The best advice I ever got

Editor and co-founder of The Corporate Library

The single best piece of advice I ever got about my job was to work part-time. It was 1983 and I was pregnant with my first child and getting ready to go on maternity leave from my job at the Office of Management and Budget. I was talking with one of my law school classmates, Deborah Baughman, about going back to work and I was thinking maybe I could work mornings. She said, "You'll be much better off working Monday, Wednesday, Friday."

It turned out to be a perfect arrangement. I had to be very productive because I could never say "I'll do it tomorrow." I had to get it done before I left on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then I really had a day to think out of another part of my brain and come back with a different perspective.

NEXT: Alan Mulally