Book Review of 'Saint, Surfer, and Ceo'

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When he opens his eyes at the hospital, he finds himself covered in bandages, as Jack recovers, he finds that his roommate in the hospital is his long-lost father who is on his last legs, he gives Jack some final advice before fading away forever. He tells Jack to ask himself these three questions; “They’re simply: ‘Did I live wisely? ’ ‘Did I love well? ’ and ‘Did I serve greatly? ’” (Robin Sharma, 2003, pg.

12). Next morning Jack finds out that his father has passed away and has left him a letter, which has three tickets to Rome, Hawaii, and New York City.

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At each destination awaits a teacher for Jack, who will answer the questions and guide Jack to his true destination in life. Jack starts his journey by travelling to his first destination Rome. Where he meets his first teacher named ‘Father Mike’. Father Mike lives in a cathedral where he will answer Jack’s first question ‘Did I live wisely? ’ Over the four weeks Father Mike tells Jack that most of the people tend to live their lives with fear and we fear being different from others.

Father Mike tells Jack that parents play the role of God with their children’s lives. Rather than trusting their children with their own decisions in life, parents feel the need to make that choice for them. Father Mike says “Success is nothing more than living your life according to your truth and on your own terms. ” (Robin Sharma, 2003, pg. 72). Last day of Jack’s stay in Rome, Father Mike tells Jack “Keep believing that this universe is a friendly place”(Robin Sharma, 2003, pg. 85).

Jack goes to his next destination Hawaii to seek answer to his second question ‘Did I love well? ’ Jack stares at the beach with amazement, he soon finds his next teacher named ‘Moe Jackson’ who is a surfer, later on Jack find out that Moe was also the founder of a multi-million dollar ad agency named ‘MJ Group International’ He tells Jack that he left everything he owned and went on a bag-packing trip around the world to search for his true destination in life and his final stop was Hawaii. In the four weeks hat Jack spends in Hawaii, he learns that no matter how appealing your outer world looks, it’s the inner world that matters because if the inner world is in disarray, then anything you do outside will never make you happy. Moe goes on by saying “As Emerson noted: ‘Without the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar. ’” (Robin Sharma, 2003, pg. 100). Last Day of Jack in Hawaii, Moe tells him that his ‘Palace’ referring to his small hut, will be always open to Jack anytime he feels like surfing.

Jack travels to his final destination New York City, where he searches answer for his final question ‘Did I serve greatly? ’ Jack meets up with his final teacher named ‘Tess Welch’ she is the CEO of a brokerage firm. Jack’s describes her smile as “And that smile – 1,000 watts of pure charisma” (Robin Sharma, 2003, pg. 166). Over the four weeks, Tess teaches Jack about how to do good things for yourself and others in life, and others will do the same for you. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others” (Robin Sharma, 2003, pg. 83). She also tells Jack how important it is to have a positive relationship with a business client, because when the client knows that you care for them, you earn their trust and people do business with whom they can trust. On the final day of Jack’s stay in New York City, Father Mike and Moe Jackson surprise Jack and tell him that all three of them were working together and have done so in the past with other people as well. They wish Jack all the best in the future, and the three teachers drive off back to their lives.

My favorite quote from the book was “for every finger we point at another, we have three pointing back at us” basically what this quote means is that when every flaw or a specific characteristics that you identify in someone else, in order for you to identify them, you must have the same characteristics. For example, if you call someone a liar, and you point towards him/her, your pointing one finger towards that person but the rest of the fingers are pointing towards you. This quote might not be true for everything, but in my point of view it is true in most cases.

The only fault I found in this book was that it was written as if everything was perfect. Yet most of the readers who would read this book might be going through a rough phase in their lives, however that statement does not apply to me, and when they read a book, which is too optimistic, that may make the readers think that most of the material discussed in the book, cannot happen in real life. I personally believe that the author was biased in this sense, but regardless of the author being biased, the book has a lot life lessons which are truly life changing.

When readers are reading the book they will soon realize that it changes the conception of the right way a life should be led. The book teaches us that we should not allow the society to take over and control the way we live our lives. It also teaches about how small things in life matters and we should never take anything for granted. In the end, I would summarize this book by saying that it is very well written and a lot of thought has gone in the making of the storyline of the book and I would recommend this book and share the gained knowledge with everyone.