Susan Lyne dropped out of college and lived in a commune. She wrote for magazines and founded her own movie magazine. She green-lighted Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and The Bachelor while leading ABC Entertainment. She led Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia while Martha was in prison. She led Gilt Groupe to financial success during the recession. And she's now helping female founders through a fund called Built by Girls, or BBG. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Lyne spoke with Business Insider's senior strategy reporter Richard Feloni about how she's made an impact on a wide range of industries.

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For startups on the path to success, there's often one moment or decision that catapults them from obscurity to the big leagues. This year on "Success! How I Did It," founders of companies such as PayPal, Lyft, and Dropbox shared how they built their companies into massive successes. And while a lot goes into building a company, the leaders we've interviewed all had surprising stories. Sometimes it's an inspired decision that leads to success; other times it's luck and timing.

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On this episode, a different view of how to "make it." Business Insider’s senior strategy reporter Richard Feloni spoke with Buddhist monk and bestselling author Matthieu Ricard while he was promoting his new book "Beyond the Self," which he co-authored with neuroscientist Wolf Singer. For the last 50 years Ricard has lived in Nepal, often with no electricity or running water. Despite that, he's given not one but two viral TED Talks, and been called "the the happiest man in the world." But to Ricard, none of that is a measure of success.

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Venus Williams is one of the most dominant players in tennis, and has been for over two decades. A tennis prodigy who turned pro at age 14, she’s broken through barriers to win four Olympic gold medals and seven Grand Slam singles titles. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell asks Williams about her rise to superstardom, and the hardships and successes she’s faced along the way. The interview took place in Manhattan at The Wing, a coworking space for women, where Venus was giving a talk about entrepreneurship.

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Max Levchin cofounded PayPal with Peter Thiel and built it into a Silicon Valley success with the help of Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk. They took it public and sold to eBay in 2002, then all four left the company. But Levchin couldn't let go. He'd still show up at the office. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Levchin talks about how he struggled to find himself after the acquisition, so much so that his girlfriend dumped him (but they later married). He has since gone on to launch a bunch of startups and now spends most of his time as CEO of Affirm, which offers small loans but doesn't charge penalties or fees. But before all of that, Levchin grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, where he learned how to write computer code using pen and paper. And in the 1980s, his life was about to change. He lived near the Chernobyl power plant.

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Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sits down with three of the journalists whose reporting led to a national reckoning with sexual harassment. Jodi Kantor is one of two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein harassment story. Irin Carmon told the story of Charlie Rose’s alleged victims. And over at The Hollywood Reporter, Kim Masters uncovered alleged harassment by Pixar’s John Lasseter and Amazon Studios' boss Roy Price. On this special bonus episode of "Success! How I Did It", we feature Shontell's conversation with all three of these extraordinary journalists, recorded November 30 at Business Insider's annual IGNITION conference.

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Megyn Kelly was already a rising star at Fox News when she hit the big time by taking on a Presidential candidate named Donald Trump. Then, we learned Kelly had been sexually harassed by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. He was fired — the first volley in a national reckoning. Kelly left for NBC News, where she now hosts the third hour of the Today Show. It’s a departure for the former lawyer. At Fox, she faced criticism for being too outspoken and prosecutorial. At NBC, critics say she’s too soft. For this episode of “Success! How I Did It,” Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell interviewed Megyn Kelly at BI’s annual IGNITION conference. They spoke just hours after Kelly's colleague and longtime Today Show host Matt Lauer was fired for alleged sexual harassment. 

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It takes a lot of hard work to become an effective leader. In this Master Class episode of "Success! How I Did It," top executives and tech CEOs reveal their secrets to being a successful leader in any industry. Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti, Lyft’s John Zimmer, Fox News’ Dana Perino, and more share their insights and best tips.

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Tim Ferriss first found fame with his 2007 book "The 4-Hour Workweek." After taking a break from writing in 2012, he became an accidental podcast star with "The Tim Ferriss Show," which is approaching 200 million downloads. He sat down for an interview with Business Insider senior reporter Richard Feloni for this episode of "Success! How I Did It."

This hasn't been a typical year for Ferriss. He celebrated the 10th anniversary of "The 4-Hour Workweek," then decided to leave his successful "4-Hour" brand behind. He lost some friends, he got a lot of attention for talking about his struggle with depression, and he turned 40. He's out with a new book, "Tribe of Mentors," in which he collects advice from 140 successful people, a project that was as much for him as it was for his audience. Ferriss talks about all that and more, including how wrestling shaped his childhood, the original title of "The 4-Hour Workweek," and why he hopes no one considers him a role model.

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