‘The Alchemist’: We All Have a ‘Personal Legend’

Paulo Coelho invites us to be brave and walk the path of our highest excitement

There’s a reason why Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one of the world’s best-selling novels. You know a book is speaking to your soul when you feel a lump of joy forming in your stomach, ready to burst out through a silent sob at any moment.

That’s what I was feeling when I was reading The Alchemist.

A Classic Example of ‘The Hero’s Journey’

There are a few sentences in the foreword of the 25th Anniversary edition which form a good summary of the story:

“A man sets out on a journey, dreaming of a beautiful or magical place, in pursuit of some unknown treasure. At the end of his journey, the man realizes the treasure was with him the entire time.”

This goes along with the concept of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, an idea by Joseph Campbell, an American professor of literature. It came from observing the common theme in myths and legends, about how the protagonist will generally move through stages of inner transformation on his quest to arrive at a certain goal or destination. This would usually happen through realising a problem and surmounting obstacles along the road to an idealised outcome. The idea of everyone having a ‘Personal Legend’ feeds off this idea of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, it’s about following your dreams.

Although it may almost be impossible to believe, Coelho allegedly wrote his masterpiece in just two weeks. It often takes me days to write a four-minute article alone, so to me, this seemed very impressive. To pull off such a feat, I’m sure he must have been fully hooked into the flow of his creativity, to produce such a body of insightful philosophic ideas in quite a short period of time.

‘The Alchemist’ Was Not an Overnight Literary Success, at First

O Alquimista, the original Portuguese version, was first published in Brazil in 1988 by a small publisher called Eco. In the epilogue of the 25th Anniversary edition, published in 2014, Coelho says in its first week only one copy was sold. Over the following six months it was purchased just once more, by the same person who bought the first. Soon after, the publisher decided to pull O Alquimista from the local shops and it was deemed a big flop.

Coelho was heartbroken that his book had not been successfully received by the public. He said that when it happened he was “forty-one and desperate”¹. He couldn’t give up on his story though as he’d put his entire “heart and soul”¹ into it, and he felt an obligation to “living his own metaphor”¹. Coelho said for the sake of his credibility he had to live by the story’s messages and needed to follow his “own Personal Legend”, starting with finding another publisher.

“My treasure was my capacity to write. And I wanted to share this treasure with the world.”

Coelho Knew One Important Thing

One of the most famous lines in The Alchemist:

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

He started looking for other publishers right away, and eventually, Editora Rocco Ltd. agreed to sell the remaining material, and redistribute the book by Christmas. An American tourist later discovered O Alquimista while travelling through Brazil. They loved it and decided that a way had to be found to have it translated into English.

Colm Holland was working as Marketing Director at HarperCollins in Australia when the manuscript showed up in the pile of unpublished drafts for him to review. He said at first he was “struck” by the cover art. He immediately became interested in the story when he began reading it. He took it home, something he says he barely ever did, to finish that day. He truly believed it was a story which would become an “international bestseller”. HarperCollins quickly ordered 100,000 copies to print.

Holland was inexorably influenced by the novel. He was the one who helped make Coelho’s novel so popular in the English speaking world. It all started with a phone call to a colleague in California at seven in the morning to order a large number of copies. Coelho was immensely grateful that Holland had seen the same potential in the book as he had, and they later became friends. With Coelho's blessing, Holland went on to pursue his own Personal Legend, and created a business which in time became one of the most successful digital marketing firms in Australia.

Oprah in Awe

In a 2008 Youtube interview uploaded by HarperOne, an affiliate to HarperCollins, Coelho states that The Alchemist is the book translated into the most different languages by a living author. As of 2016, The Alchemist has been translated into 81 languages. This means that Coelho is placed firmly among the ranks of other most-translated authors, famous writers such as Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. The novel even spent over 300 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list¹ and time on The Guardian’s list of bestsellers as well.

In an interview with Oprah in 2014, once the 25th Anniversary version had been published, Coelho says:

“It’s very difficult to accept you know what you’re supposed to do and you are not doing it.”

Coelho wishes that you too become aware of your own Personal Legend:

“You are here to honour something called the ‘miracle of life’. You can’t be here to fulfill hours and days with something that is meaningless. But you know you have a reason to be here, it is the only thing that gives you enthusiasm. You know when you are betraying your Personal Legend when you are doing something without enthusiasm.”

When Oprah asked if he was sure that everyone has a Personal Legend, he replied:

“I am one hundred percent convinced [that everyone has a Personal Legend], which is totally different [from me believeing that] everybody is going to fulfill his or her Personal Legend.”

It looks as if Coelho has achieved his own Personal Legend, with over 150 million copies of the book sold thus far. As of 2016, 20 million copies have been printed in English alone.

One of my favourite quotes from The Alchemist is this:

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

The Alchemist Teaches Us to Appreciate What We Have, and to Never Stop Moving forward

It’s very simple, but the message is so important. It’s easy to give up on our dreams just shy of them becoming reality. Sometimes, when working towards something we are passionate about becomes difficult, we start to question if our hard work is worth continuing with, and we might give up.

Sometimes, we try our best and still fail. We don’t have to let failure be permanent though. If we really love doing something, or if what we are doing is really meaningful to us, we can choose to have the courage to pick ourselves back up so that we may continue on our path.

I agree with Coelho in believing that we will live the most fulfilling versions of our lives if we have the courage to follow our inner compass towards that which makes us excited and motivated. I know not everyone is a fan of such an idealistic mindset. Life has its multitudes of hardships for many, many people, but if some of the poorest people in the world can be some of the happiest, then you can look on the bright-side too.

A bit of optimism never hurts, and it will certainly allow you to learn and grow much more easily. Following dreams isn’t just for children. To expand your horizons, you could try writing down something which you would love to do, but you think is crazy, and allow yourself the possibility that it could happen.

I feel like I’m starting to understand my own Personal Legend, and I hope yours will become clearer to you too. As a fan of any book that inspires me to move beyond the current limitations of my mind, The Alchemist has become one of my favourite novels. I would fervently recommend this story to anyone who loves a happy ending and wants to become a better version of themselves.

Reference

¹The Alchemist (25th Anniversary Edition), Paulo Coelho