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From Russell Simmons and Deepak Chopra, spiritual journeys to business success, big bucks, and eternal happiness

By Ian McGugan

Editor’s Rating:

The Good: Simmons and Chopra find inventive new wrappers for old-fashioned business and management primers.

The Bad: Neither book is filled with business advice, just gratuitous product mentions and metaphysical talk.

The Bottom Line: Both authors are, at their core, entrepreneurs. And these books are their latest branded offerings.

Reader Reviews

Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All
By Russell Simmons with Chris Morrow

Gotham Books; 197 pp; $22.50

The Soul of Leadership:
Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness
By Deepak Chopra
Harmony Books; 220 pp; $19.99

It takes nerve to charge readers $22.50 for a book that lectures them about why they should give away their work for free. It takes even more nerve to write a book about why money doesn’t matter and call it Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All.

Yes, Russell Simmons has moxie. Give him his due, though: He also has his finger on the pulse. He made his first fortune with Def Jam, a record label that did the seemingly impossible—sell rap acts to a white suburban audience. Then he started Phat Farm, a clothing line that brought inner city style to the hinterland. Later he branched into the movie business, even producing a remake of The Nutty Professor with a largely African American cast.

As Simmons edges into his mid-fifties, he’s on to the Next Big Thing: enlightenment. To be more specific, enlightenment without those pesky restrictions on greed and ego. Call it Buddhism for the boardroom.

It’s no accident that the endorsement adorning the jacket of Super Rich comes from spiritual baron Deepak Chopra, who has been working similar territory for what seems like several lifetimes. (Who knows? If you accept the Buddhist worldview, perhaps he has been.) Chopra’s latest work in the great wheel of being, The Soul of Leadership, is itself positioned in the enlightened management genre. It’s his 60th book. While Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can contain their major insights in a single volume each, Chopra needs an entire shelf.

Unfortunately, he has yet to address the greatest riddle of them all—why anyone should think that Eastern mysticism will lead to material success. At the heart of yoga, Buddhism, and similar traditions—all previous Chopra topics—is the notion that worldly goods don’t matter. But let’s not nitpick. In deference to Buddha, who was, after all, something of a spiritual entrepreneur, let’s explore some of the noble truths revealed in these business texts:

I. Success is elusive.

In both authors’ works, it’s difficult to find concrete business lessons. And perhaps that’s the point. For example, writes Chopra: “Your body is a constant projection of you in the world. Every cell eavesdrops on your thoughts.” The author views our metabolisms as chat rooms, with epidermal cells listening in to what’s going on in the cranium. If you don’t understand what he means, your foot can explain it to you.

II. Be. And just keep being…

While Chopra encourages leaders to “be here in the present,” Simmons says to “approach all of your work with a smile.” According to the authors, the promises that follow are worth it. Simmons assures us that “within a few years you will be able to transform from the unpaid intern into the multimillionaire CEO.” Chopra vows that those who lead from the soul will gain the support of invisible powers and can expect miracles to happen—a useful strategy for any executive.

III. Work for free, seek enlightenment, bling it up.

Simmons insists the first priority in life is to move toward enlightenment. Why? “Because the road to enlightenment is paved with gold!” According to Super Rich, if you attain a holy state, oodles of money will soon follow. Somewhat mystifyingly, Simmons also argues that people should work without expecting payback. He extols yoga, preaches veganism, and gushes over Transcendental Meditation even though he earned his money the old-fashioned way: by working 16-hour days and by promoting groups like South Central Cartel, fonts of deeply spiritual insights such as, “When I let these bullets fly, from this heat, you goin’ die.”

IV. The pain leads to insight.

It’s easy to mock Simmons for sprinkling product mentions among his yogic revelations or to snicker at Chopra’s pseudoscientific bromides, which would be a lot more effective if he occasionally cited the scientific research he vaguely alludes to. Although anyone who perseveres to the end of both books will be struck with a revelation—we’ve heard a lot of these tips before. Usually from our mothers. And often before the age of five.

