Rowling grew up in a family of little financial wealth and after college graduation would fall to "lowest level of poverty one could endure in Great Britain without being homeless". In her, June 2008 speech at Harvard University Rowling details her life post-college and prior to mega success in a speech she entitled The Fringe Benefits of Failure. She is a enjoyable public speaker. She immediately won the audience by telling them of the weeks of anxiety she had over giving the speech but that it "helped her to lose weight and now all that I have to do is squint at the red banners in the back and pretend that I am at the world's largest Gryffindor convention". She threw in a gay wizard joke and also maintains a enjoyable pace and remains on topic while entertaining her audience.
It is provocative to go to a world renowned university where so many Presidents, Congress people, business leaders, and other titans of numerous fields have graduated from and speak about failure and how it can be beneficial. Harvard sells the success of its university and those who have graduated from it. They don't focus on failure they focus on success. Harvard invited J.K. Rowling to speak because she is so successful and wealthy. The graduates are eager to get our in the world and make their mark and yet she is going to come there and tell them that failure can be a good thing? She did and it may have been the most valuable lesson they learned during their entire tenure at Harvard. She pointed out that although Harvard does not insulate people from life and its ups-and-downs that by the fact they were Harvard graduates they probably had not yet truly come to know failure.
She discusses the importance of following your passion and ambition and not the ambitions and goals that others have for you. Her parents never wanted her to become a writer, they felt it would lead only to a live of unhappiness and poverty yet when she finally began to follow her own passion it led to nearly unmatched wealth in the world, fulfillment, and happiness. Her and her parents both wanted the same things for her but they had different ideas of how she should obtain those goals. After following a path that was her parents and not her own for 7 years after graduation she found herself on government assistance, was diagnosed with clinical depression, contemplated suicide, divorced, a single parent, and directionless.
During her Harvard speech she said "Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."
While living on welfare and odd jobs she began writing her first Harry Potter book. She knew before she ever attended college she desired to write novels but her parents pushed her towards a different path that was not her own.What has she gained from her failure and the insight and perspective to finally follow her own passion?
"As of March 2011, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion.[9] The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain.[10] Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007,[11] and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.[12] In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named 'Most Influential Woman in Britain' by leading magazine editors.[13] She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group)."-Sourced from Wikipedia.org
I found her speech empowering, moving, and 100% similar to my own life journey. My parents, especially my Father often had different goals for me then I did for myself. I have always been drawn to creativity, music, film, writing, reading, sports, communication, animals, history, travel, leadership, innovation, and excitement, etc.. The first job I accepted after graduation was OK but the company was not honest and was constantly trying to rewrite agreements to avoid paying me the agreed compensation as the goals were reached. I quit and formed my own business producing sports related seminars. I organized, sold, promoted the first one in 2.5 months and earned a significant 5-figure profit. I went to my parents house following the event and when asked informed my Dad how much I earned and he replied "that is great now go get a job". He'd often call me up to tell me about the assistant manager he met while shopping that wasn't earning half-annually of what I made in 2.5 months. I had plenty of other people that wanted to offer me low-expectations because that is where their comfort so is but it has never been where mine is. I am a high-achiever and need to be in order to be at my happiest.
I went on to greater success in sports, music, and business consulting. However, I haven't yet achieved the levels I am meant for. The reason is because like J.K.'s parents I had people placing their low expectations, goals, and fears upon me. Often when an opportunity for greater success would be presented it would frighten or overwhelm me because of the programming I allowed to occur over the years. I was leading a good life nonetheless when due to a manufactures defect my Toyota 4Runner lost control, flipped over, and spun around on the roof several times before finally coming to a stop on one of the busiest roads in Gainesville, FL during rush hour. I barely was able to keep my beloved Golden Retriever Dakota in the vehicle by placing my hands on him every time I saw red flash before me. When we came to a stop I was hanging upside-down by my seat belt and he was standing on the roof just above the windshield. He ran off when they pried the doors open and I was worried I'd lose him after just saving him. Thankfully he came out of the bushes he hid himself in to avoid capture by the good Samaritans that were chasing him. I stood there holding him on the median after the EMT's, witnesses, and most of the police had left, the rain pouring down upon us, my paid off vehicle being totaled and assessing where I was and what I needed to do to make it better. I figured I would just go out and make even more money to again drive a new vehicle without payments, to cover the increased insurance, and to regain my life via the physical therapy I would obviously need. I had no idea of where my life was headed. I spent the next 4 years in physical therapy, working sporadically because of the pain. I faced unsteady income but at times still every substantial.
I was pushed into new lines of work, I would meet my hero about a month later and by the end of the year Joe Strummer would have been dead. My Father passed away in October after a battle with Parkinson's. Reading about J.K.'s Mother battling Multiple-Sclerosis reminded me of my Father and I know how that disease effected her and her Mother even before her passing. I'd have other episodes of very bad fortune, identity theft more then once, numerous friends, dogs, loved ones, and clients dying unexpectedly. Each one a new trauma and brought back the pain of the previous ones. I decided that everyone with low expectations must be right and that was the way to have a good and safe life. It wasn't it was a way to become miserable, unhappy, and directionless. All the life was sapped out of me and I allowed it. Thank God I had my dog Dakota to love and inspire me! I do not know what I would have done with out him, he took care of me during the worst years of my life and often was my only direct companionship and source of love as my family did not live nearby.
What I hope anyone reading gets out of J.K. and my story is the minute you start pursuing those things in life that you are passionate about you become happier and lighter. J.K. is extra inspiring to me because like her I am a writer, work in the entertainment industry, and as it turns out we are both huge Clash fans. Joe Strummer often repeated "What one person can do another can do" and listening to J.K. and the Clash connection it made me think of Joe.
When you start following your life's passions life become significantly easier for you in all areas. It isn't always perfect but it is 100% better. J.K. rightfully states that "achievable goals are the first step to self-improvement."
If you are reading this and unfulfilled be a good student and take to heart the lessons J.K. and I learned the hard way. She passionately implored you to discover your true ambitions and pursue them without delay and I can tell you it is the best lesson you will ever learn and you don't have to go to Harvard to get it.
In Loving Memory of Dakota Oberon Baldacchino June 22, 1999-January 7th, 2011. If I can live my life the way he lived his, I will have a extroadinary and happy life.
