For the rest of the year, I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual.

The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and and work, in particular.

Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them are business leaders, some thought leaders, some sportsmen and some coaches. Some of them are artists and some spiritual leaders.

However, if we look deeply, all of them are like you and me, ordinary people who’ve had an extra-ordinary impact on me and potentially a lot of others. And once you get to know them, may be they will have a similar impact on you as well or maybe not, only time will tell.

The reason I am putting together this list and share what I have learnt from them, to thank them publicly for being a teacher and teaching me important lessons in life and in the hope that some of you might be inspired by their company and they can impact you and your life as they have impacted mine.

So, let’s get started.

2. Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho de Souza is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and has written multiple best selling books. If there is a book that has had the most significant impact on me, my thinking and my aspirations, it is his book “The Alchemist“.

This book is the story of a shepherd boy and his journey to realise his dream. The story is all about following our dreams, facing the challenges that life throws at us and still keep moving forward. It is also about knowing that, most of what we really want in life, they are available to us right here, right now.

Every time I have felt emotionally low, not sure where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do, I always return to this book. I have read and re-read this book at least 25 times. Every time I read the book, I find a new treasure and a new meaning. It seems to know what I am seeking at any given moment and knows how to guide me.

I see every one on the leadership journey, to be on the same journey as Santiago, the Andalusian shepherd boy, who is the protagonist of the book. All the different characters that you will read in the story, you can find in your own life.

As leaders, I believe there is a lot that we can learn from his stories and also from his own life. Not only are his books path breaking, he himself is someone who creates his own path. He was, in all probability, the first author in the world to have understood the impact that making our work available to our readers with as little friction as possible. He made all his published work available online for free for any one to read, via the pirate Coelho blog, even without his publishers knowing it.

He was an early adopter of technology in every form that he felt was useful to connect with his readers. He worked with his readers and produced a TV movie based on his book “The Witch of Portobello“. The movie was called “The Experimental Witch“. He is constantly experimenting with new things and is learning, while keeping his readers (customers) at the center of all his experiments.

Isn’t that what as leaders, we are expected to be doing?

All his stories are practical, real and inspiring. One of the differences between good leaders and great leaders is that while good leaders are focused the results and do whatever is needed to get those results, great leaders assume the role of elders within the community of people they lead. What this means is that, great leaders care about the people within their tribe like their own and channel their wisdom when interacting with their tribe.

Paulo and his books are a great window into the soul of humanity itself. There is so much to learn from the different characters that he weaves, from their internal struggles to the way they interact with the world around them and the situations that they are put in.

We can learn technical skills by attending trainings but when it comes to learning wisdom, we tend to learn more about that by reading, listening or watching stories or by learning from a teacher. Paulo and his books have been a constant source of wisdom for me through the decades that I’ve known his work – both as a teacher himself and through the stories he weaves.

Conclusion:

I know that he might not be a traditional thought leader who teaches us directly about leadership, I believe that his stories are head fakes and are full of wisdom and learning for us, if we are open to the same. If you haven’t experienced his work, I strongly recommend that you pick any of his books and “The Alchemist” is as good a start as any you could find.

Insanely Interesting and Influential People – #1. Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt