Dr. Noah St John grew up in poverty in Kennebunkport, Maine, and attempted suicide at 25 after years of reading self-help books that didn't work. Two spiritual insights in 1997 led him to write Permission to Succeed, which became the foundation for his later work on success and purpose.
Well, I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood, and I know that's a total cliché. I know that, but it's true. I grew up in this little town called Kennebunkport, Maine, which happens to be one of the wealthiest communities in New England. But my family was dirt poor, and I mean that literally, because I grew up in a little drafty, unfinished home at the bottom of a dirt road. And, uh, we— my parents actually ended up losing that house to foreclosure when I was just 15 years old. Mm-hmm. So from a very young age, I was painfully exposed to the gap, the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. Was everyone else in the community? The have-nots was my family, right? And you hear motivational speakers or gurus, and they say, "Well, we were poor, but we were happy. We didn't know we were poor." Well, in my family, we freaking knew we were poor because my mother, bless her heart, reminded us every day that we were poor and miserable. So no, it wasn't happy; it sucked. And so I hated that life of poverty. I hated being poor, and I hated knowing that I was poor in relation to all these other rich people. And so I. I, from a very young age, I hated being poor. And so I went to the library and just read every book that I could on how to make something of my life. This was before the internet, of course. So all we had was the library and I just read every book that I could. But the sad thing is I really couldn't get them to work as hard as I tried, as hard as I worked at it. I just really couldn't make it work. So at the age of 25, I actually decided to commit suicide because I was so depressed, so frustrated. After working so hard with really nothing to show for it. Now, at the very last minute, my life was spared. I share that story in my books and in my online courses and so forth. But basically, I went on a journey to find what is my purpose here on the earth. And I went back to the library, read lots of spiritual books. And then in 1997, 25 years ago, over 25 years ago now, I actually— I did. I had 2 aha moments that actually changed my life when I discovered really what was missing in the traditional success literature that was available. And so that's when I wrote my first book, which was entitled Permission to Succeed back in 1998. And then that was published by Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher in '99. But yeah, that's really what happened.
