User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Robin Sharma’s latest work “The 5 A.M Club” (“the book”) presents itself as a formidable contender for “The Worst Book of 2018” award. Extraordinarily insipid, extremely uninspiring and inexplicably long-winded, the book is well served remaining unread! Replete with borrowed quotes, resonating with irrelevant similes, and riding on a by now familiar philosophy, Robin Sharma feebly and futilely attempts to package old wine in a new bottle. Unfortunately, the damaged quality of the bottle deteriorates the very essence of the wine.
So what exactly is the “5.00 A.M Club?”
A. A simple, ordinary message stretched to an unimaginably inordinate degree
The message being dished out by Mr. Sharma is neither innovative nor novel. The basic idea being to jump out of one’s bed at 5.00 A.M in the morning and perform a set of activities involving the exercise of both mental and physical faculties. THIS IS IT both in a nutshell as well as in the philosophy’s entire expansion. However, what could have been ensconced within a precise tract or even a pamphlet is extended, elongated and elaborated in a most painful manner that makes a reader plough through 314 excruciating pages. The fact that in a book titled “The 5.00 A.M Club”, it takes 51 pages for a character to actually wake up at 5.00 A.M speaks volumes about the peripheral irrelevance that masks the core matter.
B. A story that is totally irrelevant
In order to convey a purely simplistic message, Mr. Sharma bizarrely elects to employ a story telling method which exasperates and enervates the reader to an infuriating degree. Yes, you really become tired reading (or at least trying to) the book. It is an unenviable chore trudging through a morass of pages that has at its centerpiece three characters. An entrepreneur who comes perilously close to taking her own life, courtesy an attempted investor coup before a seminar transforms her. Wearing bracelets with inspirational quotes etched on them, she signs on to become a member of the 5.00 A.M Club. She is joined in this endeavor by an artist who keeps fidgeting with his dreadlocks when not repeatedly mouthing “def” for “definitely. The mentor for both the entrepreneur and the artist is a quirky billionaire who when not mouthing quotes picked from Gibran to Seneca or doing dervish whirls and hand stands, spends time taking his two students on freewheeling tours to Mauritius, India, Italy and South Africa, imparting the tenets of the 5.00 A.M club. To assist him in this endeavor he keeps addressing his students as “cats” while himself using surfer slang such as “gnarly” to such a liberal extent that the reader feels like taking a sail boat over the book!
C. Pareto Principle in Action with Corny Passages
80% of the book is an astonishing exercise in futility. A communication that could have been accommodated within 20-30 pages takes up a whopping 314 pages. Pages that are packed with passages so reeking with irrelevance that they are enough to make the reader tear her hair out in sheer white frustration! Sample this:
“The artist laughed as a baby gecko jaywalked across a broad plank. He took off his black shirt in the dazzling sunshine, exposing a Buddha-sized belly and man breasts the size of fleshy mangoes.”
“…. she admitted as the skin on her forehead scrunched together like a rose contracting in the cold.”
“. the artist interrupted with all the energy of a puppy seeing its owner after a long day alone.”
D. Invest in a book of quotes instead
In addition to beginning every chapter with a famous quote, the book strings together sayings at a speed which would put even the reproductive capabilities of rabbits to total shame! Quotes by the renowned and the reviled fly at you from all angles making both deflection and assimilation equally impossible. One would do well instead to invest in a book of quotes and peruse the same meticulously.
E. Read these Alternative Books
The 5.00 A.M club borrows liberally from the philosophies of luminaries such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and also pop psychologists such as Malcolm Gladwell. In the event one manages to get through the tedium and torture of the “5.00 A.M Club”, the following books may serve as the perfect antidote:
• “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi;
• “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg;
• “Eat, Move, Sleep” by Tom Rath;
• “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey;
• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill;
• “The Empires of the Mind” by Dennis Waitley
• Read these Alternative Books
F. The George Orwell Rule
Mr. Sharma, while meticulously putting together the powerful sayings of many greats who have trod on this Planet, seems to have missed out on a set of most important rules – the immortal Six Rules laid down by George Orwell. One of the rules postulates, “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.”.
