At 49, Charles Bukowski was a drunk, broke, no-name writer who scraped by working as a postman in Los Angeles.

But, when he died at the age of 73, he was one of the most famous writers and poets in the world with over 50 books in circulation and something like $4 million to his name.

Bukowski’s luck can be attributed to John Martin (the nerdy looking gent with the glasses in the above photograph).

John Martin was an entrepreneur first and a reader second.

While he spent a large chunk of his career building a forty-person office supply business in Los Angeles, he amassed a vast library of books to satisfy his voracious appetite.

One day, while thumbing through an indie magazine, Martin stumbled upon an obscure Los Angeles-based poet and writer by the name of Charles Bukowski.

Bukowski wrote entirely about drinking and fucking but did so in such a poetic way that each sentence read like a bump of cocaine.

When martin discovered Bukowski, he was working at a post office where he had every intention of retiring.

He’d work his day job from 9 to 5, clock out, pick up a six-pack on his way home and then spend the rest of the night drinking and writing.

Martin was convinced that if Bukowski went all-in on writing, that together, the two of them could build one hell of a publishing house.

The pair sat down with a little piece of paper and Martin asked Bukowski how much he would need to pay him each month to quit the post office and write full-time.

Bukowski began listing off his monthly expenses…

Cigarettes… $5

Rent… $45

(Remember this is 1965…)

Liquor… $10

Food… $20

Child support… $20

By the time Bukowski was through, they added up to around $100/ month. Martin agreed to cover Bukowski’s monthly nut so long as the writer put in his two weeks at the post office and started writing full time.

Martin was so certain that Bukowski was the next Walt Whitman, that he even sold his collection of D.H. Lawrence first editions to raise $50,000 to fund a publishing house created with the sole intention of bringing Bukowski to the masses.

Three weeks after they struck up their deal, Bukowski dropped his very first novel on Martin’s desk titled Post Office, which went on to sell 1 million copies.

As Bukowski scribbled away, Martin handled the editing, the design, the layout, the printing, the distribution, the marketing, everything.

With John Martin by his side, Bukowski quickly turned into one of the hottest writers in the world, making what today would be the equivalent of $2 million per year (much of which he blew on alcohol, women and horses).

Of all the interviews I’ve read and heard of John Martin, here’s a line that has always stood out to me…

“I believed in him as much as he believed in himself.”

John Martin is a lesson in taste.

If you can’t write, design, create, etc…

Find someone that can and then, believe in them.

By Cole Schafer.

P.S. If this newsletter left you feeling inspired, do me a huge favor and tell one person to subscribe.