When I decided to start a blog, I had a lot of trouble choosing a name. I wanted it to be something that meant something to me, and I didn’t want a name that was flip or too “cute” (I didn’t think that would fit my goal for the blog or my tone). Several great ideas I had were already taken, so I decided to turn to some of my favorite books for inspiration.
I first read Le Petit Prince while studying French in high school. The beautiful, bittersweet story has always resonated with me, and my French copy is one of the staples on my bookshelf. While the book is billed as a children’s story, it has quite a few deceptively deep messages to convey. I think I’ll end up writing about some of the others as well, but the inspiration for this blog was Chapter 13, which is excerpted below. I’ve written out the English translation because it seems mildly pretentious to write it out in French, but if you happen to speak French, the original is even more lyrical in my opinion.
This chapter comes after our little prince has left his planet and the flower that he loves. He’s visited three different planets, occupied by a king, a vain man, and a drunkard respectively, before landing on this fourth planet.
The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. This person was so busy that he didn’t even raise his head when the little prince arrived.
“Hello,” said the little prince. “Your cigarette’s gone out.”
“Three and two make five. Five and seven, twelve. Twelve and three, fifteen. Hello. Fifteen and seven, twenty-two. Twenty-two and six, twenty-eight. No time to light it again. Twenty-six and five, thirty-one. Whew! That amounts to five-hundred-and-one million, six-hundred-twenty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-one.”
“Five-hundred million what?”
“Hmm? You’re still there? Five-hundred-and-one million…I don’t remember…I have so much work to do! I’m a serious man. I can’t be bothered with trifles! Two and five, seven…” 
“Five-hundred-and-one million what?” repeated the little prince, who had never in his life let go of a question once he had asked it.
The businessman raised his head. “For the fifty-four years I’ve inhabited this planet, I’ve been interrupted only three times. The first time was twenty-two years ago, when I was interrupted by a beetle that had fallen onto my desk from god knows where. It made a terrible noise, and I made four mistakes in my calculations. The second time was eleven years ago, when I was interrupted by a fit of rheumatism. I don’t get enough exercise. I haven’t time to take strolls. I’m a serious person. The third time…is right now! Where was I? Five-hundred-and-one million…”
“Million what?”
The businessman realized that he had no hope of being left in peace. “Oh, of those little things you sometimes see in the sky.”
“Flies?”
“No, those little shiny things.”
“Bees?”
“No, those little golden things that make lazy people daydream. Now, I’m a serious person. I have no time for daydreaming.”
“Ah! You mean the stars?”
“Yes, that’s it. Stars.”
“And what do you do with five-hundred million stars?”
“Five-hundred-and-one million, six-hundred-twenty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-one. I’m a serious person, and I’m accurate.”
“And what do you do with those stars?”
“What do I do with them?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing. I own them.”
“You own the stars?”
“Yes.”
“But I’ve already seen a king who—”
“Kings don’t own. They ‘reign’ over…It’s quite different.”
“And what good does owning the stars do you?”
“It does me the good of being rich.”
“And what good does it do you to be rich?”
“It lets me buy other stars, if somebody discovers them.”
The little prince said to himself, This man argues a little like my drunkard. Nevertheless he asked more questions. “How can someone own the stars?”
“To whom do they belong?” retorted the businessman grumpily.
“I don’t know. To nobody.”
“Then they belong to me, because I thought of it first.”
“And that’s all it takes?”
“Of course. When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody in particular, then it’s yours. When you find an island that belongs to nobody in particular, it’s yours. When you’re the first person to have an idea, you patent it and it’s yours. Now I own the stars, since no one before me ever thought of owning them.”
“That’s true enough,” the little prince said. “And what do you do with them?”
“I manage them. I count them and then count them again,” the businessman said. “It’s difficult work. But I’m a serious person!”
The little prince was not satisfied. “If I own a scarf, I can tie it around my neck and take it away. If I own a flower, I can pick it and take it away. But you can’t pick the stars!”
“No, but I can put them in the bank.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means that I write the number of my stars on a slip of paper. And then I lock that slip of paper in a drawer.”
“And that’s all?”
“That’s enough!”
That’s amusing, thought the little prince. And even poetic. But not very serious. The little prince had very different ideas about serious things from those of the grown-ups. “I own a flower myself,” he 
continued, “which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I rake out every week. I even rake out the extinct one. You never know. It’s of some use to my volcanoes, and it’s useful to my flower, that I own them. But you’re not useful to the stars.”
The businessman opened his mouth but found nothing to say in reply, and the little prince went on his way.
“Grown-ups are certainly quite extraordinary” was all he said to himself as he continued his journey.
This excerpt is taken from Richard Howard’s English translation of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
I think too much of our society is obsessed with counting stars. Wealth for the simple sake of wealth is pointless; it’s what we’re able to do with it that matters. Having money is never the goal, but rather a tool to achieve our real goals. I chose this as the name of my blog to remind myself that what I ultimately want and need is a deeper goal in life than success for the sake of success. I’m attempting to be much more mindful of my decisions and actions, rather than mindlessly consuming and achieving, so that I can better understand what I actually want (which at times, feels much harder to flesh out than it should).
Financial success, getting out of debt, saving up money, investing, are not goals in themselves. Instead, they are the tools that will allow me to live the life I want. The same goes for eating healthy and being active. All of these things are aspects that I think will improve my overall happiness, but, more than that, will help me better define the purpose I want my life to revolve around. Lately, I’ve been feeling…unmoored. Like I’m on this path and I’m doing well and I’m “successful” but I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything on a deeper level. And that’s what I’m seeking to change, and what I’m hoping to document in this blog. I don’t think I necessarily have more answers than anyone else, and there are already plenty of blogs out there with advice on personal health, minimalism, and finances. But, maybe a little vainly, and like everyone else, I think my story and journey are unique. And worth documenting.
I’d encourage you to ask yourself, maybe as a fairly regular litmus test, “Am I acting like the businessman?” Are you only counting stars for the sake of owning them? Or, like the Little Prince, does that ownership impart some sort of intrinsic value? If the answer is that it does, then you’re on the right track. But if it doesn’t, then it might be time to reevaluate. I’m hoping to do more of this evaluation in my own life.
Thanks for reading. As I start on my blogging journey, I would greatly appreciate any comments or feedback you’d like to share!