David is overwhelmed, falling apart, and moments away from possibly ending it all. He feels there should be more to life â but what?! A stranger appears as David sits on a cliff, and convinces David to try to rediscover the magic of life using five simple keys. As David starts his quest, he learns he may never have the chance to learn the keys.
Journey with David as he tries to learn the 5 Keys To Greatness, and see how the 5 Keys can help you also, as you discover how to unlock your destiny, achieve your dreams, and live your best life. This easy-to-read and enjoyable parable has been described by readers as reminiscent of The Alchemist, Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Mitch Albom, The Secret, and more.
David is overwhelmed, falling apart, and moments away from possibly ending it all. He feels there should be more to life â but what?! A stranger appears as David sits on a cliff, and convinces David to try to rediscover the magic of life using five simple keys. As David starts his quest, he learns he may never have the chance to learn the keys.
Journey with David as he tries to learn the 5 Keys To Greatness, and see how the 5 Keys can help you also, as you discover how to unlock your destiny, achieve your dreams, and live your best life. This easy-to-read and enjoyable parable has been described by readers as reminiscent of The Alchemist, Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Mitch Albom, The Secret, and more.
THE MAN STOOD on the cliff, watching the cars speed past below. He thought of the world as it is, while watching the headlights zip by. The day was turning to night, with a breeze in the air. The man shivered, pulling his coat tighter. The beauty of the fall colors adorned the trees all around. He couldnât see the fireworks, the colors, because he stood lost in thought.
The man felt troubled; troubled about the world, troubled about his life, troubled about his place in the grand scheme of things. He had so many unanswered questions, so many things left unsaid.
Unaccomplished goals haunted him day and night. These goals only haunted him when he had time to thinkâwhich, he recognized, he didnât have a lot of time to do. He pulled out his phone to check messages, flipped through notifications, put his phone away . . . what was he thinking of again?
The man heard rustling in the woods behind him. It was not yet night, so he turned to see what was making the commotion. Now the rustling noise became more of a step, step sound. The man peered into the woods, trying to see who, or what, was approaching.
âHey there!â a voice rang out in the dusk.
âHello?â the man said, trying to see, as a figure emerged from the shadows of the trees.
âHiya!â An older, distinguished-looking gentleman with white hair and a long dark coat stood in front of the man. âWhatchya doing out here?â
The man stood, regarding the newcomer. âThinking.â
âAbout what?â
The man took a deep breath, and turned to watch the cars again. âLife.â
The old man stood, watching him. They were silent for a while. âCare to tell me about it?â
The man on the cliff took a deep breath. He put his hands on his hips, before covering his face. He dropped his hands, then turned toward the old man. âCanât a guy wallow in peace?â
âYou seem troubled. I wanted to know if you wanted to talk about it.â
âDAMMIT!!â The man lowered himself to the ground, feet hanging over the edge. The man put his hands to his eyes, and shook as sobs racked his body.
The older man slowly, carefully, settled down on the ground beside him. He put a hand on the manâs back briefly, then put his hand down and sat quietly.
The daylight disappeared. The lights on the cars below flashed past, yellow in one direction, red in the other. The whooshing of cars flying down the highway filled the air. The only other sounds were the insects with their forest symphony, and the muffled sound of crying.
The older man simply sat.
