Justine Musk

“What is it that you're not doing - in your work, in your life - because you feel you need permission? If someone had given you that permission as a youngster, what do you think you'd be doing now?”

“Every time a confident, successful woman like Marissa Meyer distances herself from feminism, I think of Athena. Athena women, with all their brilliance and strategy, are the ones smashing up through layers of glass. They tend to identify with men, keeping femininity at a distance.”

“The world doesn't throw a billion dollars at a person because the person wants it or works so hard they feel they deserve it.”

“Don't pursue something because you 'want to be great.' Pursue something because it fascinates you, because the pursuit itself engages and compels you.”

“When we dare to hope for a certain outcome and take action after action toward that outcome, we're dealing with nothing less than the spirit of creativity itself.”

“We are born into a particular place and time with a particular set of gifts and limitations. The challenge isn't to pluck the best career out of the air, but to learn yourself from the inside out: to know your gifts and accept your limitations and shape your life accordingly.”

“Money is rarely just money. Sometimes it stands in for love or self-esteem or freedom or a sense of control over your destiny (especially if you lacked these things in childhood).”

“Artemis women often have difficult childhoods. She's the kid who seeks comfort in the woods, or animals, or books. If trapped in an authoritarian family, she blends in to get by - but keeps a fierce autonomy inside her head and heart, looking to the day she breaks free.”

“I don't think it's that difficult to distinguish between people with narcissistic disorders and people with high self-esteem.”

“Extreme success is not like other kinds of success; what has worked for someone else probably won't work for you.”

“From childhood on, both males and females learn to do whatever we need to do to get the attention we need to survive. We fashion ourselves accordingly. And then, should that attention ever go away, it's only natural to do the same things we've always done, rely on what we've always relied on, in order to make it come back.”

“Hope is much more than wishful thinking. Hope is a way of moving through the world.”

“People who become 'elite' at what they do aren't striving to be 'elite' just to join some special club. They take great joy and satisfaction in the pursuit of mastery, and they compete against themselves, not others.”

“Fear is a powerful beast. But we can learn to ride it.”

“A lot of people work extremely hard and through no fault of their own - bad luck, the wrong environment, unfortunate circumstances - struggle to survive.”

“Passion is not what gives you bliss or makes you happy 24/7, but what you're willing to suffer for, what you genuinely believe to be worth the sacrifice.”

“We live in a culture that does not encourage women to be epic heroes of their own Big Stories but the mothers and lovers and wives and mistresses and muses and personal assistants, the femme fatales and fantasies and manic pixie dream girls, in someone else's Big Story, and this someone else is usually a dude.”