Profound wisdom that will make you startlingly successful if you apply it
Do you feel that time is rushing by while you have accomplished only a fraction of what you are capable of? Is there an undercurrent of anxiety in your life that will not go away?
It is possible for you to reach orbits of achievement you never dreamed of and without any stress. It does not require hard work. It requires you to change your thinking. When you alter the dysfunctional models you hold, your experience of life improves immediately. Both success and tranquility can be yours.
In Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots, unconventional and highly successful coach Dr. Srikumar Rao distills and condenses valuable life lessons, from ancient masters, sacred writings, and his own experience, into quick-to-read, easily digestible chapters.
Through Dr. Rao’s compelling narratives, you will learn how to:
• Achieve great success while remaining as serene as a Zen monk • Feel radiantly alive every day and bursting with gratitude • Bounce back from disaster so quickly that others didn’t even notice you were down • Jettison dysfunctional mental models that prevent you from soaring • Banish the incessant mental chatter that is sapping your energy • Bring joy into your life and annihilate your fears • Inspire others to reach heights they never dreamed possible
And this just scratches the surface. As a bonus, the book includes a self-assessment to help you implement the chapters’ lessons. If you apply the concepts in it, Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots will make you prosper in all areas of your life.
This is a really well written book that brings to life profound wisdom and valuable lessons from ancient sources but in a modern and practical manner that makes them very accessible.
I have had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Srikumar Rao a few years back when I took his Quest for Personal Mastery from Mindvalley and then last year when I took his pioneering programme - Creative and Personal Mastery (CPM). His teachings have had a significant impact on my thinking and have helped change and upgrade my mental models, how I view the world and how I react to events that happen in my personal and professional life.
This book brings this wisdom in a very quick and easy to read manner. With 62 mini chapters, each chapter introduces a concept and there are stories that bring to life how that concept has impacted a person's life. Each chapter is thought provoking and provides practical guidance on how you can experiment with this new thinking.
Whether it is about Mental models, developing gratitude, building resilience, dealing with your mental chatter, choosing a spiritual path, building equanimity, striving for a purpose, moving away from being me-centred to other-centred, building presence or enriching your relationships this book will open up your world view and provide you with insight to support with changing both your personal and professional life.
I particularly liked the questions and exercises at the end of the book which provided reflection and review of the chapter concepts and ways to incorporate in my life. For me continually working on reducing my mental chatter, not giving it meaning and refining my mental models whilst adopting an attitude of gratitude is something I am consistently trying to work on and grateful that the book provides valuable reminders on these.
This is a great book no matter your age and what juncture you are in life. Read it with a mindset of curiosity and just try out the suggestions and see how this works for you. I am willing to bet you will be pleasantly surprised or even shocked at how this helps you transform all areas of your life.
3.5, rounded to 4. I was initially drawn to this book by its beautiful cover and interesting title, and I entered and won a Kindle copy in a Goodreads giveaway.
"Putting love into what you do is better than searching for what you love."
The book was well-written and the short chapters made it very easy to read during gaps in my day. Specifically, I loved the personal anecdotes from his previous clients and stories from mythology. The anecdotes were either 1) very relatable or 2) humorous and entertaining, but many times they were both.
The second thing I loved about the book was the very poignant language that really drives the point home. He uses phrases such as "we are mentally slashing our wrists every day" to highlight how damaging recursive thoughts and self-doubt are, and also highlights how unhealthy blind reliance on proverbs such as "persistence is key" really are. While it seems counterintuitive, his perspective is thought-provoking and helpful to anyone who struggles with ambition that easily turns into burn-out.
"Feces will drop from the sky. It always does. That is the nature of life."
At the core of this book, Professor Rao reminds readers to not take themselves too seriously. We are all living in a movie about our lives, but nobody else is watching your movie-- they are too busy being the main character in their own film. This is extremely important and frequently overlooked in self-help books that only further promote being over-critical of one's decisions.
All that said, there are a few minor things that I did not like and that kept this book at a 3.5 for me: 1. some strong cliches, like "replace 'have to' with 'get to'". I feel like I see this way too often in books like this. 2. I would not compare addictions and alcoholism to "craving salty snacks". I found this oversimplified comparison to be condescending and tone-deaf to the nature of a physiological dependence. 3. Very heavy on the self-praise; mentions that he is an elite coach 3x times, and mentions the class he coaches a total of 9 times. I understand that he is promoting his coaching, but I could have done with less of this repetition.
