Marianne Williamson's legendary success includes a first book, A Return to Love, that spent 35 weeks as America's No. 1 favorite read, and her most recent, The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife, which hit No. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list in its first week. Last fall she spoke to packed houses in Boston, Phoenix, London, Los Angeles and New York, to name just a few. With only a single employee, Williamson's business is basically self-run and, reflecting the beliefs she preaches, pursues a spiritual path. She has been named by major publications as one of the 50 most influential baby boomers.
 
How is your own spirituality reflected in your work?
M.W.: "In many ways. I have always taken my nonprofit work as seriously as my work within the profit-making sector. In 1989, I founded an organization in Los Angeles called Project Angel Food, which basically was meals on wheels for homebound people with AIDS. More recently, I am pushing an agenda of peace, with the founding of the Peace Alliance, which supports legislation to establish a United States Department of Peace. I have always wanted to play to an audience that is like me. I want to write books or give talks which, if I were in the audience or I were the reader, I would appreciate. And there have definitely been times in my life when I knew that what I wanted to talk about was not popular in the moment. For instance, in 1998, I wrote a book about healing the soul of America at a time when my primary readership, the spiritual and metaphysical community, didn't want to hear about politics. Today, of course, that's changed. With issues of social activism, sacred activism, a whole new conversation has emerged, where virtue is its own reward and the ultimate high is feeling, at the end of the day, like I contributed to my community or my society, whether or not it's popular. I think that while this decision may have been, at times, to my detriment financially, it has contributed to my stature. I have a voice in society. And I have lived enough to know that, ultimately, abundance flows from your name as well as your product."
 
How have women as professionals evolved, and where do you see us going?
M.W.: "My generation of women, the baby boomers, made a big mistake. We were living our lives in reaction to our mothers. We saw the limitations in our mothers' lives but we failed to see the abundance. I believe that the next generation of women won't be forced into a choice between work and home. They will embrace a more expansive notion of what 'home' really is. What I have learned as a woman, as a mother, as a businesswoman and as a person is that what goes on in the home is every bit as important as what goes on in business because, ultimately, they are inextricably linked."
 
What advice do you have for today's business leaders?
M.W.: "I think we need to follow the Japanese model, where as professionals get higher in the system, the less they have on their desk because they need to do clear thinking. That's the essence of business. Success in any area, including business, requires people to be deeper-thinking, more considered, more reflective. But as people who wake up and don't pray, don't meditate, we go out into the day with yesterday's stress on our minds. So I would recommend to everyone that they create a space first thing in the morning, a ritual as dependable as washing their face and brushing their teeth, where they can quiet their own minds and get in touch with who they are."
 
What are our biggest challenges today?
M.W.: "It's tempting to think that decisions that are not life-and-death are therefore unimportant, and that the little compromises we make don't matter to our bottom line or our spiritual selves. How many of us are tempted, in business, to make a less-than-ethical decision? To appropriate someone else's idea or fudge some numbers? We have to remember that maintaining our ethical and spiritual selves is absolutely linked with achieving the degree of success we're working toward."
 
 
Charlene Li

Charlene Li's breathtaking rise as an authority on emerging technologies has garnered her a long list of accolades, including "one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley." In October, she was keynote speaker for an event that drew more than 300 attendees, and early this year she will headline a conference that draws more than 5000. But her biggest audiences are – where else? – online. She writes several popular and influential blogs found at altimetergroup.com, charleneli.com and svmoms.com. With two young children and a new office in her home (where she has yet to purchase bookshelves), Li has a lot to say about women professionals in the 21st century.
 
What do you think of when you think of a "guru"?
C.L.: "I think a guru has advice that people have found to be helpful. So anybody can go out and be a guru. If they give good insights over a period of time, repeatedly, and that advice has worked, then they're a guru. I have lots and lots of gurus, people I've turned to over and over again, people whose perspective makes me feel differently, act differently, treat people around me differently and make life changes. They don't have to be especially wise or famous; they just have to give me insights that I didn't have before."
 
