The 5AM Club is Corny
I forgot to go to bed last night, and instead spent the night finishing a book I couldn’t put down a few weeks ago. While I didn’t wake up at 5AM, I was awake at 5AM and got to experience an uncommon, but beautiful early morning. I woke up with the birds, watched some bunnies play with a squirrel, and got to enjoy the silence of the early morning. As corny as the book was, every time I picked it up I felt incredibly empowered and looked at the world a bit differently. It reminded me of the power of gratitude and to appreciate the unique in all that has become common. Spoilers - Even though that shouldn’t really matter.
Synopsis
The 5AM Club is an incredibly well renowned book written by Robin Sharma, that covers the key ingredients of becoming a world class, prolific leader in any respect. Although it does cover general qualities of great leaders, it focuses in on a morning ritual that the best of the best use to stay healthy, grounded, and inspired. It follows a story of a billionaire philanthropist who randomly invites an artist and entrepreneur to go on a crazy adventure and learn about the rituals of the 5AM Club.
My problem
Purpose
My main gripe with the book is not so much the content as it is the writing. For a self improvement book with strategies the author urges you to use, I couldn’t even tell what the genre was. Did any of this stuff really happen? Are any of these people based in reality? Two of the three main characters were never even named. I feel like when you’re preaching something that you want your audience to actually do, you should have citations, evidence, or at least anecdotes from real experience.
Writing
Also, the book was, for lack of a better word, corny. The drama, the dialogue, and the plot were all just corny. There was a forced tone of love throughout the book, with the two main characters meeting, falling deeply in love, getting engaged and then married in what could have been a weeks time. It added nothing to the story and I imagine it just gave the author an easy segue to move the story along.
Conflict
Also, the conflict in the story was incredibly forced, unnecessary, and uneventful. Throughout the book, there were threats of the entrepreneur being killed by her businesses investors, and threats of the billionaire dying to some unknown illness, but neither of them lead to a real climax or resolution. The threats to the entrepreneur were realized and then resolved in a matter of two paragraphs, and the threat of the billionaire dying was only addressed in a post script message (a message which gave insight into the future of characters whom I’m not even sure exist). I’m not even saying there had to be conflict at all, but since there was, it should have been more well written or actually exciting.
What I liked
As hard as the book was to stomach, the message beneath all of the fan service was undoubtedly powerful. While I have no doubt that waking up at 5AM helps ground you and prepare you for a productive and powerful day, that’s not the main message I took from the story. I found that beyond all of the fancy methods and rules of thumb, there was a more general guide to becoming a prolific innovator and leading a fulfilling life. In the second to last chapter, the billionaire gives the new couple 11 gifts, all of which are meant to serve as reminders of how to live their life. This chapter of the book has little to do with the 5AM morning routine and is more of a general “how to live”. These are all simple things that everyone knows are good, but are easy to forget - things like “value experiences over objects”, “show appreciation whenever you can”, “be nice to yourself”, “surround yourself with good people”, and “don’t be scared of failure”. These are all things that I already know I should be doing, but the story serves as a useful reminder of what is afforded to me through the uniqueness of humanity. This theme was persistent throughout the book and was the reason I kept reading. I didn’t care much about the morning ritual or any of that, but the feeling I was left with after each chapter moved me to act in a way I hope I can always replicate.
Why I didn’t drop it
I was introduced to this book from a friend who let me borrow his copy of Atomic Habits. I initially thought I was going to get some otherworldly knowledge about sleep and how to wake up early, consistently. Unfortunately, reading it didn’t fix my horrible sleep schedule or make me want to get out of bed any more, but it did make me act with more emotion and intention when I was awake. I originally began reading the 5AM Club in Hawaii, when I was surrounded by beautiful nature, generous people, and fond memories. The recurring message of the book enhanced the already breathtaking experiences I had, and reminded me to be thankful for all of the blessings that allowed me the opportunity.
Quotes
I love learning about inspiring people, and I’m always looking for quotes that simplify their experiences in a meaningful manner. The 5AM Club was riddled with great quotes, even starting each chapter with one. On that same note, I’ll end with a quote of my own,
Tweet“Find meaning. Even if you have to force it, even if you have to dig for it, even if you have to create it yourself, you must find meaning. Find it in everything that you do and everything that you see - otherwise 311 pages will be a serious waste of time.” - Joe Malatesta
