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
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.
There's no more powerful lesson than knowing that your setbacks will one day help you succeed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I've chosen opportunities where I might fail rather than live in the shadow of my own potential.
I think that feeling of being thrown into the deep end and doing something you never thought you would accomplish is really powerful.
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.
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.
I don't like to do small things. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to really make an impact.
You're never too young or too old to be a mentor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's important to find people who believe in you. You also have to find people that you believe in.
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.
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.
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.
I think as automation gets even more and more prevalent, we're going to need to learn how to code. Everybody does.
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.
Girls Who Code is all about providing role models. You can't be what you can't see.
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.
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.
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.
Theoretically, I have no business starting an organization called Girls Who Code, because I don't code.
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.
There's no better way of learning from your experiences than having an open and honest conversation with yourself about why you fell short.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Too many times we just think about our ideas, and we let people convince us not to do it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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?'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