V. Appreciate the wonder.

Do readers need Simmons to explain that people don’t like being around grouches? Or to be reminded by Chopra that we should take other people’s feelings into account? Probably not. Yet many remain eager to be reminded so long as such basics can be linked to making a fortune. Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, and other enlightened-management tomes have espoused much the same advice for decades. The only thing that changes in these new works is the wrapper. Yoga, hip-hop, and references to cellular biology now dress up the same old pointers on working hard and keeping your chin up. Though give Chopra and Simmons some credit: Their books reawaken a sense of wonder—that such stuff still sells. That’s something worth meditating on.

1. Faulty Federer falls. Both the gleeful Federer buriers and concerned Federer loyalists were out in full force this weekend. Their man dropped still another match to Novak Djokovic, a shank-o-rific Dubai final that saw Federer lose 6-3, 6-3. While Djokovic played stellar, complete tennis once again, Federer did himself no favors, framing shots, hitting destinationless backhands and finding few answers when Djokovic posed the difficult questions. Federer is now like a stock whose beta/variance is starting to widen. He’s still capable of greatness — that London win over Nadal wasn’t even 100 days ago. Yet the dismal matches are becoming more common. Realistically, we knew the ride couldn’t go on forever. And Federer’s performance is in keeping with the life cycle of a champion. The consistency is the first thing to go. The old weaknesses, such as they are, start to surface. (In this case, the drive backhand.) There’s still magic left in the wand, but it’s not automatically discharged. I directed Federer fans to the 2002 U.S. Open in which Pete Sampras, struggling with his game and arriving with little momentum, found the touch for seven matches. I think that’s pretty much what we’re looking at for the rest of the journey. Know he’s capable of greatness; know it’s no longer a given.

2. Rivals new and old. Down the road in Doha, Vera Zvonareva beat top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki to take the title. These two have played a half dozen times over the past year and their head-to-head record is 4-4. As we ponder this fledgling WTA rivalry, a full-fledged WTA rivalry flared up perhaps for the last time. In a Belgian television interview conducted in French, Justine Henin, unrecognizably candid, spoke on a great many subjects, including the infamous “hand gesture” match against Serena Williams in Paris eight (!) years ago. “If I had been convinced that she had seen it, had been bothered by it, I might have reacted. But you react on instinct. … I don’t know if that changed the match. I hope I’m not saying that in bad faith. Maybe it was a way to give me respect, because you know that Williams have an attitude, sometimes difficult. They play with a lot of intimidation. Know that the Williams had attitudes that were sometimes difficult. Today, it doesn’t scare me any more.” Serena’s response via Twitter: “I keep hearing about admittance to someone cheating me & lying about it after at the French open? Did she confess finally?”

3. Delpo does it. Welcome back, Juan Martin del Potro. In what can only be hailed as good news for men’s tennis, the Argentine won his first title since the 2009 U.S. Open, taking the trophy in Delray, crushing forehands, serving capably and generally looking like the player who was on the verge of shaking up the men’s tennis world order 18 months ago. Provided JMDP stays healthy and confident, he will be quite an interesting player in the narrative this year. Ana Ivanovic, take note!

4. ATP’s worldly tour. The charitable argument: It speaks to ATP’s nimble nature that as the top stars battled in the Middle East and the (mainly) American stars battled in south Florida, those players partial to clay court tennis fought it out in Acapulco. (David Ferrer beat countryman Nicolas Almagro in the final.) The less charitable argument: Is the product spread too thin when three events are being the held the same week on three continents? Middle argument: Should we not be giving more thought to the notion of regional tours?

5. Power tennis. The First Lady is teaming up with the USTA to help encourage young people across the country to get active. Michelle Obama is collaborating with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf on a new public service announcement to air nationwide on CBS, ESPN and the Tennis Channel. Other components of the partnership include the construction and renovation of thousands of tennis courts across the country and the commitment to encourage 200,000 children to participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.