The Greatness Guide: One of the World's Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery
By Robin Sharma
4/5
()
About this ebook
Robin Sharma is known the world over as the man behind The Monk phenomenon, the #1 bestselling series of inspirational books spun around the engaging fable of a jet-setting lawyer who gives it all up to search for his best life. Well over a million copies of Sharma’s books have been sold, inspiring business people, parents and people from all walks of life to reach for -- and realize -- their highest potential.
Now, in a remarkable book that will appeal to his legion of fans, as well as introduce him to a whole new audience, Robin Sharma has written a deeply personal guide that shares his own life journey, combined with 10 high-impact lessons for success.
Readers will discover:
- how to transform fears into freedom
- lessons to find lasting happiness
- unique tools to build loving relationships
- powerful strategies to simplify life and reduce stress
Rich with proven wisdom and packed with real-world examples, The Greatness Guide is an extraordinary resource for all those searching for peace, meaning and authentic success in every facet of their lives.
Robin Sharma
Robin Sharma, LL.B., LL.M., is one of the world's top experts on leadership and personal development, having helped millions of people to live their best lives. He is the author of 11 major international bestsellers, including The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The Greatness Guide. His work has been published in over 60 countries and in nearly 70 languages, making him one of the most widely read authors in the world.
Read more from Robin Sharma
The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who Will Cry When You Die?: Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everyday Hero Manifesto: Activate Your Positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Special 15th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daily Inspiration From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Letters Of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Greatness Guide
Related ebooks
The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Inspiration From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Special 15th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Family Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Discover Your Destiny With The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Letters Of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Family Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: Nurturing The Leader Within Your Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Search Of Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Morning Zen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Built to Serve: Find Your Purpose and Become the Leader You Were Born to Be Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Think: Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elevate: An Essential Guide to Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mind Management, Not Time Management: Productivity When Creativity Matters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Dr. Robert Maurer's One Small Step Can Change Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBe The Lion: How To Overcome Big Challenges And Make It Happen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think and Grow Rich! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMillion Dollar Habits: Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Positive Intelligence: Boost Self-Confidence, Eliminate Depression & Stress, Be Charismatic & Attract Happiness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Self-Improvement For You
The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How May I Serve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think and Grow Rich (Illustrated Edition): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Greatness Guide
57 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is inspiring , practical and relevant in todays world. i would recommend it to a family member and my close friends
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5excellent book i am so glad to read this book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic and practical insights to greatness! Have picked a number of lessons to apply in my personal development and leadership journey. Thanks Robin Sharma and May the Lord give you more wisdom to touch many more lives
Book preview
The Greatness Guide - Robin Sharma
2
Harvey Keitel and Windows of Opportunity
I don’t always get it right (I told you I’m no guru). But please know that I try so hard to walk my talk and to ensure my video is in alignment with my audio. Still, I am a human being, and that means sometimes I slip (I’ve yet to meet a perfect one). Here’s what I mean.
I spend a lot of time encouraging the readers of my books and the participants at my workshops on personal and organizational leadership to run toward your fears
and to seize those cubic centimeters of chance
(opportunities) when they present themselves. I challenge my clients to dream, to shine and to dare, because to me a life well lived is all about reaching for your highest and your best. And, in my mind, the person who experiences the most wins. Most of the time, I am a poster boy for visiting the places that scare me and doing the things that make me feel uncomfortable. But recently, I didn’t. Sorry.
I was downtown at the Four Seasons in Toronto, in the lobby getting ready for a speech I was about to give to a company called Advanced Medical Optics, which is a long-standing leadership coaching client of ours and an impressive organization. I look up and guess who I see? Harvey Keitel. Yes, the Harvey "Reservoir Dogs Big Movie Star" Keitel. And what does the man who wrote The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari do? I shrink from greatness.
Each day, life will send you little windows of opportunity. Your destiny will ultimately be defined by how you respond to these windows of opportunity.
I don’t know why I didn’t stand up and walk over and make a new friend. I’ve done it with baseball legend Pete Rose at the Chicago airport (we ended up sitting next to each other all the way to Phoenix). I did it last summer with Henry Kravis, one of the planet’s top financiers in the lobby of a hotel in Rome (I was with my kids, and Colby, my 11-year-old son, thought he was pretty cool). I did it with Senator Edward Kennedy when I saw him in Boston. I even did it with guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen when I was a kid growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But I missed the chance to connect with Harvey Keitel.
Each day, life will send you little windows of opportunity. Your destiny will ultimately be defined by how you respond to these windows of opportunity. Shrink from them and your life will be small. Feel the fear and run to them anyway, and your life will be big. Life’s just too short to play little. Even with your kids, you only have a tiny window to develop them and champion their highest potential. And to show them what unconditional love looks like. When that window closes, it’s hard to reopen it.
If I see Harvey Keitel again, I promise you that I’ll sprint toward him. He may think I’m a celebrity stalker until we start to chat. And then he’ll discover the truth: I’m simply a man who seizes the gifts that life presents to him.
3
Nothing Fails like Success
Richard Carrion, the CEO of Puerto Rico’s top bank, once shared a line with me that I’ll never forget: Robin, nothing fails like success.
