About this quote

Being imperfect and a little wild makes you stick in people's minds. Stop smoothing every edge until you disappear into the average. Pick one small risk this week — speak the odd idea in a meeting, wear a bold color, or let a laugh out loud when you mess up. If people react, that simply means you’re visible; keep going and learn which parts of your real self open doors.

When to use it

• At a product demo when my slides glitched I joked, 'Imperfection is beauty — better to be ridiculous than boring,' and kept the energy up so the client stayed with us.
• During a family video call I messed up the recipe on camera and said, 'Imperfection is beauty' before we all started laughing and cooking together anyway.
• At band practice I hit a wrong note and shrugged, 'Imperfection is beauty,' then turned it into a new riff the whole group liked.
• Before a job interview I reminded myself, 'Imperfection is beauty,' and told the honest, messy version of a past project instead of polishing it into something it never was.