This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Sick of me talking about Oprah yet? Well her June issue of O Magazine makes it so easy — she re-purposed content from her interview with Dr. Brene Brown, most known for her TEDx talk (one of the most-watched videos) on vulnerability and recent book, Daring Greatly.
Since the conversation itself contains gems, I’ll just let you sit with it.
Brene Brown: “People were saying things like ‘Less research, more Botox’ and ‘Maybe you’ll be “worthy” in 20 pounds.’ And they all were anonymous, which is such-well, crapola! I’m not going to cuss, but it’s chicken. So one day I sent my husband, Steve, to work, I sent my kids to school, and I sat on the couch in my pajamas and watched ten hours of Downton Abbey. I ate some peanut butter. I was like, This is not worth it, man. I’m not doing this anymore. I didn’t want to go back to my world, where all that hurt was. So instead I started googling to find out what was happening in the United States during the Downtown Abbey period. That’s when I found the Theodore Roosevelt quote. He said, ‘It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs…[And] if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.‘ In that moment, my life changed.”
BB: “My ego says to me, You have no inherent worth. You’ve got to hustle for it, baby. How fast you gonna run? How high you gonna jump? How many likes do you have on Facebook?“
Oprah: “We live in a culture that measures us by how many likes we have on Facebook.”
BB: “It’s a scarcity culture. We’re never thin enough, rich enough, safe enough. And you know-and I want to get your thoughts on this, because you’ve looked in people’s faces for so many years-I started my research six months before 9/11. And I would say that the past 12 years have been marked by a deep fear in our culture. It’s like a collective post-traumatic response.”
BB: “So what’s the number one casualty of a scarcity culture? Vulnerability. We shut down because we’re scared. And the thing is, vulnerability is not about fear or grief or disappointment. It’s the birthplace of everything we’re hungry for-joy, faith, love, spirituality…”
OW: “Creativity.”
BB: “Yes. There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.”
OW: “You’ve got to be open enough to risk failure.”
BB: “The only people who innovate are the people standing in the arena getting their butts kicked on occasion.”
Oprah and Brown go on to talk about another component of scarcity culture: Shame. It’s a fascinating read, I highly recommend it!
