Top 10 Quotes From the Inaugural Lead On Conference

5,000 women attended the sold-out, inaugural LeadOn Conference in Santa Clara, CA on February 24, 2015.

#LeadOnCA @wtrmrk

Jami McKeon, global chair, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

1. “Be excited by change, not intimidated by it. Embrace what’s possible.”

Candy Chang, artist, designer and creator, Before I Die Project

2. “What if we want the same thing; what if we could come together to collaborate on the places we care about.”

Juliet de Baubigny, operating partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

3. “Women assess their abilities based on current performance; men on future possibilities.”

Hillary Rodham Clinton

4. “I never doubted how fortunate I was to live in America at a time of immense possibility.”

5. “We can't afford to leave all that talent on the sidelines. We all have a stake in making this better.” (Regarding women’s access to better jobs and leadership positions)

Dr. Brené Brown, researcher, storyteller and New York Times No. 1 best-selling author

6. “There is no greater threat to cynics and fear-mongers than a woman who is willing to fall, because she learned how to stand back up. And not because it's easy but because the light in her is greater than the darkness she had to walk through.”

7. “Daring is showing up when you have no idea what the consequences would be.”

8. “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked I am not interested in your feedback.”

9. “When we deny our story, when we don't talk about our failures, we are not whole.”

Madeleine Albright who was not present but quoted by at least three of the speakers

10. “There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." (from a keynote speech in 2006)

Disclaimer 1: This top 10 list is a quick reflection of some of my favorite moments from the conference. There were so many great moments and many did not lend themselves well to an excerpt in a top 10 list or I didn’t write them down. Stay tuned for another blog post (coming later this week) on my conference insights.

Disclaimer 2: I sincerely apologize in advance if this list does not accurately quote the authors or if any are incorrectly attributed. I tried to be as accurate as possible. If you see something that needs to be corrected, please let me know. Thanks!