The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

  • Personal Development
  • Ashto = 6/10
  • Jonesy = 8/10
The Alchemist

What You Will Learn from The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a modern classic that has sold millions of copies and inspired countless readers around the world. Written by Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist follows the mystical journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy Santiago. Santiago’s self-discovery tale teaches the wisdom of listening to our hearts, recognising opportunities and omens that we encounter on our life path, and ultimately, following our dreams.

Although The Alchemist is written with strong elements of magic and mysticism, the deeper meaning of this book resonates closely with our lives. However, alchemy in our world isn’t about discovering the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – it’s about walking along the said rainbow and enjoying the gradual process of our transformation.

 

The Beginning

Santiago is a young shepherd boy from Andalusia. He begins his (fictional) journey as a simple sheep herder, but also an ambitious explorer. He is content with his life, but at the same time, he constantly experiences dreams about the Egyptian Pyramids. Most of us would pass these dreams off as random, but Santiago thought they meant something more. He thought they were calling to him, trying to show him a path. They were his ‘Personal Legend’. In other words, he had this sense that going to the pyramids was the reason for his existence.

But how could you be so certain? He was comfortable at home but faced the choice: stay with the safe and certain life of a shepherd… or follow his heart and chase his dream?

Santiago, the young whipper snapper he is, decided to go for it. He wanted to see the fields, the countryside and the places where the women were more beautiful. And as soon as he left his local neighbourhood and experienced a sense of freedom like he had never had before, he was happy.

Although he no longer had security, he was able to live out his dream. Santiago learnt early on his journey that “it’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”. He met others on a similar path and was assured that “when you really want something, the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”.

Santi crossed the Strait of Gibraltar on route to Morocco and soon found himself lost in an unfamiliar marketplace speaking an unfamiliar language he couldn’t understand. Luckily, he found a nice bloke who offered to help him cross the Sahara and get to Egypt – all they needed to do first was to buy a camel. Santiago handed his cash over to this bloke, since he spoke the language and knew the bazaar well so he could negotiate the best deal. The two of them journeyed through the marketplace at a quick pace, in search of the best deal on a camel or two. To Santiago’s dismay, the other lad weaved his way into a crowd and never popped out the other side… he’d bolted off with the cash!

Now Santi found himself in an even worse situation – an unknown land, and unknown language, plus his pockets were now empty. He was only on the very first leg of his journey and the world had already smacked him up. Now he had to make another choice. The same choice before but with different stakes: does he go back to his old life of comfort and security… or, despite losing everything but the shirt on his back, keep moving forward in the pursuit of his dream?

About Alchemy

Courageously, he decided to continue in his pursuit of his Personal Legend, despite some inclination that this whole dream could be a sham.

As his journey continued, things didn’t seem to get easier. In fact, it all just seemed like he was pushing shit uphill. He was constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. But he continued to work from dawn to dusk. He was faced with the challenges that inevitably appear when an explorer goes out on his own. But it was through these challenges that Santiago was able to learn about Alchemy.

Alchemy is a pretty cool profession. The story goes that if you have a philosopher’s stone, you can turn any base metal such as lead or copper into gold. If you’re able to transform any base material, then you’d be a pretty well off individual. Imagine just picking up your knife and fork for your evening meal, clicking your fingers and turning them into gold.

It sounds made up, but true alchemy does exist. Sadly, most people will never get to experience how it really works. Alchemy in our world is not about literally making gold – it’s about discovering the treasure that has been reserved for each and every one of us.

The mistake most people make is hoping to uncover it in an instant, like the click of a finger that turns your cutlery into gold. They don’t realise that there are steps along the way to their metaphorical gold. You’re not digging and digging, searching for that precious metal, then in an instant go from having no gold to being rich. There are evolutions you need to make on your journey.

Most wannabe ‘alchemists’ are seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, without wanting to actually live out their Personal Legend and walk along said rainbow. The true alchemists understand that the alchemy of Personal Legends is a gradual process of transformation.

In the pursuit of his dream, Santiago had already made a few of his transitions. He was living out the life of a true Alchemist.

