This is J.K. Rowling, speaking at Harvard's graduation in 2008.

At your age, what she dreaded was not being poor. It was failing.

Seven years after graduating, her marriage was over and she raised a child with no job.

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

Failure cleared away everything that did not matter, and she stopped pretending.

Every hour she had left went into the one piece of work that still mattered to her.

Long before the books, she worked at Amnesty International in London.

She read letters people had smuggled out of harsh regimes, risking prison to be heard.

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already."

No one gets through a life without failing at something, she told them.

A life is not a list of the things you achieve or the things you own.

She closed with a line from Seneca. "As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."