No matter how old you are, you must forge your own path | Guillaume Benech | TEDxParis

At only 16 years old, Guillaume is at the head of the company L'Petit Mardi, which publishes a free magazine on culture, distributed in Normandy. In love with literature, his first book has just been published by a major French publishing house.

Newton had his greatest revelation when an apple hit him on the head. For Guilliaume Benech, it was seven books: the Harry Potter saga when he was 12 years old. After some time as a reporter for the Journal de Mickey, Guillaume and his friend set about founding a free culture magazine: L'Petit Mardi. Now 16 years old, he's the company boss of his own publishing house. In high school studying the literature pathway, Guillaume is also the author of a series of books aimed at young people, published by Michel Lafon.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences

Hello everyone!

The 22nd of September
is going to be a big day for me.

It'll be the launch of my first book
published by a major publishing house.

You may think: 16 is a young age
to be releasing a book,

when I am taking my French exams in July.

But in fact, this story started long ago!

I was 11 years old
and I was given seven books

which I'm sure you all know:
the Harry Potter saga.

I spent ten days and nights
reading the series,

hiding the books under my bed

so that my parents
wouldn't confiscate them.

You know how it goes, "It's bed time,
you have school tomorrow."

And when I turned the last page,

my passion for literature was born.

Then I got through
an astronomical amount

of best-selling children's books.

I even started to write a bit in private.

But what really changed my life was an ad

that I found in "Le Journal de Mickey,"
a comic I was an avid reader of.

It was to become a jury member

for the reader's choice
of 'Le Journal de Mickey.'

The idea was simple:

write some reviews
that would appear in the comic,

and then eventually, choose
the Children's Book of the Year

alongside seven other jurors.

The day before the deadline,

I wrote a review, as requested,
which I posted the next day

on my way to school,
dated as per postmark.

Two months later,
I was in the car with my mom

when she received a call
and asked me to listen to it

on her voice mail.

That's how I learnt I had been selected.

And so started my work as a book critic.

Four months reading books,
four months giving my opinion on them,

and four months during which I met Camille

who also loved literature,
and would become my best friend.

Then, when the competition came to an end,

we realised that everything
was about come to an end.

Imagine the thing
at the center of your life -

and I'm not talking about school -
stopped just like that.

So, we thought, why not
keep writing reviews together?

We no longer had 'Le Journal de Mickey'

and didn't want to start a blog
like everyone else ....

We decided to launch an online magazine

like 'Le Journal de Mickey'
but a digital one.

But we needed a name.

Then, I remembered a magazine

I had launched with some
of my classmates in year five.

Our teacher had asked us to produce
the front page for a magazine.

We had so much fun doing it

that we decided to go on
with the magazine

and we got it published
with around 30 copies.

It was about six pages long
and it came out every week.

Eventually, we published 17 issues.

We were nine years old and
our magazine was called "L'Petit Mardi"

So when it came to launching
our online magazine,

Camille and I thought, why not have
a bit of nostalgia and re-use that name?

That's how "L'Petit Mardi" was born.

But we also needed some structure,
something concrete,

to surpass the digital.

So we thought - well, I thought -

let's set up our own publishing house.

The idea seemed complicated at the time.

Especially because I was
14 years old: still a minor!

It made things a bit complicated.

I thought, why not use
my parents as figureheads?

It was as simple as that!

In a few days, the company was set up

with a modest start-up capital:

100 euros of savings from my piggybank,

most of which came
from my grandparent's wallet,

L'Petit Mardi lasted four years.

In total, there were 60 issues,

all of which were written by teenagers
from around the world.

L'Petit Mardi continued to grow and since
January 2016, even spread to paper

with a run of 15,000 copies, distributed
through 500 points of sale in Normandy,

with the belief that paper
and digital could coexist.

We wanted to do things differently
than other magazinesgoing digital today.

We wanted to show the opposite,

that a digital magazine
coming offline, was possible.

With our magazine, all you need to do
is take your phone and scan the pages.

Then you have an online version
thanks to virtual reality.

