Marvin Lee Dot Net

The book title is catchy isn’t it? My first thought when I caught the book title was the book must be on self-improvement, probably someone who came from riches and finally realized the importance of living well spiritually. That exactly is what this book is about.

I didn’t actually pick up the book from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari title, but from the name of the author, Robin S. Sharma.

Robin Sharma is a celebrity of sorts, a world’s famous motivational speaker and author of 10 major international bestsellers.
Attending his talks will cost thousands of ringgits.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has 13 chapters, and it’s not an autobiography, although Robin himself was a lawyer. The book started with the story of a lawyer named Julian Mantle who was extremely stressed out with his work, had a near-fatal heart attack in a packed courtroom and then disappear only to come back looking younger and wealthy spiritually.

This book is a narration of the conversation between Julian and John, who is another litigator who joined Julian’s company and was his best partner in work. Julian saw John as himself, and thus returned to share his knowledge that he gained from the spiritual teacher he met in the Himalayas, Yogi Raman of Sivana.

Spending months learning from Yogi Raman and the people, Yogi Raman of Sivana finally shared with Julian the 7 timeless virtues of enlightened living in the form of a fable. (Hence ‘A Fable About Fulfulling Your Dreams And Reaching Your Destiny‘).

1. Master Your Mind
2. Follow Your Purpose
3. Practice Kaizen
4. Live With Discipline
5. Respect Your Time
6. Selflessly Serve Others
7. Embrace the Present

Initially I felt boring just after reading the first few chapters, because it was really slow, as it was written in a form of conversation with details explaining each virtues.

If you like motivational and self improvement books, like Chicken Soup for the Soul series, this book is for you.

However, for the business type of person where efficiency and priority is of importance, I got a feeling that you might just put it off after the first few chapters. You might probably just skim through it.

The good side though, it has a lot of very valuable quotable quotes, and for those who are working extremely hard accumulating wealth but not happiness, this book should be well enlightening for you.

Some of the quotable quotes:

Willpower: It is willpower that allows you to hold your tongue when a less actualized person insults you or does something you disagree with. It is willpower that pushes your dreams forward when the odds appear to be insurmountable. It is willpower that offers you the inner power to keep your commitments to others, and perhaps, even more importantly, to yourself.

When you learn to take control of your thoughts and vividly imagine all that you desire from this worldly existence in a state of total expectancy, dormant forces will awaken inside you. You will begin to unlock the true potential of your mind to create the kind of magical life that I believe you deserve.

Most of us sleep far more than we need to. The average person can get by on six hours – and remain perfectly healthy and alert. Sleep is really nothing more than a habit and like any other habit, you can train yourself to achieve the result you want; sleeping less in this case.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny

Books, Review Books, motivational, reading, Robin S. Sharma, self-improvement

During my trip to Thailand, I had the chance to visit Phuket and Bangkok.
By chance, I made the reservation to stay in Ibis Hotel. I had never tried Ibis Hotel before and it was a coincidence too that I selected the same brand of hotel for both places.

The rate was affordable, probably because I booked and paid online, via Agoda.

Ibis Patong, Phuket

Ibis Patong is only 5 minutes walk to the Patong beach!

It is a 3 star hotel, and the room is quite small, but Ibis Patong hotel made a very good first impression to me.

At least for the same size, it looked and felt more comfortable than the First World Hotel, if you happened to visit Genting Highlands before.

Two complimentary glass-bottled drinking water are provided for every single day of your stay.

Space is limited, but somehow I did not feel any discomfort but in fact amazed by its design to optimize the usage of space.

The bathroom is also small but all basic necessities are available.

The small shower area, shaped triangular or trapezium or whatever….

This room in Ibis Patong had a view of the swimming pool.

Lobby entrance.

Their staff are friendly and room is clean with very new air conditioners (probably as the hotel is new).

For a room of less than USD 60, this is really a steal, at least for me, especially where things are slightly more expensive in Phuket.

There’s a spacious lobby, a bar and a nice restaurant for breakfast too.
If you booked for tour, they tour company will normally come to pick you up from your hotel or leave a message to the receptionist to remind you of your pickup time.

Ibis Nana, Bangkok

Ibis Nana in Bangkok is only a 10 minutes walk to Nana BTS station.

I like Ibis Hotel’s way of strategically locating their hotel within walking distance to places like beaches and skytrain.

Although the outlook of this hotel is slightly different with Ibis Patong in Phuket, but the rooms design and everything are the same!

It looks like Ibis take importance of their brand and standards for their hotels.

In the room there are also fact sheets and message to be environmental friendly, such as if you like to have your towels to be changed, leave them on the floor. (Those still hanging will not be changed).

