The Greatest Salesman in the World

Hafid is The Greatest Salesman in the World’s protagonist, whose life and scrolls provide a framework for teaching 10 lessons. Hafid’s name means “protector of the religion” in Arabic, and he lives up to it: He keeps his adoptive father Pathros’s 10 scrolls in a locked tower and never shares their sales-related knowledge until a sign presents itself—in the form of a destined successor. Throughout his life, he learns The Nature of Success and The Art and Principles of Sales: Hafid spends his youth as a camel boy, tending to Pathros’s animals. Pathros understands the importance of work ethic and employs Hafid as a camel boy to cultivate it. When Hafid falls in love with Lisha, a girl of higher class, he suddenly desires more in life. He desires to become the greatest salesman in the world and thus worthy of Lisha. Pathros’s first test for him is to sell a red goat-hair robe in Bethlehem, a town known for its poverty. Hafid ends up giving the robe to a newborn Jesus, with whom he crosses paths in a cave. This selfless act comes to define him and his relationship with the divine.