JK Rowling's Commencement Address at Harvard

The success of the Harry Potter series is well known to us all, yet for JK Rowling, success has not always been the case.  Rowling's commencement address at Harvard "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination",was only brought to my attention over the weekend, and it certainly struck a chord with me.

 Rowling talks about failure giving her an inner security that she had never attained by passing examinations - and failure teaching her things about herself that she could have learned no other way.  Through failure,  she discovered "a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies."

In thinking about success I think about how many of us determine success by not failing...we are satisfied with just passing, with mediocrity we settle for a compromise -  for the ordinary not stretching ourselves to reach our full potential.

We can learn from JK Rowling (and others like her) without having necessarily to hit "rock bottom" ourselves  and there is no time like the present - don't wait until you hit rock bottom.  Success builds confidence and confidence builds success.

Rowling says that failure is inevitable -  "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."

Think about what causes the failure, not who is to blame - if you can work back to the root cause then you will certainly learn from it.

J. K. Rowling speaks of the need for 'a more expansive view of imagination'- one that involves stepping into not just the imaginary worlds of authors, but also the feelings and experiences of fellow human beings.  Empathy and compassion are critical elements to imagination 

"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared"

J. K. Rowling terms those people who remain apathetic or indifferent in the face of such challenges, 'wilfully unimaginative' and responsible for allowing monsters to prevail in the world - let's harness creativity, imagination - be creative, imaginative and learn about what it really means to succeed. 

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