Management / Self Development

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Insights & Perspectives (Study Notes)

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The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he decides to travel to a Romani fortune-teller in a nearby town to discover its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that there is a treasure in the pyramids in Egypt.

Early into his journey, he meets an old king, whose name was Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt and introduces the idea of a Personal Legend. Your Personal Legend “is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.”[3] He adds that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” This is the core theme of the book.

The Pyramids of Giza
Along the way, the boy meets an Englishman who has come in search of an Alchemist and continues his travels with him. They travel through the Sahara desert and during his journey, Santiago meets and falls in love with a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima, who resides with her clan near an oasis. He asks Fatima to marry him, but she says she will only marry him after he completes his journey and finds his treasures. He is perplexed by this, but later learns that true love will not stop nor plead to sacrifice one’s Personal Legend, and if it does, it is not true love.

The boy then encounters an alchemist who also teaches him about Personal Legends. He says that people want to find only the treasure of their Personal Legends but not the Personal Legend itself. The boy feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist’s teachings. The alchemist states, “Those who don’t understand their Personal Legends will fail to comprehend their teachings.” It is also stated that treasure is more worthy than gold. The main theme recurs all through the novel, “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”

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44 Comments on “The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Insights & Perspectives (Study Notes)”

  7. Thank you, for providing such good information. One thing that stuck out for me was that I am a full-time project for myself. Thinking about what others are going to do, consumes the limited energy I have to work on myself. I think, it is important to focus on yourself first and live by the correct principles in order to generate influence on to others. Because you cannot make other people do things, you can only influence them with your actions. A lot of times, it is frustrating and slow but in the long-term it is less frustrating for you and others. I also 100% agree with what you talked about a sense of purpose. Because a sense of purpose gives you the motivation to work on it each and every day without outside influences. again, thank you so much for providing valuable information for all of us.

  12. Is there any difference between the 25th anniversary one and The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dreams? It would mean a lot if someone help me since I’m reading this book for summer reading and I don’t wanna read the wrong one?

  15. I came here because people were recommending "The Alchemist" and saying it had changed their lives. And I felt confused because I have already read it and it didn't impact me very much – I don't even remember much of it at all.

    I'm 15 minutes in, but this video is pretty helpful so far. I think the reason why I wasn't impacted by "The Alchemist" is that – although I agree with many of its messages – I already harbored what it had to say in my heart. I don't really try to control other people, I do listen to myself (albeit in different terms than the author would suggest), and I am dead set on following my dreams. It's possible that the hole this book filled for others does not exist in me.

    But I will still watch this entire video, in case there is anything I've missed.

  16. 20 minutes in and here are my thoughts so far: If there's any friction between my personal maxims and those offered in The Alchemist, it lies in following what you feel is right and enjoying the journey.

    My dream, or destiny or whatnot, is to become a beloved writer.

    And when I complain that I have an enormously difficult time actually writing, I am told to give up.

    And The Alchemist here has things about "enjoying the journey", which also seem to run contrary to me achieving my dream.

    Look: The easiest things for me, the things that feel good and right, are sleeping and exercising and drinking water and being with my family. I also have a great love of watching YouTube all day and being on the internet.

    If I did only those things – and, at some points, I have! – I would be filled with a deep existential dread about having not lived my life to its fullest potential.

    So I'm going to write, and have a horribly difficult time enduring my bad writing as I improve. I might not succeed – I could die tomorrow, or write 30 books that nobody loves. But it would be a greater failure to live without having tried at all.

    Although I will try to enjoy the journey, the journey itself is not an inherently enjoyable thing.

  17. It can seem like an insurmountable task to change the present. One can be overwhelmed by the feeling that they must fix everything at once because there is only the present.

    I have found it more helpful to think that Time changes everything – that with enough time, mountains are ground to dust and streams can carve canyons. Everything changes, so it is only hubris to think that you can live a lifetime entirely unchanged.

    This is what I told myself when the present was too overwhelming and I felt there was no hope or reason to go on. Even if your efforts are a few drops of water where others have a roaring river – just wait a few years. Your efforts, if persistent, will break through stone just the same.

  18. I'm around the 40 minute mark and I think I've found another reason why The Alchemist wasn't for me. I am very much atheistic, and I don't believe the world cares for us at all. I will support others who believe that, but I cannot believe it myself.

    When Coelho talks about the world conspiring to help you, or the world testing you to make sure you're worthy, it feels very baseless to me. I can see how it would be useful – amazing, even – if someone held onto that belief to get them through hard times. But I cannot use this any more than a parapeligiac can use a bicycle.

    I do believe in some things – I believe in other people, and that we're all going to be dead one day.

    I believe that folks should follow their dreams because it's a fine way to use up their one guaranteed existence. People seem to do better when they feel some degree of control over their lives.

    Like you said, meaning is something we make for ourselves. Taking that a tad further, meaning is something humans invented and it only extends as far as we do (roughly speaking).

    The stuff in my head and heart are very similar to the stuff in The Alchemist, but it's things like this that make them an imperfect fit.

  19. Ok that's kind of funny, around 53:00. My purpose is my true reason for being, but it's nowhere near being realized. What I am right now is, by several metrics, pathetic. So there just weren't that many "reasons for being" to choose from.

  20. I think the closest thing there is to "God" is simply "other people" or "humanity" as a whole. So a "higher purpose" would be something touching the minds and hearts of many, or something contributing to our people's longevity as a species (even in a small way).

    The further I go into this video, the more evident it is that Coelho and I are pretty incongruent on this front.

    I am a little sad that, as uplifting and reaffirming as some of these quotes are, I won't be able to get as much out of this as a thiest might.

  22. Hi Joseph… did you ever do reflections on the Seth books? I’d love to hear in your own words from “the unknown reality” a Seth book by Jane Roberts …
    thank you so much and I love to hear your explanation on these deep books

  23. How exciting to find this audio. Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author, I’m Brazilian, and, in Brazil, people from several generations, specially mine, at one moment of their lives read his books. I read them as a teenager, now that I am 50 and you’re giving me the opportunity to revisit it. Can’t wait to listen! Thanks

  24. I've done research on religion most of my life…And I am also a builder..I build every man's dream into reality. The impossibilities…I love to make it into possibilities. But only for others…what I dont understand is when I try to do something for myself…it never happens…what am I doing wrong?

  35. I need to come back to this little bit later I have to tell you something I’m not gonna say the name of the company but it’s a top company that has all of the top people like yourself on there as teachers and then they sell their programs they gave me a complete free access to their whole program everything they sponsored they just gave me everything they know me they know what I’m doing and they gave me everything for free. I don’t understand is going on anyway I’m going to stay

  37. I am so excited and now I have also decided to do some other things one is political that have to do with medicine and a company that does a DNA test and people don’t have to be guinea pigs anymore I’m going to go to Washington and do what I have to do to get this taken care of so people aren’t treated like any pays anymore I missed diagnosed because of what just happened I

  39. You know in your heart I don’t listen I don’t know maybe I just don’t have people really supporting me when it comes to things that are very important to me but I just run and go and do it because I don’t know I don’t have those people I don’t know why

  41. It makes me more it gives me more incentive because the more it getting much more power when they do that in Disney much more sense if it works better

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