The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Heart's Desires [Paperback]

Robin Sharma (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Once in a while, a book comes along that has the power and the wisdom to speak to the best part of us and awaken our highest selves to the miracle our lives were meant to be. In this truly unforgettable guide, Robin Sharma, author of the national bestseller The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and a man whose life lessons are currently transforming the lives of many thousands of people across the planet, will show you how to access your inner gifts and reshape your whole outer life in the process. With brilliant simplicity and remarkable insight, The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO will teach you:

 

• How to stop betraying your self and live your destiny

 

• Simple ways to feel a rare amount of fulfillment and joy in your days

                                                                                                                                                                               

• How to reconnect to your inner child like heart for a more passion-filled life

 

• Lessons to conquer stress, balance life, and feel good about yourself

 

• A proven process that will revolutionize your relationships and fill your life with love

 

• How to restore adventure, simplicity, and prosperity into your life

 

• Powerful principles to become strikingly successful at work

 

• Practical wisdom to help see a gorgeous vision for your future and then make it a reality

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jack Valentine is having a very bad day. He's chronically unhappy, unfulfilled and broke; his girlfriend has left him; and he's just been hit by a truck. Still, when he wakes up in a hospital covered in bruises, he's certain it's all happening for a reason. As Jack recovers, his dying hospital roommate, who happens to be Jack's long-lost father, imparts some final advice: the only three questions that matter are whether one has lived wisely, loved well and served greatly. He sends Jack on a journey around the world to meet three teachers (the saint, surfer and CEO), who guide him through a spiritual transformation and help him answer the three questions. Sharma, a motivational speaker and "life coach," has attempted a spiritual allegory … la Paulo Coelho's classic, The Alchemist. Unfortunately, Sharma's book lacks any narrative drive, the characters are thinly rendered and the dialogue is almost comically wooden ("You're getting to be a pretty good surfer there Jack." "It's become a passion of mine Moe"). Readers seeking Sharma's brand of advice (e.g., "see your life as a fantastic growth school" and "be true to yourself") will lose nothing simply turning to the last page, where the book's lessons are laid out in 10 succinct bullet points.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Robin Sharma is one of the world’s premier thinkers on leadership, personal growth and life management. The bestselling author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, ISBN: 0062515675, sold 40,000 in US; Who Will Cry When You Die?, ISBN: 1-4019-0012-7; and The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO hardcover, ISBN: 1-4019-0016-X. and four other books on self-transformation. Robin Sharma is in constant demand internationally as keynote speaker at the conferences of many of the most powerful companies on the planet including Microsoft, Nortel Networks, General Motors, FedEx and IBM. He is a resident of Ontario, Canada. For more of Robin’s knowledge, visit robinsharma.com, one of the Web’s most popular resources for success in business and in life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hay House (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401900593
• ISBN-13: 978-1401900595
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Metaphysical

More About the Author

Robin Sharma is one of the world's most highly respected leadership experts. He is devoted to the mission of helping organizations develop people who Lead Without a Title so that they win in this period of intense change. His clients include Microsoft, GE, FedEx, IBM, Nike, NASA, Yale University, and The Young Presidents Organization. Sharma's books, such as The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The Greatness Guide, have topped best-seller lists across the globe and have sold millions of copies in more than seventy languages. They have been embraced by rock stars, royalty, and many celebrity CEOs.

Sharma is also the cofounder of 960vets.com, an innovative online support resource that helps U.S. veterans successfully reintegrate into civilian life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, Moving and Insightful! A Book that teaches you how to be HAPPY!!!, August 28, 2005

By 

TESSA A. JOHN-GUERRA "Taj Guerra" (Castries, St.Lucia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Heart's Desires (Paperback)

Imagine that you’re a molting animal that has to shed its outer layer when going through a period of change. Or rather, imagine that you are a caterpillar, shedding its cocoon so it can become a beautiful butterfly. Now imagine your soul doing that very same thing, continuously, in order to reveal the new you. That’s the effect that this book will have on its readers.

This book forces you to look at everything in your life that irritates you, that stresses you out, that presses your buttons and everything else that you dislike about yourself as “vehicles that carry the lessons you need to learn” and hence empowering you to move on to the next level of self-discovery.

Every single paragraph that you will read would bring you to a whole new level of awareness. You would never look at your life the same way again.

