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Transcript

Failure is a Gift · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you hear the name JK Rowling, what comes to mind?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: You probably picture an ultra successful author whose books are adored by millions of readers all over the world.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: As the author of the Harry Potter series, she has achieved a level of fame and fortune that very few authors will ever know.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't always that way.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just a handful of years before she published the first Harry Potter book, J.K.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Rowling was a poor, jobless, single mother who was fresh off of a divorce.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: She had conceived of the idea for the Harry Potter series a few years earlier, and now she was at a low point in her life, so she had time to give her full attention to her writing.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Rowling later reflected on this experience in a 2008 commencement speech at Harvard University.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: She said this, Why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think of failure as a curse, as something to avoid.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what if failure was actually a gift?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: What if your failure was the soil that helped grow your confidence?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: What if your failure gave you the opportunity to do the thing that you really wanted to do?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Failure has a way, as J.K.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Rowling pointed out, it has a way of stripping away the inessential.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: But what does that mean?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: What things are inessential?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of answers you could probably give to that question, but the most important thing that failure strips away is expectations.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: When nobody's expecting anything from you, it's a great gift because there's no opportunity to disappoint anybody.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's no critics, there's no crowd to please, and there are no internet trolls ready to pounce on your every word.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if you feel like you're at kind of a low point right now, I know this sounds odd, but I want you to take a moment and be a little bit grateful.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Use this opportunity to be daring, to do something bold and unexpected.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Write that weird story that's been swimming around in your head for a while, the one that nobody would expect from you.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or use this time to start that blog, that podcast, or that video channel that you've been thinking about for so long.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, the best gifts come in unexpected wrapping.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be too quick to run away from the failure that you might be feeling right now.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It might honestly be the best gift that you've ever received.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you think you have failed in some big way, how can you use that experience to get moving in the right direction?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about failure, a lot of people relate to that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that 81% of people say they want to write a book, but only 5% of people actually follow through with it?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of reasons why some people probably never reach their writing dreams, but two of the main ones are that people don't know how to get started and they don't have a supportive community.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if that describes you, you will love Writer's Talk, a brand new app for writers.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: When you join Writers Talk, you'll get immediate access to hundreds of instructional videos from authors, editors, screenwriters, publishers, and more, including a training video by yours truly.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Writers Talk also includes a tool that helps you come up with more ideas.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Think TikTok or Instagram reels, but with writing prompts.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And best of all, Writers Talk includes a community where you can collaborate with other authors and upload your stories to the library for ratings and reviews from other writers just like you.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Writers Talk is only$4.99 a month, and that's just the price of a coffee.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out by going to writers talk.app or you can search for Writers Talk on the App Store or Google Play.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really fun app.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've already downloaded it and subscribed myself.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of fun, and I think you'll really enjoy it.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So check it out at writerstalk.app.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.