In 2008, author J.K. Rowling wrote and gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard University. Rowling aptly named the speech “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”. In this speech Rowling tries to convey the message that failing can be beneficial or an individual and that people should not be afraid to use their imagination. Rowling begins the speech with a reflection on what went through her mind while writing the speech and how the process affected her. During this time Rowling asked herself what she wished she had known at her graduation and came up with the two main ideas of this speech; the merits of failure and significance of imagination. Rowling explains the benefits of failure by using her own personal failure of living in poverty with her daughter and what that failure taught her. For the significance of imagination, Rowling describes it not in terms of how it helped her out of poverty, but of how it opens up people to the world and other individuals around them.
During the speech Rowling states “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”. This quote means that in life a person needs to be able to make mistakes in order to learn from them and grow. By making mistakes an individual can discover aspects about their character that they did not know before. Failure can teach one lessons such as
On the surface level, one could assume that when a person makes a mistake, they have failed. Most would come to the conclusion that if one does not do something correctly then they will have failed at what they were trying to do, and this shows that the first part of this quote is, essentially, accurate. However, when paired with the second part of the quote, the first part becomes clearer. A person that makes a mistake is not necessarily a failure unless they learned nothing from the mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, but that does not make everyone a failure. Being a failure constitutes so much more than making simple mistakes. Unless someone repeatedly makes the same error and does nothing to improve, they should not be considered a failure. This can be exemplified by a rather simple comparison: if one forgets to turn in one assignment for a class, they will not necessarily fail, however, if they constantly do not turn in their assignments, they will most likely end up failing the class. Repetitious errors demonstrate a lack of ability to improve one’s self which probably shows a lack of caring. This would constitute a failure because the person is doing the same thing over and over again without trying anything new that would warrant a different result. Unless a person does not attempt to correct their mistake in any manner, they should not be considered a failure, but if they have gained nothing from the experience, then they are a failure because the opportunity to learn something new was presented to them and they did nothing with it. One mistake does not define a person, but rather the ability to learn or not to learn from mistakes is what defines a
The book took the literary world by storm selling nearly twelve million copies within the first twenty-four hours. Although the brilliant mind behind the Harry Potter series is most famously known for her success, the reality she faced before becoming the critically acclaimed author was anything but magical. The loss of J.K. Rowling’s mother early on became the determination she needed to finish the first of many distinguished publications. Identically, the characters Nemo from Finding Nemo and the orphaned brothers from the short story Strays find that life can be unfair, unkind, and unpredictable. Nonetheless, tragedy can become the fuel to develop maturity and encourage the creative thinking that brings on achievement.
During adversities, J.K. Rowling finds hope in writing. Rowling has gone through many hardships in her lifetime; the death of her mother and collapse of her marriage sent Rowling into a deep depression. Being left to raise her daughter alone, Rowling had to find a way to keep going, which she did through her writing. “Despite numerous setbacks, she found solace in doing what she loved –writing” (Ostrowsky). Rowling struggled through her depression only to find that writing gave her
However, there are many great people who had overcome adversity through being grit. For example, a famous author, J.K. Rowling is known for her best-selling series Harry Potter. However, Rowling was not rich or famous before the series, she faced many challenges throughout her life. Around the age of twenty-five, Rowling discovered that her mother died from a disease, later, she got married, but she struggled in her marriage with her husband, soon they got a divorce. In addition, Rowling was a single mother, who took care of her daughter on welfare. Through the struggle, wanting to commit a suicide, she decided to do something that she is very passionate about, writing. At this point, Rowling’s began to take a drastic turn for the better, the idea of writing a Harry Potter book. Years later, after she had finally finished the book, she sent it to an agent, but it got declined. Even though
The Life Lesson that Macbeth, Montag and I learn is you learn more from your failures than your successes. If you don’t follow this life lesson two things will happen to you. First, you will never improve at improving yourself. Second, you will be afraid of making mistakes. In Act 1 of Macbeth, Macbeth makes the mistake of trusting the witches.
Children’s fantasy novels are an effective tool to use in the classroom because they are riveting and keep the students’ attention. However, teachers must draw on them effectively, to make students aware that what they learn is meaningful. An example of this is the novel ‘‘The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch’’ written by Joseph Delaney. In this novel, there are various valuable morals to teach, to any high school or elementary school reader. In this essay, I will demonstrate how Joseph Delaney’s fantasy novel ‘‘The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch’’ enhances children’s ‘‘world knowledge ' ', by using Tom as a surrogate to teach perseverance and facing fears; thus, leading to personal fulfillment. I will illustrate how teachers can use Tom’s perseverance to show the students how this allowed him to attain his goals and that they can do the same. As well, I will demonstrate how teachers can work with facing fears to show students that this will lead to personal satisfaction and growth.When exploited in the classroom, Joseph Delaney’s novel allows students to observe how perseverance can benefit them in attaining their personal goals. Even in the most demanding situations, Tom, the Spook’s apprentice, must have the courage not to give up. He must stick it out even though he does not think he has what it takes to become a Spook, which he later discovers to become his calling. Attaining this goal leads to personal achievement. Teachers can use this moral of the story
"No matter who tries to teach you lessons about life, you won't understand it until you go through it on your own." Lessons are an important part of everyday life. They help people learn through tough times or teach them how to avoid terrible situations. Lessons can be passed down from adults to their children, or other important people in their lives. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout understands not everyone is fortunate, there is more than meets the eye, and that you can not trust rumors.
