JK Rowling is the well-known British author of the famous Harry Potter series. In 2008 she was given the chance to speak at a Harvard graduation about the benefits of failure. As the speech goes into depth, she discusses her life story with the graduates and her want to study English Literature, but unfortunately came from poverty-stricken family. According to Rowling, "poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on, which to pride yourself". It was never poverty that affected JK, but failure, and she was unfortunate to experience it seven years after she finished university, when her marriage broke up, lost her job, and was left to raise her child alone. The fact that she had to go through all this hardship, she started to question herself and wonder if the light at the end of the tunnel was hope or reality. The press called her life somewhat of a fairytale.
"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life". JK goes on to describe what failure meant to her. It meant the stripping of the inessential. She goes on to say that failure is a gift and it taught her well. Self-discipline and will power were just some of the things she gained out of it and it also made her appreciate the smaller things in life such as the friends that surrounded her. "The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks, means that you are, ever after secure in your ability to survive".
What makes this speech important to me is the fact that we all fail. Life is full of ups and downs and we, as humans are the roller coasters on those tracks. I've learnt that you can't live life too cautiously, because then you haven't lived life at all and fail by default. Rowling learnt to face failure and it taught her many things, and this in-turn gives me the confidence and motivation I need to face the fear that torments everyone.
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