If only this rule was followed the “5.00 A.M club” would have been an eminently readable book.
The “5.00 A.M Club” – deserving of a pass.
Rating: really liked it
wow, this is
terrible. The ludicrously bad story woven around the ultimately blog-post-sized advice has some of the worst writing I've ever experienced. Wow.
Rating: really liked it
This fiction book with teaching and importance why to wake up at 5 am.
Join the 5 am club,own your morning .Elevate your life( theme of book).
The story revolves around the person artist and entrepreneur both attend the teaching of spellbinder (motivational speaker) and where they meet billionaires (Mr.Riley stone)
Both entrepreneur and artist will fall in love,the journey of learning about technique of 5 am club and other self help techniques by Billionaire
The story travel to various place Mauritius,India to visit Taj Mahal , Rome in Italy,Brazil (Sao Paulo) and South Africa for Robbin island ( place where Nelson Mandela jailed ). For learning the technique and importance of 5 am club .
The key technique are
A)The 3 step success formula by starting with better awareness lead to better choice and the finally better result .
B)The 4 focuses of history makers
1. Capitalisation Iq
2. Freedom from distraction
3. Personal mastery practice
4. Day stacking
C)Four interior empire Mindset (psychology),Heartset ( emotionality),healthset( physicality),Soulset( spirituality)
D)The habit installation protocol for 66 days minimum to reach automaticity point ( for any habit to become our second nature)
Stage 1 ( 1 to 22 days) - destruction phase
Stage 2 (23 to 44 days)-installation phase
Stage 3( 45 to 66 days)-integration phase
E) The 20/20/20 Formula deconstructions from 5.00 AM to 6.00AM
Pocket#1 5.00 Am to 5.20 Am for Move
Time for doing intense exercise and sweat heat to boost your metabolism and cleanses cortisol level and BDNF rise
Pocket#2 5.20Am to 5.40 Am for reflection
Time for doing journal,mediations,plan,contemplate
Pocket #3 5.40 Am to 6.00 Am for grow
Time for review goals,read books,audiobook and podcasts
Which improve knowledge and confidence boost.
F) The 10 Tactics for Lifelong Genius
Tactic #1: The Tight Bubble of Total Focus (TBTF)
Tactic #2: The 90/90/1 Rule
Tactic #3: The 60/10 Method
Tactic #4: The Daily 5 Concept
Tactic #5: The 2nd Wind Workout (2WW)
Tactic #6: The 2 Massage Protocol (2MP)
Tactic #7: Traffic University
Tactic #8: The Dream Team Technique
Tactic #9: The Weekly Design System (WDS)
Tactic #10: The 60 Minute Student
G)The twin cycle of elite performance are High Excellence Cycle and Deep Refueling Cycle
H) The five asset of genius are mental focus,physical energy,personal willpower,original talent and daily time .
THE LEGENDARY PERFORMANCE EQUATION:
PRESSURE × REFUELING = GROWTH + ENDURANCE
Becoming legendary is all about sustainability.
GCA: Gargantuan Competitive Advantage:True depth as it relates to how you think, behave and deliver. Healthy perfectionism—and an unyielding quest to be the best that you are capable of becoming.
Some interesting neuroscience term transient hypofrontality, human growth hormone production,BDNF—brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
This book have lot of quotes and you can keep rising daily 5.am as upcoming goal for this new year.
Rating: really liked it
Disappointed. I was expecting a straightforward book with clear advice. Instead, I got a book with boring characters.
Not recommended.
