Brian Johnson (Philosopher's Notes TV) presents a brief overview of Paulo Coelho's major books and recurring themes. He recommends starting with The Alchemist (story of Santiago) and mentions titles including The Warrior of the Light, Veronica Decides to Die, The Flowing River, Brida, The Fifth Mountain, and Confessions of a Pilgrim. Johnson highlights Coelho's central ideas: following deep heartfelt desires as the universe/God speaking through us, courage to move through fear, bearing scars proudly, enjoying the journey while pursuing goals, and practical heuristics (e.g., treat being 90% to a goal as 50% to avoid disillusionment). He also cites broad reach statistics Johnson gives for Coelho (translated into ~60 languages, read in ~150 countries, ~100 million copies sold).
Chapters
Foreign. Hey guys, how are you? This is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we're going to profile one of my favorite teachers and authors, a guy named Paulo Coelho. We're going to do it a little differently today. Usually I do one book and cover the big ideas in a six page PDF. Today I'm going to do a bunch of my favorite books by Paulo Coelho in this one note. So my favorite big ideas from a bunch of different books. But the real big idea here is if you haven't read Paulo's stuff yet, get on it. He's awesome. Super simple, beautiful prose and just really inspiring messages he weaves into the novels that he writes. So probably the most popular is the Alchemist, which is a story about a guy named Santiago who's a young shepherd following his dreams. Awesome book. Quick weekend read. Highly recommend. Paulo's been translated into 60 different languages. He's read in 150 different countries. 100 million copies of his books have been sold. And I like to say I finish his books and I'm like, this is a great human being. I have that experience when I read a few books. And this is definitely the case with Paulo. Just awesome, super inspiring and just. You can feel he's alive and just a good dude. Another great book, the Warrior of the Light, which is a companion guide to the Alchemist. Another great book, the Veronica Decides to Die, all about a woman who tries to commit suicide. She survives, her doctor tells her she has a very limited amount of time to live. And the story is all about how does she live with only hours or days to live. It's awesome. All about moving through our fears. A great book like the Flowing River, a collection of Paulo's essays. We've got Brida. We've got the Fifth Mountain. I've got a bunch of other books. I think I've read every one of his published books. And again, point here is he's amazing. Check him out. His biography, Confessions of a Pilgrim, is extraordinary too. So in the note, we've got all the big ideas. For now, with that long introduction, we will look at a few of my favorite big ideas. How about we'll start with the first one? He says there's one great truth, and that is that when we really have a desire, we really want to do something. It's the universe speaking through us. It's God speaking through us. And I'm not talking about. He's not talking about desires to impress the Joneses or to accumulate more wealth or whatever it is in a Kind of a silly pursuit to impress people. But when you really have a deep, heartfelt desire to do something, he says, that's the universe working through you. And as you follow your heart, the universe conspires to help you achieve the vision of your dreams. Unbelievably cool. And that's the theme of the Alchemist. And it's the theme really of all of his work. Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really powerful stuff. Emerson talks about it as well. Emerson. I have a quote in the note. Says that nature is not capricious. Nature does not play games. In other words. And she wouldn't give us a desire if she didn't also give us the ability to manifest that desire. Beautiful stuff. So if we have a true heartfelt desire, we have the ability to bring it to life. Goethe talks about the same thing. He says that desires pre sentiment our abilities, right? They presage our abilities. They point to what we will be able to do. Unbelievably cool. So that idea is a huge one that I love. If you truly have a deep, heartfelt desire to. It's something bigger than you that wants to come through you. And then our job is to align with it and to have the courage, which is a big theme in his books, to move through our fears and to live on purpose. And as we do that, doors open that we never could have imagined. We're going to talk about that a lot with Joseph Campbell. That's a big theme of his work as well. All the great teachers talk about it. That as you move toward your fears, they dissolve and the universe kind of opens and you open into possibilities you couldn't have imagined. Really cool. He says that the one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve is the fear of failure. So we've got to move through our fears. We've got to have courage to go out and rock it. We talk about the fact that courage comes from the Greek word, the French word for heart, right? So in French, the word heart means like, is like kure or something like that. That is the root of our word, courage. So courage is kind of the heart that pumps blood to all of our other virtues, to all of the other things we believe in. We've got to have courage to move through our fear. Really cool idea. He also says that the one thing he's certain of is that the extraordinary, the ability to live an extraordinary life is not the birthright of a select few. It's within all of us. We all have the potential to do divine Things. We're all creatures of the divine. We're all inspired by God. It's not like some people were born with certain predestined abilities that are way greater than others. We may have different challenges, but we all have extraordinariness in our birthright. Really cool idea. I love it. The Warrior of the light I mentioned. It's a really cool book. All about this idea that as we move toward the light, we have challenges. And it's not about never being afraid. It's not about never falling down or letting ourselves or other people down. It's about having the courage to get up every time and to move forward patiently, persistently, playfully toward our ideals. That's what it's all about. So we have a really cool passage from that book in here you can check out. He says if you're going to fall, you might as well fall from a high place. A fall from a third story window, say the fall. What does he say? A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth, right? So whether you fall from the third floor or the hundredth, it hurts just as much. So you might as well climb. Have fun with it. And I like to say that as we climb, we want to build scaffolding so that we can't fall quite as far. I used to be way up and down and we talked about it the other day in asking. It is, given that we have full and empty in our fuel tank, the emotional guidance system, we can build scaffolding so we can't fall quite as far. When we have daily meditation and movement practices, we practice appreciation and stuff like that. So really cool idea. He talks about the big idea to bare our scars like metals. So not to be ashamed of the times we fell down and scraped up our knee or cut up our head or whatever it is, but to bear those scars like metals, be proud of them. Those are the moments of our lives where we really pushed, we tried, we explored at a new edge, totally different relationship to our. What we perceive to be our shortcomings or our failures. It's a really powerful idea. Tony Robbins says that five years from now, you're going to laugh at whatever's stressing you out today, right? So whatever's stressing you out today will not be a big deal in five or 10 years. So if you're going to laugh about it in five or 10 years, why not laugh about it now? Embrace the whole process. Enjoy life. Celebrate your scars like metals. Really cool idea. I love that he's got so much in here. What else he talks about? Life is like a great bicycle ride, and as you're riding, enjoy the view, enjoy the beauty. We still have a goal, we still have a destination we're going for. But let's enjoy the process. We talk about this a lot in all the books. It's not about getting rid of the ride or getting rid of the goals, rather, and just being in the moment. We want to hold both the vision of what's possible and loving this moment and appreciating the beauty of what is. And we have to be moving forward. If we're on a bike, the only way to maintain balance is to pedal forward, unless you're really good at balancing while standing still. So we want to move forward, and we want to enjoy the beauty. And last big idea. Maybe we'll get two more in. He says that when you're 90% down the road, you're 90% to your goal. Just to make sure you don't get disillusioned and upset, just pretend like you're only 50% there. So if you think you're 90% there, really think you're halfway there. Because there's always stuff that happens right toward the end. And we might get hurt and disillusioned unless we realize that's just how life works. So when you're 90% there, consider yourself halfway there, and then diligently, patiently, persistently, playfully take your next baby step. So that's a really quick look at Paulo Coelho again. He rocks. So much appreciation for him. Hope you enjoyed this quick look. And I really hope you check out some of his books, if not many of his books. There we go. Hope you enjoyed talk soon. Have an awesome day. And what's the number one thing you got out of this, and how can you apply it to your life today?
