The Alchemist Perspective

Recently I decided to re-read ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. The copy that I have happens to be a 25th anniversary edition and has a forward written by the author about his experience writing and publishing his book years ago. I don’t think I read this the first time I read the book so when I read the forward, I was surprised by his story.

It wasn’t an instant hit. He knew one bookshop that only sold one copy when it was first released, and it took about 6 months to sell more.
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He went on to explain that he was dropped from his first publisher and it was quite a while before he found a second publisher to take his book and give it another chance. It took time but eventually it grew into the phenomenon it is today, (go find the full forward written by Coelho-its so good).


My point?


Sometimes good things take time. We often want overnight success, for our work to be discovered and to become the next big thing. But most of the best things in life take time.


How often do we want to give up when things get hard or when disappointments come? Think about all that Paulo Coelho would have missed if he just gave up when he was dropped from his first publisher. We don’t always know what’s in store for us but I think we need to believe that there is something great up ahead if we push through the hard times.


This was a good reminder for me to keep going, keep moving forward, and remember that every step forward is getting me somewhere even if it is only one step at a time.