Some famous failure-to-success stories

It’s easy to look at wildly successful people and think they had it all figured out from the start.

But you may be surprised to learn that some of the most successful people didn’t have an easy life.

Some grew up in poverty and worked low-paying jobs (like Ronald Read, the janitor who secretly became a millionaire). Others went through rejection after rejection (see Jack Ma’, founder of Alibaba).

Some, like Ray Kroc – the man who turned McDonald’s into a global empire, were close to losing everything. And a few found success later in life, long after most people had given up (think of Harland Sanders, who franchised KFC at age 62).

Likewise, J.K. Rowling – the mother of Harry Potter series, the most popular books after The Holy Bible, had challenging teenage and adult years.

Her life story is best captured in the 2007 documentary J.K.Rowling: A year in the life.

Who Is J.K.Rowling?

J.K.Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on July 31st, 1965. She grew up in Yate, a small town in Gloucestershire, South West of England.

Her parents were part of the middle class – her father was an assembly-line production worker at a factory in Bristol and her mother was a science technician.

Joanne grew up with her younger sister, Dianne, and the two were very close – as was Joanne with her mother, who encouraged her love of storytelling from an early age.

But life at home wasn’t easy.

Sadly, at just the age of 34, Joanne’s mother Anne, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to stop working.

This made Joanne’s teenage years challenging. As the oldest child, she had to take care of both her sister and her father, who wasn’t doing well after her mother’s illness.

Her relationship with her father became strained, and they eventually stopped speaking altogether.

Still, she held onto her passion for writing.

Joanne went to the University of Exter to study French and later took a course to work as a bilingual secretary. She worked various temp jobs in London, all while writing on the side, but none of her stories had ever been published.

The Train Ride That Changed Everything

In 1990, Rowling was often travelling by train, to visit her boyfriend in Manchester. On one of these trips, the train had a several hours delay, and as she stared out the window, an idea began to form.

A young boy. A boy who didn’t know he was a wizard.

By the time the train finally reached its destination, she had the seed of Harry Potter in her mind – not just the character, but the entire world that would later enchant millions.

She didn’t have a pen or paper during that journey, so the ideas swirled in her imagination until she could finally write them down in her small apartment.

That delay, an ordinary inconvenience for most, became the spark for one of the most beloved stories ever told.

The Darkest, Most Difficult Times

By the end of the same year, Joanne’s mother passed away.

She never knew her daughter worked on the Harry Potter book.

The loss of her mother had a deep and profound effect on Joanne. Soon after, her relationship with her boyfriend fell apart, and she was made redundant from her office job in Manchester. Within months, Joanne’s life had unraveled.

Seeking a new start, Joanne decided to move to Porto, Portugal to teach English at night and continue writing during the day.

She met her future husband there and married two years later. They had a daughter in 1993.

Sadly, Joanne’s marriage quickly turned abusive. After a year, the relationship ended violently when her husband threw her out of the house.

She returned to UK as a single mother, carrying her baby, a suitcase, and a half-finished manuscript about a boy wizard.

They moved into a small old apartment and lived according to Joanne’s words “extremely poorly, without being homeless”.

During this time, Joanne also battled severe depression, describing it in the documentary about her life as:

“All the colour drained out of life.”

Rowling and Her Daughter on Social Security

At that point, she saw herself a failure – divorced, a single mom and jobless.

Little did she know at the time, that what she saw as a curse, was actually a blessing in disguise. Losing her job gave her one precious gift: time.

And she poured that time into writing.

With her baby in a stroller beside her, she spent hours in Edinburgh cafés, scribbling away at the story of Harry Potter.

She could never have imagined that at the lowest point in her life, she was creating a book the world had never seen.

A book, that would make her the richest author in the world, with a net worth of $1 billion.

But success didn’t happen overnight.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone was finished in June 1995, FIVE years after the idea had first come to her on that delayed train ride.

She submitted it to twelve publishing houses and they all rejected it.

Finally the manuscript landed at Bloomsburry Publishing, as their current director found his eight- year-old daughter devouring page after page, and insisted she needed to read the rest.

The success that followed after publishing was unprecedented.

By 2008 Forbes named J.K.Rowling the highest-paid author of all time.

Six more books followed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone. They were translated to numerous languages, allowing readers from different countries and cultures to access the magical world of J.K. Rowling.

And in 2001, Warner Bros released the first film adaptation, turning Harry Potter into a global cultural phenomenon.

What’s the Secret Behind J.K. Rowling’s Massive Success?

Joanne Rowling always knew she wanted to become a writer.

She wrote her first short story at the age of 6.

She never imagined she would become so famous, but she knew she loved books and she loved writing. Her earlier works were never published. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone took 5 years to be finished.

But the story was so powerful because it came straight from the bottom of her soul.

Much of the magic was rooted in her own pain, as the story in a way reflected her own life. The early loss of her mother shaped her deeply, and it showed in her writing.

The Mirror of Erised – the mystical mirror discovered by Harry in an abandoned classroom in Philosopher’s Stone, was showing not a person’s face but Harry’s deepest desire to see his parents.

It was Rowling’s way of processing her own grief. She admitted in interviews that the mirror was about her own longing to see her mother again.

Despite her struggles and battling depression, she continued working on her book, in cafes where she could escape the prison of her home.

She once said it was writing that saved her life, because whenever she couldn’t bear reality, she could lose herself in the world she was creating.

Joanne Rowling turned failure into success because she found her passion. She didn’t follow trends – she didn’t pick a career just for the money. She wrote because she loved writing.

It takes years to develop your skill in writing and even then, there are no guarantees you’ll make a steady income out of it.

She didn’t force inspiration– she let inspiration find her during a train delay.

Joanne succeeded because she was authentic. Many parts from the Harry Potter story were borrowed from her own life – the magical world of Hogwarts is related in a way to Rowling joining a Brownies pack as a teenager.They often organised special events and parties, and had their pack groups (Fairies, Pixies, Sprites, Elves, Gnomes and Imps).

She never gave up on her dream of becoming a writer – despite being rejected multiple times.

What You Can Learn from J.K. Rowling If You Want to Be Successful

If there’s one big takeaway from Rowling’s story, it’s this: success starts with passion.

Find what you’re good at – it could be teaching, painting, coding, pet grooming, public speaking or organising parties.

The list is endless.

Then turn it into a profession, even if at first it seems unrealistic.

Don’t worry how the money will come.

Don’t choose a path just because it’s “safe,” well-paid, or trendy. Trends change. Jobs come and go. But passion stays. And while there’s no guarantee you’ll become a millionaire, ask yourself: “Do you really think you’ll get rich by something you dread every single day?“

I think you’ll lose so much energy resisting it, you will never be successful.

By doing something that you love, you will live a satisfying life.

And work satisfaction creates an upward spiral that spills in any area of life. Once you find what you love doing, don’t give up until you reach your goals.

Success usually comes after a chain of failures

Be prepared that you will get rejected many times. Just don’t let setbacks, criticism or negativity get in your way and stop your progress.

Imagine if Rowling had given up after her fifth rejection?

Or her sixth? Or if she had let herself sink in depression after her divorce and never finished the book?

That’s right – the world would never have known Harry Potter.

This story is a proof that if you’re motivated, inspired and persistent enough, success is not a matter of “If”, but a matter of “When”.

Want more inspiration?

Check out more articles on success and famous failure-to-success stories.

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