Quote of the Day: Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson in St Louis in 1928, became one of the most influential literary and moral voices of the modern era. Her official biography describes a career spanning poetry, memoir, teaching, performance, filmmaking and civil rights activism.
According to Britannica, her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition and helped establish her as a major public thinker and writer. What gave Angelou unusual authority was not just range, but coherence: her work consistently joined dignity, courage, self-respect and practical wisdom.
“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain,” Maya Angelou
This quote is strongly associated with Angelou and is widely attributed to her book Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Google Books confirms the book and major quotation listings tie this exact line to it.
Meaning of Quote
That is what makes the quote strategically powerful for leaders. Complaint often feels like engagement, but in practice, it can become a substitute for responsibility. Teams lose momentum when they spend too much energy rehearsing what is unfair instead of deciding what is possible. Angelou’s line does not deny frustration; it disciplines it. The underlying principles are accountability, adaptability and emotional economy: do not waste scarce energy on a posture that produces neither movement nor insight.
There is also a deeper psychological lesson here. Changing how you think is not surrender. It is often the first serious form of problem-solving. Reframing a situation can uncover options that the complaint hides, whether that means redesigning a workflow, resetting expectations, or finding dignity in real but not final constraints. Angelou’s quote is really about moving from reaction to response.
Why this quote resonates
A concrete example is workforce disruption and reskilling. The 2026 ETS Human Progress Report says adaptability and AI literacy are becoming imperative for job security and advancement, and describes an “adaptability paradox” in which workers are trying to adjust to a future they cannot clearly see. In India, recent reporting on the India Skills Report 2026 said 86% of workers reported major workplace disruptions over the past year, and 89% were actively investing in new skills. That is exactly the environment Angelou’s quote speaks to: when conditions shift, complaint is not a strategy; skill-building, reframing and decisive action are.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 adds another reason this line lands now: global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, with major productivity costs. Low engagement is not caused by complaint alone, of course, but environments defined by helplessness and stagnation rarely produce strong effort. Angelou’s quote points toward the opposite culture — one built on initiative, perspective and responsibility.
Another Perspective
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them,” Maya Angelou
This second Angelou quote is also widely circulated and closely aligned with her larger philosophy of dignity and resilience.
Taken together, the two quotes create a fuller leadership lesson. The first is operational: change the thing or change your thinking. The second is existential: even when events are outside your control, do not let them shrink your sense of self. One quote is about action and mindset. The other is about identity under pressure. Together they offer a rounded model of resilience: practical enough to guide decision-making, but deep enough to protect dignity.
6 ways you can implement this in your life
- List one problem you keep complaining about and separate it into two columns: what you can change this week, and what you cannot.
- Act on the smallest controllable piece within 24 hours, even if it is only one email, one meeting, or one process correction.
- Reframe every fixed constraint by asking, “What advantage is still available inside this situation?”
- Ban repetitive complaint loops in team meetings by requiring every problem statement to be followed by one proposed next step.
- Build adaptability by learning one skill that aligns with current workplace changes, such as AI fluency, communication under uncertainty, or process redesign.
- Review your language at the end of each week and notice how often you described yourself as stuck when you were actually undecided.
These actions fit the current evidence that adaptability and active skill-building matter more as work changes faster.
Who is Maya Angelou?
In 1951, despite widespread societal disapproval of interracial marriages and her mother’s objections, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician. During this period, she took modern dance classes and met notable dancers and choreographers, including Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Angelou and Ailey formed a dance duo called “Al and Rita,” performing modern dance for Black fraternal organisations across San Francisco, though they did not achieve significant success.
She, her husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance under Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but the family came back to San Francisco a year later.
Angelou passed away on the morning of 28 May 2014. Despite her declining health and having cancelled recent public engagements, she was actively working on another autobiography detailing her encounters with national and global leaders.
- Leaders should focus on actionable solutions rather than dwelling on complaints.
- Reframing perspectives is essential for problem-solving and uncovering new options.
- Adaptability and skill-building are crucial in today's fast-changing work environment.
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