In all honesty, I'm not usually one for life-coach books, so I'm sure others will find it more helpful than I did, but nevertheless, I did enjoy it and do plan to reference the annotated sections of this book often when I need to recenter.
The opening chapters of Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots are engaging. The ideas aren’t original, but they are clearly presented and initially invite reflection.
Very quickly, however, the book becomes repetitive. The same concepts are recycled through endless anecdotes with little added depth, creating the sense that one short essay has been stretched into a full-length book.
Many examples (parables, corporate stories, and personal anecdotes) draw from very different domains and are treated as if they were equivalent. This often leads to weak or even misleading comparisons. For instance, in chapter 40, Rao illustrates how to stop smoking (an addiction involving dependency and withdrawal) by telling a story about someone managing anger in traffic through meditation. These are not comparable, and the analogy trivialises addiction. Advising meditation while driving is also questionable from a safety perspective. The book contains many similar, almost comical comparisons.
But what truly damages the book is the author’s relentless self-promotion. Rao repeatedly advertises his programmes and courses and reminds the reader of his status as a professor and “elite coach” teaching senior executives and MBA students. Numerous stories feature students later praising him for having changed their lives, with lines such as: '“Professor Rao, you are brilliant,” she gushed'. These moments read as self-praise rather than support for the ideas.
One particularly cringy example appears in chapter 42, where Rao recounts giving unsolicited advice to a student to refuse a 10% discount when negotiating her first major corporate client. This is framed as wisdom about self-worth and detachment, but there is no acknowledgement of the commercial risk involved. Had the deal failed, the consequences would have been borne by the student, not Dr Rao. The story works only because the outcome happened to be positive, an example of outcome bias presented as wisdom.
There are useful insights here, particularly early on, but the book ultimately says far more about the author’s need for validation and ego than it does about wisdom itself. There are far better books on the subject.”
Really 2.5, but rounded up to 3 because I’m feeling forgiving, and the book prompted me to revisit the concept of mental models.
This is a soul-stirring, breakthrough-after-breakthrough-generating book, which is the perfect fit for anyone – that is, almost everyone - finding her life, as perceived by society, to be at odds – often extreme – with how she feels about it and about herself. Dr Rao provides 62 concise, kaleidoscopic insights on the reason why most of us “modern humans” feel so bad virtually all of the time, and proceeds with suggesting very concrete and quickly implementable ways of how to go about reframing the respective stories we tell ourselves so that we can discover the perfection – yes – and never-ending happiness – oh, yes – that is ALREADY at our disposal, unbeknownst – sadly - to us. Here are two major insights I got out of Dr Rao’s book: 1. Turn the most distressing situation you (think you) are facing into a game and see what happens; and 2. I am not who I think I am; instead, I am the only One I could ever be (confused? You have a point, but the confusion of this statement is because of the simplicity of its meaning. Still perplexed? Read the book)! Plus, after completing “Modern Wisdom”, I am more inspired than ever to stay centered and focused on my quest to disassociate myself from the unceasing mental chatter in my head, merely standing by as its dispassionate witness. And if there is a mental-chatter-silencing expert around nowadays, this is unquestionably Dr Rao. I would only dare change one thing in this book: its title. To give it the credit I believe it deserves, I would rather name it: Timeless Wisdom, Rooted In The Eternal Now. But, on second thought, this would probably sound too pompous, which is one thing that evidently Dr Rao is anything but. Get this book. You cannot imagine the service and favor you’d be doing to your (true) self.
In Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots, Dr. Srikumar Rao distills timeless principles from ancient masters and sacred writings into practical, bite‑sized lessons for today’s ambitious professionals and spiritual seekers alike. With more than 60 quick‑read chapters, the book serves as a compact manual for shifting your mindset—from anxious overdrive to serene influence—by identifying and dismantling the “dysfunctional mental models” that hold us back. Complemented by self‑assessments, Rao’s guidance isn’t just theoretical; it’s immediately applicable to everyday life and leadership challenges.
What truly distinguishes this book is its blend of storytelling and spiritual insight. Rao invites readers to approach success not with hustle alone, but with presence—“achieve great success while remaining as serene as a Zen monk,” and learn to “bounce back from disaster so quickly that others didn’t even notice you were down”. His writing is that of a master “translator,” weaving parables, personal experiences, and ancient wisdom into ladders you can climb to reach both impact and inner peace.
