Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit

Sarah Lewis, a Harvard scholar and founder of Vision & Justice, works to fundamentally reframe how people understand creativity, mastery, and setbacks. Rather than treating these as elite pursuits reserved for the exceptionally gifted, Lewis argues that the creative process is universal—available to all individuals willing to engage in what she terms “labor” rather than mere “work” (206). This distinction is central to her thesis: Work follows predetermined structures and measurable hours, whereas labor sets its own pace, carries intrinsic meaning, and cannot be easily quantified. Examples of labor include writing, parenting, developing new ideas, and any form of genuine creation that draws from the maker’s soul.

Lewis challenges the assumption that mastery and innovation belong to a separate category of human experience. Instead, she demonstrates that when individuals convert difficulty into advantage through creative effort, they engage in the same fundamental process as celebrated inventors and artists. This perspective democratizes achievement, suggesting that the qualities necessary for mastery—including surrender, learning from setbacks, embracing play, and cultivating resilience—are accessible to anyone pursuing meaningful endeavor.

Rather than using the word “failure,” which carries static, judgmental weight and originated in 19th-century financial terminology to assess creditworthiness and bankruptcy, Lewis proposes that transformation renders failure something altogether different.