06/07/2026
Joanne was in love with books when she was young.
However, by the time she became an adult, her world had begun to fall apart.
First, her mother died early due to multiple sclerosis.
Following her mother’s death, her relationship with her father became strained and stayed that way.
She had an abusive marriage and a miscarriage.
A public divorce followed and social ostracisation.
Her career went nowhere, leading to financial distress.
As a single mother of a toddler, with no job at hand, she was reduced to queuing up at a post office to collect her weekly dole from Social Security.
Somewhere around this time, an idea of a story popped into her head in the way ideas do.
Instead of rejecting the idea, she embraced it and developed it.
She had a book idea in mind, but faced 12 rejections.
She had the clarity that her story would require a total of 7 books, but had not yet written out her first book fully.
So bad was her financial situation that she didn’t even have the money to photocopy her manuscript.
She plodded through like this for 7 years before Bloomsbury decided to publish her book. Even then, they told her, ‘You’ll never make any money out of children’s books, Jo.’ Of course, you already know who I am talking about.
Joanne Kennedy Rowling, aka JK Rowling.
The point of the story is NOT that she made it.
She had no clue she would.
Her publishers, who are supposed to know the market, had no clue the story would succeed the way it did.
Hence, the point of the story is NOT that she made it.
The point is that when the idea chose to express itself through her, she did not block it.
She embraced the idea.
She became the perfect conductor, the zariya for the story.
The point of the story is that creativity is a calling.
All of us feel that calling at some point in our lives.
A story, a song, an idea that invites us.
The point of the story is that creativity is a choice.
To listen to that calling is a choice.
The point of the story is also that creativity is not just having an idea - it means bringing that idea to life.
That writing is daily practice. Singing is a verb.
Creator may be a noun, but creating is a verb.
That writing is daily practice.
One should not give up Riyaz, just because nobody is listening.
That is our purpose - to live our story.
To honour it. To honour our uniqueness.
Creativity is not talent.
Creativity is not high IQ or Genius.
First, it is an act of courage.
Courage to believe in an idea, even when nobody does.
Madness, perhaps, to think of our work, our talents, as an obligation to the world around us.
A creative person, in my book, is someone who dances to their song and brings it to life.
May we all learn how to dance to our song.
Amen. Aameen.
