Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, on the 31st July 1965. Her father was an aeronautic engineer who worked at Rolls Royce and got married at a young age to Joanne’s mother a year after their acquaintance on a train. While she was still a tender child, Joanne frequently wrote fictitious stories which she usually read to her younger sister. She was always comfortable reading books and creating fantasy stories. She attended St. Michael’s primary school, after which she was admitted into a secondary school at Wyedean School and College.
Her life as a teenager was a turbulent one. After her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, living as a normal girl wasn’t pleasant for her anymore. Plus, she didn’t have an intimate relationship with her father.
In the year 1982, Joanne wanted to attend college at Oxford University, but she wasn’t accepted after sitting for the entrance examinations. Immediately after her rejection, she went to the University of Exeter to earn a BA degree in French and Classics. Joanne worked as a Researcher and Secretary after she relocated with her boyfriend (at that time) to Manchester. Joanne had not forgotten her passion for writing.
On her way to Manchester, she was hit by a fascinating story idea of a naive young boy attending the school of wizardry, and she started writing immediately. Some weeks into creating her story, Joanne received a tragic message, informing her about her mother’s death after a decade of suffering from multiple sclerosis. The incident made her a distraught young lady who was broken and devastated. It took a long while before she could recover from the loss.
Later on, Joanne moved to Porto, Portugal, to work as an English teacher. After a year and eight months working in Porto, she met Jorge Arantes, who was a Portuguese television journalist. They got married and had a child together, before which Joanne had suffered a miscarriage. Her marriage couldn’t work. Her husband domestically abused her, and the couple soon went their separate ways. After her divorce, she had to cater to her daughter as a single parent independently. Times came when she was depressed and even attempted suicide in exasperation. After attending a series of therapy sessions to remedy her depression, she was able to encourage herself and worked towards fixing her life.
While she experienced these difficulties, Joanne was writing her story. As soon as she completed the story, she believed it was a really a fascinating tale, thus sent it to several publishers who repeatedly rejected her literary work. Fortunately for Joanne, she later had someone interested in her story. She sealed a small deal with a young publishing company to print about 500 copies of Harry Potter, her beautiful story idea.
By 1999, at least 300,000 copies of her story were sold within the United Kingdom. Her book, Harry Potter, and another of her story, the philosopher’s stone, earned her multiple awards, including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. Warner Bros., a film producing company, bought the film rights to Joanne’s Harry Potter books and reproduced it into a movie content, which generated nearly a billion dollars.
Joanne emerged a successful and wealthy literary writer, who is now one of the most influential women in the world and a revered story writer.
Sarah Ban Breathnach said, “Always remember that striving and struggles precede success, even in the dictionary”.
If it were easy to achieve success, everyone would have what they want. The reason why only a few people ever achieved success is that most people can’t simply fight for it.
Most people give up too early. Most people make excuses. Most people drop out of the school of struggles so early.
As you wake up this morning, promise yourself never to look back, no matter how difficult your path is.
Despite several failures and rejections, Joanne Rowling still believed in her literary work and strove to make it known to the world.
Don’t relent, keep striving!!
