I saw this put really, really well not too long ago:

> A lot of us got the message earlier in life that we had to wait for other's permission or encouragement to do things, when in fact, all you need is the ability to understand the situation and deal with the consequences

So fun to see other variations of this. I have for a while said

> You never need permission to do a good job.

But of course, it takes the experience to understand the nuances of what a good job is in the domain at hand, in the organisation and society at hand.

The one I'm familiar with is:

> It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Of course this can be used to justify all sorts of terrible things, but I've mainly seen it as pretty innocent in work environments when applying common sense.