Mistakes I Made at Work: 25 Influential Women Reflect on What They Got Out of Getting It Wrong

by Jessica Bacal

Researchers Alice Eagly and Linda Carli debunked the idea of a “glass ceiling,” a barrier that exists only at the top. Instead, their extensive analyses show that gender bias in the United States is alive and well at entry-level and senior-level jobs, for blue-collar workers and executives. Women are more likely to get flack for mistakes, especially in typically “male” roles—this phenomenon is called “the glass cliff”—and studies show that women of color are even more at risk for being perceived as incompetent.

Sometimes being comfortable in a place isn’t a good enough reason to stay there. It’s okay to take risks.

this quote from Howard Thurman, a theologian who greatly influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Don’t just ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I found a description of my dream job at a firm called the Great Place to Work Institute, which consulted to companies trying to create better workplaces for their employees.

Don’t expect too much of yourself when you’re young. It’s better to be a late bloomer than an early one; so many young successes flame out and spend the rest of their lives lamenting what they used to have.

ruth reichl

“Many, I think, never figure out how to handle the emptiness that comes when the rush of achievement fades away, or the loneliness—the sense of invisibility—when no one is there to hand out yet another ‘A.’

judith warner

But I think problems arise in particular for someone like me: because school had always come easily, the first twenty-two years of my life had been a string of successes, and I didn’t really know how to handle setbacks.

If you’re not blessed enough to be able to banish the voice of self-doubt and self-criticism from your head, then develop compensatory strategies—like getting out of the house, exercising, and connecting with friends.

When you have a “growth mindset,” you understand that mistakes and setbacks are an inevitable part of learning.