20 Quotes by Katty Kay

But when we asked Chao if she ever doubted her abilities during those years in office, she was wonderfully candid, and funny. "Constantly," she replied. "I'm Asian American, are you kidding? My fear was that the newspapers would have blaring headlines like: 'Elaine Chao Failed, Disgraced Whole Family.

Think less, act more, be authentic.

Confidence, ultimately, is the characteristic that distinguishes those who imagine from those who do.

If you choose not to act, you have little chance of success. What’s more, when you choose to act, you’re able to succeed more frequently than you think.

If you choose not to act, you have little chance of success. What’s more, when you choose to act, you’re able to succeed more frequently than you think. How often in life do we avoid doing something because we think we’ll fail? Is failure really worse than doing nothing? And how often might we actually have triumphed if we had just decided to give it a try?

Maybe Nike has it right. At some point we have to stop thinking, and just do it.

Confidence is the purity of action produced by a mind free of doubt.

Underqualified and underprepared men don’t think twice about leaning in. Overqualified and overprepared, too many women still hold back. And the confidence gap is an additional lens through which to consider why it is women don’t lean in. Even when we are prepared to tolerate the personal disruption that comes with aiming high, even when we have plenty of ambition, we fundamentally doubt ourselves.

But there are times when speaking up is required, and women have got to master that distinction. “We’re taught to be more self-deprecating,” she told us. “I think it all begins on the playground, and then society reinforces it. We believe that we should wait until we are absolutely sure that we are ready for something before we ask for it.” It took her a decade in the workplace to learn to ask for something boldly, without waiting. She was in her early thirties, working in the Chicago.