Every young man should read The Alchemist by @paulocoelho.
It is about a boy, seeking his destiny, and growing into a man while looking for it.
In the end he found his destiny was where he’s always been, but he had go to go out in search for it regardless, otherwise he would have never found it.
What he gained on the journey was what was most important.
He made mistakes and learned from it. He stagnated, wanted to get comfortable, yet the desire to reach his destiny kept him going.
The book is full of treasures. Teaching a young man good ethics and wisdom. To learn to love the desert in his life. To endure.
It started with a decision to start. And continued with many decisions to keep going.
It is your life.
Your destiny: The full potential of the man you ought to become.
You need to read it twice. First time is a nice story of a boy. 2nd time, it’s you.
I’m in love with this sentence:
“The degree to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth he can accept about himself without running away.”
I'm increasingly convinced that 99% of success is just the ability to outlast uncertainty. The one who can tolerate the most uncertainty is the one who will eventually win.
I'm 32.
I wasted my 20s chasing every shiny object.
Then I read The Alchemist—a fable about a shepherd who learns the real treasure isn’t gold.
It’s purpose.
Here are 7 timeless lessons most people overlook: 🧵
The most valuable trait of an entrepreneur:
A sense of urgency.
Most people walk slow, think slow, move slow, make decisions slow.
They lolly gag around life.
No energy. No excitement.
Those people never end up making it happen.
They end up working for the man, clocking in at 9am and clocking out at 5pm.
Doing the absolute bare minimum to get paid next Friday and not get fired.
Never making moves to chase additional opportunities, never taking a stab at entrepreneurship.
One of life’s strangest contradictions:
The busiest people always find time, while the lazy are always busy.
It’s an absolute truth that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person.
"The day I feel indispensable and highly valued in the workplace, I know I am in the right place. If I also experience being part of something significant—a project much larger than myself—then I thrive. I perform my best, I am seen and rewarded, and I look forward to every workday, bringing out my full potential.
For a work community to function well, it is crucial to have the same objectives and the same approach to tasks and challenges. When this is in place, two arms are more than twice as strong as one, and a thousand become an unbeatable working army."
- Bernt Aksel Larsen