Entrepreneur and TED Fellow Jane Marie Chen started a company that created a low-cost, portable incubator for premature babies in underserved communities, with the goal of saving more than one million babies around the world. After a decade of relentless challenges, the company shut down — pushing her into complete burnout and a profound personal reckoning. In this powerful talk, she shares what happened next and how it taught her the secret to resilience.


What losing everything taught me about resilience

When a social enterprise to save premature babies collapsed after a decade, the founder faced a personal crisis and deep burnout. Despite recognition from global leaders and saving thousands of lives, she realized her sense of worth had depended on external success. Through a challenging healing journey, she learned that feeling emotions, letting go of outcomes, and treating herself with kindness brought genuine resilience. Her experience shows that self-acceptance matters more than any professional accomplishment.

True Resilience Begins With Self-Compassion, Not Achievement

Losing the mission-driven company that once defined her forced a leader to confront not just burnout but her deepest sense of self. After breakdowns and a journey through unconventional healing rituals in Indonesia, she realized her relentless drive was rooted in childhood pain. Even after saving thousands of babies in underserved communities, she never felt enough until she learned to accept her own vulnerability. Lasting resilience, she discovered, comes from self-compassion, not external achievement.

True Resilience Means Embracing Tenderness Over Toughness

Lasting resilience comes from self-compassion, not nonstop striving. After building an incubator that saved thousands of premature babies, a crushing failure left its founder battling depression and panic attacks. Through deep healing and confronting childhood trauma, she learned to accept her own worth beyond external success. Her journey reveals that true strength means embracing vulnerability and loving oneself.