The Crucial Importance of Imagination

J.K. Rowling, who authored the Harry Potter texts, recently gave the commencement address at Harvard for the Class of '08.
Here's an excerpt, and the full text at this link:

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

I can't begin to tell you who gave my commencement address when I graduated from OU in December of '04, mainly because I didn't go to graduation. I instead went to Vegas. Where I learned firsthand the benefits of failure at the roulette tables, and extolled the crucial importance of draining my ATM card dry. A good run of bad luck, indeed.