ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Elizabeth Gilbert - Writer
The author of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some big topics. Her fascinations: genius, creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both.

Why you should listen

Elizabeth Gilbert faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of -- running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home.

She's a longtime magazine writer -- covering music and politics for Spin and GQ -- as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection Pilgrims, the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. Her work has been the basis for two movies so far (Coyote Ugly, based on her own tale of working at the famously raunchy bar in New York City), and Eat, Pray, Love, with the part of Gilbert played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.

In 2010, Elizabeth published Committed, a memoir exploring her ambivalent feelings about the institution of marriage. And her 2013 novel, The Signature of All Things, is "a sprawling tale of 19th century botanical exploration."

Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop Two Buttons in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

More profile about the speaker
Elizabeth Gilbert | Speaker | TED.com
TED2014

Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating

Filmed:
5,069,463 views

Elizabeth Gilbert was once an "unpublished diner waitress," devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple -- though hard -- way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.
- Writer
The author of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some big topics. Her fascinations: genius, creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
So, a few years ago I was at JFK Airport
0
797
2781
00:15
about to get on a flight,
1
3578
1792
00:17
when I was approached by two women
2
5370
1816
00:19
who I do not think would be insulted
3
7186
1662
00:21
to hear themselves described
4
8848
1394
00:22
as tiny old tough-talking Italian-American broads.
5
10242
3942
00:26
The taller one, who is like up here,
6
14184
3146
00:29
she comes marching up to me, and she goes,
7
17330
2051
00:31
"Honey, I gotta ask you something.
8
19381
2319
00:33
You got something to do with that whole
9
21700
1428
00:35
'Eat, Pray, Love' thing that's been going on lately?"
10
23128
3022
00:38
And I said, "Yes, I did."
11
26150
2114
00:40
And she smacks her friend and she goes,
12
28264
1788
00:42
"See, I told you, I said, that's that girl.
13
30052
2154
00:44
That's that girl who wrote that book
14
32206
1950
00:46
based on that movie."
15
34156
2034
00:48
(Laughter)
16
36190
2154
00:50
So that's who I am.
17
38344
2176
00:52
And believe me, I'm extremely
grateful to be that person,
18
40520
3705
00:56
because that whole "Eat, Pray, Love" thing
19
44225
1998
00:58
was a huge break for me.
20
46223
1744
01:00
But it also left me in a really tricky position
21
47967
2508
01:02
moving forward as an author
22
50475
1908
01:04
trying to figure out how in the world
23
52383
1727
01:06
I was ever going to write a book again
24
54110
1254
01:07
that would ever please anybody,
25
55364
1845
01:09
because I knew well in advance
26
57209
1990
01:11
that all of those people who
had adored "Eat, Pray, Love"
27
59199
2952
01:14
were going to be incredibly disappointed
28
62151
1589
01:15
in whatever I wrote next
29
63740
1383
01:17
because it wasn't going to be "Eat, Pray, Love,"
30
65123
1828
01:19
and all of those people who
had hated "Eat, Pray, Love"
31
66951
2446
01:21
were going to be incredibly disappointed
32
69397
1368
01:22
in whatever I wrote next
33
70765
1443
01:24
because it would provide evidence that I still lived.
34
72208
2453
01:26
So I knew that I had no way to win,
35
74661
3162
01:30
and knowing that I had no way to win
36
77823
2456
01:32
made me seriously consider for a while
37
80279
1904
01:34
just quitting the game
38
82183
1442
01:35
and moving to the country to raise corgis.
39
83625
3642
01:39
But if I had done that, if I had given up writing,
40
87267
2060
01:41
I would have lost my beloved vocation,
41
89327
2064
01:43
so I knew that the task was that I had to find
42
91391
2208
01:45
some way to gin up the inspiration
43
93599
2399
01:48
to write the next book
44
95998
1432
01:49
regardless of its inevitable negative outcome.
45
97430
2496
01:52
In other words, I had to find a way to make sure
46
99926
1608
01:53
that my creativity survived its own success.
47
101534
2643
01:56
And I did, in the end, find that inspiration,
48
104177
2423
01:58
but I found it in the most unlikely
49
106600
1538
02:00
and unexpected place.
50
108138
1414
02:01
I found it in lessons that I had learned earlier in life
51
109552
3140
02:04
about how creativity can survive its own failure.
52
112692
3108
02:08
So just to back up and explain,
53
115800
1606
02:09
the only thing I have ever wanted to be
54
117406
2313
02:11
for my whole life was a writer.
55
119719
1597
02:13
I wrote all through childhood,
all through adolescence,
56
121316
2372
02:15
by the time I was a teenager I was sending
57
123688
1816
02:17
my very bad stories to The New Yorker,
58
125504
1836
02:19
hoping to be discovered.
59
127340
1276
02:20
After college, I got a job as a diner waitress,
60
128616
2444
02:23
kept working, kept writing,
61
131060
2136
02:25
kept trying really hard to get published,
62
133196
2248
02:27
and failing at it.
63
135444
1712
02:29
I failed at getting published
64
137156
1472
02:30
for almost six years.
65
138628
1576
02:32
So for almost six years, every single day,
66
140204
1608
02:34
I had nothing but rejection letters
67
141812
1656
02:35
waiting for me in my mailbox.
68
143468
1652
02:37
And it was devastating every single time,
69
145120
1750
02:39
and every single time, I had to ask myself
70
146870
2244
02:41
if I should just quit while I was behind
71
149114
2386
02:43
and give up and spare myself this pain.
72
151500
3690
02:47
But then I would find my resolve,
73
155190
1294
02:48
and always in the same way,
74
156484
1522
02:50
by saying, "I'm not going to quit,
75
158006
2145
02:52
I'm going home."
76
160151
1821
02:54
And you have to understand that for me,
77
161972
948
02:55
going home did not mean
returning to my family's farm.
78
162920
3572
02:58
For me, going home
79
166492
1558
03:00
meant returning to the work of writing
80
168050
1551
03:01
because writing was my home,
81
169601
1885
03:03
because I loved writing more
than I hated failing at writing,
82
171486
3216
03:06
which is to say that I loved writing
83
174702
1505
03:08
more than I loved my own ego,
84
176207
1573
03:09
which is ultimately to say
85
177780
1404
03:11
that I loved writing more than I loved myself.
86
179184
2592
03:13
And that's how I pushed through it.
87
181776
1966
03:15
But the weird thing is that 20 years later,
88
183742
1864
03:17
during the crazy ride of "Eat, Pray, Love,"
89
185606
1498
03:19
I found myself identifying all over again
90
187104
2606
03:21
with that unpublished young diner waitress
91
189710
2400
03:24
who I used to be, thinking about her constantly,
92
192110
2168
03:26
and feeling like I was her again,
93
194278
1858
03:28
which made no rational sense whatsoever
94
196136
1765
03:30
because our lives could not
have been more different.
95
197901
1977
03:32
She had failed constantly.
96
199878
1448
03:33
I had succeeded beyond my wildest expectation.
97
201326
2644
03:36
We had nothing in common.
98
203970
1350
03:37
Why did I suddenly feel like I was her all over again?
99
205320
3166
03:40
And it was only when I was trying to unthread that
100
208486
2370
03:43
that I finally began to comprehend
101
210856
1602
03:44
the strange and unlikely psychological connection
102
212458
2404
03:47
in our lives between the way
we experience great failure
103
214862
2534
03:49
and the way we experience great success.
104
217396
2236
03:51
So think of it like this:
105
219632
1470
03:53
For most of your life, you live out your existence
106
221102
1750
03:55
here in the middle of the chain of human experience
107
222852
2443
03:57
where everything is normal
and reassuring and regular,
108
225295
3078
04:00
but failure catapults you abruptly way out over here
109
228373
3460
04:04
into the blinding darkness of disappointment.
110
231833
2934
04:06
Success catapults you just as abruptly but just as far
111
234767
3554
04:10
way out over here
112
238321
1368
04:11
into the equally blinding glare
113
239689
1862
04:13
of fame and recognition and praise.
114
241551
2852
04:16
And one of these fates
115
244403
1202
04:17
is objectively seen by the world as bad,
116
245605
2217
04:20
and the other one is objectively
seen by the world as good,
117
247822
2057
04:22
but your subconscious is completely incapable
118
249879
2648
04:24
of discerning the difference between bad and good.
119
252527
2728
04:27
The only thing that it is capable of feeling
120
255255
2141
04:29
is the absolute value of this emotional equation,
121
257396
3460
04:33
the exact distance that you have been flung
122
260856
2615
04:35
from yourself.
123
263471
1368
04:37
And there's a real equal danger in both cases
124
264839
2056
04:39
of getting lost out there
125
266895
1546
04:40
in the hinterlands of the psyche.
126
268441
2024
04:42
But in both cases, it turns out that there is
127
270465
1533
04:44
also the same remedy for self-restoration,
128
271998
2824
04:47
and that is that you have got to
find your way back home again
129
274822
3598
04:50
as swiftly and smoothly as you can,
130
278420
2267
04:52
and if you're wondering what your home is,
131
280687
1472
04:54
here's a hint:
132
282159
1086
04:55
Your home is whatever in this world you love
133
283245
2226
04:57
more than you love yourself.
134
285471
1914
04:59
So that might be creativity, it might be family,
135
287385
2086
05:01
it might be invention, adventure,
136
289471
1976
05:03
faith, service, it might be raising corgis,
137
291447
2792
05:06
