“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho

One of my top 5 favorite books of all time is fiction, and you've probably heard of it. It's crazy to think that when the book ‘The Alchemist’ was first published over 30 years ago it was practically a failure. A bookseller in the northeast corner of the country told the author, Paulo Coelho, that only one person purchased a copy during that first week when it was released.  He didn't give up hope, he understood that things sometimes take time, he was hopeful. It didn't take long, but 6 months later his second copy sold and it was sold to the exact same person that bought the first copy. Pretty nuts right?

It's a surprise that at the end of the first year Paulo Coelho's publisher had already given up, in fact, they had decided to cancel the contract and let them go.

At this point it's pretty easy to give up but he believes strongly in the book he had published. He stood his ground and looked for another publisher it wasn't easy and he was rejected a few times before he finally found a second chance.

The second time around was a little better to start, it slowly started catching on by word-of-mouth. His persistence was paying off, not only was he telling everyone about it but so were the people that were buying it. It was growing steadily increased in sales. From 1000 to 2000 to 6000 to 10,000…his book was on fire!

Month over month year over year his book sales started to grow.  And now… ‘The Alchemist’ has sold over 150 million copies across the world.

I love telling the story because we are phase setbacks and the only thing keeping us going is our vision of what the future holds, our hope that things will get better but that's only part of it. The other part heavily relies on taking action.

Just remember that there will be obstacles, they will look like their unsurpassable at times, but it's your job to stay focused and know that it takes action to make it through. It's up to you to continue to move forward while everything around you is falling apart!

Thank you for reading A Brilliant Tribe.