A Synopsis of The Case of Getting back to Who I Used to Be Featuring The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
“You’ve made a lot of mistakes, and because of that, your position on the board is no longer tenable”. Lori felt terrible betrayal and was enraged on hearing these words, and it didn’t stop there; a lot of her power was taken from her too.
People had tried to talk to her, but nothing they’d tried to say had gotten through to her, and so they had no choice but to go over her head and basically engineer a power scoop.
But she had to stay in the company. It was her company, and she couldn’t walk away. She couldn’t walk away because she had brought in all the employees, all the investors; it was her vision. So, every day she had to go work with people who she thought had betrayed her.
Every morning as Lori walked into her office building, a place that had once felt familiar and welcoming now felt cold and lonely. She felt desperately alone, and the pain within that loneliness was so unbearable there were times when she could barely breathe.
Lori’s friend, Jenny managed to persuade her to take a few days away from the office, suggesting she visit her family cabin in the woods. The remoteness of the cabin meant there was no connection with the outside world - no internet, no telephone signal. Jenny felt Lori needed the solitude of being away from everyone and everything to help her recovery.
It had actually been several years since Lori had visited the cabin. Reflecting on the last time, which was when she was contemplating dropping out of college, she was reminded of the book she had read, which had helped her then to understand what was going on within herself: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was a book that had a very special place in her heart. Picking the book off the shelf as she packed her bag, Lori’s hope was that it would help her figure out how to get herself back to who she used to be.
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The Case of Getting Back to Who I Used To Be Featuring The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is part of the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series, by Carmel O’ Reilly from School of WorkLife.
The Learning Through Reading series is a collection of stories inspired by real life WorkLife struggles and successes, presented as case studies for group discussion. The case and the accompanying recommended book will be required reading for each meeting, and will help to frame the subsequent discussion.
The premise behind the WorkLife Book Club Learning Through Reading series is that experiences we have in our WorkLife shape our understanding of the world. Stories help communicate truths about human behaviours and relationships, bringing an opportunity for change and development. Books help anchor WorkLife conversations through characters, plots and settings, enabling a range of issues to be worked through.
My stated mission is to guide learning through reading. I also have a secret mission, which is to draw attention to stories of change and active decision making – people standing up and saying they want to do something different with their WorkLife. I want to highlight stories, books and discussions that focus on in-depth portrayals of subjects inner feelings, thoughts and motivations. While readers will not encounter the exact scenarios they read about, they will be able to use an increasingly finely tuned ability to understand and respond to multiple competing viewpoints.
Carmel O’ Reilly, WorkLife learning practitioner, writer and founder of School of WorkLife. Author of WorkLife Book Club: Volume One: Shoreditch.