In Just 8 Tweets, J.K. Rowling Inspires Millions to Follow Their Dreams

"Do not ever quit out of fear of rejection," the Harry Potter author tweets

By Zach Johnson Apr 03, 2017 2:25 PMTags
J.K. RowlingCARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images

Fame and fortune haven't made J.K. Rowling forget her past.

Before the first of seven Harry Potter books was published in 1997, Rowling was a single mom struggling to make ends meet. In her own words, she often felt like a "failure." But, after the novels were adapted for the big screen, she became one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Rowling's rags-to-riches story has been well documented, of course. And from the beginning, she has always been generous—not only with her money, but also with her words. On Monday, she retweeted Beauty Jackson, disseminating her fan's message with over 10 million followers:

Jackson's tweet spoke to Rowling, who used it as a springboard to inspire others:

It only took eight tweets for Rowling's words of encouragement to go viral.

The author then thanked Jackson for helping her pay it forward:

Rowling has often spoken about the lessons she's learned from failure.

When she gave the commencement address at Harvard University in June 2008, for example, Rowling encouraged the graduates to redefine what the world "failure" means. "Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it," she said. Rowling then confessed she had "failed on an epic scale" just seven years after her own college graduation. "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 recalled. At the time, she said, "I was the biggest failure I knew."

"Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality," she said. "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 been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea," the author added. "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," she said. "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 the price of 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 than any qualification I ever earned."