“I need each of you to tell every young woman you know to be comfortable with imperfection.”
Reshma Saujani delivered this appeal in her 2016 TED talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection.” Drawing on her experience founding Girls Who Code, she argued that girls are often socialized to avoid visible mistakes while boys receive more encouragement to take risks. In technical and entrepreneurial work, where progress requires prototypes, debugging, and public uncertainty, perfectionism can keep capable people from entering the arena at all.
Comfort with imperfection does not mean lower standards. It means separating the quality of a person from the current state of the work. A first draft, failed test, or unfamiliar assignment can be incomplete without becoming evidence that the contributor does not belong. Organizations learn faster when people can expose rough ideas early enough for feedback, rather than hiding them until delay and over-polishing create larger costs.
The burden cannot rest only on individuals becoming braver. Workplaces often punish mistakes unevenly, and stereotypes can make the same error appear developmental in one employee and disqualifying in another. Leaders must examine assignment patterns, review language, promotion criteria, and who receives a second chance. Psychological safety is credible when intelligent risk is rewarded and preventable negligence remains accountable under standards applied consistently.
Innovation depends on a pipeline of people willing to try before certainty arrives. Saujani’s sentence asks managers, educators, and peers to make imperfection survivable enough for learning. Teams can use small experiments, pre-mortems, blameless technical reviews, and clear definitions of reversible risk. The aim is not a culture celebrating failure for its own sake. It is a culture where demanding work can improve in public—and where more people are allowed to become excellent through the process.
Saujani made the appeal in a 2016 TED talk about gendered socialization, risk-taking, and her experience with Girls Who Code.
She argued that perfectionism can prevent capable girls and women from attempting work that requires visible experimentation.
Comfort with imperfection separates personal worth from an unfinished draft, prototype, or new skill.
Organizations must also correct uneven penalties; bravery rhetoric is hollow when similar mistakes produce different consequences.
Technical and entrepreneurial work improves through early feedback, iteration, and reversible risk.
Consistent review standards and psychologically safe experiments let more people develop excellence instead of waiting to display it fully formed.
Explore more "Quotes of The Day"
Discover more notable quotes from influential voices across politics, science, business, technology, sports, and culture. Each quote offers insight into how ideas, beliefs, and decisions shape the world around us.