The Fringe Benefit Of Failure Speech

“Can you live in that moment, as best as you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart? If you can do that gentlemen then you’re perfect.” Doesn't take much dose it? This speech has so much meaning and and purpose behind it.

“I did not fail , I just found out 1000 ways it won’t work” Thomas Edison

From the beginning she pulls the readers attention, she uses a metaphor “Eventually being perfect day after day, year after year, became like always carrying a backpack filled with bricks on my back”(Quindlen, 296). This metaphor is the most significant part of her speech as she continues to refer to this metaphor throughout the speech. She uses this for the purpose of appealing to the audience in a meaningful, and personal way, creating a connection between her and the audience as most students, not only college students, can probably relate to the feeling of being heavily put down by something , not necessarily what she is talking about. Her use of pathos is what makes the speech so appealing and interesting, because she makes it so relatable and easy to understand.

Hundreds of students, parents, and faculty members gathered and created an audience to witness J.K Rowling’s speech at Harvard University in 2008. J.K Rowling is a well-known author, famous for her Harry Potter book series, and much more. Rowling’s speech was well thought out, and delivered excellently, with three main points she addresses throughout the speech. The three points being: failure can lead a person to success, never give up hope on your dreams and aspirations, and lastly Rowling emphasizes the importance of imagination. Sometimes we fail to see that the obstacles in our life help shape the road to our success in the future, and Rowling points out to us that failures and obstacles is what helped us become successful , and to never ignore that.

However, there are many great people who had overcome adversity through being grit. For example, a famous author, J.K. Rowling is known for her best-selling series Harry Potter. However, Rowling was not rich or famous before the series, she faced many challenges throughout her life. Around the age of twenty-five, Rowling discovered that her mother died from a disease, later, she got married, but she struggled in her marriage with her husband, soon they got a divorce. In addition, Rowling was a single mother, who took care of her daughter on welfare. Through the struggle, wanting to commit a suicide, she decided to do something that she is very passionate about, writing. At this point, Rowling’s began to take a drastic turn for the better, the idea of writing a Harry Potter book. Years later, after she had finally finished the book, she sent it to an agent, but it got declined. Even though

During adversities, J.K. Rowling finds hope in writing. Rowling has gone through many hardships in her lifetime; the death of her mother and collapse of her marriage sent Rowling into a deep depression. Being left to raise her daughter alone, Rowling had to find a way to keep going, which she did through her writing. “Despite numerous setbacks, she found solace in doing what she loved –writing” (Ostrowsky). Rowling struggled through her depression only to find that writing gave her

Another element that makes this speech effective is the use of pathos. Pathos appeals to the reader's or audience’s emotions. One example that appeals to the emotions of the audience is when Wilberforce declares, “So much misery condensed in so little room, is more than

In Mary Sherry’s essay “The Praise in the “F” Word” she discusses a technique that should be used to motivate students to do better in school. Sherry argues that the threat of failure motivates a student to apply themselves in school in order to succeed. Students who have a healthy fear of failure tend to be motivated to do better because something they desire is a risk. Many high school teachers have also awarded students with a passing grade although they actually deserved a failing grade simply because of pity. The fear of failure is the best tool to use on students in order to help them succeed and to push them for a brighter future.

Rowling, also, presents a more serious tone to the audience. For example, in her two main points of the “benefits of failure” and the “importance of imagination”, she tries to motivate those watching that failing is a part of life and she has failed many times. She tells us “Failure taught me things about myself… found out that I had friend whose value was truly above the price of rubies.” (Rowling). Using the same tone, she provides the audience with the “importance of imagination”. Since she is giving a speech to such an elite school, she believes they have not experienced failure but the fear is what scares them. The fear is of them failing when they are becoming a Harvard graduate. She thinks they have forgotten about how important imagination is by saying, “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has become one of the most popular children’s series in the world over the past decade. Through these books children and young adults alike have delved into a fantastical world in which they explored the problems that their protagonist, Harry Potter, has faced. In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth book of the Harry Potter series, Harry dealt with the challenge of proving to his peers and professors that Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape were no longer trustworthy. Even so, Harry failed to realize that the author of the notes in his Advanced Potion-Making book was corrupt. In this book, J.K. Rowling uses point of view, style, and irony to demonstrate the need for people to be more analytical

SPECIFIC PURPOSE: By the end of my speech, my audience will know the history of Walt Disney, his invention of Disney World, and how his invention has impacted people.

In 2008, author J.K. Rowling wrote and gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard University. Rowling aptly named the speech “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”. In this speech Rowling tries to convey the message that failing can be beneficial or an individual and that people should not be afraid to use their imagination. Rowling begins the speech with a reflection on what went through her mind while writing the speech and how the process affected her. During this time Rowling asked herself what she wished she had known at her graduation and came up with the two main ideas of this speech; the merits of failure and significance of imagination. Rowling explains the benefits of failure by using her own personal failure of living in poverty with her daughter and what that failure taught her. For the significance of imagination, Rowling describes it not in terms of how it helped her out of poverty, but of how it opens up people to the world and other individuals around them.

A famous saying by Al Franken goes like “Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless its a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” I think mistakes are necessary. It shapes you to become a better, wiser and a stronger person who is prepared to face further challenges as well.

In the beginning of Davies speech he explains that he is an author and how being an author is more of a state of mind rather than a job. He goes on to say that he will be quitting his job as an author and pursue a new job. Failure is something that Davies believes will come with finding a new career but he tells the university students that failure is something that is easy to live through and that the only failure that breaks the spirit and that failure is the failure in life itself. The thing about that type of failure is that it does not just come suddenly, it creeps up on you and grabs a hold on you with you knowing. Davies begins to talk to about how this failure is considered one of the seven deadly sins and this one in

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” We’ve all heard stories about people who seemed to be the recipients (deserving or not) of incredible luck. They were at a party and heard cocktail chatter about a fantastic job opportunity. They fortuitously knew a guy who knew a guy, etc.