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25 Famous Women on Not Settling for Less

Settling can be dangerously seductive — only in that information technology's far too like shooting fish in a barrel to become lulled into a chore, relationship, or routine that is comfortable, easy, and not quite challenging enough. But that lack of challenge comes loaded with danger, considering when we choose to settle for less, we also cull to not put our best abilities or self worth to the test. Naturally, some of the most driven, successful women have refused to settle for anything less than they deserve. Below, 20-five powerful women share their thoughts on forging your own path — in life, concern, relationships, and more.

1. Rihanna
On relationships: "I always meet the all-time in people. I hope for the best, and I e'er wait for that little flake of good, that potential, and I wait for it to bloom. You lot want them to experience good existence a man, but at present men are afraid to be men. They think being a existent human being is actually existence a pussy, that if yous take a chair out for a lady, or you're dainty or even affectionate to your girl in front of your boys, you're less of a human. It's so sick. They won't exist a gentleman considering that makes them appear soft. That'southward what we're dealing with at present, a hundred percent, and girls are settling for that, but I won't. I will wait forever if I accept to … but that'due south O.One thousand. You have to be screwed over plenty times to know, but at present I'm hoping for more than these guys can actually give." — Vanity Fair, Nov 2015

2. Jenna Lyons
"Never settle past compromising out of convenience or laziness — or because information technology'due south 'non your job.' If something'due south not done good enough or if you know information technology could exist ameliorate, aid brand that happen. Don't await for someone else to point it out." — Time, Feb 2016

iii. Jane Fonda
"As I read this, I am most to turn 78. And though I know you'll detect this impossible to believe, this is the happiest I take ever been. It was all worth it, the good and the bad. So don't requite upwards. I'chiliad proud of you considering you will never settle for less than you lot recall yous can attain." — CBS, December 2015

4. Issa Rae
On what she learned from creating Insecure: "That you practise have to actually want it and that you accept to be patient. That y'all have to talk yourself into it constantly. It really is a exam of: How bad you wanna do this? I had to remind myself everyday that I didn't desire to practise anything else and that I was expert enough to practise it. This is such a rewarding feel, to be able to piece of work with the people that I want to work with and produce something that I've wanted to see on TV for a long time." — Elle, October 2016

5. Venus Williams
"Losses have propelled me to fifty-fifty bigger places, and so I understand the importance of losing. You can never get complacent because a loss is e'er effectually the corner. It's in any game that you're in — a business organization game or whatsoever — y'all can't go complacent. You lot have to stay on top and learn from mistakes." — USA Today, July 2010

vi. Renée Elise Goldsberry
"When people say to me, 'I'm then happy for you, Oh my God! I can't believe — finally!' I always chuckle to myself. I actually felt very practiced about my career before Hamilton. This is something that's never happened to anyone earlier. It's changed the world for me as well, but I'thousand ever surprised when people admit how disappointed they were for me before Hamilton. 'Really? Was it that bad?'… I've had pregnant moments in my life before where people were like, 'Renée, this It! You are going to blow upwards!' And even in my 20s, I always felt like I would smile at that statement and retrieve, 'Maybe, perhaps non. I'm going to enjoy this for what it is at the moment.' I ever smiled and didn't really listen but only hear the compliment and be in the moment and enjoyment. I feel that way near Hamilton, too. You have no idea what tomorrow holds, ever. You lot merely know what today is.
And today I get to be a part of this massive theatrical hit. I don't fifty-fifty really have the words to describe what it is. And I'll probably spend the rest of my life trying to formulate them." — Bust, May 2016

7. Constance Wu
"Fresh Off the Boat is the first Asian-American television evidence led past [an] Asian-American [family] in over 20 years. I'd e'er booked television work, but I'd always been in the supporting function, the best friend or the assistant to the white person. And I was grateful and happy for that. I wasn't forced to think nearly it, because I was placated to the bespeak of satisfaction.

