Meeting in Florence with one of the most followed and influential writers in the world. Friendly man, an old-fashioned gentleman who arrives at the meeting place wearing military (designer) pants. ‘‘I come to war,” he jokes. Sharma (59 years old) has become one of the most read living authors in the world.
He has written 17 books, but two have elevated him to the throne of self-help if such a thing exists. It is very possible that on the train, plane or bus that you are traveling on someone (or yourself) is reading The Five in the Morning Club or The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Take the test. He now publishes, also in Grijalbo, The wealth that money cannot buy. Good advice for anyone who wants to catch them on the fly.
The best-selling author, more than 15 million books sold in more than 70 countries, spends the entire morning with Magazine, first with a generous and open-minded chat, then with a walk through the streets of Florence, his favorite places. The most recognizable and touristy, with visitors devouring ice cream, and also the most hidden ones.
In the middle of the excursion, a chocolate, with or without cream, at the Rivoire cafeteria, in Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The market where you buy your favorite wine and give it to someone. The ideas of generosity, of kindness, of saying yes to things (and also saying flatly no to others) fill a conversation full of good energy and headlines galore.
An initial confession: I liked the book, but I was afraid to read it.
Fear?
Because there is usually good advice for yourself, but then you don’t have willpower.
Glad to hear it.
Can we do the interview even if I got up at 7 and not at 5?
No problem (laughs). Many people talk to me about it, but it doesn’t mean you have to sleep less. I’m not saying that if you don’t get up at five you won’t have a happy life, but if you want calm, exercise, meditation, that’s the time.
Many times people answer that: my best time of day is when I read in the morning with my cup of coffee and everyone is asleep.
People ask me why you want to get up at five, or these days at four, yes I’m betraying myself (laughs). And I tell them: ‘It makes me feel very good.’ I live in an old farm. It gives you a lot of peace and sets the pace for the rest of the day.
Does he take a nap or go to sleep too early?
Almost all my life I took a nap, my secret weapon. Now I go to bed between nine thirty at night and ten. Six, six and a half hours of sleep.
He has become very famous for his books. In the movie Birdman, Michael Keaton is accompanied by the shadow of the superhero who made him famous. Does it happen to you?
Knows? I have a motto that says that nothing makes you fail more than believing you are successful: I never wanted to rest on my laurels. Shadow or not, this is my best book by far in my 31 years of work. The simplest and the most valuable. I rewrote it 20 times, simplified as much as possible.
He assures that it has been the most difficult of all.
Readers, with whom I have a sacred pact, expect a book that is better than the previous one. I don’t have that avatar next to me that tells me “be famous.” I don’t like. I live simply, with my partner, we have a chihuahua.
Superchum is a Chihuahua…from the name I thought he would be a Wookee like Chewbakka.
(Laughs) You don’t choose love, love chooses you. Fame doesn’t guide me. Helping readers, breaking with the formula of the previous book, that does interest me. I feel like an artist in this sense.
That’s curious, because great creators in art and fashion shy away from that word. Is it because you set the bar high?
Exact. I don’t want to settle in or settle down. I don’t want to repeat the same formula. I just do the work. It took me a year to write it, I met all the deadlines that the editor imposed on me. I locked myself away for two weeks to review it, without complaining.
It can explain the idea of ??“feeling like an artist” a little more.
I feel this way because I like to create, ideas, because I don’t fit into society and I live to the rhythm of the percussion of my soul, because I see the world with different eyes. If I have to choose a painter, it is Jean-Michel Basquiat, because of his sensitivity, for living life in a very profound way, because he knows that he is going to suffer, to feel tortured. Van Gogh, Hemingway…
In the book he talks about heroes, Kobe Bryant, Gandhi, but also those who have no name, like the lady who cleans his hotel room and leaves him a tip.
There are many heroes around. We don’t see them or we ignore them. After the pandemic, I think there is a desire to travel and explore because we already know that the world can go to hell in one day. Some have returned to what they always did, to be cell phone cyberzombies.
