Ayn Rand's life: told in drawing

"My name is Ayn Rand. I was born in Russia on the fifth of February, 1905." In this delightful short video, you'll get an introduction to Rand's remarkable life, her ideas, and her impressive achievements.

This "Draw My Life" video was created by Atlas Society CEO Jennifer Anju Grossman in partnership with Just Add Firewater. Source: The Atlas Society.

Transcript:

My name is Ayn Rand. I was born in Russia on the 5th of February 1905. My parents Anna and Zinovy owned a pharmacy. When I was 12 my sisters and I watched the communist revolution from the window of our apartment. Then, soldiers came and took our money our business and our home. We left the city and for many years we struggled, with barely enough food to survive. But there still was cinema, and on-screen I saw a vision of a better world . America was a place where I would be treated as an individual, a place I could follow my dreams. So, I went. I made my way from New York to Hollywood, where I met my husband Frank.

At this time, I am a writing machine. I sell a script. Then, I say play. I am on Broadway. They make my play into a movie, and they ruined the entire thing. They turn the heroes into villains and the villains into heroes. This vast infuriating, but it gave me an idea. Howard Roark. Howard Roark is an architect, who will not compromise his creative vision for the sake of others. He would rather take a job breaking rocks in a quarry than break his integrity. Because his integrity and his genius was the fountainhead of his success. Clear, I developed the idea of selfishness and self esteem, believing in
oneself. And I had to believe in myself completely. Twelve publishers rejected the fountainhead. In the end, I was vindicated. The fountainhead was published. They made a movie with Gary Cooper and
Patricia Neal. I'm back in Hollywood.

But back in Russia millions of dying as communism destroys that country and poisons other countries. It is bad enough what is happening in Russia, but worse is that my new country, America, is
romanticizing these communist ideals. It is the era of labor. Workers were being organized to go on strike. But what if... What if the people who start the businesses, who invent the cures, who compose
the music, what if they went on strike? This is the idea for Atlas Shrugged. In Atlas Shrugged, I wrote about a terrible future in which the values and the politics that turn Russia into a communist hell, in
Germany into a Nazi nightmare, where on the rise in America. My heroine was Dagny Taggart. She ran a railroad company, even though she was a woman, and some that she couldn't do it.

Like Dagney, I love my life and I loved my work. I head a mission to present a vision of men and women, not as fallen, headless creatures, not as members of this group or that, this race, this religion, this class, but of the human as a rational individual. Of a world where individuals are free to live their lives for their own sake. To leave and love on their own terms. A society that celebrates achievement, dignity, respect, honesty, and love. I lived this life. I achieved my dreams. Will you achieve yours?