"Simply once I was in the atomic number 82 role and other people started making such a big deal out of it, I realized I was previously blind to it. I thought, I should read stuff by people who've idea virtually it more than I have. Information technology was quite freeing [to discover that] the self-blame I had internalized my whole life had a language and a community that I hadn't previously had. That said, I call back that sort of cocky-blame informed my piece of work ethic. Information technology fabricated me desire to work harder." — Allure, April 2017

eight. Jennifer Lawrence
On speaking out about the pay gap in American Hustle: "You know, [afterwards the Lenny essay came out] my agent was similar, 'God, I experience similar I expect like a terrible agent.' Well, no, because you lot accept to do everything I say. And I said, 'Settle.' 'Cause I just wanted to do the picture; it wasn't about coin to me at the time. Simply all the actors were doing that. None of us were getting our [usual] quotes. Merely the difference in who was getting a little less, and a lot less, than their quote was very vast. And I wanted to write about how I got in my ain mode. 'Crusade I presume that in negotiating, the men were tough as assurance." — Glamour, Jan 2016

9. Amy Poehler
"Anybody who doesn't make yous feel good, kick them to the adjourn. And the before you first in your life, the better." — Harvard Outset Accost, May 2011

10. Yvonne Orji
"When the show came out, all these articles were like, Yvonne Orji, Boob tube's new bae. I was like, Who they talking well-nigh? They not talking near me! Who hasn't had a appointment in how many months? Me. Who ain't been nowhere? Who hasn't been to anybody'south Nobu on everyone else's dime? Me. But personally, I literally just resolved like, 'You know, God, it's me and y'all. We ridin' out. It took me ten years to make information technology in my career. If information technology takes me a decade to discover the right love, I know it'southward going to be sweetness. Please don't permit it take a decade, 'cause I'mma injure yous.'" — GQ, July 2017

eleven. Solange
"I'1000 not settling for being allowed in these spaces simply for fierce these f—male monarch walls downward. Inclusion is not plenty. Allowance is non plenty. Nosotros vest here. We built this sh-t." — Time, May 2017

12. Dolly Parton
"Well, my songs are my children, as I say, and I look them to back up me when I'm old. And, you lot know, it's like my publishing and my songs is what I'grand going to leave for my family. And to me, I was building a company. I'd already recorded that vocal, and I already had it published. I had 100 percent of the publishing. And for Colonel Tom to ask to requite me up half of a song — they waited, though, 'til the last day, when they were recording, then just sprang that one on me afterward I told everybody Elvis was going to tape my song, and I cried. I cried all night well-nigh that. And I — you know, and it was such a disappointment, but I idea, no, I'm not giving you lot people half of my vocal." – NPR, February 2009

13. Nicki Minaj"
I only want women to always feel in control. Because, we're capable — nosotros're and then capable. It'south one of the reasons that I have these women that I look upwards to — considering they did not allow existence a woman to make them feel similar they should settle for less, financially. No, money doesn't mean everything. Merely it says a lot." — Dazed Digital, September 2014

14. Elizabeth Gilbert
"Of course, it's not always a pleasant experience to have our certainties stripped abroad. Sureness is something similar a neck caryatid, which we clamp effectually our lives, hoping to somehow protect ourselves from the frightening, constant whiplash of change. Sadly, the brace doesn't always hold. I could list for you a tragicomic litany of all the things I was once mistakenly completely certain almost, and I'thousand sure you can practise the same. Perchance you, also, were once absolutely sure that you'd found your cracking beloved, or your final all-time friend, or the perfect mentor, meditation, or medication that would — once and for all — never neglect you. And then? Slowly, it seems, we are not so sure after all. Such is our slippery toehold here on Earth, and so information technology has always been.

