Life & Wisdom Quote by Barbara Colorose

Power, in the popular imagination, is a finite pie: if someone else gets a bigger slice, yours shrinks. Barbara Coloroso flips that scarcity logic with a deceptively simple reassurance: empowerment is not charity, and it is not abdication. It is multiplication.

The line works because it speaks to a very real, often unspoken fear that sits under leadership, parenting, teaching, and workplace dynamics: if I make you capable, you won’t need me; if you don’t need me, I lose relevance; if I lose relevance, I lose status. Coloroso’s phrasing targets that insecurity directly. “Beauty” signals she’s not arguing in a boardroom register; she’s reframing a moral and emotional payoff. The sentence is engineered to soothe the gatekeeper’s anxiety while nudging them toward a more generous definition of authority.

There’s also a quiet corrective embedded in “your own power.” Not power as domination, but as capacity: the ability to create conditions where others can act. In that model, control is a brittle substitute for competence. Empowering others doesn’t drain you because it was never about hoarding leverage; it was about building systems, confidence, and agency that outlast your direct involvement.

Contextually, Coloroso’s work often sits in the terrain of child development and ethical leadership, where “helping” can easily slide into rescuing or micromanaging. This quote draws a clean line: empowerment isn’t doing it for people. It’s making sure they can do it, and recognizing that your authority becomes sturdier, not smaller, when it’s shared.