Brené Brown was born November 18, 1965 in San Antonio, Texas.
Brené Brown was born November 18, 1965 in San Antonio, Texas. ◦ She is an American academic, author, and podcaster. ◦ She holds the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and serves as a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business. ◦ Her 2002 PhD dissertation used grounded theory methodology. ◦ She identifies as a storyteller and a qualitative researcher who collects stories. ◦ She has written six number-one New York Times bestselling books. ◦
Brown defines courage by its original Latin root *cor*, meaning heart, as the act of telling the story of who you are with your whole heart. ◦ She holds that vulnerability is courage and that it is about the willingness to show up and be seen in our lives. ◦ She states that she cannot find a single example of courage in her research that was not born completely of vulnerability. ◦ She believes that the one variable separating the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging from the people who really struggle for it is that the former believe they're worthy of love and belonging. ◦ She teaches that our job is to look and say, "You know what? You're imperfect, and you're wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging." ◦ Brown describes choosing to engage with the world from a place of worthiness as a daily decision to act as if you are enough rather than waiting to feel worthy. ◦ She holds that connection is why we are here and that in the absence of connection there is suffering. ◦ She defines vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. ◦ She argues that you cannot selectively numb emotion, noting that when we numb the bad stuff we numb joy, gratitude, and happiness. ◦ She understands shame as the fear of disconnection and a universal experience. ◦ She observes that we buy into mythology about vulnerability being weakness, gullibility, and frailty because it gives us permission not to do it. ◦ She distinguishes perfectionism from striving for excellence, describing it as a protective cognitive-behavioral stance aimed at avoiding or minimizing shame, blame, criticism, and judgment. ◦
When facing a shame trigger, Brown's practice is to first identify what makes her tender and then deliberately choose self-compassion over self-attack. ◦ She decides to respond to her own failures with awareness and kindness rather than perfectionistic self-punishment. ◦ She makes a daily choice to engage with the world from a place of worthiness, acting as if she is enough rather than waiting to feel worthy. ◦ She advocates taking off armor, daring greatly, and practicing being uncomfortable rather than waiting to feel safe. ◦ She chooses to let people she loves struggle rather than rescue them out of their own arena. ◦
Brown models vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. ◦ She models shame as the fear of disconnection. ◦ She models perfectionism not as striving for excellence but as a protective cognitive-behavioral stance to avoid or minimize shame, blame, criticism, and judgment. ◦ She models stories as data with a soul. ◦ She draws on Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 "Citizenship in a Republic" speech for the framing of daring greatly, emphasizing the person in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. ◦ She models judgment as a behavior driven by our own shame vulnerabilities, where people use others as a launching pad out of their own perceived deficiency. ◦
Brown has studied the topics of courage, vulnerability, shame, empathy, and leadership, which she has used to look at human connection and how it works. ◦ Her 2010 TEDx Houston talk "The Power of Vulnerability" is one of the five most viewed TED talks. ◦ She has written six number-one New York Times bestselling books: *The Gifts of Imperfection*, *Daring Greatly*, *Rising Strong*, *Braving the Wilderness*, *Dare to Lead*, and *Atlas of the Heart*. ◦ *Atlas of the Heart* (2021) aimed to help readers expand their emotional vocabulary. ◦ In her research on resilience, she found that men and women with high levels of resilience understood the triggers and vulnerabilities that opened them up to shame. ◦
Brown identifies as a storyteller and a qualitative researcher who collects stories. ◦ She suggests that stories are just data with a soul. ◦ Her 2002 PhD dissertation used grounded theory methodology. ◦
Brown poses the question: "Does this mean that our capacity for wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted?" ◦ She notes that people who fully embrace vulnerability do not talk about it being comfortable or excruciating; they just talk about it being necessary. ◦ She identifies the seductive but false promise of being perfect and bulletproof, noting that waiting for these conditions causes us to sacrifice relationships and opportunities that may not be recoverable, squander our precious time, and turn our backs on our gifts. ◦ She observes that we buy into mythology about vulnerability being weakness, gullibility, and frailty because it gives us permission not to do it. ◦
She holds that engaging with her framework requires showing up to be seen, speaking one's mind, saying "I love you" first, entering difficult conversations, and tolerating uncertainty. ◦ She invites people to remove their armor, dare greatly, and practice being uncomfortable rather than waiting to feel safe. ◦ She advises engaging with the world from a place of worthiness by deciding daily that one is enough despite fear and imperfection. ◦ She advises that raising children who can be vulnerable requires stepping back so they can experience disappointment, conflict, self-assertion, and failure rather than following them into the arena to silence critics and guarantee victory. ◦