"Mayhap information technology is for this reason that the people we instinctively turn to in times of trouble are those who — nosotros sense — have made space within their convictions for doubt and mystery. Compassion grows best, information technology appears, in the soft spots beneath quiet give up. So I endeavour very hard to go like shooting fish in a barrel on the house conclusions. These days I settle for feeling only 85 percentage certain nearly most things, most of the time. I believe this is keeping me sane, and I also believe that it's keeping me human. In fact, I'm 85 percentage certain of it." – O, the Oprah Magazine, November 2008

15. Madeleine Albright
"We cannot be complacent, and nosotros cannot forget the hard work it took u.s.a. to get to where nosotros are. I would fence that considering of what is at pale, this is exactly the time to take a conversation about how to preserve what women have gained, including the right to make our own choices, and how to move forwards together. I would welcome an informed dialogue that crosses generations. Nosotros have much to acquire from i another." – The New York Times, February 2016

16. Lizzo
"I retrieve it's of import that I have full responsibility for the way the world perceives me, considering that is the style they're gonna perceive someone who looks like me in the future. Perchance, hopefully, that would give some young girl someone to wait up to and have away the opportunity for someone to weaponize her uniqueness against her. I had to travel the world and I had to meet people and read DMs and look into their eyes and really hear their stories to believe that I was making an touch on in a positive style. And at present that I believe in myself in that style, I'm gonna go along to just push that conversation by beingness a better me every unmarried day." — Faddy , October 2020

17. Kamala Harris
"What I want immature women and girls to know is: Yous are powerful and your vox matters. You're going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences yous've had. Simply yous recollect that when you are in those rooms, yous are not solitary. We are all in that room with you applauding you on. Cheering your voice. And simply so proud of you. Then you lot use that vocalization and be potent." — Marie Claire , February 2019

18. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"Fight for the things that you lot care about. Merely practice it in a fashion that volition lead others to join you." — Harvard University Luncheon, May 2015

19. Michelle Obama
"Practice not always let anyone make y'all feel like yous don't matter, or like you don't have a place in our American story — because you exercise. And you lot take a right to be exactly who yous are." — Offset Lady Farewell Spoken communication, January 2017

twenty. Reese Witherspoon
"I've realized that life is too brusk to spend my fourth dimension with anybody who doesn't capeesh me, care for me with respect, or bring value to the relationship. I'thou much more confident now, and I feel like I have the power to say, 'Nope, I don't want to work with that person.'" — InStyle , December 2016

21. Jennifer Lopez
"Honestly, find something that you love to do. … Discover your passions and pursue them relentlessly and don't finish. I mean actually, I think it'south just about working hard. I always tell my kids — my kids are similar, 'I know you work hard.' I go, 'No, I don't piece of work hard. I piece of work harder than everybody else.' … But don't cease. The people who were not successful are the ones who stopped halfway through, somewhere." — NPR, Dec 2018

22. Tracee Ellis Ross
"My mission, I feel, has always been around sharing the beauty, the joy, the power of Black women. And supporting ownership of our ain narratives and the expansion of our disinterestedness, both on a(n) private and personal level. In how you invest in yourself and accept your ain power in your ain life and inhabit your own peel with liberty and joy, any that means for you. And as well how we do that collectively in the globe, how we support each other in doing that." — NPR, June 2020

23. Emma Watson
"At that place's a Theodore Roosevelt spoken language near the importance of being in the loonshit, whether yous fail or y'all succeed, or you make a consummate idiot of yourself, as long as you're doing the best with what you have, using whatever cognition you have to bring to the table at that moment. And you go on to continue learning. I recall my mistakes have fabricated me much stronger. It's prissy to know that things don't ultimately break you; that you demand to become there to know." — Interview Magazine , Apr 2017

24. Mindy Kaling
"Piece of work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled. Listen to no 1 except the ii smartest and kindest adults you know, and that doesn't always mean your parents. If you do that, y'all will be fine." — Glamour, August 2015

25. Beyoncé
"I took a chance on myself when I bought my company back. We all accept the conviction in usa to have chances and bet on ourselves." — Elle, Dec 2019

25 Famous Women on Not Settling for Less