Rating: really liked it
Instead of writing a short, succinct book explaining his theories and methods accompanied by true anecdotal supporting evidence and which could have been used as a handy reference guide, the author has chosen to mire this information in a fictional account that is both poorly written and just plain annoying. Take for example this line of dialogue — “...That groovy cat was a pretty gnarly dude.” This is the tone of the dialogue throughout — phoney forced jive talk. If I’d had to read one more “anyhoo” I might have pitched the book across the room. As it is I skimmed the last couple of chapters, it was all too much. One thing I did learn — I won’t be getting up at 5am any time soon.
Rating: really liked it
This is honestly the worst book I have ever read in my entire life. This book is actually a fictional allegory for productivity and it reads like it was written by a 5th grader. Honestly, it’s 311 pages of waste written like the positive story your racist aunt reposted on Facebook. Truly terrible. I hated it so much that I was inspired to actually review it. Fuck this book.
Rating: really liked it
I finished this book and I can honestly say that this wins the “worst book award of the decade.”
For some who states that it took 4 rigorous years to create this manuscript, I would be embarrassed.
You want to know the takeaways without reading a terrible story....
Well here it is
Wake up at 5am
20/20/20 Formula is about breaking that golden hour into 20 minute blocks
20 intense workout
20 meditation/reflection
20 grow (as In learning from books, et cetera)
I’ll tell you this, wake up at 5am and workout intensely and watch how much damage you will do to yourself. There is not hint of stretching or drinking a glass of water before working out, nothing. This is erroneous and just a ploy for money off of his title as a New York Times Bestseller
Please do not purchase and move on to something with great reviews!
Rating: really liked it
It's a self help book that tries to be a novel and fails on both accounts. The prose is purple, the characters are flatter than my pathetic attempt at making pie crust and there isn't a single dialog tag that the author didn't shove in. There's a ridiculously superficial romance subplot (tho that would imply there is any kind of plot to this) that made me bang my head against the table in frustration. Also, there's a quirky mentor figure - he randomly starts exercising and/or yodeling whenever he's talking to the two love birds. Also, there's an assassination attempt on one of the characters.
The point of the book? Wake up before dawn to be more productive and get your life together. Bc everyone has the same circadian rythm and is productive in the mornig :/
Rating: really liked it
You must have read many self-help books. I have too, but I always prefer biographies to self-help books. The reason being they all sound the same. So I am pretty surprised with this book. It has actually helped me with my goals. One particular quote from the book which really worked for me is, "Stop managing your time and start managing your focus." Isn't that true? I mean, don't we talk about time being the most valuable thing. Well, what is the use of being disciplined if you don't know what you want in life. Now, how has this book helped me? Well, I am member of The 6 AM Club now but I am definitely on my way to join The 5 AM Club. See you there.
Rating: really liked it
Re-read Nov 2021:
Such a classic! So many great take aways. I just hate the way this book is delivered. Soooooo much fluff of a few random characters, completely unnecessary but still absolutely love the practical take aways from this book.
1st Read in Oct 2019:
My my my this book really moved me. It influenced me greatly to wake up at 5am daily and to be not only the most productive I've ever been but to also have fun! Work hard play hard as they say.
The only thing that I didn't really like was how the book was written. It could have been much more simplified and cut down to half it's size. There's narrative and storytelling in it that I don't see the purpose in but the take-away's are still so valuable I still have to give it 5/5 stars.
Notes:
- "Adults are deteriorated children... When you were much younger, you understood how to live. Staring at stars filled you with delight. Running in a park made you feel alive. And chasing butterflies filled you with joy... Then, as you grew up, you forgot to be human. You forgot how to be bold and enthusiastic and loving and wildly alive. Your precious reservoirs of hope faded. Being ordinary became acceptable. "
- "Education is the kindling of a flame." - Socrates
- "Self-Education is, I believe, the only kind of education there is." - Isaac Asimov
- "Heavily resist all piracy of your mastery from this world tempting you into distractibility and causing digital dementia. Force your attention back to the Everest's of potential aching for fuller expression and, today, release all reasons that need any stagnation of your strengths. Start being an imaginationalist - one of those rare individuals who leads from the nobility of your future versus via the prison bars of your past. "
- "(at halfway point in our lives) We begin to realize that we're not going to live forever and that our days are numbered. And so, we connect with our mortality. Big point here. We realize we are going to die. What's truley important comes into much sharper focus. We become more contemplative. We start to wonder if we'e been true to our talent, loyal to our values and successful on the terms that feel right to us... The last 50 years ten become less about me and more about we. Less about selfishness and more about service.
