Being a Harry Potter fan, it was natural for myself to dive into what motivated the author J.K. Rowling. She spent 17 years writing Harry Potter and devoted her life to this story. How could a poor, single mother become a billionaire?
1. She started. “I had a typewriter and a big idea,” Rowling said. How many times do we think that we don’t have what it takes to create something great or become someone wonderful? When really, everything we need is right in front of us. If you want to become a basketball player, all you need is a ball and hoop. If you want to become a musician, all you need is an instrument. There is not a complicated formula to great things. Just start. You don’t need to be great to start, but you need to start in order to be great.
2. She found a way to get the job done. Many have heard the story that Rowling began writing Harry Potter on napkins (she hadn’t gotten her typewriter yet), and this is a great example of finding a way where there seems to be no way. She was poor and working, but this did not stop her from bringing her dream into reality. On lunch breaks and late nights she would write because she was finding a way to get it done. Too often we do a lot of excuse giving and not enough finding a way.
3. She persisted without exception. One cannot spend 17 years on something and not have perseverance. What if she would have quit in the middle? She would not of touched lives like she has because of her writing. Luckily for all of us, she did continue and did see it through to the end. I am confident that there were times when she did want to quit and there were times when it was hard, but that didn’t matter to her. She kept going and produced some of the greatest novels to ever be written.
The formula isn’t complicated. Start, find a way, and persist to the end. J.K. Rowling understood these concepts and followed them to greatness. We can too.
King Your (Hogwarts) Castle