He is approaching 60: would he sell the Ferrari again to become a monk?
At this age one already realizes that what he thought was big and important was actually small and irrelevant... And vice versa.
What is big today and was small yesterday?
Now I think more about death, without tragedies, and this gives a new meaning to life.
Nothing more?
This sense is immense: it allows you to connect with your mortality and value every second.
Nothing less?
I also fantasize, like Ray Kurzweil, founder of Singularity: "Live long enough to live forever."
How is it done?
Kurzweil and I believe we will live long enough for science to let us choose how much longer. I want 50 more years.
Should I aspire to buy a Ferrari so I can sell it or become a monk first?
I became a very well-paid lawyer for Ferrari, but I felt empty and that's why I changed my life from top to bottom...
His character suffers a heart attack.
And he becomes a monk in the Himalayas. I self-published this book and it was a bestseller, because millions of people needed it. And the most important habit of the book on which I have structured my existence since then is that of getting up at 5 in the morning.
Early risers... sleep less.
And live longer. Waking up at 5 I get time for myself and making it a habit, which I propose here to everyone, my life acquires more quality and meaning.
On the one hand, does he give advice to succeed and on the other hand to not need success?
It is a common tension between East and West that I already experienced as a child with my Hindu family. Spiritual, personal...and financial growth. And how to reconcile them.
Can you learn to make money and not need it at the same time?
"Live in the world, but not all of you", advise the Hindu monks. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reflects: "We pursue fame, glory, gold and victory... Just to give a name to a year in the calendar".
Hail, Marc Aureli.
And I preach aurea mediocritas, moderation: virtue is creating wealth, the way to distribute it, but without depending on it.
However, the monastic tradition deplores the world and its vanities: don't you?
I believe in the possibility of finding this Aristotelian middle point. I guess having death present helps to remember that there is no king or queen that doesn't eventually rot.
We will be dust, but dust in love: if life has been worth living, death does not win.
It is a reflection that I appreciate. But the most common aspiration here today is not to miss anything and to go to all of them... It's so western...
"If you want, you can".
But there is something toxic about this idea, because it condemns you to dissatisfaction: if you want you can; but this implies that you never take yourself for granted, because if you want, you can do everything. So, if you take it on, you're always a failure!
What can be done to avoid it?
Again, balance, moderation. We know that life is short, but also that we are happier if we give it direction and meaning and the daily illusion of progress.
How do you find it?
Every morning when I jump out of bed I remember the Spartans: "The more you sweat in the gym, the less you will bleed in battle". I get up every day at 5 in the morning – we are a global club – to prepare and progress a little every day and feel it and thus not bleed in the face of the worst in life.
Sport?
Not only: also mental exercise, like the meditation I learned from the monks, concentration, reading... I learn guitar, philosophy, chess, languages... Any discipline – try it – in which I can feel that I am progressing day by day . If you sweat in this exercise, you will bleed less in the battle of life.
Why at 5 in the morning? Have you tried it at 5 in the afternoon after your nap?
Because at 5 in the morning we can take advantage of the magic of the Brahmamuhurta, a 48-minute period that begins one hour and 36 minutes before dawn and ends 48 minutes before dawn.
Ideal time for peaceful sleep?
We know it's time for more peace, creativity, energy and good vibes. Try it for a few days in a row and you will discover unusual energies in you: you will write better, you will concentrate easily. And you will see your achievements.
And won't I be asleep for the rest of the day?
It will be stuck in the sun with nature.
And my friends? I won't see them. They are active at 7 or 8, like everyone else.
No human relationship with someone will be pleasant to him if he does not first have it with himself.
Shouldn't he want to sell more books?
The more I write, the less interested I am in selling and more in reading and being read. The more I meditate, the less I serve myself and the more I serve.
