This Is Success

By Business Insider

Business Careers

What's This Is Success about?

"Success! How I Did It" is a podcast hosted by Business Insider Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell. Shontell interviews successful CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders about how they built successful companies, and the career paths that took them to the top.

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Insider Edge: The first que...

08.28.2020

The coronavirus pandemic has brought widespread layoffs, and with that, a sense of job anxiety. If you're worried that layoffs may be coming to your organization, how can you best prepare? And if you are laid off, what are the ...

This Is Success episodes:

08.28.2020 Insider Edge: The first questions to ask if you're laid off The coronavirus pandemic has brought widespread layoffs, and with that, a sense of job anxiety. If you're worried that layoffs may be coming to your organization, how can you best prepare? And if you are laid off, what are the ...
08.14.2020 Insider Edge: What to do when you feel overworked Feeling overworked is nothing new to many Americans, and the coronavirus pandemic has only made matters worse. While there are some benefits to working from home, it can also feel like there are no boundaries to when the day starts ...
07.24.2020 Slack, Yieldstreet, and Splice founders on "Starting Up" What's the next big thing in business? How do you turn an idea into a profitable startup? Convince investors to support you and customers to trust you? Each month, host Charlie Herman sits down for live conversations with founders who ...
10.25.2019 NYSE president Stacey Cunningham Stacey Cunningham lives and breathes the New York Stock Exchange, which she’s led since 2018. She spent her early career as a trader in “the pit” on the floor of the NYSE, and after a few years away, returned to ...
09.20.2019 Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman Stephen Schwarzman is one of the most influential figures in finance. Not only does his firm, Blackstone, manage more than $500 billion, he has the ears of world leaders like Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Ahead of his new ...
08.23.2019 'The Simpsons' star Yeardley Smith Yeardley Smith has been the voice of Lisa Simpson since “The Simpsons” first started airing in the ‘80s. More than 30 years later, the animated series is now the longest-running American sitcom. Smith never planned to become a voice actor, ...
07.26.2019 Fashion designer Alexander Wang Alexander Wang started his own label at just 20 years old. Today, his brand is worn all over the world and recognized by some of the most influential figures in the fashion industry. Over the last decade and a half, ...
06.28.2019 Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio Ray Dalio is the billionaire founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Dalio is as well known for his unique philosophy as he is for his investing prowess. Dalio takes us through key moments ...
05.24.2019 Gates Foundation cofounder Melinda Gates Melinda Gates is one of the world’s most influential philanthropists. In her new book, “The Moment of Lift,” Gates argues that empowering women is the ultimate solution to eliminating poverty. Gates spoke with Business Insider about how her time as ...
04.05.2019 Oracle CEO Mark Hurd Mark Hurd joined Oracle in 2010 and almost immediately dramatically changed how the tech company does business. He saw a need for a shift to cloud computing, and transformed the way his team built and sold products. It wasn’t easy. ...
12.21.2018 Bonus Episode: How KFC took over Christmas in Japan This week, an unexpected success story. Household Name's Dan Bobkoff and Sally Herships bring us the tale of how a Japanese businessman made KFC a Christmas tradition… in a country that didn’t celebrate Christmas. Subscribe to Household Name.
12.14.2018 IndyCar champion Danica Patrick Danica Patrick is the most successful female race car driver ever, but she didn't want to be a trailblazer for women. She got into Nascar and IndyCar racing because she wanted to win. Patrick may have retired from racing earlier ...
12.07.2018 Grammy-winning DJ Afrojack Nick van de Wall, known professionally as Afrojack, is a world-famous Dutch DJ. He writes original music and collaborates with artists like Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, and David Guetta. After 15 years of playing everywhere from small clubs to big arenas, ...
11.30.2018 The Daily Beast CEO Heather Dietrick Heather Dietrick joined news site The Daily Beast in 2017 after rising through the ranks at the now defunct news blog Gawker. As president of Gawker, Dietrick was on the frontlines of the lawsuit with Hulk Hogan that ultimately bankrupted ...
11.23.2018 Master class: Making business partnerships work Some of the world's top founders, executives and CEOs built their businesses with the help of their family, friends, and coworkers. In this master class episode of "This is Success," we’re revisiting some of our favorite stories about business partnerships, ...
11.16.2018 'The Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown Dan Brown’s writing career took off in 2003 when his novel “The Da Vinci Code” became an international bestseller. Now, he's one of the world's most popular writers — with 250 million books sold — and is passing on his ...
11.09.2018 Burger King CEO Daniel Schwartz Daniel Schwarz leads Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King, Tim Horton’s, and Popeye’s. He started out his career at the investment firm 3G Capital. In 2013, when he was only 32, the firm’s managing partner, Alex Behring, ...
11.02.2018 General Stanley McChrystal Stanley McChrystal led the United States and its allies in the War in Afghanistan before retiring as a four-star general in 2010. He revolutionized the Joint Special Operations Command, and he’s best known for killing the leader of Al Qaeda ...
10.26.2018 Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann Over the last eight years, Ben Silbermann has quietly built Pinterest into a global brand with 250 million active users. He's the cofounder and CEO of Pinterest, the image search tool that lets users save and share their favorite photos, ...
10.19.2018 Former GE and NBC exec Beth Comstock Beth Comstock spent almost three decades at NBC and General Electric. She left GE last year after rising to one of the corporation’s highest roles: vice chair. Her recent book, “Imagine it Forward,” offered her a chance to look back ...
10.12.2018 Refinery29 cofounder Christene Barberich Christene Barberich is the cofounder and global editor in chief of Refinery29, a media company focused on empowering women by starting conversations about body image, politics, and careers. Refinery29 says it will connect with 425 million people this year across ...
10.05.2018 AOL founder Steve Case When Steve Case was in college, he read a book that said a digital revolution was coming. A little over a decade later, he led that revolution as the founding CEO of America Online. AOL became a giant, and Case ...
09.28.2018 IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama Brad Katsuyama never considered himself a maverick, or entrepreneur. He had a cushy job at the Royal Bank of Canada, but he became alarmed the more he learned about high frequency trading, where computers can trade a bunch of stocks ...
09.21.2018 Promoter and restaurateur Larry Morrow If you want to know where to go and who to talk to in New Orleans, Morrow’s your guy. After he dropped out of college, the 27-year old entrepreneur committed full time to his event planning business. Now Morrow’s a ...
