I recently watched a video by Iman Gadzhi where he recommended 17 books about money, business, and success. There are some amazing books in his list and I had already read a few of them so I knew the other recommendations would be of a similar quality. I’m so glad I took the recommendations.
I hope that these posts will be of great value to you as well whether you are gaining an introduction to a great book or want to see what I took away from a book we’ve both read and enjoyed. Let’s get into The Alchemist book review.
I decided I’m going to review every book I read from now on and probably even do this process again for older books I’ve read because while the Hardmaxing brand isn’t focused on this type of content – it is beneficial for my personal growth in terms of taking notes on books related to entrepreneurship, business, money, success, personal development, etc.
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The Alchemist Book Review
One of his first recommendations was a book titled “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. Iman noted this book was the starting point for anyone interested in entrepreneurship – just knowing something is possible is such an important point in starting to move towards big goals. Knowing you don’t have to fall into a specific role and give up on your true purpose, dreams, or goals that you have in exchange for society’s goals and expectations.
If you put in the effort and intention into creating a better world and striving towards your goals you will be rewarded and recognized by the world itself. This is what the story is about at a core level.
I also found the author’s foreword extremely interesting – he noted that he was around 40 years old when he created the book and it didn’t sell for years until finally a second publisher took a chance on him and the book slowly and exponentially spread like wildfire across many countries and bestseller lists. There are many such cases – what if the author decided to give up in exchange for a more acceptable career? He wouldn’t have realized his personal goal and impacted millions of readers around the world.
Length
The Alchemist itself is a fairly easy and short read at around 170 pages of large text for the version I read. It took me around a few hours of reading including breaks in between – not long at all.
My Thoughts
I don’t want to give you the whole story here but the core concept revolved around this boy who decided to pursue his legend (basically your true dreams or goals) and in doing so learned so many things about the world itself. The book states that when you listen to your heart and follow your legend – the world and its soul recognize this and help you along your journey.
Throughout the journey, the boy meets various figures who are either stagnating in lost personal legends or are actively pursuing their legends in their own ways. He gets discouraged a few times but ultimately keeps striving toward his end goal and eventually makes it. He has to make tough decisions to reach his full potential.
To get the whole idea of the story and the full impact of it I suggest you just read the book – it’s representative of a mindset shift that is necessary specifically in the world of entrepreneurship. The idea is that when you strive to enhance the world around you and put effort in this will be recognized and you will be rewarded for it. To never give up on your goals even when it gets hard decisions must be made.
Quotes
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
“When someone makes a decision, he is diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he has never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”
“I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what does.”
“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”
“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.”
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho | Full Quotes Source List
Action
“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.“
The character in the story did what many others who were scared or stuck in study mode never did: he took action. He dove right into any opportunity he felt was the right path on his journey. Insanely important parallel to entrepreneurship – you can study all you want but like the book says: when you start taking steps in a journey actions will respond based on that.
Like Iman Gadzhi himself has realized – the personal brand he has been building for years on YouTube has afforded him many opportunities. Did you know he originally started in the fitness space? Imagine if he was too scared to start doing anything – we would’ve never heard of him.
I’m personally not even close to the level of action I want to be at – I’m apprehensive in so many ways but doing something like this (doing anything really) is a great start. Without thinking about it I wrote this post in a few minutes before I go do something else – if nobody ever sees this I still benefit from reflecting on the book I read and noting what I learned. If people do see this my brand will gain traction and influence leading to more opportunities.
Fear
The book states something along the lines of the fact that the fear of failing often hurts worse than failing itself. This is 100% true in my opinion. If you’ve ever faced regret in terms of any type of opportunity you faced you probably looked back on it and thought that the pain of starting would’ve hurt but it hurts much worse to know you could’ve done something and didn’t.
For me, it’s always an investment or business opportunity. Obviously, there is some hindsight bias here but there are many times I think of an idea like for a Youtube channel and then see someone else successfully executing the idea a few months later. Or an investment opportunity I was too scared to partake in does well.
Even if my potential channel failed or I lost all my money in a bad investment I would’ve felt better at least trying something rather than stagnating for years. I’m able to save money with great discipline but this means nothing to me if I never use it to further my goals. I’m working on cultivating a healthy and intelligent appetite for risk in both business and investing.
Conclusion
I could write the entire book from scratch because I enjoyed it that much – these are just some of the main quotes and points that I enjoyed reading under the frame Iman Gadzhi provided to me. I read The Alchemist under the scope of using it to enhance my life in entrepreneurship and in terms of benefiting the world overall through my goals.
I went in with an open mind and loved it – I suggest you do the same. If you do want to purchase the book and support my brand you can use my Amazon affiliate link to purchase it (I will make a small commission on the sale). I highly recommend The Alchemist for any aspiring entrepreneurs or those wanting more out of life – it’s certainly shifted my mindset.