We brought the two together
and our goal is to, within five years,

make our magazine the number one
free French language-culture magazine

entirely written by teenagers.

But you may think, the essence
of a publisher is to publish novels.

Earlier, I told you I had started to write

while on the Reader's Choice competition.

I said to myself,
"I need to publish something."

But what could I publish?

That novel I had written,
a real imperfection,

because it was 40 pages full of mistakes.

But I might as well seize the opportunity,

I never found a publisher,
so I just went for it.

Three weeks later, I was taking part
in a small exhibition in my town.

And ... at the end of the day,
I realized I'd sold 25 copies of my book.

25 copies, it's nothing really,
just 0.001% of what Marc Levy,

or Guillaume Musso would sell in a year.

But to me it meant the world.

And then someone asked me,
"Where's book number three?"

"Is there going to be a sequel?" etc.

Someone even pre-ordered a copy online.

So ...

I thought I would continue
despite the first book's modest success.

I finished book three, book two sorry,
which I published three just months later.

Come release day, to tell the truth,
everything was a bit rushed.

I was doing my year ten internship
at France Bleu Normandie,

and I had to call a local journalist.

All the editing team heard
my conversation ...

I had foolishly called
with everyone around.

Anyway, a journalist, intrigued, came
to see me and asked me a few questions.

At the end of the day,
I had two interviews booked.

And so it began!

The following months were
the most intense of my life.

BFM TV, France 2,

Canal +, Europe 1, to name but a few.

All that helped me to sell around
1,500 copies of my books

which is huge for
a self-published book in France.

Then, at this point I thought,

why not try and make my dream a reality?

Which was to be published
by a famous publisher.

And there, I must admit
it was a bit complicated.

I was faced with closed doors
and emails shooting me down:

"You're too young. Your book is rubbish."

In fact, I almost gave up on the idea.

Then one day,
when I had just given up hope,

I had an extraordinary encounter.

I'd been invited to the yearly
Reader's Choice Award ceremony

for Le Journal de Mickey.

(Laughter)

What's funny? The Journal is great!

Well, I was at Fnac des Ternes
and I was browsing the library section

when I saw a man, standing all alone.

That man ... I thought I recognized him.

I Googled his face, did some research,

I realized that this man was Michel Lafon,

the founder and CEO
of Michel Lafon publishing

and I had seen his face on a video
advertising Natou's book -

she's a Youtuber -
a few months earlier.

So, I went to see him,
I introduced myself.

I explained to him what I was doing, etc.

He looked at me and in a very formal way
he said, "Call me tomorrow."

So, I called him the next day
and he he gave me an appointment

a week later near Neuilly-Sur-Seine.

I went there, to his office, with my dad.

I have to admit, the meeting was fruitful

and I'm really happy to tell you
that my next book,

the sequel to the adventures,
in fact the first in a new saga,

is being published by
Michel Lafon in exactly nine days.

They haven't printed 25 copies, but 9,000.

(Applause)

Thank you!

Thank you very much.

Thank you!

Today I'm happy to be able to say

that I'm part of the small group
of teenage authors.

Because I'm not the only one!

There's about
a good thirty of us in France,

as well as a good number abroad.

We all share the conviction of wanting
to inspire young people to read.

Because, at school they give us
the Odyssey and Le Cid to read,

you all must have read them,

and I'll admit they made me want to sleep
rather than read, personally.

But, I think we need to encourage
young people to start with teenage books

you can find in bookshops,
like Harry Potter.

but also the Hunger Games,
Divergent and so on.

Then, once they've developed
the necessary maturity in high school,

they can start to read the classics.

Today, I think I can say that I've always
believed in the opportunites I've had

and as a result, I've tried
to create my own path.

Age will never change that, whether
you are 16, 20, 30,40, 50 or even older.

as long as you are passionate
about what you are doing,

as long as what you're doing
excites you and feels important,

then you must seize your opportunities.

Marcel Proust said:

"Boldness rewards those who know
how to seize their opportunites."

I have only one message this evening.

Make the most of it! Thank you!

(Applause)