Mohammad Ehsaar’s The Hope the World Smiles states on the back cover that his goal is to offer “a concise guide to life” by detailing “the seven pillars of balanced values”: personality, spirituality, family, health, socialization, career and money. The ultimate aim is to help others “find fulfillment and happiness in life.”
That’s a big agenda for such a slim book. Unfortunately, the author’s good intentions aren’t realized in these pages. Void of an introduction to ease readers into the overall topic, The Hope is made up of short descriptions, bulleted points, tips and charts. Overall, it feels more like a Power Point presentation than a fully developed discussion.
Ehsaar does offer a few morsels of wisdom in this quick read. “Recall your past achievements, mimic that mood, and live it as if it is the present,” he writes in one section. “There is no failure; there are only experiences and experiments,” he pens in another. Other insights include specific breathing techniques to enhance mood and a reminder about the drawbacks of not forgiving someone, including nightmares and an overabundance of adrenaline in the body.
But overall, the fractured, list-like format fails to deliver. Many of the tips are too broad to be useful (“You must have values…You must have belief”; “How Do You Get Motivation?…You must want it badly”). Often the work is simply confusing, becoming downright incomprehensible at the end, with a section that includes nonsensical, out-of-place musings about romantic love (“Spinning paralyze sophisticated”; “Ground for girls, and it shows you the perfect father”).
Readers will also want to know more about the author’s background to determine his qualifications for writing the book. His bio states only that he “is an orphan” and lives in Canada.
The flaws noted greatly impact the book’s effectiveness. Although it offers some random helpful ideas, the book requires revision and expansion to compete with other, more accomplished, self-help titles on the market.
Also available as an ebook.
