Book Review: Cherish or Perish

Reviewed by Tomi Alo

A thoughtful guide that redefines intellect as the key to peace, success, and personal growth

Cherish and Perish is an open invitation. Come. Understand the power that intellect holds in shaping your future.

While most people would simply define intellect as the measure of intelligence or “smart thinking,” author Prabha Karan takes it a step further. The wise and intentional use of knowledge can directly shape your choices, actions, and future.

He argues that intellect plays a far more crucial role than we realize. From achieving success to finding true peace and happiness, having a strong intellect is a powerful indicator of the amount of success we attain and how far we go with our dreams and goals in life. As Karan states, “the strength and clarity of your Intellect represent the decisive factor in determining whether you flourish magnificently or perish tragically in this life”

The structure of Cherish and Perish is straightforward. Karan follows up the first chapter, “The Intellect – What It Is, and Why It Matters,” with a chapter on how a strong intellect directly influences success, relationships, peace, and spiritual fulfillment in different ways. To illustrate his points, he draws on the lives of legendary figures such as Marie Curie and Florence Nightingale, showing how their consistency, concentration, and intellectual discipline contributed to their extraordinary achievements and lasting impact. As Karan explains, “Concentration is the capacity of the Intellect to guide the Mind to continue its present activity, without allowing the mind to slip into past experiences or future expectations to accomplish a clear goal.”

Chapters 3 and 4, “Ignore the Intellect at Your Own Peril” & “We Are Threatened More Than Ever Before,” come with a sobering warning: neglecting to build intellect can lead to a long downward spiral of failures and self-destruction. Karan also highlights how society continually threatens intellectual independence and encourages mental laziness. The countless streams of notifications, endless social media scrolls, and overconsumption of meaningless information makes it difficult to stay focused and us more acceptable to manipulative idealism.

But perhaps the most practical part of the book comes in Chapter 5, where Karan provides five clear strategies to develop and strengthen intellect. From asking good questions to actually taking the time to do it, the strategies are easy to implement and timeless. You don’t need anything special to adopt them—just small, deliberate habits that will help nurture your mind.

While the message in Cherish and Perish is enlightening and impactful, some of its content can feel overused and repetitive. The book can get tiring. Although, this might be a deliberate strategy from Karan “to counteract pervasive external influences” and dehypnotize readers from negative emotions and internalize the lessons presented in the book.

Cherish and Perish is a clarion call for readers to take control over their lives through the conscious development of intellect.

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