You might want to read this green press kit if you’re interested to know more about Ibis Hotel’s commitment to the environment.

Even their buffet breakfast are the same! Ok, maybe just 90 percent similar.
By the way, Ibis Nana’s television has 81 channels, all unique!

Ibis Hotel has 800 hotels in 40 countries around the world, and are generally close to city centres, airports or rail stations, offering budget rates.

It seems to me that they are growing rapidly in Asia Pacific too, currently with hotels at

• Australia
• China
• India
• Indonesia
• Hong Kong
• New Zealand
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Singapore

I know that the first thing I’ll do the very next time when searching for hotels will be the rate and location of Ibis Hotel.

The rate provided by Agoda was very competitive, maybe due to the lower commission that they charge the hotels.

Even a check with Air Asia’s site couldn’t match the price offered by Agoda, although this may change in the future.

Have you been to any of the Ibis Hotel around the globe? Or what is your preferred choice of hotel during your travel?

Good To Know, Review, Travel Agoda, Air Asia, Bangkok, Ibis Hotel, Ibis Nana, Ibis Patong, Nana BTS, Patong beach, Phuket, Shukhumvit

I was recently inspired by a blog reader, JoV who had a niche blog, doing book reviews. She reads averaging more than five books a month!

Reading is a good habit, and the most I did was one book a month. Shameless, I know.
So, I am now determined to finish at least one a month and put up a review of it every month.

Here’s my personal take on Secrets Of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses by Adam Khoo.

The author Adam Khoo is a Singaporean, who runs motivational camps or training courses for corporates as well as students. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he is one of the youngest millionaires in Singapore. Read his biography here.

The book Secrets Of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses is his eighth of nine best selling books he authored.

This book has nine chapters and although I would categorize it as a business book, every chapter is written in a easy to read manner and with examples of how the topic relates to himself and the businesses he built.

Chapter 1 – The Making of a Millionaire Entrepreneur introduced how he learned business from young. He came from a wealthy family but he had to depend on himself to build his own wealth, which reminds me of Rich Dad Poor Dad. This chapter stressed that to be a successful entrepreneur, one needs to have a compelling WHY to have a business and the HOW will eventually find a way.

Chapter 2 – The Success Factors of Millionaire Entrepreneurs talks about having the entrepreneur skill sets. Adam shares about taking responsibility and facing challenges and used some of his clients as examples. Failures are important and innovation is needed for the survival of a business.

Chapter 3 – The Million Dollar Business Idea invites readers to think about their passion and that it is with love of the work that successful entrepreneurs do not stop working.

Chapter 4 – Building a Business That Works Without You guides you on the importance of letting the business run independently without the need of the owner running it. A good example of this is the founder of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc. Adam uses McDonald’s as example in his book quite frequently as it is one of the most successful international business.

Chapter 5 – Multiplying Your Business Profits teaches the readers about Sales, Leads, Conversion Rates, Average Dollar Purchase and the likes. All of these are illustrated in a easy to understand manner even a programmer like me can easily catch the concept.

Chapter 6 – How To Generate Millions in Sales & Profit talks about marketing strategies and how to retain customers. The biggest mistake that most small businesses make is to focus all their attention on getting new customers and take it for granted that their old customers will return. How true!

Chapter 7 – Building a Championship Team shares about the pain of getting good people into a business and the four essential roles that are required in any business. Eventually, the idea is to get good people to join your business as a company is successful only because the people working in it are successful people.

Chapter 8 – Mastering Your Money reveals that most people does not care about their cashflow and how important it is to have good money management. This chapter guides on a six-month budgeting and forecasting in order to build a successful business.

Chapter 9 – Growing Your Business Empire basically talks about the need to grow your business once it has made profit and to stay relevant in the industry instead of losing out to the competition.

Personally, I would think this is a value-for-money type of business book as compared to the other famous authors talking about their money making adventures. This is because besides having it written in a simple to understand manner, Adam also provides a honest and frank story-telling guide on how to build a successful business and maintaining it, using himself as an example.

After finishing his book, it appears that he is a man of his own words, providing value to keep customers returning. I think I will get another book of his soon enough.

You can download the Chapter 1 for free from Adam Khoo’s website by providing your email in exchange for the download link here.

It’s also available for sale in Singapore and Malaysia, and can also be purchased online from MPH Online.
Or you can have a book exchange with me.

So that’s my first book review in this blog and I hope you like it.
Let me know if you have read this book before and your opinion on it below this blog posts.

I’m quite sure my once a month book review will work, the worst is to get a thin book and finish it in a day. And just in case you thought this is one, no.. it had 290 pages and I’m not a speed reader.

Books, Review Adam Khoo, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, millionaire