Go on a 30-day news fast, stay off news for a month—that’s one advice Robin Sharma gave corporate heads, soon-to-be leaders and professionals attending his seminar on leadership in Bangalore on Wednesday.

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According to this popular success coach and best-selling author of several self-help books like The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, “Addiction to news affects your production. If you have a habit of reading newspapers in the morning, you start your day seeing the bad, seeing the emergencies and not the possibilities.”

The venue was packed. Organisers said the attendees were “leaders, homemakers, professionals, entrepreneurs and enthusiastic youngsters” from across the country—Mumbai, Gurgaon, Pune, Vizag, Ahmedabad, and Chennai, besides Bangalore. The new-age leader was visiting India after five years, and obviously, the seminar was sold out.

While about 1,000 delegates religiously wrote down his advices on best practices to become a great leader, he stressed his point further. Apparently, research has proved that “people who don’t read news are more realistic than people who read them.”

This comment drew giggles and several nods from the audience, who quickly made a note of it. This was just one of Sharma’s several tips on how to wade through difficult times in business.

The others included: “The work you resist most carries your greatest progress.”; “Do the thing you are most afraid of.”; “Fears you do not face becomes your walls.”; “Consistency is the mother of mastery.” and so on.

The best-selling author’s first rule of remarkable leadership is that “You are paid not just to work. You are paid to be frightened. If you are not scared every day, you are probably not making much progress.”

Later, elaborating on seven healthy obsessions of great leaders, he remarked that critics were nothing but dreamers who got scared.

Throughout the talk, demigods of the corporate world like Steve Jobs were invoked to reiterate the importance of being indispensable on work front. “Your work is your chance to change the world,” Sharma said. With perfect voice modulation, he doled out corporate wisdom to “lead without a title”. All of his insights were lapped up with equal enthusiasm.

Like a collective “wow” wave after an invite-only Carnatic music performance where every one in the audience was a devoted fan, Sharma here, frequently, had the audience up on their feet, applauding thunderously.