Eventually the sobbing subsided. The man looked around, seeing the older gentleman still sitting there. âWhat do you want?!â
The older man smiled and looked at him. âWho says I want anything?â
âEveryone wants something nowadays.â The man exhaled sharply. âThough it doesnât seem to be money so much anymore.â
âWhat do you mean by that?â
âI mean that less and less it seems like they want my money. More and more it seems like they want my mind and my attention.â
The old man laughed. âOnly your mind and complete attention?! That doesn't seem to be asking for much.â
The younger man grinned, chuckled a little. âNo, it used to seem like they wanted my money any way I could give it. Sales, telemarketers, restaurants, toys, gadgets, whatever. Now I get sucked into my phone, my computer, my tablet, everything. Then I find that as much as these devices should be saving my time, they are wasting my time. Digital devices make it that much harder to feel productive.â
The older man looked around at the woods behind them, gesturing at it all. âAnd this doesnât help?â
The younger man laughed. âI havenât been out here in twenty years. Donât have the time anymore.â
âHave you considered that you simply donât make the time?â
The man laughed. âFine. That may be true. I still have a hard time with things.â
âI get the picture; at least a little bit. That much is for sure.â The older man sighed. âYou know, you arenât the first person having difficulty with the new world order.â
The younger man threw up his arms. âDifficulty? What the hell do you know of difficulty? You think Iâm up here to hang out? Catch a minute? Ugh!â He stood up, walked back toward the woods, while the older man turned his body to better see. He put his hands on his head, flipped around, then walked over and confronted the man again. âIâve had enough!! Enough! Nothing makes sense anymore. People have gone completely crazyâcompletely disconnected from reality! Everyone is running after the next greatest thingânot realizing that itâs not helping. Iâd bet if someone did a study, they would find a correlation between dissatisfaction in life and the advent of smartphones! Maybe they already have!â
âDo you think that smartphones are the problem?â
The younger man stopped, looked at him, shrugged. âNo . . . I mean yes . . . I meanâI donât know. Theyâre definitely not part of the solution. Smartphones are not helping anything. But it is more than that. I . . . I see things that make me wonder what the hell we were thinking when we signed up for this stuff. People talk about how cool it is, how helpful it is, but they are worse and worse off all the time.â
âSmartphones. We were talking of smartphones.â
âNo. I donât think smartphones are the problem. Or at least, not the whole problem. Maybe itâs a symptom of a larger problem.â
The old man chuckled. âSmartphones might be the problem. But letâs say for a moment theyâre not. What do you think is the problem? What do you think brought you up here, to, ah, figure out what comes next?â
The younger man looked at the older man. He saw the kindness in his eyes, caring, empathy. He saw the wrinkles of wisdom around his face, the smile that reached deep into his eyes. And in that moment, he made a decision.
The younger man sat on a large rock. He sighed. âYeah. Yeah, youâre right. I donât know if I fully knew it myself. But yeah, I may have come up here because . . . because . . . I donât know . . .
âI . . . I donât know. Nothing makes sense anymore. The world that made sense only a few years ago, itâs different. I canât explain it. I canât define it. I only know that it feels different than it did, and far more overwhelming. I donât know if Iâm coming or going. Iâm on social media because itâs supposed to be helpful, but half the time I go online and wonder what the hell I just did with my time. It always seems like there is one more thing to do, one more article to read. And for what?! It doesnât help me . . . at all.
âI donât know what to do anymore. My life feels out of control, I donât feel like I know what to focus on. I used to have clarity, and then the days, the years went by and I feel like Iâve lost my clarity, lost my focus.
âAll I truly understand is that I am overwhelmed. I feel like Iâm at the end of my rope. Ahh!â The younger man walked back to the edge of the cliff, breathed out loudly. âHelp! There! I said it! Help.â He sat down again, feet over the cliff, back next to the older man. âI . . . I donât know what to do . . . I donât know how to bring my life back to some level of normalcy.â
âWould you believe me if I told you Iâve been through the exact same thing?â The older man stood with some difficulty. He watched the cars, and the younger man, while standing on the edge.
The younger man turned to look up. âHow the hell is that possible!? The smartphone? The social media?â
The older man chuckled and raised his hands. âOkay, not âexactlyâ exactly. But really, really close. Iâve been through feelings like this: feelings of inadequacy, feeling overwhelmed, not knowing the steps to take to move forward. Iâve also contemplated what itâs all for in similar, ah, precarious situations.â The old man gestured to the cliff and the cars racing by below.
âAnd!? What did you do?!â
The old man smiled. âI jumped.â
âYou jumped?â The younger man stood back up, facing the old man.
âYes. I jumped. I took the biggest leap of faith of my life, and started to trust in the process a little more.â
âWhat do you mean? What process?â
âItâs a bit hard to explain all at once, or even in one sitting. I actually have people who explain it far better than I can; I call them keyholders. If you can wait a few days or so, and talk to everyone, youâll see it will all be worth it.â
The younger man stood still, watching him. They stood, silently, for a few minutes.
