I just finished reading The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and, well… I liked it a lot. I think I had heard of this book before, but never really thought of buying it — the title is quite intimidating. I mean, who would want to renounce the Ferrari?

Last week I went to Kinokuniya, and something in me just told me to grab that book. Turned out, it was my best purchase this year.

Surprisingly, the point wasn’t about being anti-luxury at all. Somehow, it managed to simplify “how to live to your fullest potential” into 198 pages.

What caught my attention most was Chapter 7, where Julian talked about “the importance of having a concentrated mind.” He simply asked his friend John to light a fire using three items from a knapsack: a letter from a friend, a tin of tuna, and a magnifying glass.

John couldn’t figure out the answer and eventually gave up. Julian then revealed that he could simply hold the magnifying glass under the sun and focus the light onto the letter. The tin of tuna? It was simply thrown in there to distract him.

I burst out laughing and then… I started thinking about my own tin of tuna that I’ve been carrying around.