There is one thing, education that is sometimes seen and lost and that makes you feel very old…
Look, Pau Gasol, the former basketball player, came for a talk and we became friends. We went to the airport together and greeted everyone who asked. And I told him: “You haven’t said no to anyone.” He replied: “It costs very little to make people happy.”
I don’t know if technology helps or distances that contact.
There are many people who are very rich because they have money and very poor because they have no life. Laugh for a while. Connecting with people…that’s wealth, it’s like a currency. Three real friends are better than 10,000 digital ones.
The phone has a very dark side.
The mobile phone is a great butler and a terrible god.
I have an Italian friend who, when she sees that I’m slacking, tells me ‘su il morale’, cheering me up. What do you say?
I pronounce the letters MVP, which in English usually means Most Rated Player, but for me they are Meditation, Visualization and Prayer. This morning I got up, opened the window, breathed. I went back to bed, meditated, visualized things and then prayed for my family. I got up and exercised.
When his life was most difficult. How did she deal with it?
What I did was not avoid the pain, nor avoid the difficulty, because that helped me grow. When I was bad, I walked a lot in the woods, I wrote a lot about my frustrations, hopes, disappointments. I wrote to heal myself. I meditated for longer. I got rid of jealousy, fear, anger.
He talks about the heroic self and the egoic self.
In reality they are not separated, we have a heroic, natural part, of intelligence and wisdom, which believes in impossible things. He is a positive self, he is loving. But as life goes by, we get hurt, we feel hurt, disappointed, our relationship with our parents, you become small. That is the egoic self. The imprisoned self.
And at this moment when you have to quote his reference to Yoda: “Do it or don’t do it, but don’t say you’re going to try.”
When someone starts telling you “I’m going to try it”, it’s because you’re not convinced, it’s because you don’t believe it. But if you look at Pau Gasol, Basquiat, Elon Musk, Onassis, Gandhi. They are masters of commitment. Gandhi did not say “I am going to try to free my people.” Martin Luther King Jr said “if you don’t look for something to die for, it’s not worth living.”
Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years…
And 18 of them on Robben Island in a tiny cell. I have known people who were in prison with him and they always said: “She was a gentleman.”
Do you think your new book is realistic or overzealous?
What I would say is that it is very honest and I wrote what was true. In my life I have gone through deep crises in which toxic enthusiasm reigned and the world is a wonderful place.
Full of calamities…
Yes, full of problems, I know. But there is a lot of goodness, magic arises at any moment.
There is one thing that is understood when reading the book and that is when it says “you have to say yes to everything”, but nowadays you have to start saying no, especially at work.
I understand and agree. There is a part of the book that says: make a list of everything you don’t want to do, you can’t say yes to everything. But you do have to say yes to more things, because they will encourage you and you will live longer.
I liked that he talked about the film Souls in Banshee of Innisherin.
Ah, if we start talking about that movie we will never finish. It is dangerous, beautiful and magical… Look, our world needs more magic, it is a masterpiece, it is a story of two friends who no longer want to be friends, it breaks all the schemes. The actors are incredible
Yes, like the guy who plays the retard, who deserved the Oscar.
I’ve seen her twice. I grew up on an island like that, in Canada, it’s called Cape Breton and it looked similar.
Is Robin Sharma the Robin Hood who cares for our souls?
God, if I say that, it’s very dangerous, right? I would never think that, if I do it would be the beginning of my end. I see myself as a humble servant who helps people. That he writes, that he gives talks about him. Robin Hood is a savior and that in my case would be saying too much.
What is paradise for you?
A family dinner with my partner, Elle, with the dogs, on the farm, surrounding yourself with books, good food, working on a difficult book, feeling like I’m not giving up. Getting up in the morning. Traveling is paradise. I’m a bit of a nomad. And have a good conversation.