WOW #043: Courage Over Comfort

Quote of the Week:
“When we have the courage to walk into our story and own it, we get to write the ending.”
- Brene Brown

There aren't many people out there who are so prolific on certain matters that they essentially, “own the topic.”

Brene Brown is one of them. 

If you’ve never heard of Brene Brown, she’s a Professor at the University of Houston, best selling author, and the go-to source for all things related to vulnerability, shame, and empathy.

Telling someone you “Brene Brown-ed” an important business meeting with a potential investor could best be interpreted as you baring your soul and laying it all out on the line, regardless of the optics.

What I really like about Brene’s work is the understanding that on the other side of vulnerability and shame is courage and effective leadership.

In fact, the title of this week's newsletter is Brene’s personal motto from her website.

As mentioned, Brene is one of those prolific content creators and seems to get picked up everywhere, (podcasts, TED Talks, books, Netflix, etc.)

This week I wanted to detail her 4 skill sets for courageous leadership as outlined in her book, Dare to Lead:

• Rumbling With Vulnerability

• Living Your Values (Rather than simply professing them)

• Braving Trust (and being the first to Trust)

• Learning to Rise

It takes a lot of courage to hang your own shingle and go into business for yourself.

It takes even more to fight through situations, conflicts, and circumstances where you know you are vulnerable, trusting, and not as defensible as you’d like to be.

Finally – it takes that much more to do it with confidence, repetition, and resilience.

I tip my hat to all of you who do.

2 Takeaways:

1. You Can’t Control the Outcome and You Never Will. In a nutshell, this is what Rumbling With Vulnerability means. You might have the best product, knowledge, expertise, marketing, fulfillment, etc. but it may not matter. What truly matters is that you fought through the vulnerability, doubt, and potential shame for a fighting chance at something amazing. Performing in the arena beats sitting in the stands.

2. Our Biggest Regrets are Often About What Never Happened vs. What Actually Did. Fact #1: we will make decisions and take actions that we wish we hadn’t. Over time, there’s a very good chance we’ll move past them. Fact #2: If you’re obsessed with starting a potential business, overhauling an existing one, or buying one outright, you’ll never know how it ultimately lands with you unless you do it. 

1 Action:

Ask For Help and Give Help.

Simple as that.

The former makes you vulnerable. The latter makes you empathetic. 

Both make you a courageous leader.

Have a great week everyone,

Hubert