Rule #1
An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production. Empire makers and history creators take one hour for themselves before dawn, in the serenity that lies beyond the clutches of complexity, to prepare themselves for a world-class day.
Rule #2
Excuses breed no genius. Just because you haven't installed the early-rising habit before doesn't mean you can't do it now. Release your rationalizations and remember that small daily improvements, when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results.
Rule #3
All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end. Everything you need to now find easy you first found difficult. With consistent practice, getting up with the sun will become your new normal. And automatic.
Rule #4
To have the results The Top 5% of producers have, you must start doing what 95% of people are unwilling to do. As you start to live like this, the majority will call you crazy. Remember that being labelled a freak is the price of greatness.
Rule #5
When you feel like surrendering, continue. Triumph loves the relentless.
- "Real riches come from living by the noble virtues of productivity, self-discipline, courage, honestly, empathy, and integrity as well as being able to lead your days on your own terms versus blindly following the sheep.
- "Elite production without quiet vacation causes lasting depletion. Rest and recovery isn't a luxury for anyone committed to mastery - it's a necessity... I've also learned that inspiration gets fed by isolation, away from the ceaseless digital diversion and mindless overcommunication that dominates the hours of the majority of these days... Your natural genius presents itself when you're most joyful. We get our ideas that change the world when we're rested, relaxed and filled with delight.
The 5 Scientific Truths Behind Excellent Habits:
Truth #1
World-class willpower isn't an inborn strength, but a skill developed through relentless practice. Getting up at dawn is the perfect self-controlling training.
Truth #2
Personal discipline is a muscle. The more you stretch it, the stronger it grows. Therefore, the samurais of self-regulation actively create conditions of hardship to build their natural power.
Truth #3
Like other muscles, willpower weakens when tired. Recovery is, therefore, absolutely necessary for the expression of mastery. And to manage decision fatigue.
Truth #4
Installing any great habit successfully follows a distinct 4-part pattern for automation of the routine. Follow it explicitly for lasting results.
Truth #5
Increasing self-control in one area of your life elevates self-control in all areas of your life. This is why joining The 5am Club is the same game-changing habit that will lift everything else that you do.
The 3 Values of Heroic Habit-Makers
Value #1
Victory demands consistency and persistency.
Value #2
Following through on what is started determines the size of the personal respect that will be generated.
Value #3
The way you practice in private i precisely the way you'll perform once you're in public
- Successful people - "lies in fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do... Top producers make it a habit to do the high-value activities that average ones don't feel like doing - even when they, too, don't feel like doing them... And by practicing the desired behavior over and over, their self-mastery and personal discipline grows. And the new routine becomes automated."
-"...will power weakens once it gets tired. Scientists call the condition "ego depletion." You wake up with a full battery of self-control. That's why I want you to do the activities that are most important to the rise of your inner empires at the time when your capacity is strongest - 5am. As you go through your day... your ability to self-regulate decreases - and so does your capability to handle temptations and manage weak impulses. The fact that human discipline muscles get tired from all the decision fatigue explains why so many massively successful people end up doing something foolish that destroys their careers.
- "The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil."
The 10 Tactics of Lifelong Genius
Tactic #1 The Tight Bubble of Total Focus (TBTF)
An addiction to distraction is the death of your creative production. Your attraction to digital interruption is costing you your fortune - financially, cognitively, energetically, physically, and spiritually. TBTF is a metaphor that you build around your assets of genius so they are not only strong they increase. The 5 primary assets that all superproducers defend are mental focus, physical energy, personal willpower, original talent, and daily time. The real key here is solitude for a scheduled period every day, in a positive environment that floods you with creativity, energy, happiness and the feeling the work you're doing is for the upliftment of humanity.
