GUESS WHO? FAMOUS FAILURES VOL. 1

GUESS WHO? FAMOUS FAILURES VOL. 1

J.K. Rowling went from being on welfare to a household name — see her tips on overcoming setbacks in your life.

When many of us hear the name J.K. Rowling, our thoughts immediately turn to her multi-million dollar literary empire, her extraordinary international success, and of course, a boy wizard.

Yet few people have failed as hard as J.K. Rowling has. Before that boy wizard was just an idea of a paper napkin in an Edinburgh cafe, she was living off welfare, divorced, and jobless.

“By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew,”said Rowling.
But in a 2008 Harvard commencement speech, she notes that her early failure a “gift” that was “painfully won.” Through her failure, she gained valuable knowledge about herself and her relationships, as well as the courage to face adversity head-on to turn unfortunate circumstances into success.

Few of us are in situations as destitute as Rowling’s. Still fewer of us will achieve her level of fame and wealth that now eclipses the Queen of England’s. But all of us have — and will — fail.

We will also have the opportunity to turn our failures into experiences that shape and prime us for success. Read on for tips from J.K. Rowling and other mega-moguls that have transformed their failures from negatives to positives: