Why failure is good?
The month of July or before and after is usually the month of commencement ceremonies for most universities around the world.
Commencement speech given by Harvard and Stanford is one of the most inspiring, of all the speeches; they usually invite people from various walks of life that are considered success in their own right instead of first class honors only. Usually the persons giving the speech did not have stellar academic achievements, did not get straight As all the way like Valedictorian, did not even complete college degrees but those that went on to achieve greatness. Sometimes you do learn more from them than from first class honors, or Valedictorian speeches.
This one by J.K. Rowling, billionaire author of Harry Potter series is one of reminding us of the need to give and change the world for the better. There is a lot of inspiration from her address; it’s like the case for Stephen Jobs in Stanford University in the year 2005.
Well, the speech is titled “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.” The “fringe benefits” for her means billions. Without experiencing failure as described by her – “a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.”, she will never have begin writing Harry Potter story books.
J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.
I suggest that you read the whole commencement speech in its entirety, for every word, are words of wisdom, words of inspirations and words of compassion.
But I find this section of text particularly awakening for those living under authoritarian government, or democracy in name but authoritarian in reality.
“If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
Albert Einstein once says that imagination is better than knowledge. Knowledge can ensure that you can have a good job but it is imagination that enables Einstein to receive Nobel Prize and ideas that revolutionized the whole of Physics, it is imagination that will produce Harry Potter magic in record sales of books and movies.
The conclusion of her commencement speech is that, you don’t need magic to change the world for the better, you need empathy. To have empathy, one need imagination. As eventually, for those who receive, more shall be given.
And last but not least, imaginations make her a billionaire.
Failure is good because failure can make you a billionaire while stellar academic results can only grant you a good job at most.
She still looks good and sexy at her age.
Related posts:
