them first and to inspire them to develop the leadership qualities that will help them become caring individuals.
Spread Kindness. Be a contributing member of your society by making it a better place to live. Take a sacred oath to help anyone who comes to you in their time of need.
Read more wisdom literature books. Books written by the world's greatest thinkers, after all, life is all about gaining new knowledge and taking bigger risks. Be a passionate learner and have a hunger for knowledge.
As a person, the most normal thing to do is to work on yourself. Cultivate your mind, character, and spirit. It is not about competing with others but winning against yourself, growing as a person every day, and adding more value to this world.
As parents, you must instill a love of reading good books within your children. Make it a fun activity by instilling a burning sense of curiosity in them. Switch off the television and mobile phones and practice what you preach by reading good books yourself.
Schedule a 30-minute reading session every night. That's how they gain knowledge or get answers to their n number of questions. This simple night-time routine will influence and change their lives in a very positive way.
Awesome Quotes
We live for ourselves only when we live for others ~ Tolstoy
There are no great acts, only small acts done with great love.
Stop living your life by default and start living your life by design.
At the end of your life, you will find that the things you thought were the big things were actually the little things, and that all those things you thought were the little, unimportant things were actually the big, important ones.
Happiness does not arrive when you achieve certain things. It comes when you think certain thoughts. Happiness is nothing more than a state of mind that you create by the way that you process and interpret the events of your life.
Never forget that the best gift you can give your kids is the gift of your time.
The best way to inspire your children to develop into the kind of adults you dream of them becoming is to become the kind of adult you want them to be.
There is nothing noble about being superior to others. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.
The tougher you are with yourself, the easier life will be on you. The stricter you are with yourself. the gentler life will be on you. Meaning have the self-discipline to do what's right - every time - your life is certain to turn out great.
My Ratings: 🍪🍪🍪
The book revolves around the story of two siblings both well-to-do in their own industry of work. Blessed with all kinds of luxuries that life can offer until tragedy strikes and all is lost in a split of a second. The elder brother disowns himself, cuts off all human connections, sells everything he has, and goes to India in search of the monks who can help him with his current situation.
He returns enlightened and finds out that now it's his younger sister who has met with her own tragedy. He vows to share with her all the 5 mastery he gained from living with the monks in India.
The lessons shared in this book are filled with multiple fancy quotes appearing every now and then. The dialogues between the brother and sister felt pompous not natural. I mean on which planet do a brother and a sister talk to each other by quoting famous quotes one after another. Answer none. It felt like some Bollywood movie drama. Don't worry the book has some really good insightful lessons for parents to follow in their life today. I guess it's a one-time read book for me.
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