"Finance is aggressive. I'm aggressive. Our team is aggressive about our goals. We're aggressive about what we're trying to achieve for our clients and for our communities... Being aggressive and intense is not always a bad thing."

-Margaret Anadu, Partner and Global Head of Sustainability and Impact, Goldman Sachs (read the interview)

"We all want to take chances in our lives. The best way to do that is to isolate your goal and remove as many other risks as you can. When the time came for me to make that massive leap at 36 years old, to a career that I knew nothing about - television, I'd given myself a financial cushion."

-Stephanie Ruhle, Anchor, MSNBC (read the interview)

"I am now evangelical about working for yourself. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that a job is the safe option. It’s not. In a job, you’re at the complete mercy of management changes; industry downturns; marketplace dynamics."

-Cindy Gallop, Founder, MakeLoveNotPorn (read the interview)

"How long do we have? Fundraising is very hard and raising the first fund is always the hardest. It requires perseverance, persistence, optimism, and strong willpower. It's all-consuming."

-Kathryn Cavanaugh, Founder and Managing Partner, Capstar Ventures on raising her $41m venture fund (read the interview)

"I push myself to take risks and try new things because it strengthens my bravery muscle. Failure is an inherent part of that. If you condition yourself to try and fail, you get more comfortable with the idea that failure won’t break you."

-Reshma Saujani, Founder, Marshall Plan for Moms (read the interview)

"I've learned that there is no such thing as work-life balance. It’s time we busted that myth. Instead, live your life like a diversified portfolio. Write down everything that matters to you – your family, friends, community, job. Then allocate percentages so it all adds up to 100 percent."

-Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and CEO, TIAA (read the interview)

"As the CEO of this company, I’m now battling the “give a shit” problem which is proving to be my biggest challenge yet. It’s one thing to build products and services that start to move the needle, but it’s a whole other challenge to change hearts and minds, even if you have empirical data showing the success of women entrepreneurs."

-Karen Cahn, Founder and CEO, IFundWomen (read the interview)

"I subscribe to the idea that we overestimate what we can accomplish in short periods of time, and get impatient and frustrated because we have not seen this thing change. Then we underestimate how significantly we can change things over long periods of time."

-Marla Blow, President and COO, Skoll Foundation (read the interview)