DOZ Leadership Lessons
Eturuvie Erebor
J.K ROWLING
J
.K Rowling needs no
introduction, but for
those who don’t know
the woman behind Harry
Porter, J.K Rowling was
born Joanne Rowling on
the 31st of July 1965. She
writes using the pen names J.K
Rowling and Robert Galbraith.
She wrote the Harry Porter
series. She is a novelist, film
producer, television producer,
screenwriter, and philanthropist.
In 1990, while on a delayed train
from Manchester to London,
she conceived the idea of a
young boy attending a school
of wizardry which would lead
to the Harry Porter book series.
She had just left her job with
Amnesty International where
she had worked as a researcher
and bilingual secretary and
was working at the Chamber of
Commerce. Her dream did not
DOZ Magazine | May 2019
materialise immediately. She
would wait seven years to see it
manifest, but in 1997, the first
novel in the series, titled, Harry
Porter and the Philosopher’s
Stone was released. During
this seven years of waiting
J.K Rowling would have many
experiences in her life, she
would lose her mother, give
birth to her daughter, get a
divorce from her first husband,
lose her job and experience
poverty. It has been suggested
that she suffered domestic
abuse in her marriage and
clinical depression afterward to
the point of being suicidal. Her
manuscript was also rejected by
twelve publishing houses before
publication. The book excelled
on release even winning several
awards. She wrote and released
the second in what was to
become a book series with
8
seven titles. In October 1998,
the film rights to her first two
novels were acquired by Warner
Bros for a seven-figure sum.
Since then she has written and
released five other Harry Porter
titles the last being Harry Porter
and the Deadly Hallows, which
was released in 2007. With the
Harry Porter series completed,
she released other novels under
the pen name Robert Galbraith.
J.K Rowling went from rags to
riches; she once lived on state
benefits but has made her mark
as the world’s first billionaire
author. Although she lost her
billionaire status when she gave
most of her wealth to charity,
she remains a very wealthy
woman by any standard and
is rated one of the wealthiest
people alive.