The Beauty of Failing is What Comes Next

J.K. Rowling is one the best writers in the world. The size of her fortune would have you believe that she’s written hundreds of books. Her fans certainly WISH she did. But no, she has only written eight books in all (Harry Potter series and The Tales of Beetle the Bard). 2007 was the year when she published the last book in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last movie in the Potter franchise hits theaters this summer. It’s not a secret to anyone who lives in civilization the amount of success that Jo has achieved with one BIG idea back in 1990. But before all of that success Jo, as her fans call her, went through situations one after the other. The death of her mother, marriage and then divorce, chronic depression, poverty near being homeless… In all a very hard life. Jo talks about the “benefits of failure” in her speech. She talks about how hitting rock-bottom in different times in her life (all leading up to the publishing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) helped her delve deeper into her stories and the world that she created in the series. In her failures she found clarity. In her failures she found the will to keep going towards what she most wanted, which was to be a writer. A lot of press would say that her story is one of fairytales; the things she overcame would’ve done with another person’s life what it didn’t do with hers. She kept going strong, not just for herself, but also for her daughter, her sister, and the memory of her mother, who never knew that Jo had started writing incessantly about six months before she passed away.

Her story is one I greatly appreciate because we all go through trying times. We all go through things that challenge our faith not only in God but faith in ourselves. It leads us to question ourselves even in moments where we know what we want. Fear of failure does that to a human being. You can be the most confident person in the world, everyone has insecurities. The difference is that a confident person sees that as a challenge and keeps going. Jo tells us to embrace that failure and make something positive of it. She did. That’s what she encouraged the Graduating Class of 2008 from Harvard University in the Commencement Speech.

She’s inspiring to me because I’m not what you would call the most confident person in the world. For all you knew through my writing in this blog, is that I’m a very confident person. But I’m not. I’m 26 years old and I live with my parents. In an island that doesn’t give many opportunities to people that specifically want to work in the arts; unless they know you, the road becomes an uphill battle. One remembers stories of people like Jo, who in the midst of her depression turned it into something that the entire world would support wholeheartedly. She is a definite role model. It’s not a coincidence that my Deathly Hallows copy is sitting right beside me in this very moment. This series represents a struggle, not necessarily between good and evil, but a struggle with yourself to do what is right for yourself, to not be selfish with yourself. To find the truth in things that matter. It’s the best story I have ever read in my short life… and for that I thank her. 

For more information on how she has contributed to causes related to MS and fighting poverty, think of the happiest thought or memory you can think of and then say Expecto Patronus!

Image courtesy of: http://ideagirlconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1-new-trailer-teaser-director-david-yates-novel-jk-rowling-screenplay-steve-kloves-daniel-radcliffe-rupert-grint-emma-watson/