Book Review – The Leader Who Had No Title, Robin Sharma

There is a common joke shared in the place where I come from. A husband once calls his wife and says, ‘The special dish you cooked for me two days ago was so nice. Can you prepare the same for me today too?’ The wife, angry with him for some reason, retorts, ‘Why make new? There are some leftovers from the same dish. Want to taste?’

This book of Robin Sharma tastes like those leftovers – stale and revolting. While revolting is a strong word to use against a book which contains appreciable wisdom, the verbose style of the book leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to inspiring the reader. If you have already read Robin Sharma, you can safely skip reading this book, for this book carries nothing new and everything that Robin Sharma has repeated in all his previous works.

Having read almost a dozen books of Robin Sharma already, I picked up this book hoping to learn something new. But this book is nothing but old wine in new bottle, with a new label. As always, there is a person whose life is in doldrums, appearance of a magical mentor, his imparting leadership lessons which he himself gathered from some saintly beings and the ‘happily ever after’ finish. Not just the style. The words and ideas also repeat themselves to a monotonous extent. Robin Sharma, as is his wont, wants you to wake up early, to spend an hour planning for the day ahead, to treat your customers to a ‘wow’ experience, to build up people instead of putting them down, to go to the grave with a contented mind and so on. Add to that a sprinkling of quotes from the great people in history. Not inspiration but a sense of déjà vu was what pervaded my mind throughout the reading of this book.

Also, this book could have been trimmed down to a total of hundred pages, in the styles of a Brian Tracy or Spencer Johnson. There are good lessons here and there but they are all drowned in the heap of ‘positive’ words that flood these pages. In fact, I feel that all the ideas that Robin Sharma has ever shared in his books could all be summarized into a page or two.

I picked up hoping that the book will be great and truly inspiring in the lines of ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’ or ‘The Greatness Guide’. But I simply couldn’t wait to finish and keep the book away. Such a boring sermon! Either I have grown out of reading Robin Sharma or Robin Sharma has not grown out of ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’!

Mountains & Seas

 

Nature - everything about Her is very magical. Be it the process of a little seed transforming into a tender sprout or the glory of the gigantic planets beckoning from beyond unimaginable distances, anything and everything about Nature has a mystical touch about it. But there are two things that lend a more personal touch to Her magic - Mountains and Oceans!

Just sit at the seashore - all that chatter of the waves, their eternal bounciness, the depths that contain mysteries from the past, the generosity with which the sea offers its bounties to everyone - don't they remind you of being in the presence of a little child - energetic and ebullient!

On the other hand, the mere sight of mountains fills one with sheer veneration. Standing majestic in their grand glory, scaling the distance between the earth and sky, shelter to myriad species of flora and fauna, withstanding the test of Time and witness to its passages like a grand old patriarch, the mountains stand, silent and serene. 

Somebody once said that the more one wants to live life, the more one needs to spend time with elderly people and little children. I feel that the more one needs to love life, the more one needs to be in the presence of the mountains and seas. Surreal!

Book Review – The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant

‘Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed on and digested’ – so said Francis Bacon, a philosopher from 17th century Britain. This book of Will Durant, which carries a chapter about Bacon himself, deserves not just to be chewed and digested, but also to be brought out often as cud and ruminated upon. Such a brilliant work!

Having already had a taste of Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’, I was wondering from where should I take a deeper plunge into the world of philosophy. This book popped up as a relevant recommendation from both Amazon as well as Goodreads and I was only glad to accept it.

This book is about the famous philosophers, a brief glimpse into their lives and a detailed discussion on their philosophies. Will Durant takes enough time to also compare them all with one another and rate them on the touchstone of truth and relevance towards the daily lives of humans. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Benedict Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Herbert Spencer, George Santayana, Bertrand Russell –these are all names that occupy the top echelons of the pantheon of Philosophy and Will Durant helps you have a clear and sufficient view into the world and works of them all.

While the book is equally well-written about all the philosophers, and I loved them all, some of them stood out for me. One is Voltaire. Having already read his classic ‘Candide’, I was curious to read more of Voltaire’s works. This book only added to that appetite. It is in the hands of an author to make a subject interesting or insipid. Some of them write so well that they can make even Economics sound interesting, while some of them can bungle up even a fun-filled subject like Astronomy. I am glad that I chose to read Will Durant. Reading his words on Voltaire, I felt a smile cross my face every now and then. Such an amazing sense of humour and grasp on the subject! Voltaire would have nodded his head in approval from inside his grave.

Next is Arthur Schopenhauer. You can either admire Schopenhauer OR unstintingly adore the women in your life. If you say that you do them both at once, you're a big LIAR. Such caustic views about the follies of women! Poor Schopenhauer, having got estranged from his mother in the young age, has poured out all that bitterness in his essays on women.

Then, Baruch Spinoza - the religious leader who expelled Spinoza from the congregation, cursing that Spinoza's name may be forgotten for all eternity, because of his 'heretic' thoughts, is now remembered only in a negative tinge. But Spinoza's name lives on. The woman who ignored his love, allegedly for a richer suitor, is cast into oblivion. But Spinoza is remembered as one of the greatest minds in the history of mankind. The god-believing ruffian, who attacked Spinoza with a knife because of Spinoza's rational views, well, nobody remembers that thug for anything else 'noteworthy'. Religion, riches, rage - a real quest for wisdom seems to withstand the attacks from all these unworthy pursuits – that is what I learnt from Spinoza’s life.

But, none of their stories touched my heart’s chords like Friedrich Nietzsche's did. Born into an influential family, brought up as a pious young man only to suffer a crisis of faith to become an apostate for life, having contempt for the 'masses', believing rather in the power of the evolved few and then that special person - 'superman', believing in the power of Germans to unite Europe culturally and politically, arguing more for the sake of war than for peace, correctly prophesying the occurrence of 'trade wars' across Europe during the early 20th century, not finding love and the warmth of a woman that could have helped heal the fissures in his heart and soul, finally ending up as a wreck both physically and mentally before passing away in peace, here is a man I would love to love and love to hate. Love to love - because his wisdom and seemingly caustic yet correctly derogatory views about the inept masses. Love to hate - because he seems to be the soil on which the thorny, poisonous plant called Hitler seems to have taken root. Love him or hate him, but you cannot ignore him. That's Friedrich Nietzsche for you.

All in all, this is a great book for any beginner looking to cut their teeth into philosophy. Of course, the book has many pages of deep discussions on Metaphysics that just went over my head and my eyes could only skim through. But as I already said, this is a book that deserves more than one reading to be enjoyed thoroughly. This book is a worthy gateway into the world of Philosophy!