If you’ve ever had to do public speaking it’s unlikely that you’ve taken it in your stride. A survey recently found that some poeple would rather die than get up on a podium and talk to a lot of people. Well if that is the case check out this speech by J K Rowling from 2008 to Harvard grads on ‘the fringe benefits of failure.’ It has to be one of the best speeches made to university graduates about to embark on real life. It is full of humour, compassion and wisdom, which J K obviously has in spades.
Jo Rowling’s message is so powerful as she is saying if you are already at the rock bottom, then there is only way up. If you are not there yet, then things aren’t that bad, right? Don’t ever lose hold of the imagination and belief – it is the source of hope and life. We have all been through difficult times in our lives, as she did when she started writing Harry Potter but she kept to her vision of wanting to write and magic started to happen.
She really is an inspiration not only for what she created with the HP series, whether you personally like it or not, and for how she communicates her message and last but not least, because she is married to a man 6 years younger!
