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

Summary

In this inspiring speech, the author of 'Eat, Pray, Love' candidly discusses the challenges of following up a bestseller and the importance of finding one's 'home'—the passion that drives creativity beyond the fear of failure or the allure of success. She emphasizes the need to return to this 'home' to ensure resilience in the face of both personal and professional upheavals, advocating for a relentless dedication to the work itself, regardless of the outcome.

Takeaways

• 🎭 The speaker identifies as the author of 'Eat, Pray, Love', which was a significant turning point in her career.
• 🚫 She faced the challenge of meeting expectations after the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love', fearing both fans and critics would be disappointed with her next work.
• 🏠 The concept of 'home' is central to the speaker's approach to writing, representing a place of comfort and dedication beyond personal ego.
• 📚 The speaker's early career was filled with rejection, but she persisted by returning to her love of writing as her 'home'.
• 🔄 Despite the stark differences in experiences, the speaker found a psychological connection between failure and success, both disorienting and distant from one's self.
• 🌌 Success and failure are both extremes that can distance one from their sense of self, with the subconscious unable to discern the difference between the two.
• 🔑 The remedy for both failure and success is to find one's way back 'home', which is a metaphor for returning to what one loves most.
• 📖 The speaker emphasizes that writing is her 'home', and she returned to it after the overwhelming success of 'Eat, Pray, Love'.
• 💣 The follow-up book to 'Eat, Pray, Love' did not achieve the same success, but the speaker was unfazed because she had rediscovered her passion for writing.
• 🛠️ The speaker encourages finding and returning to one's 'home', a place of dedication and love, regardless of external outcomes.
• 🔗 The speaker promises that by staying true to one's 'home', one can remain safe from the unpredictability of life's outcomes.

Q & A

What significant event in the author's life is mentioned at the beginning of the script?

The author was approached by two women at JFK Airport who recognized her as the person behind 'Eat, Pray, Love'.

How did the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love' impact the author's perspective on writing another book?

The success of 'Eat, Pray, Love' put the author in a difficult position, as she felt that whatever she wrote next would disappoint some readers, either because it wasn't the same as 'Eat, Pray, Love' or because it confirmed her continued existence as an author.

What did the author consider doing instead of writing after the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love'?

The author considered quitting writing and moving to the country to raise corgis due to the pressure of following up on the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love'.

What personal realization helped the author to continue writing despite the fear of failure or disappointment?

The author realized that she needed to find inspiration to write the next book regardless of its outcome, drawing from lessons she learned about creativity surviving failure earlier in her life.

What was the author's initial dream and how did she pursue it?

The author's initial dream was to become a writer, and she pursued it by writing throughout her childhood and adolescence, sending stories to The New Yorker, and continuing to write and try to get published after college while working as a diner waitress.

How did the author cope with the constant rejection she faced for almost six years?

The author coped with rejection by finding resolve in returning to the work of writing, viewing it as her home and loving it more than she hated failing at it.

What unexpected connection did the author discover between failure and success in relation to her subconscious?

The author discovered that her subconscious could not discern the difference between the emotional impact of great failure and great success, only recognizing the distance she had been flung from her normal self.

What is the 'home' the author refers to in the context of finding one's passion or purpose?

The 'home' the author refers to is whatever one loves more than oneself, which could be creativity, family, invention, adventure, faith, service, or any other devotion that makes the results inconsequential.

How did the author manage to publish the follow-up to 'Eat, Pray, Love' despite the fear of failure?

The author managed to publish the follow-up by returning to her 'home' of writing, focusing on the devotion of writing itself rather than the outcome.

What was the reception of the author's book after 'Eat, Pray, Love', and how did she feel about it?

The follow-up book to 'Eat, Pray, Love' bombed, but the author was fine with it, feeling bulletproof because she had returned to writing out of devotion.

What advice does the author give for dealing with great success or failure?

The author advises to identify the thing one loves most, build one's 'home' on top of it, and fight one's way back to that home through diligence, devotion, and performing the tasks that love calls forth, regardless of the outcome.