Quote
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”— Brené Brown, in Daring Greatly (2012) · Daring Greatly →
Why it was said
Brené Brown wrote this after a decade of interviews about shame and connection, in the chapter that takes apart the belief that vulnerability is weakness. It is one of the lines from her TED talk that the book expands.
What it actually means
Every new thing, a product, a proposal, an honest sentence in a meeting, is made by someone who could not know how it would be received. Brown's research found that the people who made such things were not less afraid; they had decided that the uncertainty was the price of making anything at all. The sentence reframes exposure from a risk to be managed into the condition under which work that matters happens.
How to use it
- 1Notice where you are waiting to feel certain before you show something; that wait is the cost Brown describes.
- 2Share the unfinished version with one person this week and record what actually happened.