Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma is a popular writer, speaker, life coach, leadership expert, and humanitarian.

Introduction-

Robin Sharma was born on 16 June 1964 into a middle-class family in Port Hawkesbury, Canada.

He grew up in the small town of Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia.

His father, Shiv Sharma hails from Jammu and Kashmir, India, later, he immigrated to Canada and he worked as a physician.

Shiv Sharma inspired Robin to be an action taker.

His mother is Shashi Sharma.

Robin’s brother, Sanjay Sharma is a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and works as an Ophthalmology professor and Retina Specialist. He also founded MEDSKL and Optocase.

Education-

Robin was a studious student in school and he majored in Biology.

Later, he joined Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada to study Bachelor of Laws and then, Master of Laws.

Robin graduated with a Master of Laws in 1991.

Career-

Robin started his career as a Judicial Law Clerk at the Appeal Division of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

He then became a litigation lawyer.

The false definition of success-

Eventually, Robin became a very successful lawyer and acquired many material possessions.

Initially, he believed that these possessions would make him happy but soon he realised that this wasn’t the case.

Robin wasn’t at all fulfilled with his job and possessions.

Becoming an author-

Robin pondered over his unhappiness and thought of writing a book.

So, he began writing his first book, Megaliving!: 30 Days to a Perfect Life and he published this in 1994 while working as a litigation lawyer.

Robin’s mother edited this book and he self-published it in Kinko’s copy shop.

His father helped him in selling a few copies of this book.

During that time, people mocked Robin for publishing a book on leadership because people didn’t expect a lawyer to have sound knowledge on leadership.

His first book wasn’t a bestseller and he stored a few thousand copies in his kitchen for distributing to his family, friends and co-workers.

‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’-

Robin also self-published his second book, ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari‘ in 1997.

This book is partly based on his life story and a few copies of this book got sold due to word of mouth.

Luckily, Robin caught the attention of Edward Carson, then president of HarperCollins while promoting his book in a bookstore.

Edward Carson gave him his first break as an author and this was the best thing to happen to his writing career.

Soon, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari became a bestseller in many countries and Robin quit his job to become a writer and life coach.

In 1999, he founded a training firm by the name, Sharma Leadership International Inc. and over the years trained many clients like Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, NASA and many Fortune 500 companies.

Robin has also been coaching many celebrities, sportspersons and billionaires.

Many bestsellers-

Over the years, Robin published numerous books and almost all of them have been bestsellers. They are as follows-

• Leadership Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (1998).
• Who Will Cry When You Die: Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (1999).
• Family Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (2001).
• The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO (2002).
• The Greatness Guide: 101 Lessons for Making What’s Good at Work and in Life Even Better (2006).
• The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (2008).
• The Leader Who Had No Title (2010).
• The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (2011).
• Little Black Book for Stunning Success (2016).
• The 5 AM Club (2018).
• The Everyday Hero Manifesto (2021).

These books have sold over 20 million copies in more than 96 countries and have been translated into many languages.

Robin opines that travelling around the world makes him more creative and helps him to write better.

He appeared in thousands of television and radio shows.

‘The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children’-

In 1999, Robin founded The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children.

This is a charitable foundation and works on children’s causes like helping kids with leprosy, etc.

Active on social media-

Robin is very active on social media and on 3 July 2008, he started his eponymous YouTube channel.

As of December 2023, it has 980K subscribers.

Robin is also active on Instagram, Facebook and does podcasts.

Personal life-

Robin was married to Alka but this couple got divorced.

He has two children, a daughter, Bianca and a son, Colby and he raised them as a single father.

Robin’s son followed his footsteps as he studied law and then became a motivational speaker and an author. He published, The Curveball : A Story of Grit, Adversity, and Winning the Game of Life book.

Robin resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Even though he is extremely wealthy, he lives in a modest house.

Robin is an adventure junkie and he flew an aeroplane over Africa.

He has been ranked as one of the top five leadership gurus and leadership speakers in the world.

Robin also acted in a couple of movies, Finding Joe and The Miracle Morning.

In an interview, he stated that he has no plans for retirement, ever.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of him and which is your favourite Robin Sharma’s book?

Share with me in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Featured image credit- Sharma Leadership International/Wikimedia Commons