Brené Brown is a professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has dedicated her life to social work and studies vulnerability, courage, worthiness and shame.

Her fantastic 2010 TEDxHouston talk, The Power of Vulnerabilty, is one of the most popular TED talks with over 12 million views and led to Brown giving the final speech at a 2012 TED conference. That speech, Listening to Shame, is where the above quotes are taken from. Turns out Brown and I both love the same Teddy Roosevelt Man in the Arena quote. It’s literally the second quote I ever adapted into a comic (although it was posted as number 8) and remains one of my favourite quotes. In her speech, Brown tells of how that quote helped her during a difficult time amidst her own failures and setbacks (around the 12min mark). The fact that she references a quote I’ve already adapted in her own inspirational quote gave me the chance to get meta again and give a nod to my long-time readers who would recognise the first part of the comic.

RELATED COMICS: The Man in the Arena, Nature Loves Courage, The Fig Tree, Ultimate Self-Help Book.

– Brené Brown’s official website.

– Thanks to Mike, Saquib and Cynthia for sending me the TED talks.