Tactic #2 The 90/90/1 Rule
Doing real work, instead of artificial work, daily and with absolute consistency, will give you a gargantuan competitive advantage born of mastery. Legendary achievers concentrate all their attention and effort on one core project at a time so they harness the fullness of their cognitive capacity and their precious energy on releasing glorious products that turn their industry on their head. The 90min period must be completed free of any noise and interruptions.
Tactic #3 The 60/10 Method
The way elite creatives do what they do is by understanding the power of oscillation. They structure their work cycles so they alternate bursts of deep focus and ferocious intensity of performance with periods of rest and full recovery. Even 10min of regeneration - go for a walk, meditate, read a book, so that your brain shifts from the worrying of behaviors of the left hemisphere into the creativity and flow of the right section.
Tactic #4 The Daily 5 Concept
Studies show that the most effective business leaders are at their peak when they'v actively engaged their mindset on the progress they've made. Make consistent 1% wins and micro-achievements throughout each hour of your workday.
Tactic #5 The 2nd Wind Workout (2WW)
Schedule a second workout at the end of each work day, you'll re-energize your willpower batteries so you improve your evening choices and even find your craving for sugar in the night time significantly lower. Go for a 1hr nature walk.
Tactic #6 The 2 Massage Protocol (2MP)
Studies have shown that massage therapy is a modality that generates significant improvements to brain performance, mood, your ability to fight stress, and general wellness. 31% reduction in cortisol (fear hormone), 31% increase in dopamine (motivation), 28% elevation of seratonin (regulates anxiety and rising happiness), reduced muscle tension improved pain relief, and more mitochondria growth. So get 2 90min massages per week
Tactic #7 Traffic University
While your on your commute listen to audiobooks
Tactic #8 The Dream Team Technique
Superproducers outsource and then automate all activities except those within the realm of their mastery, allowing for purity of focus and freeing up huge amounts of time.
Tactic #9 The Weekly Design System (WDS)
Every Sunday take 30min to carve out your next week. Start by reflecting on the past week, the highlights, lessons learned, optimizations for the following week
Tactic #10 The 60 Minute Student
Legendary leaders all have boundless curiosity and a limitless appetite to grow into their greatest selves. Peak producers are lifetime learners. For 60min/day study.
Rating: really liked it
This is impressively terrible. Wow. Got about 40 pages in, skimmed the rest, laughed, and deleted, never to read again. Dang, that is some truly awful writing.
Rating: really liked it
Scam.
Just Google some motivational quotes, and it'll be the same as reading this. Only without the unnecessary faff and the terrible storyline.
PSA: Please get your full 8 hours of sleep, kids. Nothing else matters in life.
Rating: really liked it
Hello and welcome back to ‘Esther makes mistakes by reading certain books’. I’d like to kick this one off with a quote from this work, and it’s a doozy: ‘Poverty is the consequence of an inner condition, not an outer situation.’
This quote really sums up the blasé attitude taken to people’s lives in this book. It’s disgustingly entitled, horrendously lacking in empathy, and focuses on building industry on the backs of people who will read stuff like this and think ‘Hey, I can do this and become a billionaire!’. Realistically, it’ll lead people who got into their positions via exploitation and nepotism to take even more advantage of people who then try to dedicate their lives to this pathetic formula.
So, where to begin?
This is a self help book under the guise of a narrative tale about a billionaire who dresses as a homeless man, a ‘charmingly’ Randian entrepreneur who is being threatened for being a good business woman, and a dude with dreadlocks who I’m gonna guess is likely appropriating them from somewhere they shouldn’t be. Now, I suppose this book taught me one thing, and that one thing is that if you write self help, you should never, ever use a narrative form. It’s horrid, it doesn’t carry over well, and it convolutes the message beyond belief.
