When 22-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald ended his service in the army, he wanted nothing more than to marry Zelda Sayre. The only catch was that she wouldn't say yes until he had enough money to support himself. So, Fitzgerald took a job at Barron Collier, where he wrote slogans for $35 a week. He planned to make a fortune in the ad business.
"I was a failure — mediocre at advertising work and unable to get started as a writer. Hating the city, I got roaring, weeping drunk on my last penny and went home,” Fitzgerald later wrote.
At home, Fitzgerald reworked his college-written novel for a third time, releasing "This Side of Paradise" in 1920. The book was an instant success and Fitzgerald and Sayre married soon afterwards.