The Little Prince Who Became a Cleaner

I once met Park I-cheol and received a book from him. He had a line he often wrote in his books: “Happiness is always a choice.” He had attracted attention with his writing on positive psychology, especially The Little Prince Who Became a Cleaner.

The first edition came out on 18 August 2014. By 3 June 2021, the revised edition had reached its 96th printing. The book made Park’s name familiar to many readers.

Season One: The Secret of the Stars

The Little Prince Who Became a Cleaner is a two-part series. This is the first volume, subtitled The Secret of the Stars.

The title made me think of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince. The shared idea is a young prince as protagonist. The character Park gives us has a story of his own.

Learning by Asking Questions

The prince begins by asking questions of the people around him. He finds a teacher and goes on asking, listening to the replies of his teacher and others. The things he comes to understand emerge through those exchanges.

Reading the story brought me back to the value of asking a question.

A Way of Finding Out What You Know

Questions matter when you are learning something. It is easy to think you know how to do it after reading about it or hearing an explanation, then find yourself stuck when you try on your own.

That moment can tell you what you have yet to learn. Asking a question gives you a way to build both knowledge and judgment.

If you never ask yourself or someone else, it is hard to see what you do not understand. In that sense, questions help you think about your own thinking.

What the Prince Learns About Love and Happiness

The prince’s questions bring him closer to what love and happiness mean. Caring about another person can give us a reason to endure even when life is difficult.

There is value in being loved and in loving someone. The book comes back to what we can choose to do with the situation we are in.

The Choices We Make

Two people can look at the same glass of water and see it differently. One sees a glass that is only half full. The other sees how much is still there.

The way we choose to look at things shapes the meaning we give them. The book suggests that happiness, too, is something we can practice.

That is how I understand Park’s line about happiness. By making room for a question and asking it of ourselves, we may find another way to be in the same situation.

Book Information

The Little Prince Who Became a Cleaner

Author

Park I-cheol

Edition publication date

25 August 2017

ISBN13

9791195352548

View book on YES24

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