Book Review: The Greatness Guide, Robin Sharma
“Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you life your days, so you craft your life. What you do today is actually creating your future. The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny – shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for.”
I thought to start my review of the book, The Greatness Guide by globetrotting executive coach, Robin Sharma with that verbatim piece. That paragraph, an introduction to the chapter “Your days define your life”, sums up the entire book.
Sharma, I find him to be a bit different to the overly commercialised motivational gurus. He attempts, wittily and with simplicity, to guide you on to becoming the better your. He runs you through such a personal journey with less bullshit-speak of most gurus – who are better characterised by perfected mumbo-jumbo. I enjoyed reading him for a couple of reasons. But most so for the sharpness of his writing, the punctuated presentation style off his brief but insightful chapters that one can relate to.
His laymen, less psychological garbage writing also helps one to connect with him in a way. Meaning, I easily got the message without feeling that the writer was a psychology salesmen selling me his product/ideas based on is ‘expert’s’ writing riddled with expert verbose so that you hold with him with undeserved authority.
What I also like about The Greatness Guide is that Sharma doesn’t distance himself much from the book. He is there with you, personally. As part of the succinct stories, he tells you about his kids and how much he loves them and how such love affects his work, his days and his life, professionally and personally. He tells you about his trips all over the world and the crème de la crème of global business that he comes across and coaches. And these are big business executives who listen to him and in fact, share their stories with him. In turn, Sharma shares such personal conversations with you. These personal trips help you to see him as the usual guy than a guru or an expert.
A thought that stayed with me long after I had finished reading the book was this: his father told him once, “cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing in a good book”. This thought has inspired my book-a-month venture. And I find that I’m in fact more than for myself, building a home library for my kids, Talia and Tinyiko.
I feel this is one of the best uplift books bought. Lately, I have been treating it a bit like cereal. Morning staple, if you like. I wake up each morning and just pop a chapter and serve it hot, and somewhat, reading it each morning – those short, one-to-two page chapters help me get through days, whilst putting things in perspective for me.
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"Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers." - Voltaire
