J.K.罗琳：逆境的价值

为什么我还要谈起失败的好处呢？

简单的说，是因为失败会为我们揭去表面那些无关紧要的东西。

我不再装模作样，终于重新做回自己，开始将所有的精力投入到自己最在意的工作中。

如果我此前有任何其它方面的成功，我恐怕都会失去在自己真正归属的舞台上获得成功的决心。

我最大的恐惧终于成为现实，而我却因此获得了自由，我还活着，还有我深爱的女儿，我还有一架老式打字机和一个伟大的梦想。

这片困境的低谷成为了我重筑人生的坚固的垫脚石。

你们也许不会像我摔得这样惨，但是人生路上总会有些失败。

你也许可以毫无波澜地度过一生，但你将活得如此小心翼翼，就好像你几乎没有活过——不管从什么意义上讲，你都注定要失败的。

失败赋予我内心的安全感，而这绝对是考试及格不能让我感受到的。

失败教会了我许多其它地方学不到的东西。

我发现自己比想象中更加坚强，更加自律；我还发现我拥有比宝石还要珍贵的朋友。

你在挫折中成长，变得更聪明，更勇敢，这意味着从此以后你已拥有了牢不可催的生存能力。

直到通过逆境的考验，你才会真正了解自己，了解身边的人。

这些认知都是宝贵的财富，是我历经艰辛才获得的财富，这比我得到的任何资格证书都更有价值。

如果能够让时光倒流，我会告诉21岁的自己，幸福在于懂得人生不是收获和成就的清单。

你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活。尽管你会遇到很多我这样年纪、甚至比我更老的人，他们至今还在混淆二者。

生活是残酷的，也是复杂的，更不处于任何人的掌控；而谦逊地了解这一点，会帮助安然你度过生活中的风浪。

The Value of Adversity

By J.K. Rowling

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?

Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.

I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged.

I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.

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.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.

Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.

I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.

Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.

Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

整理：2024 年 5 月 17 日于大理亚奢酒店