The 5am Club in Blooming Books: Reading for Growth (Self-Development Book Club)

Aug 31, 2020 Bharath rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This is the second book of Robin Sharma that I read many years after ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’. This book suffers from many of the same issues as the other one – a silly wrapper story to general guidelines on self-improvement.

The book starts of with a group of people attending a workshop with ‘The Spellbinder’, a self-improvement guru. Among the attendees are an entrepreneur, an artist, and a seemingly homeless man. We are soon told about how the homeless man is not really that – he is a This is the second book of Robin Sharma that I read many years after ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’. This book suffers from many of the same issues as the other one – a silly wrapper story to general guidelines on self-improvement.

The book starts of with a group of people attending a workshop with ‘The Spellbinder’, a self-improvement guru. Among the attendees are an entrepreneur, an artist, and a seemingly homeless man. We are soon told about how the homeless man is not really that – he is a billionaire who has become successful by applying the Spellbinder’s teachings and just dresses as if he is homeless for the experience. The homeless man revealed to be a billionaire (one of the teachings is that money is not everything, but oh well – we will keep referring to this guy as the billionaire) charters a plane and does a tour of Mauritius, India, Italy and South Africa where he provides them learnings on habits, perseverance, focus etc. The central teaching is that you need to start your day at 5 AM with a 20-20-20 routine of exercise + meditation + curious learning. The narration then goes to a further set of recommended habits & approach.

My observation too is that many leaders do inculcate the habit of starting early. However, is that necessary? The book claims to combine aspects of neuroscience, but Mathew Walker’s (a sleep scientist) book “Why we sleep” offers a different take. He says that early morning starts are not for everyone and has in fact been asking government, organisations & educational institutions to delay starts rather than forcing everyone to start their day early. That aside, there is very little new information in the book, nor are there enough behaviour change techniques to work towards the goals the book outlines. I have personally found books exploring mindfulness, mythology, neuroscience & philosophy to be more helpful for behaviour change.

Overall, I found the book disappointing, though it does have some material which could be helpful.
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Mar 02, 2022 Hannah West rated it liked it · review of another edition

I thought overall, it was okay. The book was long-winded and in a fable/story kind of structure. I would have preferred a typical non-fiction self-help book. The sub-plot was unnecessary. I thought the pdf’s were helpful.

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Apr 22, 2023 Maryam rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I was excited to read "The 5AM Club" by Robin Sharma due to the hype surrounding it, but unfortunately, I was disappointed. The book felt unnecessarily long with over 300 pages, and I believe it could have been condensed into about 20 pages, focusing on the main key concepts discussed in the final chapters. Additionally, the fictional aspect of the book didn't resonate with me, and it didn't sit well with my expectations. ...more

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Dec 01, 2020 Arooj rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, why-was-this-written

This was an AWFUL format to write a book with a promising theme in. Towards the mid, I wanted to throw this book at the wall. And by the end, I felt so enraged I will now sleep till 10 am in protest.

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