Live From The HIBT Summit: Brené Brown

Hey everyone, welcome to another special edition of How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. Today we're releasing the second main stage interview from our How I Built This summit, which happened virtually back in May. And today's episode is from my conversation about leadership with Brene Brown. She's a professor, author, and host of the podcast Unlocking Us. And if you've seen Brene's TED Talks or listened to her podcasts or read her books, you might be familiar with her recommended ingredients for good leadership. Bravery, trust, gratitude, and of course, vulnerability. Over the past 10 years, her research and ideas about vulnerability.

have really changed the way many people think about what makes a good leader. Instead of a weakness, it can actually be your greatest strength. But before Brene became known for her research around vulnerability, she grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, where she says vulnerability wasn't something that was valued. At all. I remember very early thinking to myself if I can understand the connection between

people's thinking and their emotions and how they're going to behave or show up, that is gonna be better for me. That gives me some predictive control over environments that I'm not comfortable in. I mean I from a very early age couldn't figure out where I belonged or fit. I couldn't figure out who were my people. I love my family. My family loved me, but I was clearly different than them. I was an introvert. We didn't have that language back then. And so you know, if you wanted to eat at a restaurant, you need to look the waiter in the eye and order. And if you weren't comfortable doing that, you must not be hungry. Like it was a tough kind of a tough Texas upbringing. Zero vulnerability, ironically, but maybe not.

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