Brave, Not Perfect

Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

By: Reshma Saujani

Narrated by: Reshma Saujani

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

International Best Seller • Inspired by her popular TED Talk, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code urges women to embrace imperfection and live a bolder, more authentic life.

"A timely message for...women of all ages: Perfection isn’t just impossible but, worse, insidious." (Angela Duckworth, best-selling author of Grit)

Imagine if you lived without the fear of not being good enough. If you didn’t care how your life looked on Instagram. If you could let go of the guilt and stop beating yourself up for making human mistakes. Imagine if, in every decision you faced, you took the bolder path?

As women, too many of us feel crushed under the weight of our own expectations. We run ourselves ragged trying to please everyone, pass up opportunities that scare us, and avoid rejection at all costs.

There’s a reason we act this way, Saujani says. As girls, we were taught to play it safe. Well-meaning parents and teachers praised us for being quiet and polite, urged us to be careful so we didn’t get hurt, and steered us to activities at which we could shine. As a result, we grew up to be women who are afraid to fail.

It’s time to stop letting our fears drown out our dreams and narrow our world, along with our chance at happiness.

By choosing bravery over perfection, we can find the power to claim our voice, to leave behind what makes us unhappy, and to go for the things we genuinely, passionately want. Perfection may set us on a path that feels safe, but bravery leads us to the one we’re authentically meant to follow. In Brave, Not Perfect, Saujani shares powerful insights and practices to help us let go of our need for perfection and make bravery a lifelong habit. By being brave, not perfect, we can all become the authors of our best and most joyful life.

©2018 Reshma Saujani (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"I love this book! A timely message for girls and women of all ages: perfection isn’t just impossible but, worse, insidious. The prose is so clear, so honest - you feel like you’re sitting across from Reshma sharing stories.” (Angela Duckworth, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, and New York Times best-selling author of Grit)

"The perfect is not just the enemy of the good; the pressure to be perfect is the enemy of girls around the world. In this courageous, convincing book, Reshma Saujani shares a bold vision to free girls - and women - from the shackles of social expectations." (Adam Grant, New York Times best-selling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg)

"For any woman who has ever thought to herself 'I just can't...' or 'I'm just not...,' this eye-opening book will help you showing up every day as brave, not perfect changes how the world sees you, but more importantly, how you see yourself - and what you are capable of. This book is great reminder that having the courage to stare your mistakes and your imperfections in the face is one of the most overlooked sources of power." (Amy Cuddy, Harvard lecturer and best-selling author of Presence)

really good message

there were some things that I didn't resonate with. but overall would recommend it :).

inspirational

inspiring and helpful. so often with books like this there are no concrete tips on how to put these ideas into practice. but she gave really direct, simple ideas that give hope for growth. I listened to parts with my 5&7 year olds, hoping some of it sank in - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!

Love, love, love!

A great listen. I highly recommend to anyone struggling with taking risks and bouncing back from setbacks. This book motivated me to take action and make brave decisions in the pursuit of my dreams.

Inspiring

Enjoyed her book - helped me get out of my comfort zone and realize that I need to fight for it.

Being Brave

The author has some practical everyday tips to use to become braver and teach fellow women to be brave at work, socially and in your family. I don't agree to all of the book as I am a 22 year veteran, Civil Engineer that works in the construction industry and only girl in a family of boys. I didn't play much with dolls ( try and get your brothers play with dolls), rather soccer, playing in the dirt and making forts were childhood past times. I was also one that brought spiders to show and tell.
Being in the military, and in construction I've had to be brave to succeed. I'm a miniority, being 1 of 15 section head female Engineers at a local City. I've noticed in entry level Engineering positions it is about 20% women, first line supervisors about 10% and it reduces going up the ranks. I've also noticed a shift of women working from construction to design moving up the ranks. I want to change this trend.

Go read this book

Every. Single. Woman. Needs. To. Go. Read. This. Book. Now.
I don’t even have words for how powerful this book is. Go get it whether it’s the audio book, kindle version, paper copy. Go get it.

I encourage every woman to read this!

I love the woman empowerment without being over the top. It was so inspiring! My daughter and I have been practicing being brave daily, acknowledging our failures and being true to who we are even if others may not like it.

empowering

Love it! Learning to be brave instead of focusing on being perfect is truly a successful measure.

Truly inspiring

I absolutely loved this book. It really spoke to a part of me I knew existed but actively ignored. This definitely opened my eyes and it will be a book I can listen to over and over again and learn something new every single time!

This is a book that even a feminist doesn’t know it was needed.

This book was really on point for me. Really relatable on how much we miss out in life just because we hyper focus on perfectionism and impressing others when we can be brave to try everything we want and be happy instead; without regrets and we try and without fear of failure.