Benefits of failure

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.