July 12, 2014

Book Review: 'Suited Monk Leadership' By Raf Adams & Mike J. Thompson

Title: Suited Monk Leadership

Author: Raf Adams & Mike J. Thompson

Publisher: WOW! Books; 2 edition (February 1, 2013

Price:  $14.36

Now this was a case of perfect timing! In my experience of reading so far, I have come to realize that, there are two types of books. Books that you find, and books that find you. Irrespective of the type, I believe that every small act that you do (this includes reading a book) is decided by some cosmic influence that lead you to the act.

And so I got about reading 'Suited Monk Leadership'. I am not much of a non fiction fan. But the book blurb got me all curious. How does one cope in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world? This felt like the need of the hour, and perhaps a small little dissatisfied (with myself and this VUCA world) voice urged me to read on.

'Suited Monk Leadership' reveals a systematic and simple approach on how to be happy in today's society. The title is aptly explained in the initial few chapters. As we read on, we realize what the author means by saying that happiness can be attained only by aligning our suit with our monk.
With the increasing pressures of today's world, we are pulled away from our inner wisdom. What we stay merely concerned with, is the external 'suit' we donn, a suit that is acceptable to the world around us, and in accordance with our materialistic expectations. We fail to listen to our inner selves, the world within, our 'monk', the voice that demands the life we really want, the realisation of who we really are. Thus, there exists a huge gap between our suit and monk, and it is only when this gap is closed, that we can experience long lasting happiness and inner peace.

The book emphasizes on the importance of self realization, through the art of introspection and mindfulness, that can reduce pressure on your 'suit'. Varied experiences from different people around the globe stand in testimony to the end result of the effort invested in this pursuit of alignment.

"Feelings of failure are part of life's journey. We need to respond to what we may consider failure from our Monk's perspective"
The author has pointed out our flawed education system where we are not taught the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Hence we grow up as confused individuals, often heeding to materialistic expectations, rather than understanding our inner self.
The chapters ahead focus on how we can attempt to close this gap between our Suit and Monk, mainly by optimizing the way we deal with pressures, managing our emotions, measuring our expectations, and last but not the least, embracing our mistakes.
The book is an easy and engaging read. It serves as an eye opener for the wandering soul. It provides a sense of direction to the distressed mind. As you flip through these pages of self discovery, you are enriched by research insights and case stories of leaders, famous as well as unknown, that are easy to relate to. The wonderful visual representations of GAP and the life journey model are easy to understand and enables us to easily identify where we are currently standing on the map of life. 'Suited Monk Leadership' provides brilliant inspiration for people of all ages, especially those who find themselves stuck in the daily grind of a corporate world.

To sum it all, this book is an instruction manual, which if followed, will surely help create a better and a much happier world.
I would recommend it to all those standing at life's crossroads.
Here's hoping we are all able to successfully align our 'Suit' and 'Monk'.

Here is the official book video trailer:


Personal rating: 4 out of 5