East West - The Asian American Lifestyle Magazine

Robin Sharma never was meant to be a lawyer.

He wasn’t comfortable with public speaking and he didn’t like the idea of wearing suits.  Still, Sharma found a way to put his education and experience to work.

Sharma has spent the last seven years, after confronting his fear of public speaking, spreading his leadership philosophies to big companies such as Nabisco, Nike and Microsoft, and changing the lives of people around the globe.  And the 40-year-old’s two law degrees give him credibility in the eyes of the CEOs and corporate professionals he works with today in this role as a leadership expert.

He says his background has helped him stay disciplined. “Being a lawyer teaches you a very analytical way to think,” he says, “and an intellectual rigor so you can really be thoughtful about things.” This same thoughtfulness is something he preaches to his audiences, especially when it comes taking control of their own lives. “Ordinary people can live extraordinary lives,” he says.

The change in his own life came after working as a lawyer in Toronto. “I was walking to work feeling like the hollow man,” he says. “Inside there was an extraordinary emptiness.” He started reading books on philosophy, the meaning of life, and positive thinking, and soon developed his own philosophy in “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.” He self-published the book at Kinko’s (his mother, a schoolteacher, was the editor), and he and his father sold the books out of the trunk of his car. Through word of mouth the book gained popularity, and soon people were ordering 30 or 40 copies to give to friends, Sharma says.

What happened next “was the beginning of everything.”

By chance, he met the president of HarperCollins Publishers at a bookstore, and in 1998 he signed a book deal and waved goodbye to life as a lawyer.

Sharma doesn’t claim to be a guru, but it’s not surprising that his books follow the path of a monk. After all, the Ugandan-born, Toronto-based author looks monk-like himself with a slim frame, bald head, serene smile and gentle brown eyes. He describes himself as a dreamer, passionate, disciplined, loving, creative, simple, intense and fun loving, and jokingly agrees that his personal ad would say the same thing. On stage he has the casual presence of a stand-up comedian, only with a soft voice and a PowerPoint presentation as his backdrop, and his Canadian upbringing comes out when pronouncing words such as “out” and “house.” Sharma spent his childhood playing street hockey and racing motorcycles, and even then he was a go-getter, younger brother Sanjay says. “He was very organized and driven at an early age.”

That same drive has helped him publish seven books (six international best sellers), and his most recent, “Discover Your Destiny With the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,” was released earlier this year. The book “is a wake up call for anyone who feels stuck in their life,” he says, “and wants to play a much bigger game as a human being.” He has spoken with well-respected life experts such as Dr. Phil and Deepak Chopra and shared the platform with former president Bill Clinton in front of an audience of 10,000. His “Monk” books are the story of a former lawyer, who much like Sharma “had all the material trappings of success,” and his path to fulfillment. Though Sharma never had a Ferrari, he is set to play the lead role in the movie version of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,” which he is co-producing with an Indian production company. Sharma never has acted, but “If Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Paris Hilton can all act,” he says, “then I probably can as well.”

However, his greatest role he says is being a single dad. While speaking engagements have kept him on the road for much of his career, he now is limiting his commitments to about four per month so that he can spend more time with his children Colby, 11, and Bianca, 9. “My life is so much more complete being a dad,” he says. “They’re my best teachers, my best friends, my No. 1 priority.”

The three spend time together skiing in the winter, traveling to places like Italy in the summer, sitting in Starbucks, swimming and reading (they read for about an hour together each night). Sharma also shares with them what he does with his public speaking. “He teaches them to pursue their dreams,” Sanjay says, “and reinforces that they have unlimited potential … He is very empathetic and validates their feelings.”

But it’s not always serious in the Sharma household. As a dad, he says he gets to “eat all these really fun things,” and listen as his daughter tells him she wants to be both a dentist and a dollar-store owner. He watches “Sponge Bob,” reads “Harry Potter” and looks forward to “coming home, opening the door, and getting these two little human beings running 100 miles a minute trying to give you a hug.”

Sharma sees his kids not only as a big part of his own life, but models for how we should all live. “When we were little kids,” he says, “we had all the traits of greatness. Little kids dream, they’re loving, authentic, fearless and curious. They forgive in a second. As adults, we’re conditioned to be afraid of rejection.”

With his priorities changing to focus more on his family, Sharma is setting up his business to be a training company and teaching others to deliver his message. His following is large (his brother refers to him as the “rock star of the family”), and at his speaking engagements, some audience members are reduced to tears and leave inspired to start a new life. Seeing him on stage is “an amazing experience,” Sanjay says, but it was what happened after a speech when the family was at lunch that he remembers most. “A gentleman glanced over at us,” he says, “and came over in a very respectful manner. He was in the audience earlier, and said he was a big fan. What was really touching though was when he spoke to my parents. While fighting back tears, he said how much he owed them for influencing Robin in such a positive way … At that point I understood the emotional impact Robin was having on people.”

Sharma’s impact can been seen on his Web site’s message board, or by reading the success stories posted on the site. His followers are not only inspired by him to change their own lives, but to help others change theirs, too. “The e-mails I get from people will move you to tears,” he says. “Knowing that people are using the material to enrich their lives and pass along their ideas and inspiration make the world a better place one person at a time. Imagine if every one of us was leaving people better than we found them.”

Many people that experience Sharma’s books or speeches are better off, according to the postings on the site. There are dramatic turnaround stories from depressed or suicidal people, uninspired corporations whose employees are motivated to start anew, and one woman who went from having 50 percent body fat and weighing 320 pounds to having 9 percent body fat and being named Ottawa’s Strongest Woman.

Those who work with him see the impact he has firsthand. “He is witty, thoughtful and wholly sincere,” says Jordana Frost, project manager of coaching services at Sharma Leadership International. “His blend of wisdom, technology and storytelling fully connects him with his audience … You can see on the faces of the audience that amazing things are awaking inside of them.”

Audience members aren’t the only ones inspired by Sharma, Frost says. “The idea of working with a man who has such incredible drive and inspiration to change the world was intoxicating to me,” she says. “He truly is my greatest fan, and to know that your employer believes so deeply in you, motivates you to play your very best game.”

 For Sharma, it’s about using himself as an example for how others can change their lives. He doesn’t deny that he’s running a business, but says that sharing his message is what’s most important. “When you really try to help people,” he says, “you don’t need that much because you feel full … I’m not doing this because it’s a good way to make money. I do it because it’s my oxygen.”