More from Jennifer Lee

When you are free from self-doubt, you fail better. Because you don't have your defenses up, you can accept the criticism. You don't become so preoccupied with that failure that you forget how to learn from it.

JL

Jennifer Lee

University of New Hampshire Commencement 2014, 2014

10:52

Video starts at 10:52 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

Lee made a crucial distinction that elevated her speech beyond simple positive thinking. Being free from self-doubt doesn't mean never failing — it means failing productively. When you believe you're fundamentally 'enough,' criticism becomes information rather than an existential threat. She illustrated this directly with Frozen. The first draft of the film was far from the final product. If she had been 'too insecure and defensive to listen to the criticism and notes,' if she had 'wasted my time trying to prove I was good enough instead of using that time to make Frozen what it needed to be, it would have been a far different movie.' The film went on to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The insight was practical and counterintuitive: self-doubt doesn't protect you from failure, it prevents you from learning from it. 'Hours spent questioning, doubting, fearing,' she said, 'can be given over to working, exploring, living.'

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