A shout-out to all the Potterheads out there! If you are
reading this and are not one I’m sorry to tell you that you’ ve missed out on
having an amazing childhood but never mind cause it’s not so late, you can
still grab a Harry Potter book at any age and you won’t be able to put it down.
That’s the magic of the book series’ author Joanne Kathleen Rowling from whose
life story we’ll be learning many important things. We will be focusing on the
failures together with the greatest life achievements of J. K. Rowling that
made her what she is today which is one of the most powerful woman; a Novelist,
film producer, television producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist.
"It is impossible
to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you
might as well not have lived at all— in which case, you fail by default."
_ J. K. Rowling.
At the age of 21 years
old it was difficult for her to come up to the expectations of the people close
to her as she was convinced that all she ever wanted to do was write novels.
However, her parents both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and
neither of whom had been to college assumed that their daughter had decided to
live in her own imaginary world where there were no responsibilities such as
paying bills and securing a pension. So they hoped that she would get a
vocational degree; she wanted to study English Literature. She went up to study
modern languages but then ditched German and settled on Classics. She didn’t
tell her parents that she was studying Classics; for they wouldn’t have
approved of a much useless subject as it was in their opinion.
She claims to not to blame her parents for their point of
view as there is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the
wrong direction. As soon as you are an adult responsibility lies with you. She
experienced poverty that brings fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it
means a thousand little humiliations and hardships. “Climbing out of poverty by
your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but
poverty itself is romanticised only by fools”, J. K. Rowling. I personally believe
that one should fear poverty for it pushes a person to face their fears and
work to establish oneself. What Rowling feared most for herself in her youth
was not poverty, but failure.
She spent her university life mostly in the coffee bar
writing stories and very little time at lectures but was smart enough to pass
the examinations, and that had been the measure of success in her life for
years. That doesn’t mean skipping classes is a good idea though, not all of us
are gifted with brains like Rowling or Bill Gates, mind you. It is obvious that
being young, gifted, talented, intelligent and well-educated doesn’t make a
person immune to hardship or heartbreak, they also go through the ups and downs
in life. Seven years after her graduation day Rowling failed in most aspects of
life- went through a divorce, had been jobless, an alone parent and as poor as
it is possible without being homeless.
Now Rowling had touched the rock bottom and there was no way
for her to go down but the only way possible was to come up. This was a very
dark time in her life and she is reported to have gone into depression and
dealt with suicidal thoughts. This period of her life was a long one and all
there was left to hold on to then was hope. She stopped pretending to herself
that she was anything other than what she was and began to put all her energy
into finishing the only work that mattered to her. She was set free because her
greatest fear had been realized, and she was still alive, and she still had a
daughter whom she adored, and she only had an old typewriter and a big idea. She decided to write. What is the worst that
can happen? It gets turn down by every publisher in Britain, big deal.
Failure gave her an inner security that she never attained by
passing examinations. Failure taught her things that she could have learned no
other way. She also found out that she had friends whose value was truly discovered
in times of need. So achieving high grades and CV is not the most important
thing though many will tell you so but you should know that life is much more
complicated and beyond anyone’s control.
About the importance of bedtime story reading and imagination
in her life, Rowling says, “Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans
can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves
into other people’s places.”
Rowling’s books have gained worldwide attention and won
multiple awards and have sold over 400 million copies. In 2004 Forbes named her
the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.
Adios, Amigos.
