This Is Success

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 the whole company more efficient. Friedman tells us about competing with the New York Stock Exchange and shares her thoughts on cryptocurrency.

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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 wild place in Manhattan, and likely the first singles bar in America. "Household Name" brings you surprising stories behind our biggest, household name brands. Host Dan Bobkoff finds tales of tragedy, love, strange histories, unintended consequences, and accidental success. And in each episode, we find out how these brands changed our lives – for better or worse. Enjoy this preview, and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen.

This is Success is back next week.

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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 star of Bravo’s reality TV show “Million Dollar Listing” and the Serhant Team is one of the top real estate groups in the United States.

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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 by, and when she wasn’t bartending or teaching dance, she collected emails for her newsletter. As Forleo’s business grew and she learned what it took to be an entrepreneur, she shared those lessons with her audience. Today she’s managed to incorporate all of her passions—including dance—into her YouTube channel, podcast, performances, and online lessons. And she’s found followers who want to be there every step of the way.

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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 2011 for $100 million. And in her spare time she runs B Strong, a charity which provided disaster relief aid to Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria. Frankel says she doesn’t always have a grand plan, but she knows a good opportunity when she sees one.

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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 into high-end sneakers, with an online marketplace called GOAT— as in “greatest of all time,” like they say in sports and rap. Today GOAT is the world’s biggest sneaker resale market. It has over $100 million in funding, seven million users, more than 300 employees, and 400,000 pairs of sneakers for sale.

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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 an actual rocket scientist. As CEO of Girl Scouts, Acevedo is reinventing the organization to focus on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—and she hopes more young women will follow in her footsteps. Boy Scouts may now be recruiting girls too, but she says it'll never compete with the opportunities Girl Scouts offers.

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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 have been nominated for Grammys, and his books have sold more than 10 million copies. And while he likes the attention, it’s never been what drives him.

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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, like fashion blog Who, What, Wear and a clothing line at Target. Since 2006, Clique has grown to 220 employees and raised $28 million. But before she managed a fashion and media empire, Katherine worked as a dancer in the first Austin Powers movie. And that’s where she made her first big business decision: legally emancipating herself from her parents at age 17.

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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. Our host, Rich Feloni, went to Detroit in early May to meet with Gilbert after getting a tour of his properties downtown. All of his real estate is under a company called Bedrock, which is part of Gilbert's larger parent company, called Rock Ventures.

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