Reshma Saujani Quotes

My family was one of the few South Asian families in my community in Illinois. Growing up in the '80s, I remember going to the K-Mart with my mom, when she was wearing her sari, and she'd get made fun of. People would ask my mother, 'Were you born with that dot on your head?'

- Reshma Saujani

There has been little to no attention from policymakers to the economic inequalities young people face. Instead of job creation policies, our country's youth are faced with tuition hikes.

- Reshma Saujani

Part of the success of Girls Who Code is that I am a hustler. When people ask what my biggest strength is, it's that I'm shameless. I will ask people for help even when I don't know them.

- Reshma Saujani

I give my e-mail out all the time - my team doesn't love that! People e-mail me or tweet at me or LinkedIn me. I've learned that oftentimes people just need five minutes. People just need to touch somebody real and have a connection for a moment.

- Reshma Saujani

Computer science is not just for smart 'nerds' in hoodies coding in basements. Coding is extremely creative and is an integral part of almost every industry.

- Reshma Saujani

Coding, it's an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure. Code breaks and then it falls apart, and it often takes many, many tries until that magical moment when what you're trying to build comes to life.

- Reshma Saujani

In the '80s, society created a caricature of what a hacker or a programmer looked like: a guy wearing a hoodie, drinking energy drinks, sitting in a basement somewhere coding. Today, programmers look like the men we see in the show 'Silicon Valley' on HBO. If you look at the message girls are getting, it's saying, 'This is not for you.'

- Reshma Saujani

Coding - everyone thinks it's a superpower. And so when you feel like, 'I've learned how to code,' and you say to your mom or the girl sitting next to you, 'I know how that app is built, I know the logic behind how that was created' - that's powerful.

- Reshma Saujani

I was full of pride when President Obama talked about coding in his last State of the Union address. I was proud when Chicago recently made computer science mandatory as a requirement for graduation. To see this elevate to the level of a bigger conversation is progress.

- Reshma Saujani

Girls Who Code doesn't exist solely to discover the next great female technology icon, although that would be great! In addition to coding, the girls at our program learn to pitch ideas and products, present themselves professionally, and interact with colleagues at every level of a company.

- Reshma Saujani

Never give up. People will always discount you, and you'll always get rejected. But set your sights high. Be boldly ambitious. Be relentless and never give up.

- Reshma Saujani

The culture of tech companies cannot change if women aren't in the room.

- Reshma Saujani

For over a decade, the top 1% of income earners have seen their pay skyrocket, riding a wave of lobbyist-sponsored financial de-regulation. For the remaining 99%, wages have stagnated, and employment has fallen off a cliff.

- Reshma Saujani

For too many of our young people, that once-promised American dream has given way to an American debt burden and a bleak job market.

- Reshma Saujani

Theoretically, I have no business starting an organization called Girls Who Code, because I don't code.

- Reshma Saujani

I was in my 30s when I quit my job and ran for Congress. So often, we're told it's OK to take these big career leaps when we're in our 20s, but we cast such an unfavorable light on those who take big risks later on in their careers or when they start families. There's enormous pressure to have it all figured out.

- Reshma Saujani

I'm glad I didn't know how much patience entrepreneurship required. It took some time to turn that into a strength of mine, so that would've presented an obstacle when I was younger.

- Reshma Saujani

We must stand up and fight for an America that welcomes young doers and dreamers instead of categorically denying entry to so many simply based on their religion or country of origin.

- Reshma Saujani

As I've traveled the country, we visit tech incubators all the time where women are going into their second or third act in their career and learning how to be software programmers, or how to work at startup companies, and learning a completely different skill set. I think it's never too late.

- Reshma Saujani

Every day, no matter how tired my father was, he'd put me in the car and drive me to Schaumburg Public Library, and he'd read to me from books about Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt.

- Reshma Saujani

Is the investment community critical to our economic success? Yes. Free markets, innovation, access to credit, venture capital, and strong labor rights - these have been the underpinnings of our economic vitality, from laying railways to broadband lines.

- Reshma Saujani

Everything I've achieved has come from perseverance. I've never met another entrepreneur who had a painless path to success - everyone who tries to bring new ideas to the world is tested.

- Reshma Saujani

For the American economy, for any economy to grow, to truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half our population. We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection, and we've got to do it now. We cannot wait for them to learn how to be brave like I did when I was 33 years old.

