Can we talk about the audacity of a meditation book that spends its first two hours convincing you to meditate instead of actually teaching you how?
I was reorganizing my home office at midnight — Jenny was asleep, I was sorting through a decade of consulting binders I'll never look at again — and I figured a 4.5-hour meditation book would be the perfect low-stakes background companion. Efficient, right? A short book on stillness while I declutter. The irony wasn't lost on me.
Russell Simmons Wants You to Know He Meditates
Look, I respect Russell Simmons. The man helped build Def Jam, launched Phat Farm, basically invented hip-hop as a business vertical before anyone knew that was a thing. And his journey from the party scene to mindfulness practice is genuinely admirable — I don't question the sincerity. But this book reads like a really long pitch meeting where someone keeps selling you on the meeting instead of getting to the agenda. I ran into a version of this same problem with Greater: Dream bigger. Start smaller. Ignite God's Vision for Your Life — lots of runway, not enough landing.
The first half is essentially: meditation is good. Here's a celebrity who meditates. Here's a CEO who meditates. Here's a study that says meditation is good. Did I mention meditation is good? My parents didn't have a meditation practice — they had a dry cleaning business and four hours of sleep — but they understood something Simmons circles around without ever quite landing: discipline isn't something you read about. You just do it.
The key takeaway is worth the listen. The other 7 hours? Not so much. Except there aren't 7 hours. There's 4.5. And somehow it still feels padded.
When the Actual Advice Shows Up (Skip to Chapter 5, Thank Me Later)
Here's the thing — when Simmons finally gets into the practical guidance, it's solid. His core message is disarmingly simple: sit down, close your eyes, focus on your breathing, do it for 20 minutes, don't beat yourself up when your mind wanders. That's it. There's no "bad" way to meditate, he says, just different forms for different people. And I actually buy that. It's the kind of no-gatekeeping approach that makes the practice accessible to someone like me who's been speed-listening to audiobooks like it's a competitive sport.
But here's my consultant brain talking: you could've delivered this in a 45-minute keynote. Maybe an hour if you include the Q&A. The interviews with other successful people — business leaders, artists — are name-droppy but thin. You get the equivalent of "I meditate and it changed my life" repeated by different voices, none of whom go deep enough to actually teach you anything new. I've sat through enough McKinsey presentations to recognize when a slide deck is being stretched to fill a time slot.
Hubert Point-Du Jour Does the Heavy Lifting
Now, the narrator situation is interesting. Some people wanted Russell Simmons to narrate his own book, and I get that — his voice and personality are half the brand. But Hubert Point-Du Jour actually delivers a clean, measured read that fits the subject matter. His pacing is steady without being drowsy, which is harder than it sounds for a book about stillness. You don't want your meditation guide narrator putting you to sleep before you learn the technique. He keeps it warm, conversational, professional. No dramatic flourishes, no weird affectations. For a book this straightforward, that's exactly what you need.
Compare this to something like Tim Ferriss reading his own material — love the guy, but self-narrated business books can be a coin flip. Point-Du Jour is a pro, and it shows. The audio is clean, well-paced, no production issues. At 1.25x it's perfectly comfortable.
Who Gets ROI on This Credit
If you've never meditated and you need someone with street cred to give you permission to try it, this is your book. Simmons is a credible messenger for the skeptical entrepreneur who thinks meditation is for people who own too many crystals. If you've read even one other meditation book — or, honestly, watched a decent YouTube video on the topic — you're going to find maybe 30 minutes of new material here.
Jenny would say I'm being harsh. Jenny is right. But she'd also agree that at 4.5 hours, this needed to be about 2 hours tighter. The message is good. The messenger is credible. The packaging just doesn't respect your time the way a 4.5-hour commitment should.
The Consulting Fee for This One
Bottom line: Russell Simmons genuinely believes in meditation and wants you to try it. That sincerity comes through. But the book is a pamphlet wearing a book's clothes — too much evangelism, not enough instruction. Good gateway drug for meditation-curious business types. Bad use of a credit when Headspace exists. Borrow it, listen at 1.25x, skip the first two hours, and you'll get a solid 90-minute meditation primer from a guy who earned the right to teach it.