Its amazing how the knowledge of these 3 main characters of this book (1) The Saint (2) The Surfer and (3) The CEO, can transform your whole new outlook on life. The Saint teaches how to “live wisely”, The Surfer teaches how to “love well” and The CEO teaches how to “serve greatly”. These 3 main characters are actually life coaches of the protagonist who is called Jack Valentine. Jack is taught by his coaches:

• How to be “authentic as a human being”.
• “Theories on the way the world works as a school for our
growth, and how challenges are actually opportunities – if
we have the wisdom to seize them.”
• “The concept of The Integrity Gap and how we betray
ourselves when we’re not true to ourselves.”
• “The stained glass window metaphor and how it applies to
the filters through which each one of us see our world.”
• How to live “in the heart” and “The importance of staying
loose to the moments of the world”.
• How to release “the control that the vast majority of us
cling to in order to discover the true treasures that are
meant for our lives”.
• “The importance of making things happen in life” and
balancing it off with living “in the mystery of it all,
staying open to all possibilities”.
• “Self-care practices for personal renewal and creating our
best selves”
• How to translate all these above concepts into our careers
and professional lives, highlighting the need to be kind
and loving in business.

And many more mind baffling gems of wisdom for healing, for overcoming life’s struggles, for success in all its forms and for living a live of true happiness. These coaches do not only propose what things you can do to make it happen, but also how to do them - customizing it to your personal situation. It’s as if you have your own personal, career, leadership and life-legacy coach. I personally could not put the book down and had to go back on previous paragraphs in order to internalize this totally therapeutic experience.

To the reviewers who suggested that the plot of the story was too simple, to them I say that the plot of the story is not the point. It is not a literature classic but a self-discovery classic. Wisdom should not get lost in complication and should be understood by everyone, from any culture, and from any educational background. In other words, wisdom should be clear and not be confused in literary jargon. How can one reach the essence of their being through a set of hyperinflated words? Oh please! The beauty of the story is that it’s simple yet powerful.

This book is not only a self-help book but also a tool for having a successful business. The book ends with a surprise for Jack that translates as a surprise gift to the reader – which is “Gateways To A Beautiful Life” information gained from the book summarized into 10 outstanding declarations. You can simply type, print and place it in your office, bedroom or anywhere so you can easily be reminded of what you learnt while reading the book.

I’ll definitely get more copies as a gift to many of my family and friends. I’ll also share its concepts with my students and clients. Read it before its too late, it might just save your life. That’s how powerful this book is.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars something old, something new, something borrowed..., March 26, 2004

By 

Larry Hehn "Christian in the Rough" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Heart's Desires (Paperback)

Several years ago I visited a trendy restaurant and ordered their chicken mango salad. Some delicious bits of chicken and mango arrived, nestled in a bizarre mishmash of strange colored and shaped lettuce. I politely picked through the lettuce and ate what I could endure, but the overall experience was one of confusion and disappointment. All those feelings came back when I read this book.

Robin Sharma provides life lessons via the fictional story of Jack Valentine, an advertising executive who is reunited with his long-lost father as they share a hospital room. On his deathbed, Cal Valentine sends Jack on a mystical journey to meet three mentors -- you guessed it -- a priest, a surfer and a CEO.

Writers such as Og Mandino and Paolo Coelho have mastered this style, delivering clear, profound messages through believable dialogue. Sharma doesn't come close here...the dialogue is stiff, unrealistic and unnatural. It is littered with dozens of profound quotes that deliver a great message, but send the hokey factor sky high. Success principles appear to have been cut from other sources and pasted in these pages with not much thought given to organization or flow.

The gist of Sharma's message is to submit to the will of "the universe" for your life and follow your true vocation. Some won't mind this message, but I was surprised to see that "God" is almost avoided like a four letter word in these pages, even by the priest.

Just like that chicken mango salad, there are some good nuggets to be found here, but you can save yourself the agony of picking through the jungle of lettuce by reading the summary on the last three pages.

Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A nice collection of every success aphorism you ever heard, January 27, 2003

By 

"drfoole" (Frederick, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Hearts Desires (Hardcover)

Sharma's book is a thinly veiled litany of pop-success, self-improvement, and leadership aphorisms and clichés which could be collected from any half-dozen other books or seminars. The author possibly intersperses a few bits of original thought between near-plagiaristic repetitions of metaphors. This is all loosely shrouded in the context of dialog between an obvious ignoramous who is supposed to represent the reader on their path of self-discovery of all of this new wisdom, and the saintly gurus who so generously spew it forth. The book is at once amusing and insulting. However, as a collection of good folk wisdom, one could read it as a concise reminder of the way in which we would all like to conduct our lives.