The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Remember six years ago when I first finished reading this book, I thought it was life-changing. Now that I reread it, somehow it tastes like dead fish.

One of the main insights of this book:

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

One thing. Really?

I did not see this conservative bootstrap ideology when I first read. Guess I was too young and naïve. I was disappointed about how Coelho did not elaborate on the more reasonable analogy in the earlier parts of this novel:

“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”

If the fear of failure is the only thing that makes a dream impossible, I think he did forget about the drops of oil on the spoon.

Thanks, The Alchemist. We had a good run.

But I’ve grown out of the spiritual goodies for the masses.