Robin Sharma’s “Discover Your Destiny With the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” (HarperSanFrancisco, $19.95) reads like the self-help equivalent of a commencement speech that urges graduates to “reach for the stars.”
Referencing everyone from Carl Jung to Oprah Winfrey, Sharma offers a philosophy that promises greater happiness but reads like a collection of platitudes.
Achieve the seven stages of self-awareness, from Stage 1’s recognizing your own self-betrayal to Stage 7’s “great awakening of self,” Sharma writes–often in italics, just in case you miss the point–and (insert happy outcome here).
If the principles sound familiar, it’s because Sharma, a lawyer and executive coach, laid them out in earlier “Monk” works, beginning with “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.”
But check the not-so-fine print: The tale of the charismatic lawyer-turned-monk, who in this outing helps a human resource manager travel to enlightenment, is a “fable.” So there’s really no monk and no enlightened manager.
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And, alas, no one who got a good deal on a used Ferrari.
See what I mean: “It’s not about chasing greater net worth, it’s about cultivating a greater self-worth.”