The quote teaches a valuable lesson too. The lesson it teaches later in life or sooner is that if you just wait, soon it will later happen, you must be patient and later something unremarkable and so valuable you would do outstanding, and once you do that it will or should remain a memory or it should.
This Paragraph is going to be about how not to fail in Learning and Success.Paul Tough states,“Learning from failure is important” and I agree what Paul Tough states because When you learn from failing it can help you succeed more.In Paul Tough’s Perspective,“Success and Failure may be more closely linked” and I agree with his perspective because when you fail you need to help you to learn what you did wrong and succeed the next time.As claimed by Paul Tough,“We have to look at our successes for learning bad experience” and I agree with him because we do have to look to our successes and you can learn from the bad experience to succeed more.Paul Tough states,“failure would have been serials consequences” and I agree with him because when you fail there can be some serious consequences but,then you learn from it and succeed.In Paul Tough’s perspective,“Learning the bad mistakes can help you learn what went wrong” and I agree with his perspective because when you learn from your bad mistakes you can see what went
I failed to reach the top of the rock climbing wall on the playground, and as a result, I have strived even harder to reach the peak of success in everything I do. Instead of becoming discouraged and disappointed in myself, I found a way to improve myself for my next challenge. Learning from my mistakes has molded me into an improved person while giving me the motivation to keep pushing forward. Failure has taught me the importance of learning from your errors and trying again, no matter how difficult it may be. Without lessons like these, I would not be the motivated, independent person that I am today. I will continue to fail and try again until I achieve my goal of reaching the
J.K. Rowling, famous for writing the Harry Potter series, presented her commencement speech to Harvard on June of 2008. She had people from graduates to non-graduates gather before her. She gave an inspiring speech on the “importance of imagination” and “benefits of failure” (Rowling). She describes her main points effectively to the audience by using strategies such as ethos, logos, and pathos as well as tone.
Failure is really just a part of life. From god, to love, to our own academic studies, we have all failed at something before, and it sure made us feel upset, or some other negative feelings, but along comes Angel Perez and Mandy Oaklander to help save the day from the sheer destruction of our guilt to tell us to “bounce back”, and that it is okay to fail. Something quite often unheard of would be positive responses to failure, making it look like it is no big deal, but a rather out of proportion. Given both articles it is not hard to see that Perez does not expect perfection, not the brightest light in the dark sky, but rather a lesson learned from failure, rather than punishment. Oaklander on the other hand talks of building up resilience
Hundreds of students, parents, and faculty members gathered and created an audience to witness J.K Rowling’s speech at Harvard University in 2008. J.K Rowling is a well-known author, famous for her Harry Potter book series, and much more. Rowling’s speech was well thought out, and delivered excellently, with three main points she addresses throughout the speech. The three points being: failure can lead a person to success, never give up hope on your dreams and aspirations, and lastly Rowling emphasizes the importance of imagination. Sometimes we fail to see that the obstacles in our life help shape the road to our success in the future, and Rowling points out to us that failures and obstacles is what helped us become successful , and to never ignore that.
The central message of Being Wrong, by Kathryn Schulz, is that although nobody likes being wrong, it is a central part of our existence and we should learn how to accept it and make the most of it. While I do agree with Schulz that being wrong is a necessary function to learn, recognizing this fact and acting with the idea in mind that failure is acceptable will deeply hamper your chances of succeeding. Nowadays, it seems to be fashionable to talk about how acceptable failure is. We are told that life is one big experiment, Carpe Diem, do what makes you happy. This is a recipe for certain failure. It is imperative to view failure as unacceptable, and continue striving for perfection; if you are satisfied with failure, you will never succeed.
In the beginning of Davies speech he explains that he is an author and how being an author is more of a state of mind rather than a job. He goes on to say that he will be quitting his job as an author and pursue a new job. Failure is something that Davies believes will come with finding a new career but he tells the university students that failure is something that is easy to live through and that the only failure that breaks the spirit and that failure is the failure in life itself. The thing about that type of failure is that it does not just come suddenly, it creeps up on you and grabs a hold on you with you knowing. Davies begins to talk to about how this failure is considered one of the seven deadly sins and this one in