Everyone's path to success is different, and sometimes it's birthed from failure.
The key for children's author Jeff Kinney turned out to be drawing like a seventh-grader and creating enough jokes to sustain young readers' interest for an entire book.
You may not recognize Kinney's name, but if your child is elementary age or older, you have likely heard of his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series of books (or the two big-screen movies the series spawned).
More than 42 million copies of that title, and the other four books in the series, are in print worldwide.
Yet ask him how he would describe himself, and Kinney mentions the goal he didn't achieve.
"I always think of myself as a cartoonist who couldn't crack into newspapers," he said recently by phone.
Kinney created the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" main character, a middle school student named Greg Heffley, after accepting that he would never land his dream job of producing a daily comic strip.
Yet "not good enough" for an adult comic strip could translate into "great" from a kid's perspective, he eventually decided.
The "Diary" series, filled with personal and family antics, was born, along with a realization that really good jokes would keep the plot entertaining.
"Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever" comes out Tuesday, two days before local bookstore bbgb brings Kinney to Richmond for a signing at the Science Museum of Virginia.
Kinney, a Maryland native who lives in Massachusetts, credits his parents with influencing his success. Dad introduced him to classic comics filled with storytelling and artwork from the 1940s and 1950s, he said.
Mom bought his first computer, an Apple that he used to begin dabbling in programming.
His father's daily reading of newspaper comics made an impression, as did watching his mother obtain a doctorate while raising him and his three siblings.
Little did Kinney or his parents know how profoundly that role modeling and nurturing would shape his future. But their actions are proof that the time and effort parents spend sharing their personal interests with their children or introducing them to new opportunities can pay off.
As Kinney subtly conveys that message in his books, he has grown comfortable with the role.
"I'm a person who creates content for kids," said Kinney, who works full time as a computer programmer for a company that produces Web-based games and resources for kids, parents and teachers.
No doubt, young readers unknowingly benefit because Kinney's newspaper gig didn't pan out.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement