What High Achievers Get Wrong About Resilience: Jane Chen’s TED Talk on Burnout, Trauma, and Self-Compassion
News > Health News
Audio By Carbonatix
12:34 PM on Thursday, January 22
The Associated Press
After helping more than one million babies, the social entrepreneur shares her journey from global impact to inner healing — premiering January 22 on TED.com.
NEW YORK, NY, January 22, 2026 (EZ Newswire) -- As burnout, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion reach record highs, a powerful new talk premiering today on TED.com, "How I Found Resilience as My Life Fell Apart," asks a question many high achievers are quietly confronting: “Who are you beyond your accomplishments? Beyond your job? Beyond your title?”
In her talk, entrepreneur and best-selling author Jane Marie Chen shares the deeply personal story of Embrace, the social enterprise she co-founded. The organization created a low-cost, portable infant incubator that works without stable electricity, making it accessible in remote and underserved communities. Since its launch, Embrace has helped more than one million newborns worldwide, earning recognition from President Obama, funding from Beyoncé, and global media attention.
When the company collapsed after a decade of insurmountable setbacks, Jane lost the work that had defined her, and with it, her sense of self. Her TED Talk traces the intense global healing journey that followed, from silent meditation retreats to frog poison ceremonies to trauma therapy, through which she confronted childhood wounds she had long buried. Jane connects her early experiences of domestic violence to the relentless drive that fueled both her success and eventual burnout.
“Sometimes trauma gets channeled into drive, perfectionism, and overwork,” Jane says in the talk. “Some people numb their pain with substances. I numbed mine with productivity. I cared deeply about my work, but I also believed that my worth depended on what I achieved. I finally realized I couldn’t achieve my way out of my pain.”
Jane shares three lessons that helped her to heal: learning to feel long-suppressed emotions, letting go of attachment to external outcomes, and cultivating self-compassion. Her message reframes resilience not as toughness or grit, but as the capacity to meet ourselves with compassion and to recognize our worth beyond our accomplishments.
In a turn of fate, Embrace was saved, and its work continues today. Yet Jane is clear that the deeper transformation happened within, a journey she shares in her best-selling memoir, " Like a Wave We Break." At a time when burnout, economic volatility, and AI-driven disruption are reshaping how millions define themselves through work, her story offers a new definition of resilience. Not as how much we can endure, but the inner compassion that allows us to navigate loss, uncertainty, and change without losing ourselves.
Jane Chen’s TED Talk is now live: " How I Found Resilience as My Life Fell Apart "
You can learn more about Jane at janemariechen.com.
Jane Chen is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, leadership coach, and the best-selling author of "Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself" (Penguin Random House). She is the co-founder and former CEO of Embrace Global, the social enterprise behind a low-cost infant incubator that has helped save more than one million babies worldwide.A TED speaker and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Jane has been recognized on Forbes’ Impact 30 list and has received the Economist Innovation Award, the Fast Company Innovation Award, and the World Economic Forum’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year award. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Newsweek, and ABC, and she holds graduate degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University.In "Like a Wave We Break," Jane writes about the inner life behind her public success. After the near collapse of her company, she began to confront the childhood trauma that had driven her for decades. She wrote the book to name what so many high-achieving people carry quietly, and to offer language, permission, and hope to those who sense that success alone cannot heal what hurts.Adam Grant (No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of "Think Again") calls it “a powerful memoir about facing fears and bouncing forward after trauma" and Bessel van der Kolk (No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of "Body Keeps the Score") describes it as a "brilliant and gripping book about how resilience...can transform adversity into hope and inspiration around the world.”Today, Jane is a keynote speaker and leadership coach, working with individuals and organizations navigating burnout, change, and uncertainty. Drawing from her experience as a social entrepreneur and her healing journey, she helps people build resilience, emotional awareness, and inner alignment. For more information, visit janemariechen.com.Media Contact
Kylie Caputo
Krupp
+1 732-703-1295
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SOURCE: Jane Chen
https://app.eznewswire.com/news/jane-chen-ted-talk-high-achievers-wrong-resilience
