A blog I recently discovered – Lives Less Ordinary – is already beginning to reap rich rewards! 

Through it, I chanced upon the complete text of J.K. Rowling’s commencement address at the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. 

Rowling’s speech is rich in inspiration and wisdom, and a must-read for any one, regardless of age or background.  Most notably, it covers two subjects: 1. The Benefits of Failure, and 2. The Importance of Imagination.  I was most intrigued by the first.

While it’s impossible to reproduce the essence of her speech without reproducing it in entirety, here’s just a brief glimpse of why it is worth reading… and re-reading…

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…

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…

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.

If you’ve ever feared failure or experienced success, you can benefit from this.  Read the entire speech, today.