The Final Transitions

On his journey, Santiago was undergoing evolution from a pretty lame base metal to something a bit more upmarket in the periodic table. When he progressed well into his journey, things seemed to get much better. There were a lot of perks appearing: he got rich with (literal) gold, got his hot desert girlfriend, was living his purpose, and even met another Alchemist. Despite killing it by most desirable metrics, he knew deep down he still hadn’t reached the full extent of his Personal Legend: the pyramids.

So, again, he faced another choice. This time required equal courage, but for different reasons. Previously, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This time, he had everything to lose. He had gone way past the simple shepherd boy that he was before he began his journey. Luckily he sought wise counsel from his more experienced fellow Alchemist pal, who described what happens when you stop going after your dream before you reach it.

“Let me tell you what will happen:
You’ll be the counsellor of the oasis (aka big dog).
You will have enough money to buy many sheep and camels.
You’ll marry Fatimah, and you’ll be happy for a year.
You’ll learn to love the desert, and you’ll get to know every one of the fifty thousand palms.
You’ll watch them as they grow, and you’ll get better at understanding omens of the desert”.

Things are sounding pretty good so far.

But then he continued…

“Sometime during the second year you’ll remember the treasure. The omens will begin insistently speaking of it and you’ll try to ignore them. During the third year, your wife will be unhappy because she’ll feel she interrupted your quest. Many days you’ll walk the sands of the desert thinking maybe you have left. And sometime in the fourth year the omens will abandon you because you stopped listening to them. You’ll be dismissed from your position as the tribal counsellor. By then you’ll be a rich merchant with lots of camels. But you’ll spend the rest of your days knowing that you didn’t pursue your personal legend, and that now it is too late”.

There was no beating around the bush here, he hit him with the straight dope. And the Alchemist’s message is relevant to all of us. There is something deep within us, urging us forward to pursue our own Personal Legend. It feels terrifying at every step of the pursuit. It’s scary when we have nothing to lose and also when we have everything to lose.

If you build up the cajones to go for it, when you really want something “the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”. But if you give into the fear and turn your back on your Personal Legend, then this dream will abandon you. Over time, the dreams you had when you were younger will vanish as you settle for mediocrity.

Conversations With The Heart

We all have weird senses about things which seem to resonate from deep within. We can decide to palm it off like it’s nothing, or we can choose to listen to it intently.

If we listen closely to our heart, we might find that wherever it is pointing is in fact the direction of our treasure. If we listen and take heed, we’ll never be able to keep it quiet. It will always be there, thinking about life and the world. If you trust your heart, it will treat you to your greatest treasures. It is the one instrument we have that knows about our dreams and how we can get after them.

Having copped a spray from the other Alchemist, Santiago decided to connect with his heart. He listened so intently that he found the advice he needed.

His heart said: “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. Our hearts become fearful of treasures that might have been found that were hidden forever in the sands, because when these things happen we suffer terribly. No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams. Because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity”.

When Santiago reflected back, he knew it was true. Despite all the hiccups of his journey, the successes and failures had one thing in common: every second he had been in pursuit of his treasure had been enlightening. He had discovered things along the way that he would never have seen. As he transformed along his journey, he was able to try things that would’ve seemed impossible in his former life as a shepherd – he certainly wouldn’t have had the boldness required to give it a red hot crack if he hadn’t evolved through each setback.

When he was finally ready, once he had finally transformed enough to fulfil his Personal Legend, Santiago discovered his treasure.

Conclusion of The Alchemist

Everyone on Earth has a treasure that awaits them. Our hearts seldom say much about the treasures because people no longer search for them. Hearts typically only speak to children. Hardly anybody follows the Personal Legend journey laid out for them, so the hearts feel ignored and they gradually go quiet.

Early on in your life, possibilities are endless. You can entertain all of the excitement that your future might have for you. But as we stop listening to our hearts, the excitement wears off and gets replaced with the belief that the world is a threatening place. And because people believe that, the world turns out indeed to be a threatening place. Our hearts speak more and more softly, to the point of eventually not speaking out at all. Our hearts don’t bother speaking up when the captain isn’t listening to a word they say.

With 65 million copies sold worldwide, The Alchemist is definitely worth the read. Subscribe to our podcast series on iTunes and Spotify, or read our review of The Alchemist (as well as bits from other bestselling books) in our book, The Shit They Never Taught You.

 

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