A Letter To The Master
An Open Letter to Paulo Coelho — What I Have Learned
An open letter to Paulo Coelho, or a very convoluted review of The Archer, The Zahir, and The Alchemist — or both
Hilarious, that when I click your name here on Medium, it says “Paulo Coelho hasn’t written any stories yet.” I beg to differ.
Dear Master,
I am writing to you today because I finally hear my calling, and more so than that; I finally see my path. This after a long and tumultuous time of introspection, experimentation, and many long hard chats and equally long, hard contemplation, and many a sleepless night. It’s been a rough year for me, personally.
And I’m not there, just yet.
I read The Archer recently. And it was so inspirational and so timely, so fitting for me. 2020 was the drawing of the bow, I wrote in a poem somewhere.
I’m writing to you because you are in more than one way connected to my calling.
I’m writing to you here, because I have no other place to reach you, as it seems. Not necessarily surprising as you have become, among the 8 billion people that now live and breathe in this world, the most recognized and admired writer.
I have no idea if you’ll ever read this letter. It seems unlikely. Therefore, I choose to write it to you as much as to myself, and possibly — in case I decide to hit ‘publish’ when I’m done, to anyone who reads it. Hoping to illuminate and inspire them as much as myself.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way.
I suppose it’s beyond obvious that I’m a great admirer of your work. The first time I met you in your writing was in The Zahir, which touched me profoundly, and influenced my life to a great extent.
After that The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage, more recently Adultery and The Spy and most recently The Archer — have all been books that touched my life in some deep way, and that will stay with me through the years.
You are the writer I look up to most — out of all the writers I have ever read — because of your substance coupled with your beautiful metaphoric, magical and mystical storytelling. I find it inspiring how you almost desperately seem to want to share your insights and knowledge with the rest of us through your storytelling. To inspire, and illuminate, next to delight.
I reference your books when I speak of personal development, honest introspection, and Purpose in my work as a marketing and branding strategist.
And in my latest book about the impact of digital technology, ‘Life Beyond the Touch Screen’ — to remind people to start their day with a sense of Purpose, instead of pings.
Purpose, instead of the slings and arrows of internal and external distractions.
I have found my calling, partly thanks to you, and my calling lies in storytelling. More specifically, I have found my path — or, at least, the broad strokes of my path, by which I believe I can build towards living my Purpose all the while embodying more and more of that Purpose and my Ideal Self.
What is this calling, this Purpose I speak of?
My calling (or vehicle) is in writing; in combining all of the information I gather — as I wander this planet, observe, listen and speak to its inhabitants and soup up the insights and wonders they create here — into snippets of written or spoken words, from my own unique perspective, such that it may be illuminating and inspiring to whoever reads or hears my work.
Such that they come closer to discovering and fulfilling their own Purpose and their Ideal Self. Or, if you prefer; their ‘Personal Legend’.
In brief, you could say my Purpose is to inspire and help others find and live their Purpose.
I suppose I’m very much like you in that respect. I also suspect that underneath it all, and to some extent, this is the case for so, so many of us. It’s just that our paths to enlightenment and to helping enlighten others are so beautifully and vastly different as we are as humans beings.
And at the same time, essentially, so much the same.
My feeling of Purpose has been fairly clear and stable, but my path has been so incredibly unclear to me this last year. I lost my job, you see, which I had just switched to after a nice and safe tenure of five years at the job I held before that.
At first, I was fairly confident, calm, and even a little glad. I’ll now finally have some time to devote to my writing — and to the promotion of my books, I thought. And so I did.
And then two associates of mine asked if I would want to join their Brand Identity startup, and I did —
Then fast forward a few months and I’m stuck in some strange purgatory of cashflow constipation (with only a few short months of runway left), doing a lot of hard work that’s not paying financial dividends as of yet, and doubts.
Until that morning.
I had been doubting myself, wondering where to invest most of my energy. I had already decided to divide my time and energy among four main things; my latest book (Life Beyond the Touch Screen) and its sequel about Purpose Alignment, and the promotion of both; the Brand & People Development startup I helped found called SparQle, and the ever more necessary process of job applications, acquisition and networking.
Next to that, I had decided to put aside a little bit of time every week to work towards the publishing of the best I’ve ever written so far, my third book, ‘INSOMNISEX’. As the title may lead you to think, it is indeed an erotic story. An erotic, poetic novella, is what I would call it, and it’s very dark, very romantic and very odd. Possibly the strangest thing I’ve ever read.
[100 or so written spoken word poems, telling the story of a young man and woman who spend two weeks in Portugal, seeking the depths and truths of their love and lust— in order to decide, finally, if that love should live on or die.]
And you know what I hated about my plan so far? It’s that it didn’t have any focus, nor a clear sequential order. It didn’t have any semblance of a path: it was just spreading my eggs in a few separate baskets, because I couldn’t figure out how to choose, what to prioritize, what was most true or most urgent, and why.
Until that morning.
I lay on my couch for an impromptu power nap. And did my relaxing meditation, as I am accustomed to. Then, as I was dozing off, and lightly still contemplating my conundrum of choice, a thought experiment hit me:
What if someone put a katana on my throat and forced me to choose ONE of my baskets, one of my paths; only ONE of my dreams — for the rest of my life: what would I choose?
