Larson's Cultural Myths- Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, Failure, and the Drive to Keep Creating

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going. - See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf

lizabeth Gilbert: Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going.
- See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf

Larson's cultural myths concept posits that an audience will respond to different types of persuasion based on the subconscious cultural myths it holds. Persuaders rely on these myths to further enhance the influence they will have on an audience. Elizabeth Gilbert, famed author of "Eat, Pray, Love," effectively uses many of these myths to share the story of her success, her failure, and her drive to keep creating while she struggled to regain who she really is.

Larson’s wisdom of the rustic myth shares how Americans value humble beginnings while believing that they can learn from difficulties. Elizabeth incorporated this idea in her speech with her own personal story of how she started writing when she was young and failed being published all throughout that time. She then shared how she kept on writing while she was in college and then still as a waitress. For over six years she received one rejection letter after another in the mail. Despite these failures she continued on.

Another myth is that of the possibility of success. In this myth people believe that success is supposed to come to those who have been honest and have worked hard for it. Elizabeth worked hard as a waitress, but even harder as a writer. She felt that she deserved success, because she had put the time and work into it. Her efforts finally paid off when she was finally published and her book was an instant, huge success.

As her success ran out, she then faced a new problem, the presence of conspiracy myth, which is the idea or belief that big problems can't have simple solutions. She had immense success with her book, but now she had the dilemma of having to write an equally successful book in order to still fill her needs. She described how her success had actually taken her just as far from her true self, or who she really was inside, than her failures had. She wanted to get back to this "home"where she could do what she loved to do without worrying about what others thought. She again felt like the young waitress waiting for the rejection letters.

This speech also looks at the myth of the value of challenge.  This myth argues that wisdom can only be gained through challenge and suffering. Elizabeth established her challenge and suffering as she continued to describe how she took on her problem of returning "home" to the foundation of writing. She had to go on a quest to find herself again after the success of her book. She shared how she had to face this challenge of discovery and the suffering along the way in order to triumph.

The last myth she used was the myth of the eternal return. This myth focuses on the belief that Americans desire to return to the better times of the past in order to seek to create new beginnings from this foundation. Elizabeth fully embodied this concept of this myth as she described how she desired to return "home" to her roots of writing. She wanted to again be like the waitress, who was happy writing and failing for almost six years before finally seeing success. She felt that this is what made her strong and she wanted to go back to that feeling and place.

Elizabeth used the first process premise of needs very effectively throughout this speech in order to move the audience toward her objective. She used much of Packard's list of compelling needs throughout the speech. She shared her emotional securities while desiring a reassurance of worth and ego gratification as she shared about how her success was great but also how it pulled her away from her base. She shared how her sense of power from her success and accomplishments was just as much of a challenge to her desires as was failure. So, she worked toward finding her love of writing again as her sense of roots, which brought her back to her foundation while advancing her forward in her quest to find what would make her resilient and immortal.

Her ultimate goal for herself was for Maslow's self actualization. Through her quest to find herself she was able to endure much suffering and hardship. Her quest also led her to understanding who she is and what she really wants in life. The premise of pursuing self actualization is apparent through the path she choose. I liked how she was able to portray this to the audience in a brief but effective manner.

Through the process premise of needs and Larsen's cultural myths interwoven into the fabric of her speech, Elizabeth was able to move, motivate, and uplift her audience. This speech embodies many of the qualities equal to many of the best speeches ever given.

After the huge success of her memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”, Elizabeth Gilbert went from unknown novelist to a pop culture icon. While she loved the success, she found it difficult to write again. Her TED Talk discusses her journey to success and how both failure and success motivated her to keep going. - See more at: http://www.strayer.edu/buzz/success-project/10-speeches-that-will-inspire-you-to-succeed/#sthash.p7uIirM9.AW4f4Xu8.dpuf