Title: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Author: Robin Sharma
Genre: Non-Fiction
Why I Read This Book:
Of all the books I have read, not just while inside Federal Prison but in my life, one of the cornerstones of my foundation of living is “Start with Why” by Simon Cinek. I have also read other books by Simon Cinek and my wife and I have watched his videos. Recently, my wife emailed me that on Simon Cinek’s web-page, she noticed a book recommendation with a peculiar title–“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. If Simon Cinek like sit, I am IN!!
Another reason I was interested in reading this book is because as it turns out, I had read another of Robin Sharma’s books “The Leader Who Had No Title”. To be honest, it has been a while since I read Leader/No Title so I can’t say for sure the format is the same as Monk/Ferrari but this book is a non-fiction self help book written in the style of a fictional story.
Julian Mantle is a world class attorney who has all the money, expensive suits, and toys in the World but is almost wanting MORE. This workaholic lifestyle leads to a health scare and Julian finds himself discovering that the true meaning of a happy and healthy life is found with a group of simple people in the mountains of India. Julian returns to teach his best friend the same lessons he learned with a promise to continue to pass it on.
Monk/Ferrari is a fun read with some very good and easy to follow life lessons anyone can apply to their lives tomorrow.
What I Learned:
The main thing I learned from reading Monk/Ferrari is the importance of reading MANY books so you can find common themes because THOSE are the strategies that obviously work.
Let me put it this way–If you read 10 different books on how to become a great Leader and each book had 10 unique strategies, that is 100 different strategies!! How do you know which ones to actually apply that are proven to work? But, if you read 10 books on Leadership and you realize there are 5-6 strategies that may be worded differently but are saying the same thing, THOSE are the 5-6 strategies that multiple authors believe are tried and true…
In Monk/Ferrari, I noted several suggestions on how to improve your life that were also mentioned in books dating back to the 1920’s and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Does that mean Robin Sharma is copying Napoleon Hill? No! What it shows is the author ALSO believes these strategies stand the test of time which is most important to me.
One example of a repeating strategy is what Robin Sharma describes as “Regularly moving beyond your comfort zone”. In other words, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You can not grow as a person if you only stay inside your bubble and focus on what you know as comfortable. Riding a bike was NOT “comfortable” the first time you tried it. But when you became comfortable, you realized you can get places much faster on a bike versus walking…Then you drove a car for the first time..Was it “uncomfortable” at first? Yes of course..But you became comfortable with the pedals and how to parallel park..The only way to expand your capabilities as a person and to tap into your potential is you HAVE to always accept that uncomfortable feeling when something is new. Pretty soon, with practice, you will be popping wheelies all across the neighborhood!!
Why I Will Be Successful After Reading This Book:
The 2 reasons why I believe I will be successful after reading Monk/Ferrari is because of:
- Simplicity
- Confirmation
First regarding Simplicity–Change is HARD..Change requires EFFORT…And change offers ZERO certainty that your life will be better after such change..Therefore, in order for one to embrace change–the simpler, the better…
The evidence of daily meditation having a positive impact on your life is undeniable. In Monk/Ferrari, it advises to start with 10 minutes per day for 2 weeks and then increasing it to 20 minutes..That is 100% doable.How about reading for 30 minutes per day anything that impacts your mental state in a positive way? Sure! The Ritual of Personal Reflection states at the end of every day, Benjamin Franklin would go through his day and journal all that happened and what went well so he could remember to do it again and what he would do differently to create a better outcome next time. The benefits of doing this simple task, say before bed, would FAR outweigh the costs of NOT doing it…Simple!
Next regarding confirmation–One of my favorite books of all time is Atomic Habits (I did a book report on that book also) and in it, it provides scientific proof as to why stacking simple habits on top of one another is more beneficial than trying to make drastic changes all at once. In Monk/Ferrari, it quotes an African proverb that says “When a spider webs unite, they tie up a Lion.” Yes!! Long lasting change is best accomplished by stacking simple changes on top of one another and the results MULTIPLY each others benefits. Just 30 days of stacking new simple changes can change your LIFE!
About Me:
My name is Jeff Piecka and I was sentenced to 34 months in a Federal Prison Camp in Oxford, WI and later moved to Thomson, IL after committing a white collar crime several years prior to being arrested and immediately pleading guilty. Before self-surrendering on June 6, 2022, I promised my wife and family that I WILL exit Prison a better husband, father, son, brother, Christian, future employee, and overall better member of society because I am going to better myself every day in 3 ways:
1) Physically–Not just for vanity purposes but a better operating body equals a better operating mind.
2) Mentally–Reading only non-fiction books, newspapers, and magazines that educate and elevate my mind and expand my vocabulary.
3) Spiritually–For ME, this means learning from the Bible but it can mean whatever “Greater Good” you believe in.
Shortly after self-surrendering and reading Michael Santos’s book “Earning Freedom–Conquering a 45 Year Prison Term”, it inspired me to want to help just 1 person who is possibly heading to Federal Prison so I started emailing my family Posts that my Sister uses to post as a Blog on Reddit dot com called “Letters From Federal Prison”. I believe to date it has over 20,000 views and shares plus there are several comments from people advising that the Blog has helped them. This has motivated me to keep writing (which I have NEVER done anything like this before) and I REALLY want to help more people when I return to society within the next few months.
