Joanne Rowling was born on July 31st in 1965 in Chipping Sodury, near Bristol, England. As a little girl she loved writing fantasy stories and then telling them to her little sister Di.

When Jo was nine her parents, both Londoners, turned their longtime country-living dream into reality and the whole family moved to the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to the border of Wales. The girl loved the freedom and simplicity of the countryside. The only problem with her new life was her school. The building was old and outdated and the stern, unfriendly teachers scared the girl. However, with time Rowling made new friends and embraced writing as a hobby.

University Years and the Worst Secretary Ever

After graduating from Wyedean Comprehensive School in 1983, Rowling left home to study at the University of Exeter, on the south coast of England. What she really wanted was to study English; her parents, however insisted that she study something “more useful”. As a result a compromise was found that in retrospect satisfied nobody and Joanne went to study French.
The benefit of majoring in French and Classics was the possibility of spending a year in Paris as part of the program.

After getting her BA, Rowling took various jobs in London. One of them was a bilingual secretary position at Amnesty International, where she made two major observations: first, that she could use a computer to type her stories during quiet times; second, that she was “the worst secretary ever “. Instead of taking notes at meetings she was actually writing down story ideas for her books.

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Every time I started learning about another remarkable person, I would get excited, but with the words “he died in his house”, or “her life came to an end” my enthusiasm was clouded by the fact that this person was no longer with us.

This got me thinking, why are 98% of biographies of successful people about people who passed away decades ago?

It almost seems that you have to be dead in order for your merits to be truly recognized.

But what about the many remarkable inspirational writers, spiritual leaders, accomplished scientists and highly successful businessmen of our time, who are facing the same challenges, opportunities and choices as we do every single day?

Would it not be better to learn how they got where they are, while being able to connect with them, to ask them for advice and to find out what they are doing to become even more successful?

I know that I owe many of my achievements to the guidance, support and wisdom of such people as Deepak Chopra, Leo Babauta, Eben Pagan, Randy Pausch, Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Sri Chinmoy, Mirzakarim Norbekov, Steve Jobs, Scott Harrison and you, my readers, because YOU have inspired me to start this blog in the first place.

All that said, I have decided to dedicate a part of “Stories of successful people” category to some of the most inspirational heroes of our time as my way of saying “Thank you” for everything they are doing to help us improve our lives and make this world a happier place.

I am sure that you know people like this too. Who are they and why do you consider them truly successful?

Whose success story do you think would be worth writing about?

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A Boy Who Wanted a Middle Name

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3rd, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Alexander Melville Bell, was an expert on the mechanics of the voice and on elocution (the art of public speaking). He dedicated his life to teaching deaf people to speak by using his “Visible speech” method (showing illustrations of speaking positions of the tongue and lips when making a sound). Bell’s mother Eliza was an accomplished pianist and painter, who passed on to her son a passion for music and art.

When Alexander was 10 years old he decided that he wanted to have a middle name like his two brothers, Melville James and Edward Charles. For his 11th birthday, after some negotiating, Bell’s father finally gave in and allowed him to adopt the middle name “Graham”. However, to his family members the newly-fledged Alexander Graham still remained “Aleck”.

When Bell was only 12 his mother’s hearing started to deteriorate rapidly and to include her in family conversations, Bell not only learned a manual finger language, but also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly onto his mother’s forehead. Later his experience and interest for acoustics would prove to be very valuable not only in his career, but also his personal life.

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