Saint, The Surfer and the CEO, The - Robin Sharma

Now, this is a very interesting book on personal values.

We all long for motivation but how many of us really understand its essence!

Robin Sharma poses this question to us!

He presents our personal quest in form of analogy of a business executive.

Yes, Saint, The Surfer and the CEO makes us realize- what are we going to gain after a particular milestone.

It makes us realise - are we going to be another star at the cost of personal happiness.

This is really a good book and better than many  acclaimed foreign writers .

After reading it, one really felt proud of Robin for changing our life for good!

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Robin Sharma, the author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari opens a bit more about his heart in his book The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO.

In Robin’s own words, ‘This book is a work of fiction. It’s a story about a man named Jack Valentine, whose path in life was in many ways similar to my own’ and later in the paragraph he confirms that ‘….they’re the lessons that have transformed me’

Jack Valentine a successful lawyer but having a failed family relation met an accident and reached the hospital bed (Somebody smell a monk?) there he meet Cal, who turned out to be his father he didn’t seen earlier.(which he knows only after Cal’s death).   The caring father guide his son to 3 noble people who are very successful in life and very good in advising people, Father Mike (The Saint), Moe Jackson (The Surfer) & Tess Welch (The CEO).   The message is entirely delivered by talkathons first between Jack with Cal, then with the 3 advisers.

The main question the book throw to us are :

DID I LIVE WISELY?

DID I LOVE WELL?

DID I SERVE GREATLY?

The 3 advisers help us to reflect on the questions where a lot and lot of good advises are filled in the conversation.

-Everything happens for a reason and there are no accidents in life.

-Some balls, like the one that represent career, are made of rubber.  If we drop them, they have the ability to bounce back.  But some balls are made of glass- family is like that.  If you drop that ball, it doesn’t come back.

-Live like a pencil and you’ll have a fine life (with reference to concentration)

-There is no chaos in the world, only order

-For my life to change, I must change.  One of the best ways to do that is by getting the simple fact that we see the world not as it is, but as we are.

-To become a success, it’s not really about doing more, it’s about being more.

-After you die, there will be plenty of time to be in a small box…so why live in one while you’re alive?

-A person without self expression is a person without personal freedom.

-The Secret of passion is purpose.

You can have plenty and plenty of inspirational quotes from the book for sure.

The central theme of the book is love.  The work is based on the philosophy that entire universe moves in accordance with our wish, or there is no difference between the outer world and inner world.  The highest objective of a person is to understand oneself and live the life full, leaving a legacy.

 We can see a lot of Monk who sold his Ferrari in the book, where Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist surely influenced the author.   Denise Waitley’s The Empires of the Mind also play an important influence where Who moves my cheese is limited in a single sentence for change.  However, the style of writing it appears influenced by Richard Bach.   However, one who search for specific references will find only small but obvious Connection.

The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.    Brahma, Vishnu, Siva….understanding the trio is difficult for the common man, where Robin Sharma attempts on this relation to convey a point.  However, being a poor story teller Robin didn’t succeeded in his attempt and has to depend on the dialogues to deliver the message.

The initial stage was interesting and till Jack meet the Saint, the book progressed in good speed and kept the interest, however, from there it become a preaching of sort.  Monotonous.  Robin also failed to characterize each adviser, nor manage to beautifully segregate the assignments.   At the end, we go through the similar kind of dialogues and responses.  Jack, Cal, Mike, Moe & Tess…all carry a similar character and all tells in similar stories.   At least the character of Jack should have been different, but he looks an intelligent student.  Like a film without a villain, the story didn’t grow much.

There are certain serious contradictions and few statement which looks not so correct to my believes and I seriously think that the author should have done the job taking a bit more time and patience where it looks like all done in a hurry.

Even with all the minuses one may point out from the book, it is a treasure of advises and good words for a better living.   In a way the book is close to Robin’s heart and people talk the best when they talk about themselves.  For that matter I will say, contentwise the book is better than The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, but in description (or Presentation) it falls short off the mark.     If you are a person who is looking for some kind of guidance in life, success and personality development the book will help you for sure.

Read it, if it come across you…read it for the Saint, for the Surfer or for the CEO, Robin Sharma.   (He has asked me to pass the message within 24 hours of finish reading it…seriously, it is there in the book)

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