Last November at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, best-selling authors Ina Garten and John Grisham shared their sometimes surprising paths to career success and the lessons they learned along the way. In his latest book, Framed, Grisham ventures beyond his well-known fictional legal thrillers to shine a light on true stories of people wrongfully convicted of crimes. Garten’s newest book, a memoir titled Be Ready When Luck Happens, is also a departure from her popular cookbooks, highlighting challenges both personal and professional.
Between them, Garten and Grisham have written or co-authored more than 80 books, and over the course of 36 years they have developed an approach to their work that has served them well. During their conversation at the Kennedy Center, several key themes emerged that apply no matter what profession or career stage you are in.
Don’t give up despite rejections
Grisham’s first book, A Time to Kill, was passed over by 28 publishers; he still has the rejection letters. When a small publisher finally bought the book and printed 5,000 copies, Grisham bought 1,000 of them. Despite the rejections letters, Grisham continued to work on his second book, The Firm. Unbeknownst to him and his literary agent, the manuscript somehow had gotten into the hands of a Hollywood agent who shopped it around to several production houses, touching off a bidding war. Grisham sold the movie rights to The Firm even before selling the publishing rights. But with a major studio planning to bring the novel to the big screen, finding a publisher became much easier.
When Garten decided to write a cookbook after nearly two decades overseeing the successful retail specialty store Barefoot Contessa, she had a definite idea in mind of what it should be. She didn’t think people needed another exhaustive cookbook offering hundreds of recipes covering everything from soup to nuts. What readers needed was fewer recipes and more photos of the finished dish. When publishers told her that wasn’t the way it was done, Garten trusted her instincts and found a publisher that agreed with her vision. Her first book, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, sold 1.5 million copies. She’d go on to produce twelve more cookbooks, each one adhering to the successful formula she’d insisted on.
When I started my business, I presented many free workshops and made a lot of cold calls. I submitted dozens of proposals to do work; sometimes people responded to my offer with polite rejections but more often they just didn’t respond at all. It was frustrating and unnerving. But I persevered and eventually I found that the more I put myself out there, the more business I was able to get. When clients gave me repeat business and referred my services to others, I knew I was on the right track.
Both Garten and Grisham agreed that you have to believe in yourself, trust that you are meant to pursue the course you’re on, and not let rejections stop you. But they also admitted that at some point, if success eludes you, you may need to find another approach to your chosen path. If food and cooking is your passion, you might consider demonstrating cooking techniques at cookware stores or teaching a continuing education program at a local college.
Be willing to try something new if what’s old isn’t working for you
Before she found fame as the Barefoot Contessa, Garten worked in Washington, D.C., as a budget analyst and wrote nuclear energy policy documents for the White House. She described the work as intellectually stimulating, but her heart wasn’t in it. What she really enjoyed was hosting weekly dinners parties with her husband; she would begin planning the next party immediately after clearing the dishes of the previous party.
An ad seeking a buyer for a Hamptons specialty food store piqued her interest, even though she had never been to the Long Island beach community and had never run a retail business. After visiting the store, Garten made an offer and to her surprise it was accepted the next day. While her husband stayed in D.C., she moved to New York and threw herself into growing the business. It was an audacious move, but she credits her success to being a quick study, able to learn a new business and willing to work hard — sometimes all night to ensure the store had enough baked goods the next morning. More than anything, however, she says success comes from simply enjoying the work.
When I started The Learning Advantage, I only had three days of booked business and no business plan. I hadn’t anticipated how long it would take to build business. Fortunately, subcontracting helped me get enough work to pay my bills, develop a network, and build my own client base. I occasionally pulled all-nighters to finish a proposal or a workshop. I was committed to do whatever it takes because I enjoyed the work.
I’d like to say launching my business was a calculated risk, though in reality I hadn’t done much calculating. But I knew there was a growing market for my services, I knew I was good at it, and I knew I could not continue working within the corporate world. No one said it would be easy to follow your passion and take risks to make your ambitions come to fruition. But living with regret is even harder.
Your “best” work has elements of what you loved to do as a kid
Grisham has stated that he never decided to become a writer. To him it was a hobby. But what he always enjoyed from the time he was a kid was stories — hearing them, telling them, talking about them. When as a lawyer he witnessed the testimony of a girl who had been raped and left for dead, the heart-wrenching courtroom drama compelled him to write the story that became A Time to Kill.
At one point, Garten felt she had lost her passion for running the Barefoot Contessa retail store and sold it to her employees. For the next nine months she thought about what she wanted to do next. Even though she was an analytical businessperson, she always liked anything that drew on her creativity. Her creative drive led her to catering and developing her own recipes.
In helping people identify their “juicy work,” I often find it involves elements of their innate childhood interests. Personally, when I was young, my friends would ask me how to deal with their siblings or other kids that annoyed them. I had no idea at the time that listening to peoples’ issues and helping them find solutions would translate into a coaching career.
Put yourself on a schedule and stick to it
Every January 1, Grisham begins writing a new book. Every morning he makes a cup of coffee and heads to his office in a renovated barn on his property where there are no distractions. He writes from 7:30 am until noon, aiming to produce at least a page a day, Following this regimen five days a week, he typically produces a completed manuscript by July. Likewise, Garten leaves her home and walks across her property to her barn to test recipes from 9 am until 1 pm each day. She might test hundreds of versions of a recipe before she is happy with it. Then she tests her written recipes to ensure her instructions are clear enough for people who are not experienced cooks. That’s how she realized that when a recipe calls for cloves, she needs to specify “dry cloves” or “garlic cloves.”That kind of consistency and discipline ensures both authors achieve their goals without risking burnout or disruption. In essence, they are paying themselves first, committing to a set routine that allows them to focus solely on the core of their work. It is easy to be distracted answering emails or helping staff with their issues, but if you dedicate a part of each day to your own work, you will be more successful and still have bandwidth to do the ancillary things your work entails.
Do what is uniquely your gift
Both authors play to their strengths. As a trial attorney, writing legal thrillers came naturally to Grisham because he knew the subject matter deeply. And of course, Garten knows food. By staying in their wheelhouse, each was able to do what they loved and excel.
While these two best-selling authors have created successful paths to achieve their goals, it would be a mistake to think that by replicating their paths you will find success. I hear some clients say they want to be like their senior manager or a friend who seems to “have it all.” But trying to imitate someone else — molding yourself into a copy of an original — doesn’t take advantage of your inherent strengths. To be the best version of yourself, look for your gifts, commit to a disciplined approach to achieving your goals, be open to taking risks, and accept that rejection is part of the journey.