김호의 쿨 커뮤니케이션 :: 실패와 상상력: JK 롤링의 하버드 축사 중

이미 많은 분이 보셨겠지만, 저는 한 학생(아주 쿨한 학생!:)이 알려주어 읽어보게 되었습니다. 해리포터의 작가 JK 롤링이 지난 5일 미국 Harvard 대학교 졸업식에서 행한 축하 강연 <The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imaginzation>의 원고인데요. (중앙 Sunday 관련 기사) 실패와 상상력에 대해 그녀의 스토리와 교훈을 이야기하고 있습니다.

아래에 눈에 들어온 몇 구절을 옮겨 봅니다. 한글 번역본도 좋지만, 오늘같은 일요일 아침에, 인터넷 사전 두들겨가며, 영문을 한 번 그대로 읽어보는 것도 좋을 것 같습니다. 읽는 맛도 있구요.

...... 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 rubies......

(......)

Given a time machine or 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.

(......)

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.