John Vespasian is the author of eleven books about rational living, including When everything fails, try this (2009), Rationality is the way to happiness (2009), The philosophy of builders (2010), The 10 principles of rational living (2012), Rational living, rational working (2013), Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief (2014), On becoming unbreakable (2015), Thriving in difficult times (2016), Sequentiality: The amazing power of finding the right sequence of steps (2017), Undisrupted: How highly-effective people deal with disruptions (2019), and Asymmetry: The shortcut to success when success seems impossible (2020).

Vespasian has lived in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and The Netherlands. His books combine his passion for history, investing, and personal development, reflecting his philosophy of rational living, productiveness, and respect for the individual. “The purpose of my work is to draw practical lessons from history,” he explains. “If you want to make good decisions, you have to look at the big picture, and learn from the wisdom accumulated in centuries of human experience.”

“Knowledge is the only valid response to stress, the only formula that can make you more effective,” Vespasian argues. “My books contain the wisdom I have accumulated in decades of research. It’s all about learning from other people’s successes and mistakes, and figuring out how to apply those principles to your own life. In every book, I go through biographies and historical events with the goal of extracting from them lessons we can use right now.”