Powerful thought. You, as well as your organization, are most vulnerable when you are most successful. Success actually breeds complacency, inefficiency and—worst of all—arrogance. When people and businesses get really successful, they often fall in love with themselves. They stop innovating, working hard, taking risks and begin to rest on their laurels. They go on the defensive, spending their energy protecting their success rather than staying true to the very things that got them to the top. Whenever I share this point with a roomful of CEOs, every single one of them nods in agreement. Please let me give you a real-world example from my own life.
This past weekend, I took my kids to our favorite Italian restaurant. The food is incredible there. The best bresaola outside of Italy. Heavenly pasta. Super foamy lattes that make me want to give up my job and become a barista. But the service at this place is bad. Bad, bad, bad (like it is at most places). Why? Because the place is always full. And because they are doing so well, they’ve taken the lines out front for granted. And guess what? It’s the beginning of their end.
I love taking pictures. My dad taught me to record the journey of my life with photos. So I generally carry a little camera around with me. I asked our server if she would snap a picture of my children and me as we dug into our spaghetti. I don’t have time
was the curt reply. Unbelievable. Too busy to take five seconds to keep a customer happy. Too busy to help out a little. Too busy to show some humanity.
The more successful you and your organization become, the more humble and devoted to your customers you need to be.
Nothing fails like success.
Richard Carrion gets it. So does David Neeleman, the CEO of JetBlue, who observed: When you’re making money and good margins, you tend to get sloppy.
Many CEOs don’t. The more successful you and your organization become, the more humble and devoted to your customers you need to be. The more committed to efficiency and relentless improvement you need to be. The faster you need to play. The more value you need to add. Because the moment you stop doing the very things that got you to the top of the mountain is the very moment you begin the slide down to the valley.
4
Be a Rock Star at Work
Just finished reading an article in Fortune on the Google guys and all their economic success. It inspired a torrent of ideas (reading’s like that, isn’t it?). It got me thinking about the importance of showing up fully at work—giving the fullness of your brilliance and playing full out. Being wildly passionate about your To Do’s. Being breathtakingly committed to your big projects and best opportunities. Being a rock star in whatever you do each day to put bread on your table.
Work gives meaning to our lives. It influences our self-worth and the way we perceive our place under the sun. Being great at what you do isn’t just something you do for the organization you work for—it’s a gift you give yourself. Being spectacularly great at your work promotes personal respect, excitement and just makes your life a lot more interesting. Good things happen to people who do good things. And when you bring your highest talents and deepest devotion to the work you do, what you are really doing is setting yourself up for a richer, happier and more fulfilling experience of living.
How do you feel after an ultra-productive day? How do you feel when you’ve given your best, had fun with your teammates and gone the extra mile for customers? How do you feel when you’ve brought more heart to what you do for a living? How do you feel when you reached for your greatest goals and grabbed them? It feels pretty good, doesn’t it? And you don’t need to have the biggest title to do the best job. This point makes me think of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—one of my heroes—who once observed: If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or as Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’
And you don’t need to have the biggest title to do the best job.
So be a rock star at work today. Walk onto the stage of this day and play your heart out. Give the performance of your life. Wow your audience and get them cheering for you. Be the Bono of selling staplers. Be the Keith Richards of accounting. Be the Jimi Hendrix of human resources. And when you get famous and people from all over ask you for your autograph, make sure you drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.
5
Your Days Define Your Life
Big idea: Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you live 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. Small choices lead to giant consequences—over time. There’s no such thing as an unimportant day.
As you live your days, so you craft your life.
Each one of us is called to greatness. Each one of us has an exquisite power within us. Each one of us can have a significant impact on the world around us—if we so choose. But for this power that resides internally to grow, we need to use it. And the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. The more this power gets tapped, the more confident you become. Henry David Thoreau related to this point well when he wrote: I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a human being to elevate their life by conscious endeavor.
And advertising guru Donny Deutsch added a more current spin on the idea when he wrote in his book Often Wrong, Never in Doubt: For every person with the stuff, the one out of a hundred who goes to a rarefied place is the one who says, ‘why not me?’ and goes for it.
The best among us are not more gifted than the rest. They just take little steps each day as they march toward their biggest life. And the days slip into weeks, the weeks into months and before they know it, they arrive at a place called Extraordinary.
6
Drink Coffee with Gandhi
Reading is one of the best disciplines I know of to stay on your game
and at your highest. Reading from a great book is really all about having a conversation with the author. And we become our conversations. Just think, tonight—by reading Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, over a cup of coffee—you can get behind this great man’s eyeballs and learn what made him tick. Want to hang out with Madonna tomorrow? Grab her book. Same for Jack Welch, Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, Salvador Dali or the Dalai Lama. And reading a book by someone you respect allows some of their brilliance to rub off on you. The hand that puts down a great book will never be the same. As Oliver Wendell Holmes observed: A mind once stretched by a new idea can never return to its original dimensions.
When I was growing up my father once told me: Cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing money in a good book.
That powerful thought has accompanied me through life. His philosophy was that all it takes is one idea discovered in a single book to lift you to a whole new level and revolutionize the way you see the world. And so our home was filled with books. And now I try to devote at least an hour a day to reading. That habit alone has transformed me. Thank you, Dad.
Perhaps my greatest gift to my children when I die will be my library. I have books on leadership, relationships, business, philosophy, wellness, spirituality, great lives and many of my other favored topics in it. Many of these I’ve picked up in bookshops from across the planet when I travel on business. These books have shaped my thinking. They have formed my personal philosophy. They have made me the man I am. To me, my books are priceless.