From Fiction to Reality: How I Rediscovered My Passion and Built Fortunate Prints
With the growth of Fortunate Prints over the last few months I thought it was important to share more about my story. It definitely had more curveballs than I expected but I am happy to be able to create value for you on a daily basis. My name is Fortune Owens, and I am the business owner behind Fortunate Prints.
Like many other people that I knew in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was good at a few things, but they felt more like hobbies rather than ârealâ skills, which is hilarious when I think about it now. I loved to write, especially fiction stories. I used to write snippets from novel ideas that I had and ask my mother to read them for me. She was incredibly supportive like many parents, always giving positive feedback and wanting to know more about where the story was going. She even provided me with writing prompts after school for a short time as a way of helping me hone my craft. She would leave a word for me that I had to look up in the dictionary, and then write a short story with the word in mind. I smile every time I think of the word âpugilistâ to this day; the only reason I know what it means is because it was one of the words she left for me, it is another word for boxer, in case you were wondering.
Towards the end of high school, I really dived into competitive gaming, also known as esports now, and I was particularly good at the Halo series. Halo 2 and Halo 3 were the highlights of my short-lived career and Halo 2 in particular was a huge part of my late teenage years. Some of my oldest friends are friends I met online actually, a few of which, I am still close with to this day. Iâve dealt with depression since middle school, I had a rough time then, and frankly for a while I didnât want to be here. Iâm only sharing this detail with you because itâs an important factor for you to understand why Halo 2 meant so much to me. It took me away from my life and ultimately my mind. I couldnât spend time thinking about my inadequacies and how much I didnât like myself, or how I felt weak because I was a large 6â2 man in his youth that was missing out on so many things due to his overwhelming anxiety. When I played Halo 2, I was one of the top 1%, one of the elites, and though I wasnât on a pro team I was good enough to be. I played thousands of hours of custom games with other pro players and had a wonderful time doing so. It just felt nice to be good at something. This led into me taking a break from my life near Seattle and moving to Portland, Oregon to plan a career in Halo 3. I placed in the pro bracket at a CPL Dallas event, which felt amazing. I was teaming with a friend of mine and though that team fell apart with some of the locals later, we stuck together for an event, we were even fully sponsored. We did alright but didnât place in the pro bracket although I played well so I was proud of myself. It was a great time, and I learned a lot from it. After that I got into Mortal Kombat 9, a fighting game, and became one of the top players in the state. After Northwest Majors where I tied for 9th place, which was my first major tournament I had a lot of confidence, and every local tournament I went to after that I placed either first or second, aside from one in which I literally disqualified myself by accidentally pausing the game twice in a match. It was kind of hilarious, so I didnât even get mad, I was learning a new character and her buttons were weird to me, but thatâs another story. My point with all of this is these games probably saved my life, because I loved them and I met friends through them, and ultimately, they led me to video editing and graphic design.
I started to love editing Halo montages and I always loved movies, so getting to edit brought me closer to something I already loved. I think the fact that I was a storyteller really lent to my love for editing actually, it allows you to craft a story out of footage, and sometimes you can even change the story within the editing process. So, when I think about it, I really owe Halo because without it, I never would have gone to college to study Digital Media. I graduated with a focus on filmmaking, but I learned the basics of motion graphics, 3D animation, and quite a few other things that were invaluable. I wrote and directed a proof-of-concept pilot episode of my show called Epytombs, which I was incredibly excited for but thatâs when the biggest curveball was thrown my way. I wasnât feeling well throughout the production, and I hid it from people because it was the biggest moment of my life; and so many people volunteered their time to help me, so I didnât want to let them down. After principal photography was over and we headed into post-production, where I began editing over the next few months, I felt worse and worse. Eventually I ended up in the emergency room about 4 times over the course of 6 weeks.
They couldnât figure out what was wrong with me, and my fear and frustration were tag teaming each time they sent me home. Eventually I received an endoscopy, which is where they stick a tube down your throat with a camera on it, and they found a hiatal hernia which was causing severe GERD, gastro esophageal reflux disease, symptoms. It changed my life, and I spent the next 2 years just trying to survive without being in pain. Unfortunately, the side effect was that my film project sat on the backburner the whole time and by the time I got my health under control the moment had felt like it had passed, leaving me feeling completely lost for a while.
I worked and went through other trials, but I never lost my passion for creating new things and telling stories. I liked the idea of creating things that mattered, that helped people by making them think about things differently, or improving their mental health. Over time I began to read about self-publishing through Amazon and at first, I was skeptical; how could this business be successful without hundreds of thousands of dollarsâ worth of marketing? How would people know my books even existed among the millions of other books on Amazon and why would anyone want to buy my books when they had no idea who I was, or what I had to offer? All good questions, but after everything I had been through over the last few years, why not?
My mother gave me my name, so I thought it was respectful to use it, and Fortunate Prints was born. Though I had a background in design, book publishing was completely new to me so I spent a while researching how to do it properly before I began. I started with journals because they are simpler to make. The interiors are lined paper and the covers are where your creativity gets to shine and to my surprise, I absolutely loved the process. I created countless journals with various designs, catering to people with a wide variety of interests and it felt great. When I was younger, I loved notebooks and journals, they let me get the crap out of my head, well, it felt like crap back then, but that âcrapâ is what makes each of us who we are. I soon realized that I was publishing products that added value to people's lives, and soon I expanded into other things that people enjoy but also add value. I started publishing Sudoku and other logic puzzle books, as well as both kids and adult activity books. Knowing that I am publishing things that were fun while improving mental health, and teaching kids while putting smiles on their faces has been the best feeling in the world.
If there is any piece of wisdom that can be taken from my story, I think itâs that you never know how your life is going to come together. I expected to be a filmmaker or professional gamer, but my skills and life struggles led me to Fortunate Prints, where all my skills come together, just in a way that I couldnât have predicted. We canât see the path ahead, even though sometimes we believe we can. Itâs easy to look back and see how you have reached your present, but the future is always a mystery, trust me. Iâve learned to believe in myself, even when Iâm scared and I feel uncertain, because I always end up on a path that feels right, even if itâs not what I imagined. I think thatâs what life is, a series of mysteries, which means that ultimately your choices are what matter; not how you feel, or what you think, itâs all about what you do.
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