Brave, Not Perfect

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)

Good for Husbands Trying Understand their Wives Better

This book helped me dig into the deeper parts of feminine psychology. It’s always been hard for me to connect with my wife to get her to embrace challenges and have confrontations with people, even when she’s right. She also gets more frustrated with things that she’s not automatically good at. And it all makes sense after reading this.

Now, hopefully I can give her some techniques for fighting through her ingrained psychology. Husbands who want to do the same, should consider reading this book. It’s easy, quick, and well written. Ms. Saujani is able to speak on difficult subjects without alienating most readers, and I’m grateful for that. It’s a good book, and I’m glad she wrote it.

Empowering!!!

I absolutely loved this read! Easy to connect with, kept me engaged, and opened my mind as to WHY women do what we do when navigating thru work, womanhood, and motherhood ♥️

Wish it had more of a storyline

Saujani seems like an amazing and bright person. She has made me become bolder in the classroom but the overall storyline of the book was just eh. I wish that it had more of her life story and how she became the woman she is.

Perfect for Young Girl Power

Some good take aways. This would be a perfect read for a young girl in her early 20's.

Loved it

It really inspired me and made me realize about this need to be perfect ya women have and how it’s bad for us

A book every woman should read at least once

Absolutely love the book, the voice of the narrator (which is the author) and all the content. I never thought about this topic before hearing her Ted talk and that motivated me to read her book, which I absolutely loved. Lets be more brave, and less "perfect"

Worth a read

Wouldn't call it a must read book, but certainly enjoyed it and found some interesting new perspectives on gender equality. i would recommend this book for new mom's, specially if raising a female.

Inspiring

The narrating is very professional and easy to follow.
The book itself is very inspiring and interesting: many personal examples and meaningful recommendations.

really good message

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

Wish I had this book when I was 18

This is such a great book for young women and teens. I'm not the target audience but I still found it really empowering and learned some things. It should be required reading for all young women entering college. Reshma is doing amazing work. If this book had been around when I was a young woman I truly believe I may have taken a very different path.