The 5 am Club Book Review

Reviewed By: Godfrey Shirima

It is quite a challenge waking up at 6 am let alone 5 am, and that is my personal experience. I have been fortunate enough to read this amazing book twice. I will tell you why! Being a 5 am club member isn’t for everyone, I tried several times ‘mornings’ and failed immensely and resulted in seeing myself as lazy as a toad. Not a good feeling if you ask me.

Containing countless gems, an unbelievable number of quotes from tattoos, piece of cloths to the back of tablets, you will be bombarded with plenty of sayings, quotes and short wise paragraphs. My review will highlight three ideas located at chapter 12: The Habit Installation Protocol. I will offer my verdict on the whole book at the end of this brief review.

#1. To make a habit last, never install alone.

#2. The Teacher learns the most.

#3. When you most feel like quitting is the time you must continue advancing.

These three ideas really resonated with me, Mr. Riley a.k.a the billionaire offered a few words to explain these simple instructions. However, I found so much power and sense out of them. Hint… It doesn’t have anything to do with waking up at 5 am.

Personally, I have been struggling with creating a reading habit for so long. I tried audio books, buying books, gave myself a yearly target or monthly target of reading at least 1 book BUT failed miserably. I remember trying to somehow get my ex-colleagues** back then to read books and exchange some but naaaah… It wasn’t in my blood so I said. Here I am, a book club moderator, I never had an idea how this book club will grow this much and actually helped me to enforce a reading habit. I can proudly say that, I have read 5 books now in just 2 months and thanks to the book club. ‘To make a habit last, never install alone.’

I know it is not about reading books and probably some of you might get bored because this is supposed to be the 5 am club book review right!!!!? Anyways, why do I encourage my fellow book club members to review and discuss the books we read? The answer is simple, you train to be a good teacher of the materials you consume and once you share the knowledge with others you learn and gain from the materials twice or thrice as much. If you wish to retain the knowledge then share, if you want to pass that subject, grasp that difficult concept, why not after you gain a little understanding try to teach it to someone else?! I am sure you will learn even more. Same applies to any habit including the reading habit that we are trying to cultivate here.

I said earlier, being a member of the 5 am club isn’t a joke so does any desirable habit you wish to create and maintain. Going to the gym, eating healthy, improving communications with your loved ones or just being grateful and prayerful needs persistence. It will be hard, trust me, I have been there and still struggling with reading at times. However, we shouldn’t give in to our laziness and surrender to just 10 or 20 more minutes of sleep, or the craziest of them all is just a little bit of scrolling of my instagram page before I start reading a book. Being a moderator of this book club and keeping on reading books while I have tons of things going on in my life isn’t pleasant. More often than not I feel like raising a white flag but I know what I signed up for and how fulfilling I feel knowing that I read the book and helped a couple of people read the books as well. It is alright to feel defeated sometimes but at those crucial moments please keep pushing. Remember, ‘All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end’

It is time for my verdict, I rank this book as one of the best books I have ever read. It’s semi-fictional approach to the concepts really creates this undivided attention when you read and visualize the exotic scenery and weird character of Mr. Riley and laser focused attitude of the entrepreneur and charm and goofy charisma of the Artist. As much as I would like to agree that rising up early results in so many positive things I am not qualified enough to back that concept up. I myself am an early riser but not a devoted 5 am club member, may be I am getting partial results as Mr. Riley said partial efforts yield partial results.

There are a number of notable highly successful people in the world and they wake up 4 to 5 hrs past 5 am. This might be attributed to their sleeping habits, therefore might challenge the idea that waking up early can give you the wealthy or immense success in your life.

Finally, I highly recommend this book to anyone out there, not for those who wish to unlock the secrets of waking up at 5 am and know all the strategies proposed by the billionaire but to anyone who wishes to learn. There are valuable lessons in the book from relationships, humbleness, business and spiritual realms.

** I am glad these ex-colleagues are members of Mkali Book Club. I am proud of you Amiri & Tuni :)