So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of 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. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, 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 the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life 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.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
This is a delightful commencement address and challenges the new graduates at Harvard in just the right way. It reminded me a little of the commencement address that Vernon Grounds gave at Gordon College in 1977, where he asked the graduating class if they have a faith that can handle failure. Somewhere over the years I lost the text of Grounds’ speech, but it was just the sort of message that someone can hold onto for times when the bottom seems to fall out of their world. Rowling experienced that bottom falling out and discovered it became the starting point from which she was able to be true to herself and her giftedness. If I was graduating from college in troubled times like these I would much more appreciated Joanna Rowling to someone prognosticating about some huge topic that has little bearing on the challenges facing me.
Failure is a four-letter word today. “If you can’t succeed, we are told, the government or someone else will be there to lift you up to do so”. “If you come in tenth in a race, well, you still get a nice little trophy for just showing up.”
Failure, as JK Rowling says, is necessary to show what success really means. Bravo for this speech!
“And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
That’s a good line. Still, the Rock is a better foundation.