"The Leader Who Had No Title" is a sleek piece of empty smooth-talk. This so-called modern fable stacks up one easy-bought `truth' after another, hyping them as `explosive secrets', guaranteed to immediately and fundamentally change the life and career of the reader. The only thing this book guarantees, of course, is to make the author a lot of money. (The reader is `strongly encouraged' to visit the author's website, to buy download tools `for real and lasting results', book the author for a presentation, or `invest in copies of this book', which is possible at `a special price on bulk orders.')
"The Leader Who Had No Title" operates in a painfully one-dimensional world where people in the military are `men of honour', where one's parents are the most fantastic and inspirational people on earth, and where everyone can `win', regardless of their abilities, intelligence and psychology. Literarily, this is also a world where the java (of course not `coffee') is `amazing', where everyone `admires' what the other just said and where posh hotel lobbies just happen to be filled with `beautiful models'.
As a manual for changing life and career, "The Leader Who Had No Title" is a well-oiled mish-mash of conventional positivism, `go-out-and-do-it'-attitude and borrowed wisdom quotes. Sadly, this makes for an intellectual collapse, in which reality gives way to sleek superficiality. In instant actions of will, the reader is supposed to perform psychological feats that for the best of people take years, and that for some is, of course, never possible: `...clearing up the emotional dimension of your inner life, releasing any resentments you may be carrying, and letting go of all baggage from the past.' Wow. Less grave, but no less annoying, the book endlessly acts as its own pop-up ad, repeating on every second page (literally) that if the reader follows its lessons, he or she will experience `awesome results', `breathtaking success' and gain `staggering power' in `these wildly uncertain times', `this period of dazzling change', `this time of head-spinning upheaval' etc. etc. Since the ideas in the book are the author's own, it is equally cringing and amusing to find him make the characters non-stoppingly praise each other's statements: `Amazing thought!', `Wow, that's a cool way of seeing it!' or `That makes so much sense!'
As literature, "The Leader Who Had No Title" is a painful read. Shallow and sentimental, it comes up short on all aspects fundamental to a fable: philosophy, psychology and empathy.
"The Leader Who Had No Title" is, in sum, a fraud.
An example of the book's level:
Anna, one of the story's `genious teachers', to the main character, who has done US military service in Iraq: `I honor you and all the other soldiers who've made so many sacrifices for us. You've fought hard so we all could be free. I know it's impossible for me to really understand what you've been through. But I do want to express my deepest gratitude. I love America a lot. And you, along with those who fought by your side, have kept us safe. And strong. So thank you.'
Robin Sharma, you scare me. Your insides must be made of plastic.
