Courage

Every defeat to me was a challenge. And for six generations, that is what Spelman women have done. They have seen every defeat as a challenge.

Do not leave before you leave. Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision.

Don't let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face — and there will be barriers — be external, not internal. Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you're capable of unless you try.

In any given moment, one lives one's life in one of two ways: either under a threat or for a challenge. If imagination will take you everywhere, then living under a threat will take you nowhere.

There's a lesson in this: never start out asking for someone you'd eventually settle for.

No one ever sets out to fail. But being afraid to fail means you'll be afraid to try. Playing it safe will get you nowhere.

Get out of your comfort zone — better yet, get comfortable about being out of your comfort zone. Get yourself into the arena. Be a participant and not a spectator.

Life will happen to you, whether you try to guide it or not, so you might as well try to influence the outcome. You have to know what you want and you have to be willing to go after it.

You don't need to panic if you don't yet know what you want to do with your life. But you probably want to throw yourselves into circumstances where the summons will come.

Opportunity can be manufactured. You can wait around for the right set of circumstances to fall into place and then leap into action, but you can also create those set of circumstances on your own.

When you feel scared, hold someone's hand and look into their eyes. And when you feel brave, do the same thing.

Don't treat your heart like an action figure wrapped in plastic and never used.