Ultimately, Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots offers more than motivational mantras—it’s a transformational toolkit grounded in both psychological insight and spiritual tradition. Rao’s credentials as a Columbia Business School PhD, renowned coach, and TED speaker bring credible weight to his vision of success as both purposeful and peaceful. For leaders and creatives seeking to thrive without burning out, this book illuminates how deep-rooted clarity can fuel exponential growth—professionally and personally.
I wasn't really sure what to expect when going into this book. I was hoping for something more philosophical, but really it's a self help book primarily geared for business people or entrepreneurs.
The chapters are little excerpts of ideas on how to view the world and better yourself. There is quite a bit of repetition in the themes throughout and it's easy to lose interest. Most of this revolves around changing the way you think. While I feel there is some merit to this, the book makes the assumption all humans are the same. There is no discussion on how mental illness may effect someone's process to employ these techniques or the social, political, or economic barriers that come into play. A core idea of this book seems to be that you create your own happiness or despair in your mind. That sentiment is nice, but disregards real issues of the world we live in. For those that can do this, it may be beneficial, but for others, it's just fantasy without any real outlook on how to solve problems that directly effect their health.
I do like that the book has a list of exercises at the end one can practice. It is nice that the author provides some practical application. I do wish these exercises were listed along with the chapters instead of at the end of the book.
Overall though this book feels more like a selling tool for the author to market their own mentorship classes. I think if you're interested in the concepts in this book, you'll probably get more out of it if you can take the class, provided you are in a position to do so.
There are many lessons and reminders, a lot of which we’ve heard before. I like the short chapters and small bites of phrase to remember. There are questions in the back of the book related to lessons in the chapters. I appreciated the lessons that “ mental chatter is fake news” and “ focus on the process over the outcome” . I also appreciated his focus on reframing. I eon this book through Goodreads giveaways
This book challenges your thinking in ways that were unexpected. Srikumar leads you down a path from challenging your thinking from easy to most difficult. He tells great stories from across the globe, religions, philosphers, authors and influential modern figures to illustrate his points. If you are trying to move from the rut that you're in, this is well worth the time. A very easy read too.
I received this e-book as a winner of a good reads giveaway in exchange for my free and honest opinion. I am not a huge non fiction reader, (you can tell by simply looking at my book shelves) but I do stumble on some really interesting ones every so often. This was pretty good, there were quite a few things that I took away that I will be trying to actively implement into my daily life.
I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I like how short the chapters are which allow you time to think about what you just read. I think this book should be a companion book. I will reread this maybe twice a year or whenever I feel unpleasant feeling. Those nuggets are so simple and yet life changing.
A very power packed book with bite sized chapters dealing with overall personality overhaul of the reader. As the name signifies it derives a lot from ancient wisdom , told in modern simple anecdotal way. The questionnaire at the end while exhaustive is very helpful. I will be again revisiting it over a few days to know myself.
For me, the book's language is simple and easy to understand. The chapters are small and I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to read one or more chapters in a single session. I was able to relate to some of the suggestions and advice and also got a reference to one another very good book through this book. I felt this book had a good amount of meaningful suggestions and tips.
But the only thing that was kind of odd for me was frequent references to the author's courses. Too many references about the author's courses. Other than that this is a pretty decent book to read
So, I tried. The main trop of the book is “let me tell you the truth of the universe in 1 minute.” But it would have been fine, if the author hadn’t assumed that his reader is a greedy silly man (the author uses only male pronouns).
I've read many books on success and how to improve books. This is a gem among them. Its not just one of the pack. Much wisdom to be attained. Allow yourself to absorb the knowledge that is being shared and you will become a more successful individual!
This book is a cornucopia of practical wisdom. Applicatuon of it's principles will bring a sense of peace, joy eand ease to your days. I love this book and very highly recommend it.
Some very interesting thoughts on ways to approach the life you live. Many of the short chapters relate to business but in reality it all boils down to how you want to be in life, not do. I enjoyed it.
I loved that you could just turn to a page and get some great wisdom and often ideas to try in day to day life. Great book to give as a gift or keep by your desk.
3.5 Some of the examples/lessons in Modern Wisdom can feel trite but others land as revelatory and meaningful. Worth the read for those messages that resonate.
I have read all the books (and taken many classes) from Dr. Rao, and I can comfortably say that all his content is top notch and life-changing for those of us lucky enough to have had the opportunity to get to know his work. I have to say this is my favorite book so far: not only the content is excellent, but the format (2-3 page chapters) allow the readers to slowly digest the material and embrace it. Concepts here are simple, practical and powerful. I highly recommended.