- Reshma Saujani

We're being told that America is a zero sum game - that the dreams of immigrants come at the expense of those native born and that the religious freedom of some threatens the security of others. But we know this is a lie.

- Reshma Saujani

I'm a big proponent of mandatory computer science education. I think the first step is educating policymakers that technology is changing the way that we live and work, and it's happening so fast.

- Reshma Saujani

Being brave is what led to three rejections from Yale Law School before being accepted. It led to losing my 2010 race for U.S. Congress, and another failed bid for public office in 2013, this time for public advocate of New York City.

- Reshma Saujani

In 2010, I ran for Congress in a Democratic primary against someone who had been there for 18 years. 'The Daily News' endorsed me. I was in 'The New York Times' above the fold. CNBC called this one of the hottest races in the country. On election day, votes for me never went past 19%. I lost.

- Reshma Saujani

All that time I spent chasing Yale was time I could have been using to actually make a difference in the world. Bravery, not perfection, was the key that unlocked all the doors I've walked through since.

- Reshma Saujani

You really never know where your path will lead you, but working with technology was truly the best way I could make a difference.

- Reshma Saujani

There is a seductive simplicity in Donald Trump's vision to build walls and ban refugees to protect American interests. But we must always remember that we create far greater opportunity for all Americans when we enable the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of people globally to take root here.

- Reshma Saujani

When I was 33 years old, I ran for United States Congress in New York City. I lost miserably.

- Reshma Saujani

When I first ran for office in 2010, I was 32 years old. The average age in Congress was 69. I was a brown woman whose name was Reshma Saujani - a name most people couldn't pronounce. And there was never a South Asian woman who had ever run for United States Congress before.

- Reshma Saujani

I refuse to see losing as a negative. Obama lost in '83 when he ran against Bobby Rush. Hillary lost in '08. Even Lincoln lost the first election. It's a useful learning experience.

- Reshma Saujani

For so long, women have been waiting to get recognized. The world doesn't work that way. We need to teach girls that it's OK to ask for what you want when it comes to your salary or whatever it is you want to enhance your career. No one is going to notice you no matter how amazing you are.

- Reshma Saujani

My parents were engineers. In the 1970s, they came to the United States as refugees from Uganda. Seeing everything this country did for my family inspired me to want to give back through public service.

- Reshma Saujani

If our American women are going to work to put food on the table and pay for the mortgage, then we better make sure that they get put into jobs that pay well and that pay their worth. That's why I'm such a huge advocate about computing jobs, because those are the jobs.

- Reshma Saujani

I was definitely one of those girls where my father would sit me at the dinner table and say, 'What's two plus two?' And I'd be like, 'Five!' He would shake his head. Math and science intimidated me.

- Reshma Saujani

As women, we're presented this false choice that is either our children or our work. But I don't think I fully understood the paradox until I had a child. I bring my son to work and let other parents do the same. I am very intentional about the workplace that I create, and my son is a big part of that.

- Reshma Saujani

I believe in the power of peer mentorship. When I learned how to ask for a raise, how to fire someone, how to deal with a board challenge - I didn't get that from mentors like Hillary Clinton. I got that from women who were my friends and who had already done the thing that I was doing.

- Reshma Saujani

With my own son, my style of mothering has been to bring him everywhere. He's sitting on my lap during interviews. When I went to the White House to meet President Obama, he was there.

- Reshma Saujani

I have seen girls tackle every single big problem from cancer to lead poisoning to climate change to homelessness to bullying in schools. There is literally no problem that we can't solve.

- Reshma Saujani

I have learned how to say no, and I have to check myself all the time. I'm not great at it still. Women get criticized a lot more for saying no than men do.

- Reshma Saujani

I don't feel like I've achieved what I wanted to achieve yet, even though every day I get an email from another girl who tells me the difference that Girls Who Code has made in her life. I'm not done yet.

- Reshma Saujani

Most girls are taught to avoid risk and failure. We're taught to smile pretty, play it safe, get all A's. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to play rough, swing high, crawl to the top of the monkey bars, and then just jump off headfirst.

- Reshma Saujani

There's no better way of learning from your experiences than having an open and honest conversation with yourself about why you fell short.