What advice do you have for women trying to stand out from the crowd?
C.L.: "Women don't network enough. We don't do enough in the branding area, perhaps because we don't feel like we should be tooting our own horn. I advise women, if anything, to trumpet from the hilltops how wonderful you are. Use technology to do it. Hire a PR person or go out and do your own PR. Talk about it; go up to people and introduce yourself. The key is not to be shy. That's how I stand out."
 
What's the next step for us as businesswomen?
C.L.: "It used to be that women thought they had to check their personalities at the door. But the more you need to hide, the less fulfilled you'll be. We need to bring more of ourselves into that door, into our workspace, so we feel more at home. And technology is helping out enormously. For me, my space is virtual. I don't want to get on a plane anymore, so when people ask me to come and speak, I videoconference from my office, minimizing travel for both personal and environmental reasons."
 
What's something else women need to know?
C.L.: "Well, again, I'm all about networking, whether it's virtual or in person. One thing I've found is that most people don't know how to network well. For example, they'll just go to an event to see what they can get. I advise them to connect with people beforehand. Always wear bright colors so you'll stand out from the crowd. Ask interesting questions and you'll get noticed."
 
What's next for women of your generation?
C.L.: "I see women going anywhere they want to. And I do mean want to. Because a lot of people measure success merely by position, title and salary. I think women feel comfortable enough in their own skin to put that secondary to what they want. They don't have to define success by the measure of society. People often say to me, 'How come you don't want to be CEO of a company?' And I tell them, 'I don't want to.' I know I can do it, but I don't enjoy it. Why does that have to be the definition of success?

"I also think that women no longer have to set up a boundary between work life and home life. One of the hallmarks of my thinking is that I bring a lot of my personal life into my work. That's a huge advantage I have over men, who may feel they have to separate the two."
 
 
Renée Mauborgne

Along with her co-author, W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne has been called "the No. 1 guru of the future" by L/Expansion, France 's leading business magazine. Their book, Blue Ocean Strategy (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), ranks as the fastest-selling title in its publisher's history. So it comes as no surprise that Mauborgne's speaking skills are in high demand. She gave the keynote address to an audience of 5,000 at the World Business Forum in New York's Radio City Music Hall, an event that also included speakers Bill Clinton, Jack Welch and Malcolm Gladwell. And she is a fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the annual gathering of CEOs, political leaders and thought leaders from across the world. Mauborgne is a professor at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and is also co-founder and co-director of the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
 
What is your definition of a "guru," and who have been the gurus in your life?
R.M.: "A guru refers to someone who has achieved intellectual and/or spiritual leadership in his or her field. In my field of business academics, a guru is someone who has achieved thought leadership which has impacted the way executives fundamentally think about their organizations, challenged executives' established viewpoints with new theory and perspectives, and often inspired organizations to reach for new levels of performance. Gurus often introduce new terminology that captures the imagination and provides a language system to discuss critical issues. For me, there are many people I have drawn inspiration from and who have given me courage and the will to march forward. First and foremost is my colleague Chan Kim, who I have worked with for over twenty years and is my co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy. Others are people I have never met, like Winston Churchill, Gandhi and Socrates. I have even drawn enormous inspiration and learning from characters in books, like the beautiful soul and self-sacrifice of Quasimodo, and the frank courage and reaching out of Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch."
 
What have we overlooked in our pursuit of success?
R.M.: "I'm reminded every day that to achieve great things takes great effort, discipline, focus and persistence. Ask any woman at the top of her game, be she an Olympic winner, Oprah, the ex–Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or Nancy Pelosi, and I'll bet their lives reflect those traits. In striving to excel, you should also not forget that you will usually face many setbacks, disappointments and rejections on your path. So don't get depressed when that happens. Know that it is part and parcel of the journey. Focus instead on trying to learn from the setbacks, then pick yourself up and continue to move forward."
 
What exactly is the "blue ocean"?
R.M.: "As new global players enter the world stage from all corners of the globe, be it China, India, Brazil or Eastern Europe, companies in most industries are finding themselves stuck in what I call a 'red ocean' of bloody competition. This environment is characterized by intense competition, market-share battles, declining price points and commodization of offerings. The question is, What will it take to thrive in this new world economy?

