J.K. Rowling
During a Harvard commencement speech, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling outlined the importance and value of failure.
Why? Simply because she was once a failure too.
A few short years after her graduation from college, her worst nightmares were realized. In her words,
“I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
Coming out of this failure stronger and more determined was the key to her success.
Why? Simply because she was once a failure too.
A few short years after her graduation from college, her worst nightmares were realized. In her words,
“I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
Coming out of this failure stronger and more determined was the key to her success.