John Grisham wrote many books in his life time and he still writes bestselling novels. He was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas his father a construction worker and his mother a housewife. John had three ambitions in his life and one was that of playing baseball. He thought when he was old enough that he would either go into the field of Accounting or practice Law. These occupations would most certainly provide a more than adequate income. John liked playing baseball the best and spent many hours playing with the neighborhood boys. He knew that he did not have the natural attributes to play base ball professionally and decided that he should focus on his career of becoming an attorney.

He started out taking courses that would have led him to become a tax attorney since he also had a knack for figures and accounting was his second choice of occupations. He found that being a tax attorney boring and soon switched to criminal law. John had a very vivid imagination and while practicing law his mind led him to start writing. In one of his cases a when multiple assailants were being tried for the rape of a twelve year old girl and John wondered how the case would have gone if the father had taken the case into his own hands and killed the assailants. John started writing the plot to one of his first novels while juggling an 80 hour work and school week.

John finished his first novel in 1987 the title A Time to Kill but he found that problems getting his first book published as he was rejected by 16 publishers before one finally signed a contract with him. John found that he learns much from the University of Mississippi in not only law but also in writing and getting his works published. Many things that you learn in college are beneficial says John but experience is still the best teacher. John's first novel took many turns before he was recognized as the great writer that he is today. He ran a tour of the south doing book signings for recognition to help run his novel up the charts. This helped a little but did not get him the exposure that he needed in order to be called a successful writer. John did not get discouraged he continued with his second novel “The Firm” which gave him his first big break as Paramount studios quoted him a price of $600,000 for the rights to make the plot into a movie. John Grisham knew he had finally become a successful writer and just thinks if he had not given it the old college try he would have never come into his right as a well published author. Life takes you down many roads with twists and turns but you must give it your best to obtain the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You should take advantage of an education if at all possible to help you achieve your life's goals.