"My answer is to create what I call 'blue oceans' of uncontested market space. Here, the aim is not to compete, but to make the competition irrelevant and create a larger economic pie. It is worth noting that historically, the focus on beating rivals fundamentally traces back to military strategy. Under military strategy, because the land on the Earth is limited and given, the only way to expand territory or market share is at the expense of another. Hence, someone's gain can only be achieved at another's loss. To win, you must make another lose. What the world has shown us, however, is that while the land on Earth may be limited, the 'blue ocean' of new market space that can be created and captured is unlimited. Just think of how many multimillion- and multibillion-dollar businesses exist today that did not exist even 30 years ago: cell phones, biotechnology, snowboards, ring tones, social networking sites, search engines … tooth whitening!"
 
What advice do you have for career women?
R.M.: "Ask yourself where, in five years or 10 years, you want to be in your career. Be honest with yourself. Imagine it. What type of company or organization do you want to work in? What level in the company do you want to secure – president, founder, business head? Next, when the picture becomes clear, ask what it will take to achieve that. What experience will you need to have built? What types of capabilities and expertise do you need to possess? What types of human skills and personal traits do you need to acquire, refine or overcome? Will you need to become more patient, learn to listen better, develop stronger functional expertise? And what companies should you seek to build your experience in, to be ready for that career possibility? With that understanding, set out to close the gaps between where you are and where you want to go."
 
 
Louise Hay

Louise Hay's first book, Heal Your Body, started as a 12-page pamphlet but has since been translated into 25 languages. That kind of meteoric rise is the story of her entire career – which started in counseling in the early 1970s before growing into a veritable self-help empire, anchored by her publishing company, Hay House. Hay's charitable offshoots – the Hay Foundation and the Louise L. Hay Charitable Fund – channel millions to people living with AIDS, battered women and other "challenged individuals" in society. Her monthly column, "Dear Louise," appears in more than 50 worldwide publications. And she's been dubbed the "Mother of the New Age," the "Queen of Affirmation" and, in the Australian media, "the closest thing to a living saint."
 
What are we forgetting as we focus more than ever on advancement?
L.H.: "Ourselves. How to fulfill ourselves. How to make ourselves happy. We get too caught up in the moneymaking part of life. My own biggest concerns are to stay healthy and happy. I think the business will take care of itself and, when I put that thought out into the world, it happens. My company is absolutely growing and growing and growing. We do seminars, sometimes, for 7,000 people. These are people, predominantly women, who are seeking, who want to know more, who want to improve the quality of their lives, who want to find themselves."
 
How do you run your business based on your spiritual principles?
L.H.: "Back in the 1980s, when AIDS first came on the public scene, everybody was shunning people, terrified, and nobody would work with them. And, somehow, some people came to me and asked if I'd do a group for people with AIDS in Los Angeles. It started out with six men in my living room, and the next week there were 15, and every week the group would grow, grow, grow until we had 90 people hanging out in my living room. We moved down to a gymnasium in West Hollywood, and the group grew to around 850 people every week. The reason they kept coming was that I was the first person who said, 'You're not a bad person. Let's take a positive approach.' We went on Oprah and Phil Donahue, and my book shot up the best-seller list. But that had never been my intention. My spiritual goal, which gave my business its appeal and its vitality, was simply to make a difference for those first six men. We also have a new position in the company, a director of giving, which we started just a few months ago to consolidate our charitable work. In South Africa, we do not bring any profits home, whatsoever. Every penny goes to the NOAH foundation, for children whose parents have died of AIDS."
 
What gives you joy at this stage of your life and career?
L.H.: "I like to think about legacies. In this life, we all should leave a legacy. I didn't enter this whole world until I was in my 50s, when my first book was published. Now I'm 81 and having an absolutely wonderful time in life. Recently a rose was named after me – an apricot hybrid. It is so beautiful, and long after I'm gone this rose will be around bringing beauty to the world. I like that idea very much."