There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period. — Brené Brown
—What lingers after this line?
Embracing Failure
This quote emphasizes that failure is an essential part of the creative process. Innovators must be willing to take risks, and encountering failure is inevitable on the path to success.
Growth Mindset
Brené Brown advocates for a growth mindset, where challenges and setbacks are viewed as opportunities for learning and improvement, rather than as definitive endpoints.
Redefining Success
The statement invites a redefinition of success that includes learning from failures. Innovation often arises from understanding what does not work, which can lead to new and better ideas.
Courage to Create
Creating something new requires courage to step into the unknown. This quote highlights that true creativity involves vulnerability and the possibility of failure.
Brené Brown's Philosophy
Brené Brown is a researcher known for her work on vulnerability, shame, and courage. Her insights encourage individuals to embrace their imperfections and the lessons learned from failure as integral to personal and professional growth.
Recommended Reading
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
One-minute reflection
What feeling does this quote bring up for you?
Related Quotes
6 selectedVulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change. — Brené Brown
Brené Brown
This quote asserts that embracing vulnerability allows us to be open to new ideas and experiences. Vulnerability is not a weakness but a starting point for growth in various areas of life, including creativity, innovatio...
Read full interpretation →If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything innovative. — Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki’s line reframes failure from a personal deficit into a useful indicator: if nothing is going wrong, you may not be attempting anything meaningfully new. Innovation, by definition, pushes beyond proven method...
Read full interpretation →Observe, imagine, then act — invention begins when thought meets motion — Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo’s sequence—observe, imagine, then act—reads like a practical recipe for invention rather than a lofty slogan. It starts with disciplined attention to the world, moves into the mind’s power to reshape what it has...
Read full interpretation →My best teachers were mess, failure, death, mistakes and the people I hated, including myself. — Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott’s line flips the usual image of a teacher from a helpful guide to an unwanted intruder: chaos, loss, and regret. Instead of presenting pain as inherently noble, she frames it as undeniably effective—experienc...
Read full interpretation →Challenge the ordinary; innovation lives where the crowd won't go. — Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace’s line frames innovation as an act of intentional departure: to “challenge the ordinary” is to resist default assumptions and question what everyone else treats as settled. Rather than celebrating novelty fo...
Read full interpretation →I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work. — Thomas A. Edison
Thomas A. Edison
Edison’s claim pushes back against the romantic idea that great achievements arrive as flashes of inspiration. By insisting that nothing “worth doing” happened by accident, he reframes success as something earned through...
Read full interpretation →More From Author
More from Brené Brown →Recovery is not one and done. It is a lifelong journey. — Brené Brown
Brené Brown’s statement begins by rejecting a comforting but misleading fantasy: the idea that healing has a finish line. Recovery, in her framing, is not a single breakthrough, confession, or treatment plan that permane...
Read full interpretation →Emotional strength is not about suppressing feelings, but about having the courage to feel them. — Brené Brown
At first glance, emotional strength is often mistaken for stoicism—the ability to remain untouched, unreadable, and perfectly controlled. Yet Brené Brown’s quote overturns that assumption by suggesting that true strength...
Read full interpretation →Stillness is not about focusing on nothingness; it's about creating an emotional clearing to allow ourselves to feel. — Brené Brown
At first glance, stillness can seem like the absence of thought, noise, or activity. Yet Brené Brown’s insight shifts that idea in an important way: stillness is not a blank state but a deliberate opening.
Read full interpretation →I set boundaries not to offend, but to honor my needs. — Brené Brown
At first glance, boundaries are often mistaken for rejection, yet Brené Brown’s quote gently overturns that assumption. By saying she sets boundaries not to offend but to honor her needs, she reframes limits as an act of...
Read full interpretation →