âWorth it? Says who?â
âEvery person Iâve helped in the past. Look, you have nothing to lose by listening to me, and everything to gain. And donât worry, this cliff isnât going anywhere. All that I ask is that you follow through, that you hear everything they have to say.â
âWhy should I trust you at all?â
âBecause deep in your heart you know you want to. I was right here, in the same type of mood, many years ago. And someone came up the trail behind me, just like I did now to you. He taught me this secret, the 5 Keys to Greatness. Now I want to share it with you.â
âWhatâs so good about it?â
âWell. To start with, I know many people who went from the brink of despair to the edge of greatness. And now, as they unlock their own individual greatness, they are helping others.â
âHelping others? How?â
âTell you what. Why donât we start off by heading down together, Iâll tell you a bit more about it. Tomorrow, you can visit one of my friends, hear her perspective on it. Sheâll even send you to the rest of the keyholders, so you can learn each key. You donât need to take my word for it.â
The younger man thought about it. âWhat do you want from me?â
âOnly a little time. Time you will regain in great abundance as you put this framework into practice. If you find it valuable, you can share it with others too. Can you do that?â
The younger man thought for a while. He thought of everything going wrong in his life. He thought of everything going wrong around the world. He said, âAnd if I donât find it valuable?â
âContinue your life as you see fit. Youâre on your own at that point. But I think youâll find it worthwhile.â
âOkay. Fair enough. Whatâs your name, anyway?â
The older man smiled. âMy name isnât that important. But you can call me Pinch.â
âIâm David.â
The two walked down together, stumbling through the darkness while making their way back to the parking lot. On the way down, the older man told David to write down what he thought were the five most fundamental elements to a good life. Once finished, David would go visit a bartender named Regina.
At some point in our lives, weâve reached the nadir of our sufferings to the point where weâve found ourselves at the top of the cliffs (or a bridge or high-rise building) looking down at the moving pattern of cars, contemplating the reason to carry on.
While many of us were standing by our lonesome in that hour of darkness with nothing at our side but our negative mind, distorting our perception of the beauty in ourselves and that of the world, David in Ari Gunzburgâs âThe Little Book of Greatnessâ has a surprise visitor: an elderly man named Pinch who champions the manâs potential to see past the confines of his own self-limiting thoughts. Nagging feelings of being overwhelmed, apprehensive and burned out are not just feelings felt by single people. They plague even the most unsuspecting, even a happily married man with kids, like David.
In Davidâs case, like many Millennials, it is the inertia tied to the Digital Age of information overload and compulsive checking that has him questioning the real intelligence behind the smart phone, a time-zapper which has fueled unhealthy internet addictions which have sabotaged the constructive management of his precious time. So much that heâs found himself at the top of these so-called âCliffs of Despairâ to ponder: What the hell is he doing?Â
Whether or not the old man can relate to the culture of a tech savvy yuppie, he knows unhappiness no matter its manifestation. And he too walked in Davidâs shoes at one point, until he went from the âbrink of despair to the edge of greatnessâ with the old-fashioned wisdom of the 5 Keys to Greatness given to him by a caring fellow to unlock what it really means to be alive.
Unfortunately for David, and many others of us out there, it sometimes takes a life-threatening experience for us to grasp the meaning of our existence and to harbor gratitude for the gifts we are bestowed from the higher power. Following his meeting with Pinch, David ventures to meet a hip bartender who tells him of the five keys beneath a starry night sky. His forthcoming adventure to learn them is intercepted by a random car accident, after which doctors tell him his health may be in jeopardy. The scenario evinces everything indeed happens for a reason. A once naive man learns to trust the process and releases his worries by exercising control over them in learning that life can change â for better or worse â in any instant, and in the revelation of 20/20 hindsight.Â
While people are often plagued at the conundrum of why certain people enter their lives and others go, David learns the power of peopleâs presence in his, however ephemeral. (That irksome, persistent person in your life who doesnât take social cues very well could very well be of assistance.)
In reading Gunzburgâs book, it almost feels as though the old man is God and David is Jesus, as Pinch treked up the cliffs for his pain with the goal of helping him (spoiler alert: one of the keys to greatness) so that the cycle of helping your fellow man continues. âEach key can help you unlock your true destiny,â says Pinch, a name which brings to mind the small pinch doctors tell you youâll feel before administering a protective vaccination, or when someone feels as though their life is so dream-like they need to be âpinched.â
In the era of Coronavirus, which has isolated a generation and pushed people up those same cliffs, Gunzburg writes to empathize with the person who fell from grace and lost all hope. This inspiring little book elicits the strength in us all to escape our problems and search for solutions, and in so doing, discover our greatness.Â