【正文】
ething vulnerable think, God, vulnerability is weakness. How many of you think of vulnerability and weakness synonymously? The majority of people. Now let me ask you this question: This past week at TED, how many of you, when you saw vulnerability up here, thought it was pure courage? Vulnerability is not weakness. I define vulnerability as emotional risk, exposure, uncertainty. It fuels our daily lives. And Ive e to the belief this is my 12th year doing this research that vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage to be vulnerable, to let ourselves be seen, to be honest. One of the weird things thats happened is, after the TED explosion, I got a lot of offers to speak all over the country everyone from schools and parent meetings to Fortune 500 panies. And so many of the calls went like this, Dr. Brown, we loved your TED like you to e in and speak. Wed appreciate it if you wouldnt mention vulnerability or shame. What would you like for me to talk about? Theres three big answers. This is mostly, to be honest with you, from the business sector:innovation, creativity and change. So let me go on the record and say, vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. To create is to make something that has never existed before. Theres nothing more vulnerable than that. Adaptability to change is all about vulnerability. The second thing, in addition to really finally understanding the relationship between vulnerability and courage, the second thing I learned, is this: We have to talk about shame. And Im going to be really honest with you. When I became a vulnerability researcherand that became the focus because of the TED talk and Im not kidding. Ill give you an example. About three months ago, I was in a sporting goods store buying goggles and shin guards and all the things that parents buy at the sporting goods store. About from a hundred feet away, this is what I hear: Vulnerability TED! Vulnerability TED! Im a fifthgeneration Texan. Our family motto is Lock and load. I am not a natural vulnerability researcher. So Im like, just keep walking, shes on my six. And then I hear, Vulnerability TED! I turn around, I go, Hi. Shes right here and she said, Youre the shame researcher who had the breakdown. At this point, parents are, like, pulling their children close. Look away. And Im so worn out at this point in my life, I look at her and I actually say, It was a fricking spiritual awakening. And she looks back and does this, I know. And she said, We watched your TED talk in my book club. Then we read your book and we renamed ourselves The Breakdown Babes. And she said, Our tagline is: Were falling apart and it feels fantastic. You can only imagine what its like for me in a faculty meeting. So when I became Vulnerability TED, like an action figure Like Ninja Barbie, but Im Vulnerability TED I thought, Im going to leave that shame stuff behind, because I s