By: Sandra Wiktor
As summer rapidly approaches weary, battle-scarred high-school students and as the final page is turned in another chapter of their lives, their futures, enigmatic, uncertain and shrouded in mystery, draw steadily nearer. Thus, the pressure to succeed in life assaults them and the issue of whether or not their ambitions and desires are worth pursuing reemerges. It is painfully easy and convenient to lose sight of one’s dreams. Passionate dreams regarding occupations are often elusive, difficult to achieve and exhausting to pursue. This is especially true if such occupations are known for their tendency to produce poverty-stricken individuals. If one expresses a desire to become something like a musician, writer or artist, many will face fervent discouragement. Additionally, some people may view success and fame as something that either instantly happens or instantly does not, and will become discouraged at every failure. The problem with the mentality that one failure is a harbinger of a lifetime of failure is that it is simply not accurate. Most successful people were forced to grit their teeth and plow through a jumbled mess of stinging failures and brief, insignificant, barely comforting accomplishments until they reached the stunning levels of success they have today. One example of this situation in which a “failure” evolved into an awe-inspiring icon of success is none other than J.K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.
“By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew,” Rowling recalls. This may come as quite a shock, as this woman has achieved the status of the first billionaire female writer and is widely known and beloved by her fans – hardly what most people consider a ‘failure’. However, her road to this achievement was riddled with potholes and dead ends. Hindered by the death of her mother, Rowling still underwent the grueling process of writing her first Harry Potter book while being a single mother to her daughter after an unsuccessful marriage. To make matters worse, she was on the fringes of homelessness, as she was unable to procure a job and she struggled with depression. Rowling had hit rock bottom, and yet, her “failure” was what gave her inspiration. “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential,” Rowling said. “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.” When she finally finished her novel, she was rejected by twelve different publishers and, disheartened, finally gave her novel to the Bloomsbury Publishing company. The editor responsible for reading her book showed it to his 8-year-old. When the child demanded to read more of it, he finally agreed to publish it. This simple, seemingly insignificant decision completely turned Rowling’s life around. She still struggled to become visible in the writing community in her early years, but through her perseverance, managed to become one of the most widely-acclaimed authors of all time. The Harry Potter book series itself earned $400 million, and the last movie by itself earned $476 million dollars in ticket sales. On opening weekend. Rowling had experienced bitter failure first hand, and yet she viciously challenged her dire situation, fighting with all her remaining strength, and emerged victorious.
This story is certainly an inspiration. Yet people may not take it seriously because this is indeed one case out of millions. However, this should not matter because one of the select few people who become stunningly successful could be reading this article right now. People forget that in the infinite realms of players, there are always winners, and there is no special rule about who can become a winner. A winner can be anyone bold and reckless enough to try, because comfort and ease do not breed achievement. A winner can be anyone stubbornly and ignorantly optimistic enough to be unhindered by failures, because living a life of continuous success is impossible and he or she knows that. In short, a winner can be absolutely anyone. The problem is that failure can be very discouraging and may cause people to relinquish their hold on their aspirations. And so, if they no longer pursue their vision, whatever it is, any future that could have been just out of sight but painfully within reach would vanish instantly.
People must believe that they can be successful and they will be, if they work tirelessly and deny failure as an option. So many people lose in the game of life because they forget that they could win, even though, as seen from Rowling’s story, anyone has the ability to. However, paradoxically, people may have to admit to themselves, at least at first, that they are indeed failures, as Rowling was – but failures brimming with potential. They must be modest failures, but also suffocatingly arrogant failures who will succeed. After all, if one does not believe oneself to be a failure, if one is absolutely satisfied with a situation despite being able to and wanting to achieve so much more, where will be the motivation to try? Where will be the motivation to improve and to succeed? Realizing that one is a failure creates the possibility of improvement, but how one reacts based on this realization will dictate one’s fortunes. People must understand that being a failure does not mean that all hope is lost and success will never come. On the contrary, being a failure indicates that there is still so much more hope to be found and so many more opportunities yet to materialize. And besides, “rock bottom” is a solid foundation. One must build up from it – build up from any situation they presently are in.
People must also understand that there is nothing wrong with being a so-called ‘failure’ and remaining within a certain comfort zone if this satisfies them. If they are happy living a perhaps not overly wealthy or particularly remarkable existence, this is absolutely fine. However, if individuals yearn for more, yearn to see a brighter sun rise on the horizon, they must adamantly believe that they will, because if they don’t, they won’t.
As summer vacation decorates the landscape with lazy heat and seemingly endless days of well-deserved rest, this is something to think about.
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