The Value
of Failure
In most every endeavor, overcoming slings,
arrows, setbacks and rejection is a crucial
element for ultimate success
By Alex Dalenberg
B
y almost any measure, J.K. rowling is one of
the most successful people on Earth. The 54-year-
old novelist’s Harry Potter fantasy series has sold
more than 500 million copies worldwide, spawn-
ing an entertainment franchise that turned her into a cultural
icon and the world’s first billionaire author.
But, as Rowling tells it, none of that would have been possi-
ble without years of failure. Indeed, before Harry Potter, Row-
ling considered herself to have “failed on an epic scale.” In 1993,
her brief, tumultuous marriage to a Portuguese television jour-
nalist fell apart months after the birth of her first daughter.
Moving from Portugal to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be near fam-
ily, Rowling at 28 found herself a single mother struggling on
state benefits. “I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is
possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless,” she
said in a 2008 commencement address at Harvard University.
“By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”
Failure, however, proved a remarkable teacher. “Failure
taught me things about myself that I could have learned no
other way,” Rowling said. “I discovered that I had a strong will,
and more discipline than I had suspected.”
Rowling’s hard-won wisdom is borne out by a growing body
of research that suggests that coming to grips with failure is es-
sential to success. Of course, without the existence of failure,
success would have no meaning. But the two terms aren’t merely
THE SUCCESSFUL ATTITUDE
