Now that the hysteria surrounding the record-breaking opening weekend of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 has subsided, one is left with a feeling that the Hogwarts kids we’ve seen grow up and matured in the last decade has undergone a “graduation” of sorts. It’s a fitting time to reference JK Rowling’s Harvard Commencement Speech for the class of 2008.
Rowling’s story has become one for the ages. A single mother who wrote the Harry Potter series while still on welfare, Rowling has seen her series grow from a cult children’s classic into a string best-selling of novels, wildly successful film series and theme park. Rowling herself said when she appeared for a one-on-one interview on Oprah that all of her accomplishments, including becoming the world’s first billionaire author, surpassed her wildest dreams.
For the Blogger and for so many others who have felt powerless, weakened, frustrated by career aspirations and paths, perhaps the most effective and rousing motivational speech ever delivered was Rowling’s now legendary Harvard Commencement Address.
The magic in Rowling’s speech comes from her title: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure”. She speaks of her time as a single mother, her failed marriage, her frustrated career path, her financial struggle and clinical depression. It’s not often to hear such a successful individual speak so candidly and honestly about the miseries in her own life, but Rowling does not truss up her accomplishments in the guise of false modesty, nor does she attempt to give self-help lessons that mean nothing. What guided her out of the dark was that at one point, she “stripped away the inessential ... and began directing all my energy to doing the only work that mattered to me”. That work happened to be the Harry Potter series.
I return to this speech from time to time. It’s wise, pithy, honest, candid, and yet at times screamingly funny. In short, it is pure perfection.
I can’t say much more than what’s already been said. All you have to do is to listen, and you will learn. Click after the jump to hear the remainder of the speech, and to see a copy of the speech.