09.14.2018 Yuengling sisters Jen and Wendy Jen and Wendy Yuengling are two of the four sisters in charge of the Yuengling beer company. Their father, Dick, took over the family business back in 1985. He was the one who turned it from a local brewery into ...
09.07.2018 'Say Yes to the Dress' designer Pnina Tornai Pnina Tornai never imagined she’d become one of the world’s most sought-after bridal gown designers. She spent most of her childhood dreaming of becoming an actress, but by the time she was in her early twenties, that dream felt far-fetched. ...
08.31.2018 Harry’s cofounder Jeff Raider Jeff Raider is the cofounder and co-CEO of the razor company Harry’s, an online subscription service that sends high-end razors to customers at a low cost. The company raised $112 million earlier this year to move the brand beyond shaving ...
08.24.2018 Master Class: How to measure success Success means something different to everyone, including the world's top company founders, executives, and CEOs. In this Master Class episode of "This is Success," we revisit some of the most interesting answers to the question at the heart of our ...
08.17.2018 Drybar founder Alli Webb Alli Webb is the founder and visionary behind Drybar, the hugely popular blowout salon that took a regional trend mainstream. Today, Drybar is a multi-million dollar business with more than 100 locations across North America. But it started out as ...
08.10.2018 Comedy icon Caroline Hirsch Caroline Hirsch has discovered or helped develop some of comedy’s biggest names—people like Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Dave Chappelle, and Michelle Wolf. She's the namesake and cofounder of the iconic New York comedy club Carolines, and the visionary behind the ...
08.03.2018 Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman Adena Friedman has the top job at Nasdaq, one of the world's biggest stock exchanges. Early in her career, she learned how to impress her bosses by taking initiative, and when she became the boss, she found ways to make ...
07.27.2018 Special Episode: TGI Fridays was the 'Tinder of the 1960s' This week, we feature the first episode of Business Insider's new podcast, "Household Name," which you can find on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app. Before TGI Fridays was the suburban strip mall staple it is today, it was a ...
07.20.2018 'Million Dollar Listing' star Ryan Serhant Ryan Serhant moved to New York City when he was 22, hoping to launch a career on Broadway. When that dream didn’t pan out, he found a different route into show business—as a real estate agent. Serhant is now the ...
07.13.2018 Business coach Marie Forleo Marie Forleo is a life and business coach with hundreds of thousands of followers online. When she first started giving strangers advice almost 20 years ago, Forleo barely had her own life together. She was working two jobs to scrape ...
07.06.2018 Skinnygirl CEO Bethenny Frankel You may know Bethenny Frankel from her lead role on the "Real Housewives of New York." But her name is also the driving force behind an expanding empire of brands. She’s the brain behind Skinnygirl cocktails—a company she sold in ...
06.29.2018 GOAT CEO Eddy Lu For more than a decade, Eddy Lu tried to find the next big thing. Golf apparel, 99-cent smartphone apps, Japanese desserts — they all flopped, but he wasn’t headed back to the Wall Street world he left. Then he got ...
06.22.2018 Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo Sylvia Acevedo is a trailblazer in business and tech. She was one of the first Hispanic students to get a master's in engineering from Stanford, she worked for years as a Silicon Valley executive, and on top of that, she's ...
06.15.2018 Bestselling author David Sedaris David Sedaris built a career by sharing his life through essays. He writes about everything from the death of family members to his love of picking up garbage, and his performances are both heart wrenching and hilarious. His comedy albums ...
06.08.2018 Who, What, Wear CEO Katherine Power Katherine Power worked for years to land her dream job at Condé Nast. But when an offer came, she turned it down. Instead, she joined with a friend to start what became Clique Brands. It includes a mix of companies, ...
06.01.2018 Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert Dan Gilbert runs a Midwestern empire. In Michigan, he founded Quicken Loans, which made him a billionaire. Now he’s trying to rebuild downtown Detroit. But you may know him as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James’ NBA team. ...
05.25.2018 Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck Sallie Krawcheck has run Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, US Trust, and Citi Private Bank, and was Citi’s CFO before that. Now she runs Ellevest, an investment firm that helps women create wealth. She may have been regularly referred ...
05.18.2018 OkCupid founder Sam Yagan Sam Yagan knows he’s been lucky. He tells us that one of the luckiest moments of his life was meeting his college roommates. Together, they built a study guide website called SparkNotes. Then, they built an online dating empire. They ...
05.11.2018 Retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink For Jocko Willink, becoming a Navy SEAL was just like any other career. Willink was the commander of SEAL Team 3, Task Unit Bruiser. It was the most highly decorated US special operations unit of the Iraq War — and ...
05.04.2018 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell was in Berlin last week for the 3rd annual Axel Springer Award, which was an evening honoring Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos sat down with Axel Springer CEO Dr. Mathias Dopfner to ...
04.27.2018 Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn If you’ve verified you’re not a robot online, you’ve used something Luis von Ahn has created. He tells "Success! How I Did It," that he doesn’t read stories about himself, and he’s probably the only CEO our host, Rich Feloni, ...
04.20.2018 Audible CEO Don Katz Don Katz sounds more like a college English professor than a tech CEO: he’s obsessed with literature and writing. And it’s why he started Audible, the audiobook company now owned by Amazon, in 1995. It was all about the stories, ...
04.13.2018 Media mogul Tina Brown Tina Brown gets things done. She’s been a leader since her mid-20s, and she’s built the teams that transformed Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. She also created The Daily Beast. Brown grew up in England and became a media ...
04.06.2018 Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards Cecile Richards has never shied away from controversy. In seventh grade, she got sent to the principal’s office for protesting the Vietnam War. As President of Planned Parenthood, she defended the organization in a heated 2015 congressional hearing. Planned Parenthood ...
03.30.2018 Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud Anjali Sud has always sought opportunities that seem intimidating. That inspired her to leave Flint, Michigan at 14 for the elite Massachusetts boarding school Phillips Academy on a scholarship. And it led her to become the CEO of Vimeo at ...
03.23.2018 Edible Arrangements founder Tariq Farid Tariq Farid was only 13 when his family moved from Pakistan to Connecticut. He started working at a flower shop to make money, and he opened his own at 17. Farid is the founder and CEO of Edible Arrangements. He ...

