Jumpstart Your Dream Life

Lessons from Voltaire on Finding Purpose in Life

By

Few philosophers have made so great an impact on French philosophy as Voltaire. Born in 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet spent his early years in Paris, France. He was educated in the classics by Jesuits at the College Louis-le-Grand.

After finishing school, he wanted to become a writer. His father, though, wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. To appease him, Arouet pretended to pursue law while he wrote.

Arouet became popular amongst his peers for his satire and wit. Unfortunately, these same attributes soon landed him in hot water. After mocking the government, he was imprisoned in the Bastille for nearly a year. When he was released, he decided to adopt the name “Voltaire”.

[Read more…]

How to Succeed When You’re Behind

By

At only 19 years old, S.E. Hinton’s first novel The Outsiders was an instant success.

She began writing the story in high school. Her story was based off two rival gangs at school: the Greasers and the Socs. Hinton’s book sought to understand “the other side” by portraying life from the Greasers’ working-class perspective.

Her novel was published in 1967. At the time, she was a freshman attending university in her hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before she left her teenage years, Hinton became a household name.

Since then, the book has sold tens of millions of copies. It has become required reading in many high schools. Of all the novels that Hinton has written, The Outsiders remains the most popular.

But today is not about S.E. Hinton.

Today is about the slow growth.

[Read more…]

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Writing Process On Creating Good Work

By

One dreary day, a professor was sitting at his desk when a fateful event occurred. As he marked examination papers, he noticed that a student had left a page blank. For some inexplicable reason, he jotted down a sentence: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

This line sparked J.R.R. Tolkien’s idea of The Hobbit, which was published in 1937. It was an immediate success. Stanley Unwin, the Chairman of the publishing firm, asked him if he had any other similar stories to meet public demand.

In response, Tolkien wrote a full account of tales and named it The Silmarillion. Some of the tales were sent off to Unwin, who decided that they weren’t commercially publishable. Instead, he asked Tolkien if he could write a sequel to The Hobbit.

Disappointed, Tolkien agreed to Unwin’s request and went back to work. The publishing firm did not expect a profit and decided to incur a probable loss of 1,000 pounds. But when they published the story during 1954 and 1955, what came next surprised them.

The trilogy immediately captured the public eye. It was adapted to radio the following year, and has since then gone on to sell over 150 million copies[1]. Later, The Lord of the Rings was turned into one of the highest-grossing and critically acclaimed film series of all time. The trilogy is considered one of the greatest book series of the twentieth century.

[Read more…]