J. K. Rowling – Overcoming Failure By Natalie Lawrance
Joanne Rowling
"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
Often as young people we believe that when we fail that is the end of the road, when really it can be quite the opposite. If you really want to achieve something it is essential to persevere, and not be discouraged by your failures. We can learn a lot about this from J.K. Rowling, one of the world’s most successful women, who experienced her fair share of failure but didn’t give up.
Joanne Rowling achieved extreme success, but what most people don’t know is that she went through a lot of hardship and failure before she reached this. She was born in Yate, England on the 31st of July 1965. She lived a regular life as a child and always wanted to be a writer. After she graduated high school she want to the University of Exeter and got French and Classics degree. She then moved to London and worked in a variety of jobs, but still dreamed of becoming a writer. In 1990 Rowling first came up with the idea for Harry Potter series while on a train to Kings Cross Station in London. She was very enthusiastic about this idea but it would be a long time before it would become a published book, and it would be very hard for her to get it there.
She moved to Portugal, was married and had a child but this did not end well. Her marriage ended in divorce and her husband kicked her out of the house. She returned to the UK and struggled to write her first book and raise her child as a single mother while living on state benefits. This time was very dark for her, and she felt that she was failure. She described herself to be “As poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless." However, if she didn’t go through all of this then the Harry Potter books may never have been written. J.K. Rowling has talked about how this failure was actually beneficial for her “Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant stripping away the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.”
Despite going through all this hardship, J.K Rowling did not give up on her dream of publishing a novel. She eventually finished writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and sent it off to publishing companies. She was rejected by these companies 12 times, before Bloomsbury, a small British publishing company, decided to publish her book, mainly because the eight year old daughter of the Bloomsbury chairman liked it. However, when the publisher accepted her, she was told that she should keep studying as a teacher because they didn’t think she would be able to make much money writing children’s books. Needless to say, they were very mistaken.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1996 and within a few weeks it started to take off. She was given a grant from the Scottish arts council so she was able to write full time and start on her next book. The book was so successful that Scholastic, an American publishing company, paid £100,000 to publish her book in America and Warner Bros bought the rights for the film. This was the start of her success that would keep increasing. Over the next several years she published the rest of her books and many of the movies based off the books were made. Her final Harry Potter book was released in July 2007 and became one of the fastest selling books of all time.
J.K Rowling is now one of the most successful women of our time, and her books are known all throughout the world. She can be an inspiration to all of us who get discouraged by failure. So many people are scared of failure and may not even try certain things because of their fear of failure. It is important for us to remember that failure is not something to be afraid of but something to be embraced. Failure is just one of the many steps to success, so even if you fail at something, do not be discouraged and remember, failure is not the end of the road, it may be the beginning of something great…