The Alchemist:
•The story of a boy named Santiago. He starts off as a person who wanted to fulfill the wishes of his parents by becoming a priest. On realization of his yearning to see the world, he gets his father to agree to let him realize his wish to roam around. He becomes shepherd. Then dreams of a treasure in Egypt buried near the pyramids. He goes on the journey to find this treasure. Along this journey finds his true love, finds the teacher, learns about the oneness that manifests itself in multitude of forms, learns about letting go, and learns to listen to his heart. He in the process learns to become one with the universe and yet retain his individuality.
•The central message hence is about making the journey and along the way learning to let go of my fears, doing what gives one the happiness, and learning about the unity behind all diversity. This automatically lets the one to realize oneself.
Steve Jobs:
A person born to unwed mother, an adopted child, a college drop out (wanted to graduate in liberal arts), a person with tremendous sense of opportunity, drive to accomplish things, & finally a person with lots of luck. He is a vegetarian, been to India, believes in Zen Buddhism. His sense of aesthetics and minimalism have been the key driver for many usability improvements. He has founded 3 companies Apple, NeXT, & Pixar. He was thrown out of the company that he founded, & then returned to the same company to create iPod+iTunes, iMac, & iPhone.
Ill treated all most all of people worked with & lived with. Why people work with him?
What makes him tick despite idiosyncrasies?
All the people worth their salt really want to do is leave some legacy behind (other than their genes). It pleases them when somebody recognizes and challenges them to achieve what many think is impossible. Steve is the past master in it.
Life As He describes: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts
What can we learn:
•The key to reaching the goal is moving towards the goal. It is moving in the right direction, but not how fast I move.
•The essence is in doing the things to realize the dreams rather than gaining knowledge about how to realize the dreams (The Englishman trying to master alchemy by reading, but not doing any experiments). Only action or movement takes me towards realizing my goal. (Steve trying to build a CPU without fan)
•Only when I learn to not let the thought of preserving what I already have hinder me, I will start to make progress in gaining something new. This is also the only way to realize my destiny or make progress. I have to move forward from the place where I am starting to walk. I can’t just desire to be in a new place without letting go of my previous place (Boy deciding to move from Oasis to seek his treasure near the Pyramids or for Steve Jobs - Abandoning Lisa, Getting kicked out of Apple etc., starting Pixar They say creative destruction. It is necessary.)
•Everything has a time and a place. I am so jaded by my preconceived notions that I hesitate to use the book as a pillow, but the boy just does that. So I need to see everything with a fresh perspective and see the utility value (Mac without floppy drives)
•I need to seek help when I don’t understand something. Once the help is there, I still need to make my decision (going to Gypsy and then going to Pyramids in search of treasure).
•In time of loss on the path to achieving a goal it is always important to consider how close I have come to achieving the goal rather than how far I am from the goal. I need to be constantly aware of the purpose I started with.
•Once I am able to unlock the message hidden in most simple things like grain of sand I will be able to comprehend whatever is considered the most complex.
Final lessons:
•We tend to believe life is all about
–Having, To Have – We do, To Do – We Live
•Called the To Have -> Do -> Be paradigm
•If we think a bit, it is about
–Being, For Being – Do X, Having is just a side effect
•Called the Being -> Doing -> Having paradigm
•Be -> Feel the passion & joy inside you.
•Be at peace with what you are & what you do.
•Enjoy what you do -> it seems & becomes effortless to you
•When it is effortless results will flow automatically
Trying to create something exceptional makes you/me/us exceptional
•As a company strive to build something extraordinarily good for the end consumer – Leadership in technology, market, & financial world are just the side effects of this.
•As a software engineer enjoy creating a flawless code (NO, flawless code is not an oxymoron J) or creating something simple, useful, usable, & beautiful. For that person, it will translate to better achievements in all other spheres. So ENJOY doing good work and take PRIDE in it.
•If I look at it from Indian perspective – Achieving perfection in performing one’s Dharma automatically leads to good results in the areas of artha, kama, moksha J.
•APART FROM THAT YOU NEED LUCK / GRACE of GOD – Some people have more of it.
