TED Talks: Creativity

1. Title: Success, Failure and The Drive To Keep Creating

2. Speaker: Elizabeth Gilbert

3. Presentation Date: March 2014

4. Date Viewed: September 2014

5. Summary of the Talk: Elizabeth Gilbert was once an unpublished diner waitress, devastated by rejection letters. In the wake of the success of her book 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. In this talk, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.

6. Interesting Things I Learned from the Talk: Something interesting that I learned from this talk was about the story of Elizabeth Gilbert. After her book Eat, Pray, Love had so much success I would have never guessed that she previously had been rejected so many times. I love her discussion about "what home is," and that she is not afraid to talk about her failures.

7. Evaluation of the Presenter: I feel like I really connected with the talk with Elizabeth Gilbert. I have so much respect for a person who can publicly talk about their failures. I can relate with her on many different levels on putting yourself out there and failing. It is motivational to hear that it's okay to take time to pick yourself up afterwards and try again.

8. Evaluation of the Talk: Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this TED Talk. I have much more respect for Elizabeth Gilbert as an author after hearing her story, and I will look forward to reading more of her "successful" books.