Perseverance

You're gonna fall down, but the world doesn't care how many times you fall down, as long as it's one fewer than the number of times you get back up.

The gap is the thing that will drive you. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

Stay obsessed. That thing you can't stop thinking about? Keep indulging it. Obsession is the better part of success. You will be great at the things that you can't not do.

Do one thing every day that scares you, and in the process, become the action hero of your own life.

I have three words for you. Persistence, persistence... persistence.

I waited a long time out in the world before I gave myself permission to fail. Please don't even bother asking. Don't bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it.

The only failure is the failure to rescue something. The difference between triumph and defeat isn't about your willingness to take the risk — it's about mastery of rescue afterwards.

Just hold on and keep loving what you love. And you'll see, in the end, they will let you stay.

Innovation comes from those who see things that others don't. Be persistent. Never give up.

At least I get to pursue what I want. That's something not to take for granted—the actual pursuit of happiness.

Intolerance on this continent is ever-present and ever dangerous. At the same time, a determined man or woman can achieve remarkable things.

That is the story of Spelman College — that unyielding presumption of promise, that presumption of brilliance, that presumption that every woman who enrolls at this school has something infinitely valuable to offer this world. And ladies, that is now your story. That legacy is now your inheritance.