I’ve also been made aware that the ideas in this book have been grifted from a number of other self-help books, furthering my point about living off the backs of others, and showing just how shady this whole thing is. The day formula is thoroughly unrealistic- although the characters tout it can be adjusted, it stipulates that 5am through to 8am is to be unsullied by work and emails, and then the same follows for post 3pm ish. In THIS economy? Get real, dude. Maybe, again, if you have the disposable income, but for the rest of us? Impossible.
This book is also peppered with quotes from ‘the greats’, such as *checks notes* John Lennon. There’s not much substance in anything that gets quoted in here either, and it feels like the author just wanted to compile some sayings he likes, which felt really weird? It also felt like a weird foray into fiction for someone who really needs to put the pen down and step away from it. Maybe never pick it up again. Just a suggestion.
Contrary to the opinions expressed by this book, you’re not the 95% because you haven’t tried hard enough, you’re not the 95% because you’re not waking up at 5am, and you’re not the 95% because you don’t sweat in the mornings. You’re the 95% because we live in a society that is plagued by late stage capitalism that treats most people as expendable cogs in the machine. Entitled self help authors who try to make it seem as though it’s because you’re not waking up at 5am are part of the problem.
Rating: really liked it
I admire the writer for attempting a new concept of sharing motivation idea in a fiction way to get readers interested in it. The author has shared a beautiful concept to develop inner power to get external achievements. It also shares how should we develop our inner power by following daily rituals. 5 AM club doesn't only share the benefits of waking up early but it shares how powerful it impacts on our rest day activities. The book helps to develop the habit of rising early and also shares what we should do after waking up. The writer has focused on the importance of phycology, emotions, physical strength and spirituality. He has shared the method of developing it and use it to achieve all our desires.
The concept is beautiful the writer could have avoided fiction story or could have given less focus on it. Many times content deviated from its core point. There were places where the writer got into over-detailing which lost the main point of motivation. It also seems the material could be reduced if the writer could balance the main topic and story.
I feel one should read the book at least once. If the reader find book heavy, they can avoid starting chapters and jump to later chapters to get the core idea of the book.
I will give 4 out 5 stars to Robin Sharma's 5 A.M. Club.
Detailed Review Link - https://chevusread.blogspot.com/2019/...
Rating: really liked it
The 5 AM Club is the place where leaders and victors are made. It is the special hour that exists before the sun rises and when most of the population is still asleep. This time is for a dedication to and preservation of ourselves and what we do during these sixty precious minutes can impact not only the hours to come, but the rest of our lives beyond it.
I like to consume self-improvement books at semi-regular intervals. Whilst many similarities might lie inside their pages and the format remains similar between each, I find the repetition of the knowledge they all impart to fuel my creativity and focus until my next mental lag, when I will begin the process of reading one all over again.
The 5 AM Club is a title I had been meaning to read for some time, given its renown and how frequently the title pops up on lists of best non-fiction books, which are written in a similar vein. I did not, however, find it like any other I had read before.
The book is structured as a series of fictional interactions between a mentor and the two strangers he begins to instruct. Their meeting is strange and his mannerisms even more so, but they, against all logic, decide to trust him, and embark on a journey of challenges and change.
The reader also becomes privy to the methods, the madness, and the miracles this mentor provides, which are slowly revealed as the book progresses. In between his snippets of personal wisdom are facets of the three individual's daily lives and quotes from a multitude of admirable historical individuals.
Yes, this book's knowledge could be condensed into twenty short pages of instruction and yes, the contents are probably available elsewhere, but it is the journey taken to gain this understanding that impacted me so strongly. As the individuals come to realise facets of their lives and their characters, I too began to understand something of myself. There was nothing that made the pair similar to myself in any way other than our shared journey to understanding, but this was enough.
This is a book I will treasure always and definitely return to again.
