Nos Plus Belles Années (French)

One of my earliest entrepreneurial experiences was as a writer. Flashback: 10 years ago in France. I had been writing since childhood, but it was not until I was 14 that a teacher encouraged me to open myself to the world with a first book. It was called “Le rêve d’Alex” (Alex’s Dream). That was my first real experience with sales, and more than 50 publishing houses rejected me between the ages of 14 and 16.

Thanks to that experience, I knew I had what it takes to achieve big things: I refused to quit. Of course, receiving more than 50 rejections hits the ego hard, but in the end I learned something essential: I can do better. At 16, after those two years, I had learned a lot, I had stronger stories, and I was sure I could create something great.

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Nos Plus Belles Années

I started writing that book at 16. Like every teenager, I felt emotionally lost among my dreams, the limits of my environment, my family, the usual adolescent struggles, my future, school, and more. Yet every problem carries a lesson. So I decided to build a fiction story that could show the different lessons I had learned, hoping it might help other teenagers. For me, touching even one life was the most incredible thing I could do.

It took me two years to write it. After a few more rejections from several publishers, I finally received acceptance letters with contract offers. I signed with Edilivre, a publisher in Paris. Today it is still available as an E-Book here and in print here. You can also find it on sites like Amazon. It is sold in French only, since it is not a masterpiece and translating it was not worth the investment. But for me, at 18, having a book in stores and on professional platforms was a huge achievement.

That simple fact awakened an entrepreneurial mindset in me: I wanted more, I wanted to build more things, I did not want to work for someone else but for myself, and I wanted to help others.

That was the moment I understood my life was not going to be an ordinary life.