The power of vulnerability: A TEDxHouston talk by Brené Brown
I recently posted on my Facebook (personal and thus, private) Wall that I didn’t really get what the appeal was for TED (the brand) and TED talks in general. Call me skeptic, but most of the TED talks I have seen don’t seem all that inspiring to me. Nor the TEDx talks. Obviously, given that some of the folks I am friends with are involved with the TEDx movements, it also looks kind of bad (potentially) to post on my decently-widely-read blog that I eschew TED and TEDx talks, in general. It’s perhaps a bad social move. Why? Because by dissing the brand, people (and in general those of my friends who have organized TEDx events or spoken at TEDx) may get the wrong impression I don’t appreciate their hard work.
Nothing further from the truth.
But here I am, baring my own thoughts for the world to read. Even my thoughts that criticize TED and TEDx as elitist brands. And in a nothing-short-of-spectacular-life-coming-back-full-circle way, I found through two completely different routes the TEDxHouston 2010 talk of Dr. Brené Brown on the power of vulnerability (Dr. Brown studies vulnerability in a very different way to the way *I* study vulnerability – I study vulnerability and resilience of urban ecosystems, whereas she studies human behavior, compassion and courage – but I digress). And for the second time ever (the first, Jane McGonigal’s talk on games and saving the world) I felt inspired and I felt a real connection to the topic.
And the crazy thing is: I felt inspired by a TEDx talk.
You’ll see – a couple of years ago, I had a fantastic phone conversation with my friend Robert Ballantyne, who indicated to me that perhaps one of the reasons why my blog and my online persona (as Hummingbird604) are so successful is that I show myself vulnerable (not as the ivory-tower academic self that I also have). Not weak, not incapable of doing anything, just vulnerable. And what Brené said in her talk, being able to be comfortable with being vulnerable is actually really empowering, resonated with me and with the conversation I had with Robert. So much so that I had to blog about it.
Being able to say “I love you”first, is perhaps one of the key phrases that Brené’s talk really resonated in my brain. I love fully, completely, deeply, even though I have been heartbroken. I do everything I do with passion, with love and with my whole self. As Brené’s research would indicate, I live wholeheartedly. And I love it.
It really inspired me to see the theme of vulnerability permeate through my own academic, teaching and online lives. Like Brené, I am BOTH an academic AND a storyteller. And like Brené, I love qualitative research (we just focus on very different things). And I also remembered last fall, when I attended Susanne Conrad’s workshop at Imagine 1 Day, I remembered what my friend André Malan said to me: “you are a lot more human and less bullet-proof than Hummingbird604 is”. And it’s true. I’m vulnerable. And I’m quite happy with it.
In letting my students see both of my lives (my quite-neatly-separated personal and professional selves), I recognize there’s an inherent vulnerability. But that’s also what makes me different and puts me in a very different position to other educators who may or may not want to show a vulnerable side of them: I am a human being too, and in being human, I also may have pitfalls and shortcomings. I’m not only the flawless, hard-working professor Pacheco, but I am also Raul, who can at times feel exhausted, frustrated, and why not? sad too.
For the second time ever, a TED talk has inspired me, and I want to thank Brené Brown, PhD for a most inspiring message: vulnerability DOES have inner power. And quite frankly, unashamedly and unabashedly, I honestly believe I am enough 
(if you watch Brené’s talk, you will understand what I meant by that).
For your viewing pleasure, here is her TEDx talk.
Related posts:
- On being chipil and vulnerability
- My panel talk at Independent Power Producers ’09 #ippbc09
- Accessorize Your Blog: Top Ten Ways to Maximize Reader Experience (WCFV talk)
- Talk nerdy to me
- Adaptation and vulnerability to floods and climatic events in Mexico
I love, love, love her. She is funny as hell and at the same time so honest and inspiring.
I agree on your theory that being vulnerable is one of the reasons your blog/persona is so popular…I was reading Keith Ferrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone” and he(amazing networking machine) talks about one time he had to be at a networking luncheon but couldn’t focus because he just broke up with his girlfriend. He couldn’t focus on chitchatting with the lady who sat next to him. But he admitted to her that he wasn’t feeling like himself as he was feeling vulnerable and voila! Not only just with her, but the whole table connected over relationship stories. Another success story from embracing vulnerability.
I too, very much resonated with the part of “Saying I Love You first”….I have been heartbroken and I am scared to get hurt again, but I am in love and I am not going to stop saying that I love you.
Hey Raul,
Great post. I watch a lot of TED talks and this one really spoke to me as well. I really liked how she uses humour to address the subject of vulnerability. I know I don’t like to expose my own I’m not [blank] enough moments. I have done it in a few of my blog posts but then there are others where I think – man, I can’t post that. It will make me look [blank]. I love that you put yourself out there and are vulnerable.
I like that she talks about the difference between courage and bravery as well as the need to treat yourself with compassion before you can treat others with it. So much of what she talks about is aligned with what I have been studying on Buddhism. The author I read is a nun named Pema Chodron and she talks about being comfortable with groundlessness (vulnerability) and treating yourself and others with maitri (compassion).
Rob