AES162 On the Benefits of Failure

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.

Life is difficult and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control… And the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one.

I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

You might never fail on the scale that 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. 

Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.

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. 

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 is painfully won.

And it is worth more than any qualification I ever earned. 

-J.K Rowling-