The year is 1994, a woman has just divorced her husband after filing a restraining order against him, and has now fallen into a deep depression. She is now jobless, her marriage is over and she’s living off of welfare benefits in order to take care of her five year old daughter. Prior to these events, her mother died from multiple sclerosis, the relationship she had with her father had deteriorated and she suffered a miscarriage. She was on the verge of suicide after this cruel fate of suffering and unexpected struggles.
Years later she would say:

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

Instead of quitting, she began writing and by 1995 the first novel in theseries of Harry Potter books was submitted to book agents and JK Rowling would later became one of the most successful writers in the world and theworld’s first billionaire author.

However, this story is not that simple. Even after finishing the manuscript for the first Harry Potter book and submitting it to publishing houses, it was rejected. Rowling, after enduring all of the unexpected and horrific strugglesthat life threw at her, had taken responsibility for her life and embraced struggle and created something magical, twelve publishing houses had now dealt her further struggle by rejecting the novel. Rowling had carried an incredible amount of struggle on her shoulders thus far so she was not going to stop after twelve more weights of struggles were added to her load. Each time a publishing house rejected her hard work, she embraced it and kept struggling. The thirteenth publisher she submitted her novel to accepted Harry Potter. What would have happened had Rowling given up after thefirst rejection?

Keep On Struggling

Gregor

Cover I’m Enjoying - Back to Black by Sam Fender

I’m alway hesitant when an artist covers a song by such a meaningful cultural icon as they could butcher it. However, Sam Fender did anything but that. He alters it in such way that maintains the sorrowful theme of Winehouse, but that also adds his own spin. Highlights for me are Fender’s vocals and the saxophone solo.

Watch Sam Fender’s BBC Radio Live Lounge performance below.

WATCH HERE

Documentary I Found Meaningful - Lead Me Home

Lead Me Home follows “California’s homeless population as housing costs soar, pushing more of thedisadvantaged onto the streets.”
I found this short documentary very impactful as it effectively portrays thecontrast between the lucky lives that many of us lead compared to those less fortunate. It shows, rather than tells, themes of hope, gratitude and all of those small things that we take for granted, like a morning cup of coffee in our warm homes.

Watch the trailer for Lead Me Home Below.

WATCH HERE

Podcast I’m Enjoying - Get Started Investing

“Get Started Investing is all about helping beginner investors break down barriers.” And they do just that. I’ve been looking to learn more about personal finance ever since I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and stumbled across these guys, who have simplified investing into bite-sized and comprehensive chunks. I’ve learned a lot from listening and will be checking out the rest of the Equity Mates podcasts in the future.

Listen to the podcast below.

LISTEN HERE

Quote to Ponder

The largest one is probably understanding how to interpret things that other people are saying in situations where their goals do not full align with yours. A common rookie error that inexperienced leaders make is always agreeing with the last person they talked to; this takes a while to get past, though it becomes easy once you get exposed to enough people who contradict each other. A good strategy is reasoning counterfactually: if someone tells you that X is true, ask yourself—(i) what would they say if X really is true, and (ii) what would they say if X is false? If the answer to (i) and (ii) is “they will say roughly what they just said now,” then their words provided you with exactly zero information. In general, know when it’s really important not to take people’s words at 100 percent face value - Vitalik Buterin

References

https://www.mayooshin.com/j-k-rowling-how-to-deal-with-failure-in-life/

Stock Images - Rawpixel.com

Sam Fender Image Credit - Irishtimes.com