Increasingly, Bill Gates says, he values "people who have the long-term commitment, who can deal with the ups and downs, with the unfair things that happen to them."
Story Line:
As a child, she enjoyed writing fantasy stories.
In 1990, her mother died, after her ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis. The loss affected her deeply.
In 1992, she moved to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language.
In 1993, she separated from her husband.
A single mother, she moved back to her home country with a one year old daughter.
In 1995, while unemployed and on welfare, she wrote a novel using an old manual typewriter.
The manuscript was submitted to twelve publishing houses; all of them rejected it.
A year later, editor of a small publishing house decided to publish a few copies because his eight year old daughter read the story and loved it.
Although he agreed to publish the book, he advised her to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in books for children.
A few years later, Forbes named Joanne "Jo" Murray (aka JK Rowling) as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing books, the second-richest female entertainer and the 1,062nd richest person in the world. She gives away millions in donations every year.
Reflection: "There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you are fighting for" -Paulo Coelho