My Journey to the Top

And though I've loved every minute of my career, it hasn't always been easy. For every one hit on television, there are umpteen shows that never or only briefly see the light of day. I've had some great successes, but I've put on some failing shows. And it's very painful.

When you do succeed in this business, there's no better rush than having a hit TV show. When I was overseeing reality programming for ABC, I fought to bring "Dancing With the Stars" to the United States, and people thought I was totally out of my mind. I knew it was a big risk, but it was something I believed in so strongly. And luckily for me, it garnered record ratings.

While in college at MIT (the hardest four years of my entire life), I was taught how to look at a problem, figure out how to break it down and attack each part on its own with a disciplined approach.

I am now dealing with the challenge of coming into Lifetime and growing this company and growing this brand. Whether it's breaking down the marketing issues, the programming, the building of the right team or making our advocacy work for us, I break it down like I did in college.

I was gratified to walk through work the first day at Lifetime a few months ago. There were so many diverse faces. I think diversity is important not because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the right business thing to do. If we're targeting women, we're targeting the entire country; we need to reflect the entire female population, which is a diverse population.

Talking to people effectively is all about being encouraging. All the feedback, some of it negative, is meant to make them better leaders. When I have something bad to say to someone, I'm always thinking of the best way to say it. There are many times when I wish people would tell me when I could be doing something better.