‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho was not an overnight hit but he knew that people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
So he never gave up and now almost 35 years later his book has been translated into 70 languages and 65 million copies were sold. It is hard to write something clever about this book and there’s so much wisdom in it that I will just quote the most important parts about our dreams, fears and love. ‘It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting’ and ‘There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure’. So ‘Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself’ and ‘People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of’.
It’s important to remember that ‘When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too’. Also, ‘One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving’. And ‘This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you’. Finally, ‘You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say’. And ‘Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure’.
In general ‘We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity’. But ‘The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times’ and ‘The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them’. Because ‘There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey’.
It’s true that ‘Your eyes show the strength of your soul’. And ‘No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it’. So ‘I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now’. That is why ‘You must always know what it is that you want’.
Finally, one of the most important statements in this book says that ‘when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it’. So never give up and keep on visualizing it until it materializes in this reality. And then you will find your treasure.