- Reshma Saujani

You still hear this perception that boys are good at math and girls are not, and it's not cool and it's not interesting. And I think we have to shift the culture. It's so deeply entrenched in who we are.

- Reshma Saujani

I never take for granted how lucky I am to be an American and what a privilege it is to spend each day at a nonprofit dedicated to helping the next generation of girls achieve their dreams. My journey, as the daughter of refugees, shows what refugees and the children of refugees can create for all Americans.

- Reshma Saujani

We need policymakers to keep an eye on gender and write policies that are explicitly designed to include underserved populations like girls in computer science courses.

- Reshma Saujani

Some people worry about our federal deficit, but I, I worry about our bravery deficit. Our economy, our society - we're just losing out because we're not raising our girls to be brave. The bravery deficit is why women are underrepresented in STEM, in C-suites, in boardrooms, in Congress, and pretty much everywhere you look.

- Reshma Saujani

I'm the daughter of refugees. The immigrant mentality is to work hard, be brave, and never give up in your pursuit of achieving the American dream.

- Reshma Saujani

I wanted to become a lawyer because I saw Kelly McGillis on 'The Accused.' 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'L.A. Law,' 'Ally McBeal' - all of these have inspired women to go into law. I think the opposite is happening in technology.

- Reshma Saujani

Hillary Clinton was a hugely important mentor for me. I don't talk to her every day, but sometimes mentorship means being able to watch somebody's leadership from afar.

- Reshma Saujani

A movement only takes form from that first act. Exploring a curiosity, or a real passion, and being motivated by a desire to solve something - that's really the best way.

- Reshma Saujani

I want women to be comfortable with being imperfect. I immediately see how girls are afraid to try things that they won't be good in. And women stay with the things they're good at even if that's not what they're put on this earth to do.

- Reshma Saujani

What happens to boys in tech is in many ways different than what happens to girls in tech. it's not that they're facing sexism per se: it's that they don't think it's cool. So I think we really have to change the way we present technology.

- Reshma Saujani

I think as automation gets even more and more prevalent, we're going to need to learn how to code. Everybody does.

- Reshma Saujani

In the workplace, we're taught to worry about what happens if we don't have full, complete knowledge of every detail. But if you create a culture and an environment that rewards people for taking risks, even if they don't succeed, you can start changing behavior.

- Reshma Saujani

I think that if we want to cure cancer, we have to teach girls to code. If we want to do something about climate change, we have to teach girls to code. If we want to solve homelessness in our city and our country, teach girls to code. They're change makers.

- Reshma Saujani

I think for a certain demographic of American families that are not living below the poverty line, what is now becoming the working poor, I think they realize that their young daughters - and their sons, quite frankly - need to learn a skill set that is going to never go away, and I think that they see that in technology.

- Reshma Saujani

Girls Who Code is all about providing role models. You can't be what you can't see.

- Reshma Saujani

While I've had so many different jobs - I've worked in law, I've worked in government, I've run for office - there's a common theme. The theme for my entire life has been about giving back.

- Reshma Saujani

I've been a female activist since the time I was 13 years old.

- Reshma Saujani

I'm a feminist with a capital 'F' and have always had a passion for policy.

- Reshma Saujani

I've chosen opportunities where I might fail rather than live in the shadow of my own potential.

- Reshma Saujani

I think that feeling of being thrown into the deep end and doing something you never thought you would accomplish is really powerful.

- Reshma Saujani

When I'm in the best physical shape of my life, I'm in the best professional space. I can track the connection between the two.

- Reshma Saujani

In college, I studied political science, policy, and law. My plan was to move to New York, pay off student debt in a year or two, and then run for office.

- Reshma Saujani

I had to learn how to not be a micro-manager. Maternity leave made me do that. I just couldn't anymore.

- Reshma Saujani

Too many times we just think about our ideas, and we let people convince us not to do it.

- Reshma Saujani

I don't like to do small things. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to really make an impact.

- Reshma Saujani

There's no more powerful lesson than knowing that your setbacks will one day help you succeed.

- Reshma Saujani

I'm not pro-Wall Street or anti-Wall Street. I'm pro-New York City.

- Reshma Saujani

For me, if I'm away from my son for more than 48 hours, I'm crabby.

- Reshma Saujani

I always say if you're not failing, you're not trying.

- Reshma Saujani

You're never too young or too old to be a mentor.

- Reshma Saujani