Older episodes

This Is Success

What's This Is Success about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

This Is Success episodes:

Insider Edge: The first questions to ask if you're laid off

Insider Edge: What to do when you feel overworked

Slack, Yieldstreet, and Splice founders on "Starting Up"

NYSE president Stacey Cunningham

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman

'The Simpsons' star Yeardley Smith

Fashion designer Alexander Wang

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio

Gates Foundation cofounder Melinda Gates

Oracle CEO Mark Hurd

Bonus Episode: How KFC took over Christmas in Japan

IndyCar champion Danica Patrick

Grammy-winning DJ Afrojack

The Daily Beast CEO Heather Dietrick

Master class: Making business partnerships work

'The Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown

Burger King CEO Daniel Schwartz

General Stanley McChrystal

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann

Former GE and NBC exec Beth Comstock

Refinery29 cofounder Christene Barberich

AOL founder Steve Case

IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama

Promoter and restaurateur Larry Morrow

Yuengling sisters Jen and Wendy

'Say Yes to the Dress' designer Pnina Tornai

Harry’s cofounder Jeff Raider

Master Class: How to measure success

Drybar founder Alli Webb

Comedy icon Caroline Hirsch

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman

Special Episode: TGI Fridays was the 'Tinder of the 1960s'

'Million Dollar Listing' star Ryan Serhant

Business coach Marie Forleo

Skinnygirl CEO Bethenny Frankel

GOAT CEO Eddy Lu

Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo

Bestselling author David Sedaris

Who, What, Wear CEO Katherine Power

Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert

Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck

OkCupid founder Sam Yagan

Retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn

Audible CEO Don Katz

Media mogul Tina Brown

Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards

Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud

Edible Arrangements founder Tariq Farid

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