The Zahir

There are many important lessons that I have picked up from The Zahir which I have extracted for remembrance.

The Concept of Favour Bank
Favour Bank is what a senior management told me to be brownies point. It basically worked on the concept that we needed to do favours for each other. When we offered favours to up-and-coming people, we would be making a deposit in the Favour Bank of others. In future, as we needed favours, we could go to these people for help. Of course, the beneficiaries of our favours could at this juncture refused to return a favour. On the other hand, most would be obliged to return the favour. If they refused the favour, word would get around and no one would offer them favours in future.

The Law of Jante
In a small town of Jante, there were ten commandments telling people how they should behave. The commandments promoted that mediocrity and anonymity were the safest choice. When you are a nobody, you have no impact on others and your work deserved to be praised. When you succeed, you defy the Law and you deserved to be punished. Hence, we are often harsher to the successful people than we are to of the average.

True Friends
Contrary to popular belief that our true friends are those who stick by us through our toughest times, the author believed that our true friends are those who are around during happy times to cheer us on. Our false friends will only surround us during sad times wearing their mourning faces when our sufferings are consolation for their miserable lives.

Best Movie
No movie adapted from book can ever be as good as the book because the best adaptation often happens in the mind. When the movie is adapted, we often feel that it is not as good as the book when the movie differs from what we have imagined it should be.

It is also a difficult book to read, not because of difficult concepts to grasp or bombastic words to mull upon. It is difficult because each paragraph is communicating a message and making us think back on our own lives. We need to pause to reflect if we too fall into some of the common fallacies that the husband or the wife was going through.

If you have the time, I would recommend that you pick up this book. It is indeed a fantastic read.