The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a personal development book by Robin Sharma – an internationally known leadership expert who in 2008 was awarded the number two rank on the international Leadership Gurus survey. (First place went to John C. Maxwell).

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a motivational story about Julian Mantle – a hard working and a wealthy lawyer who works long hours and wears himself down trying to be the best. After an heart attack he realizes that if he carries on living the way he has been doing in the last years he will probably die soon without ever enjoying life.

Julian leaves his work and goes to live in India in the Himalayan mountains with a small group of enlightened wise men. There he meets Yogi Raman – a more than a 100 year old wise man who looks a lot younger and is in perfect health. Yogi Raman and other wise men teach Julian Mantle the ancient secrets of life that have helped them maintain almost perfect happiness in life for more than a thousand years.

After spending a few years with the wise men of Sivana Julien goes back home where he meets with his ex co-worker John.

John is amazed by the transformation Julien has gone through – he looks 20 years younger and is in perfect health. He has achieved perfect equilibrium and is finally found his mission in life!

Julien goes on to teach John a large number of techniques that can help everyone make the best of their lives.

What I liked and didn’t like about The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

This self-leadership book was written as a story – something not very common among self help books. The story gave the book a personal touch and made it feel a lot better than a regular self development book! The story helps to remember better all the techniques discussed in the book.

Since I have read a lot of self help books I usually already know what to expect – the same points told over and over again! This was not the case with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, since it taught at least 50 different techniques of which I hadn’t heard about 20.

It was also the first book that I have read that describes the usefulness of meditation – something I was very happy to read about after my 10 day Vipassana meditation camp I participated in last year.

The book was so filled with useful information that reading it once is probably not enough. I feel that for maximum effect I should go over it again and try every techniques as it is mentioned.

I also felt that the book was so filled with different tips that when following them all I wouldn’t have time left for a normal life! The best thing to do is probably to choose a few techniques that you like and stick with them!

Conclusion

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a great book for people looking for concrete tips on how to improve their lives. It gives you tons of great advice in an easy to read story.

Since it is quite a famous book I am sure that you could pick it up from your local library or get it from Amazon (currently only $10.17 ).

My New Year Resolution – A lot of Reading

This is the first post that is a direct result to my New Year’s resolution – “I will read at least 1 book a week in 2009″. On December 31st you can expect to find at least 52 book reviews here at Financial Jesus.

If you want to know how I will do it – check out my post A simple way to catch up on your reading