Arianna Huffington on Burnout, Bold Women, and Building a Culture of Wellbeing

Name three women who inspire you

First, Alice Walton. Two groundbreaking initiatives founded on the science of how our daily behaviors and our environment impact health outcomes are the Heartland Whole Health Institute and Alice L. Walton School of Medicine built by Alice in Bentonville, Arkansas. For Alice, the focus on whole health was driven by the fact that the U.S. has the highest level of healthcare spending but ranks relatively low among developed countries in health outcomes. These facilities will be on the grounds of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which Alice built to bring a world-class museum to America’s heartland, and will include 140 acres of hiking and biking trails, sculpture gardens, and, of course, art. Alice’s love and passion for Bentonville, the Heartland region, for using nature and art and whole human health to improve people’s lives is truly inspiring. When people say to me our healthcare is so broken we can’t fix it, I just say have you talked to Alice?

Second, Mellody Hobson. She is a remarkable success story: one of the most influential women in business who came from a tumultuous, financially unstable home life as a child. If you want to succeed big, there’s no substitute for simply sticking your neck out. That’s how she helped build the company Ariel Investments, the largest minority-owned investment company in the world, and she’s now the co-CEO. She’s also the author of The New York Times best-seller “Priceless Facts about Money,” a great children’s book that’s perfect for all ages. It explores all aspects of money in an accessible way that will give any children a boost in financial literacy and prepare them for the future. As she says, we need to start talking to our children about money when they’re young, even when it’s uncomfortable. I call her fearless, a powerful creator, and a fierce friend.

And last, my mother. There isn’t a single corner of my life that isn’t filled with her spirit. She is, without question, the foundation of my existence. She brought me up to believe that there was nothing I should be afraid to try while at the same time making it clear that she would love me not one iota less if I failed.

Who is a woman who has inspired or mentored you, and what lessons from her influence have stayed with you?

The person who has inspired me the most is my mother. One of her lessons that has stayed with me is that failure isn’t the opposite of success, but a stepping stone to success. Fear of failure is so deeply embedded in our culture, and especially in women, that it can be incredibly liberating not only to accept failure, but to welcome it, and see it as a necessary and inevitable stop on the road to success.

Her second lesson — and one that goes hand in hand with accepting failure — is the idea that fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of fear. It’s all about getting up one more time than we fall down. When we know we can do that, when we know we will do that, it becomes much more possible to take risks. And that’s essential for success in business, and especially for women — since we’re less likely to be handed success, we’re going to have to take risks to achieve it.

What is one defining moment in your career or life that empowered you to create change, and how has it shaped the path you’re on today?

In 2007, I collapsed from exhaustion and burnout, breaking my cheek on my desk as I fell. That became a defining moment for me. I realized the idea that burnout is the price we have to pay for success was a myth. I became passionate about the science showing the direct connection between our health and productivity and how we prioritize our five key daily behaviors: food, exercise, sleep, stress management, and connection. That led me to write my two books, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. And as I went around the world speaking about them, and the issues of stress, burnout, and sleep deprivation, I saw how deeply people want to change their lives. I wanted to go beyond just speaking out and raising awareness u2013 I felt the need to turn this passion into something real and tangible that would begin to help other people change their daily lives. It was a call to action I just couldn’t ignore, and so I founded Thrive Global.

What is the legacy you hope to leave behind as a changemaker and leader in your industry?

To be honest, I have zero interest in how I’m remembered. For me, death is not the end, and that means I have no interest in any kind of legacy. Instead, I want to do everything I can while I am alive to help shift the culture and help people live with less stress, better health, more resilience, and more joy.

In honor of Gloria Steinem’s 90 years of advocacy, what do you believe is her most enduring contribution to women’s empowerment, and how has it inspired your own journey?

Gloria has been and is a true pioneer for women in every possible way. She not only opened doors for those coming after her but, just as importantly, she expanded their imagination for what’s possible, showing women that we can not only succeed but do it on our own terms.

What does progress for women look like in your field, and what steps do you believe are necessary to keep that momentum going?

Progress in gender parity and equal pay is obviously still incredibly important. But it’s not just about hiring and pay, as essential as those are. What still needs to be done to keep that momentum going is to change the day-to-day culture away from workplaces fueled by machismo and burnout. It’s about going beyond access to getting our foot in the door and changing workplaces that, in ways both subtle and not subtle, undervalue women and let them know their voices and contributions are not welcomed or noted.