2-Minute Tips: 40# Persevering Through Challenges

Jo sighed… another delay. The train was stuck halfway between Manchester and London. Even worse, she didn’t have a pen or paper. Her mind wandered - she was at a boarding school; there was a kid with black hair and glasses; then another boy, freckly and strawberry blonde; then a girl with light bushy hair and big front teeth…

“We apologise, but due to a fallen tree, the service to London Kings Cross will be significantly delayed.” Daydreaming, she stared out across the green fields, hmm, Charlie might work… nah, perhaps Ollie? Not sure… what about Harry?

In that moment, Harry Potter was born, however it would be seven long years before the world would be able to meet him.

It was 1990, and as she started to develop the novel, Jo Rowling felt the incredibly painful loss of her mum, who she was very close to. Her grief shaped Harry’s character, who had also lost his parents. In 1991, after a miserable year and a relationship break-up in Manchester, Jo took a job overseas.

2 years in Portugal were also tumultuous. Jo met and married a journalist, had a child, Jessica, and separated soon after, with Jo labelling the marriage ‘short and catastrophic’.

In late 1993, Jo fled to Edinburgh with Jessica and a dogeared draft of Harry Potter. Times were hard and they lived off £69 of benefits a week, often going weeks without heating through the Scottish winter. Seven years after graduating university, Jo saw herself as a failure. Her mental health deteriorated and fighting depression and suicidal thoughts, she sought medical help.

Slowly with therapy her health improved, and Jo finished the first Harry Potter novel in 1995 writing on a typewriter in cafes around the city, to save money.

Jo was ecstatic when Chris Little agreed to be her agent, but 12 publishers incredibly turned the book down. Eventually, a little publisher called Bloomsbury took a punt on Harry, after the CEOs daughter enjoyed the first chapter. Jo was paid only a £1000 advance, but the book finally hit the shelves on the 26th of June, 1997.

600 million books and 8 blockbuster films later, JK Rowling doesn’t have to worry about covering the heating bills anymore!

WISDOM 💎

'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 be default’.

JK Rowling

Tip 1 - A SMART PLAY ✅

Persist. Jo had 7 years of challenges and failures, but she never gave up. She changed 100s of millions of lives because she didn't.

Tip 2 - AVOID 🚩

Letting circumstances define you. "I would say to any single parent currently feeling the weight of stereotype or stigmatization that I am prouder of my years as a single mother than of any other part of my life."

Jo Rowling

P.S. Also avoid turning down the next JK Rowling!!!

Tip 3 - ACTION 💪

Jo wrote a little story at 6 years old; she read everything through her teens and stole time to write during part-time jobs. She consistently followed her passion. How might you follow yours?

“Anything is possible, if you have got enough nerve.”

Jo Rowling