The Firefighter Who Burned Books | Robin Sharma

Hi, it's Robin Sharma. Welcome to this mastery session. And I have something I wanted to share with you. It's Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 45 1, one of the best books I've read in a long, long, long time. I bought the book because I watched the movie that. The book that was based on the book. And the book is just. It's so creative and it was so fascinating. And I usually read nonfiction, but this just mesmerized me and riveted me. And so I wanted to jam a little bit on some of the lessons that I learned from Fahrenheit 45 1. The main lesson I learned is avoid groupthink. There's a quote that I wanted to share. It's at the beginning of the book, and it's from one Ramon J. And it says, if they give you ruled paper, write the other way.

And you never want to be like the sheeple out there, following the crowd, not thinking for themselves. One of the things Ray Bradbury writes about in the book, I mean, it's basically a society in the future where books are illegal. And there's these people called firemen, but they're not trained to put out fires. These firemen in this future society are trained and required to burn books. And so most people in this dystopian society of the future spend their days in their homes watching these huge screens of television, offering them mindless entertainment. And a few people, they're sort of like the resistance. They love books, and they haven't given their books back, and they've secretly held the books in their attics. And so if. If a neighbor sees them reading a book or hears they might be reading a book, he or she will call the firemen, who will come to the house and arrest and jail the book lovers and burn their books. What a world, right? Pretty cool premise. And so the hero of the story in Fahrenheit 451 is this firefighter. But deep inside, he has this fascination with books. And he wonders why all these people are just sort of addicted to these big screens of mindless entertainment. And one thing he notices as a firefighter or fireman is on a recent visit to this house that had books in it. There was a woman who was hoarding the books, and she had a whole library. And he said to her, he goes, get away. I need to burn the books. He had this huge blowtorch. And she said, no, I will not leave my books. And she literally stood in the pile of books while the firemen burned all the books. And she went up in flames in front of the fireman. And here's the thing. The hero looked at her eyes and she had a smile. It was like this defiant grin born of higher consciousness and the awareness that as human beings, we're not sheeple. We're not meant to be asleep. We're fully alive when we're learning and growing and reading books and watering our curiosity and gardening our gifts and our talents. And so, just to finish up on the story, the firefighter starts saving books that he's collecting and he's hiding them in the attic. And guess what? His wife turns him in. And so the other firemen start to gang up on this firefighter Montag, and they try to ultimately knock him out of the game. And so he has to escape and he goes to the woods and he's in the wilderness and. And he flees civilization. And guess what he finds? He finds these other people who over the years have fled society because they love books. And they welcome him into their secret order and they survive. So read Fahrenheit 4, 5, 1. And even more importantly, remember, victims love entertainment. Leaders love learning.

Hi, it's Robin Sharma, and I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Mastery Sessions. I'm absolutely delighted that people from across the planet are getting such great results from what I'm doing in the Mastery Sessions. Well, for a long time, we've received so many requests from advertisers to put their ads on the Mastery Sessions, and I have resisted doing so. And yet, what I wanted to do very quickly is offer you two resources that I absolutely know will create some marvelous shifts and elevations and results in your performance and in your personal life. The first is my book, the 5am Club. If you have not read it, you really need to know. It's one of the best selling books on the planet right now for a reason. It is transforming the lives of everyday heroes and people who want to make their ascent to world class. Definitely read the 5:00am Club.

You.

You are going to find it a very special book for your rise to world class. Secondly, for years, people have been asking me, robin, we want you to be our mentor.

Robin, we want you to be our coach.

We want to learn what you've taught to the billionaires and the NBA superstars and the other professional athletes and the film icons and the titans of industry. Really quickly. All you need to do. If you're interested in me becoming your mentor, head over to thecircleoflegends.com thecircleoflegends.com I've created a world class digital mentor mentoring program where I will work with you each month to help you make your leap and your ascent to absolute world class. Okay, now back to the episode.

All of the great women and men I've ever met, they had one thing in common. Their libraries were bigger than their television sets. And their appetite for learning was much larger than their interest.

In trivialities. If there's one thing I've done right in my life, it's I've invested in my learning. I think a home full of books is an awesome home to live in. I've got to give credit where it's due. My father, when I was growing up, always encouraged learning and I've tried to do the same with my two children. There was never an issue in buying books. There's never an issue in investing and learning because ultimately our income and our impact is always a function of our self identity. And if you can develop that relationship with your biggest self by growing and learning and developing your four interior empires that I talk about in the 5am Club, mindset, heartset, Health Set and Soulset, that is really reshaping the lives of so many people on the planet. Along with developing your skill sets. I mean, the marketplace rewards your ability to deliver magic. So the more skilled you are, the more you won't have any competition. And that's why the people in Las Vegas get paid a million dollars a night. Very few people can do what they do. That's why the great NBA players, NFL players get paid what they do. So few people can do it. So you want to build an economy of mastery so that you're the best in the business. How do you do that? Learning. Learning. So I thank you for being with me in this episode. If you want to go much deeper, here's what I strongly encourage you to do. Read the 5am Club, my book that I spent four years handcrafting, sharing some of the best information I've been teaching to the billionaires, the titans of industry, the Fortune 500. I've put so much of what I've learned about being a world class leader, world class creative, an exponential producer. If you're interested in dominating your domain while you live a lifestyle that is world class, you absolutely have to give yourself the opportunity to read the 5am Club. People from around the world are absolutely loving it. Also, for years people have been asking me, robin, would you please build a monthly mentoring program where you can mentor me on all of your philosophies and methodologies? Online. So I've gone ahead and done that. It's called the Circle of Legends. Every great athlete has a coach for a reason. You'll save time, you'll save energy, you'll save frustration, you'll save costs. If you have someone to say who will help you collapse time, who will mentor you, who will hold you accountable, who will teach you, here's what the great ones do. Just do this. So if you're interested in me becoming your mentor, head over to the TheCircleOfLegends.com and you'll get all the details. And finally, if this episode has been of value to you, I would love for you to share it with three people who you would like to uplift and help and encourage. Teacher learns the most. So when you share this episode with three of your friends and you talk about what you've learned with them, you'll have like a little mastermind. What'll happen is you will develop more insight around what you've learned. You will integrate more of the knowledge that's going to affect your performance, that's going to uplift your game, and also you're going to uplift your three friends as well. So all four of you are going to win. Mostly. I want to thank you for being here with me and I'll see you in the next episode. Hi, this is Robin Sharma. I hope you received great value from this Mastery session. If you'd like to receive potent training videos, blog posts, learning tools and information on my two live events, Personal Mastery Academy and my flagship four day experience, the Titan Summit, go ahead and visit robinsharmer. Com.