I don't know, your home is that thing
138
294239
1900
05:08
to which you can dedicate your energies
139
296139
1772
05:10
with such singular devotion
140
297911
2046
05:12
that the ultimate results become inconsequential.
141
299957
3402
05:15
For me, that home has always been writing.
142
303359
2504
05:18
So after the weird, disorienting success
143
305863
2572
05:20
that I went through with "Eat, Pray, Love,"
144
308435
1698
05:22
I realized that all I had to do was exactly
145
310133
1414
05:23
the same thing that I used to have to do all the time
146
311547
1984
05:25
when I was an equally disoriented failure.
147
313531
2230
05:27
I had to get my ass back to work,
148
315761
1778
05:29
and that's what I did, and that's how, in 2010,
149
317539
2508
05:32
I was able to publish the dreaded follow-up
150
320047
2354
05:34
to "Eat, Pray, Love."
151
322401
888
05:35
And you know what happened with that book?
152
323289
1576
05:37
It bombed, and I was fine.
153
324865
2711
05:39
Actually, I kind of felt bulletproof,
154
327576
1849
05:41
because I knew that I had broken the spell
155
329425
2120
05:43
and I had found my way back home
156
331545
1645
05:45
to writing for the sheer devotion of it.
157
333190
2611
05:48
And I stayed in my home of writing after that,
158
335801
2136
05:50
and I wrote another book that just came out last year
159
337937
1832
05:51
and that one was really beautifully received,
160
339769
1645
05:53
which is very nice, but not my point.
161
341414
1496
05:55
My point is that I'm writing another one now,
162
342910
2290
05:57
and I'll write another book after that
163
345200
1187
05:58
and another and another and another
164
346387
1830
06:00
and many of them will fail,
165
348217
1198
06:01
and some of them might succeed,
166
349415
1628
06:03
but I will always be safe
167
351043
1596
06:04
from the random hurricanes of outcome
168
352639
2372
06:07
as long as I never forget where I rightfully live.
169
355011
3550
06:10
Look, I don't know where you rightfully live,
170
358561
2402
06:13
but I know that there's something in this world
171
360963
1670
06:14
that you love more than you love yourself.
172
362633
2072
06:16
Something worthy, by the way,
173
364705
1415
06:18
so addiction and infatuation don't count,
174
366120
1991
06:20
because we all know that those
are not safe places to live. Right?
175
368111
4107
06:24
The only trick is that you've got to identify
176
372218
2047
06:26
the best, worthiest thing that you love most,
177
374265
2464
06:28
and then build your house right on top of it
178
376729
2371
06:31
and don't budge from it.
179
379100
1877
06:33
And if you should someday, somehow
180
380977
2344
06:35
get vaulted out of your home
181
383321
1944
06:37
by either great failure or great success,
182
385265
2440
06:39
then your job is to fight your
way back to that home
183
387705
2165
06:42
the only way that it has ever been done,
184
389870
1785
06:43
by putting your head down and performing
185
391655
2189
06:46
with diligence and devotion
186
393844
1822
06:47
and respect and reverence
187
395666
1686
06:49
whatever the task is that love
188
397352
2044
06:51
is calling forth from you next.
189
399396
2080
06:53
You just do that, and keep doing that
190
401476
2184
06:55
again and again and again,
191
403660
1649
06:57
and I can absolutely promise you,
from long personal experience
192
405309
2656
07:00
in every direction, I can assure you
193
407965
2255
07:02
that it's all going to be okay.
194
410220
2070
07:04
Thank you.
195
412290
1691
07:06
(Applause)
196
413981
4000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Elizabeth Gilbert - Writer
The author of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some big topics. Her fascinations: genius, creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both.

Why you should listen

Elizabeth Gilbert faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of -- running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir Eat, Pray, Love, about her process of finding herself by leaving home.

She's a longtime magazine writer -- covering music and politics for Spin and GQ -- as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection Pilgrims, the novel Stern Men (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called The Last American Man. Her work has been the basis for two movies so far (Coyote Ugly, based on her own tale of working at the famously raunchy bar in New York City), and Eat, Pray, Love, with the part of Gilbert played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off.

In 2010, Elizabeth published Committed, a memoir exploring her ambivalent feelings about the institution of marriage. And her 2013 novel, The Signature of All Things, is "a sprawling tale of 19th century botanical exploration."

Gilbert also owns and runs the import shop Two Buttons in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

More profile about the speaker
Elizabeth Gilbert | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM