Born in France, François Lelord studied and practised psychiatry in Paris, and was a consultant for companies interested in reducing stress for their employees. On a trip to Hong Kong in which he was questioning his personal and professional life, the Hector character popped into his mind.  He wrote Hector and the Search for Happiness not knowing exactly what kind of book he was writing. The huge success of Hector, first in France, then in Germany and other countries led him to spend more time writing and travelling, ending up in Vietnam during the Sars epidemic. There he practiced psychiatry for a French NGO whose profits are used to provide heart surgery for poor Vietnamese children, and met his future wife Phuong. Today they live in Thailand.