The profile of Raymond Chandler is a bit misleading and over-simplified. It suggest that he lost his lucrative oil company job due to the depression. That was n

The profile of Raymond Chandler is a bit misleading and over-simplified. It suggest that he lost his lucrative oil company job due to the depression. That was not the case. Chandler is a very good example for the suggestion that one has to try to do what one loves for a living. He was initially a very successful and well liked oil company executive. But his own success seemed to cause him unhappiness. He eventually started drinking showing up late for work, flirting with all women in the office, etc. Eventually, even though the company owners liked him and had a lot of respect for his abilities, they had to fire him. He then returned to a life of poverty trying to hack it as a writer. But eventually he became the brilliant writer who with Dashiel Hammett basically defined the noir style. He never quite kicked his alcoholism but he was much more fulfilled and productive than as an oil company executive.