If I had to choose between the three options of;
- Working in corporate environments helping organizations find their Purpose and making their Brand Story come alive from the inside out (as a brand strategist; relatively the least exciting, but easily the most practical, and a wonderful expression of my Purpose in the corporate world);
- Finalizing — as a lone entrepreneur, although in unison with my work for SparQle— the works that I’ve been working on that help people find and live their Purpose; creating the Purpose Alignment book, workbook, online training and even app that I’ve been dreaming/designing for it (personal branding, employee advocacy stuff), and;
- Doing everything in my power to get INSOMNISEX published by one of the big five; to promote and market myself as a novelist and writer, to become famous (like you) and to be able to live a life of financial freedom — and then and thereby inspire and help people to find their Purpose and live it (relatively the most exciting, but super high-risk/high-reward);
It suddenly became quite clear.
I had the greatest chance of helping the most people forward in the most meaningful, impactful, direct, and positive way if I did the thing that seemed the noblest: finalizing my Purpose Alignment framework and sharing it with the world (1&2).
It was also directly obvious that INSOMNISEX (3) and all of my further fiction writing could be beautifully exemplary and illustrative of what happens when you find your Purpose, and dare to live it fully.
Thirdly, it was directly clear that there is no one holding a katana to my neck; finding a fun, well-paid and challenging steady job would be the smartest, most sensible, most practical thing to do right now — and, if I’d find a job along the lines of Brand Identity and Brand & People Development and Alignment —
I would simply be getting more experience in helping people find and live their Purpose while simultaneously actually helping them do that in the process. Setting me up to finetune my methods, models and all my Purpose Alignment works along the way, all the while providing real value for actual people. That sounds pretty awesome to me.
So, my path is clearly 1&2, 3.
Where 1 and 2 are so closely aligned that it’s fairly inconsequential, in the end, if I help people to “find their Purpose and live it” by working in corporate environments as a marketer or otherwise, through my books and training, or a combination of both.
Side note: I had already realized a little over a year ago that working in a corporate environment, with smart people, thinking about and creating Purpose-driven brands that work, would be something I would see myself doing even after winning a proverbial lottery: it’s fun, it’s exactly enough of a challenge to me personally and intellectually, and feels meaningful to do.
So, you could say my path is pretty clear. My Purpose is clear — but that had been clear for quite some time. Just now I also see the path that goes along with it. For years, I had been searching for this.
Thank you, Master, for your help along the way.
If anyone reading this who is not Paulo Coelho, and is searching for Purpose, meaning, or a higher calling in life; please be advised to read the works of this Master. Specifically The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage, but certainly also The Zahir. I thank you, Master, on behalf of all of your past and future readers.
So how did Paulo Coelho’s books help me find my Purpose, my Vehicle and my Path?
Mainly, Paulo Coelho’s books helped me be aware of the importance of finding a higher goal for yourself in life to begin with — an insight I apply to my personal coaching as well as for organizations and brands, as I mentioned earlier.
The Alchemist and The Zahir were most instrumental in this respect. Those two books also triggered and kept alive the drive to keep devoting time to thinking about, experimenting with and going on adventures in order to find, grow, improve and maintain your sense of Purpose in life.
The Alchemist and more so The Pilgrimage taught me more about what it takes to stick to the path, and taught me to come to understand that sometimes (or oftentimes) searching the path is the path. And vice versa; the path is oftentimes simply the continued journey and search for itself.
The Archer, finally, reminded me, once more, of the importance of staying committed to your Personal Legend, Purpose, Vehicle (what’s your bow and arrow?) and path. It reminded me that it can be ever so useful to find teachers and comrades along the way, and to invest in learning from others as well as sharing whatever you know that can be helpful.
Ultimately, The Archer reminded me to execute. Direly needed, often overlooked. Especially by thinkers, like me.
Call to Action and words of gratitude
What’s that, Mr Coelho? You want to see if you can help more?
Well, that is just fantastic.
The path I outline above is my ‘most practical, sensible and realistic path’ to my future. As I see it. But is it the absolute ideal, most beautiful and most fun?
Not necessarily.
My life could be much easier, and my path could be much faster if someone like you decided you want to help me out.
I’ve read in many places that a young man — I like to think that any man can be a young man, relatively — needs a mentor at certain stages of his life, and that we rarely find one in this day and age.
I certainly have never had a relationship with anyone which could be considered a Life mentorship, apart from my relationships with Mestre Araminho in the Capoeira Academy, and Roel Stavorinus and Brian Cohen who’ve both mentored me so much in my work as a marketer. I owe these men immense gratitude. My mom and dad. Mrs Kaptein in 3rd through 5th grade.
But a mentorship in the sense of Purpose, in the sense of being a ‘Warrior of the Light’ and having a Master help you find your Way, and your Sword — I’ve never had anything like that.
So Master, Mr Coelho, if you’d like to help more than you already have, so profoundly, through your writings — you can easily connect with me, I’ll even leave my e-mail address at the bottom of this letter, so we can see how you can teach me, personally. And what you could learn from that. I believe I am ready.
If not, no hard feelings at all. Only gratitude and hope.
You continue to teach me through your writings and surely every now and then I’ll be in touch with you through one of your books, right here in my bookcase. Thank you for being here.
To anybody else possibly reading this letter; I hope this has been inspiring and illuminating to you as well, my friend. Remember:
You’ve been chosen by this Life, So Life does believe in You; From the Darkness to the Light,
The cycle continues.
Thank you for reading. Whoever you are, I truly hope this helps you.
If it’s fitting, and seems relevant to do so, you can contact me directly at [email protected], or follow me here on Medium, or on Twitter, Instagram and so on.
If you like, be sure to check my website www.lifebeyond.one where I share everything I learn that is useful about the impact of digital technology on our mental health and how to lead a life of Purpose.
For more of my writing here on Medium, click any of the following:
