Arianna Huffington
A potent combination of overwork and exhaustion forced Arianna Huffington, one of the worlds most influential women, to rethink her life and her approach.
When Arianna Huffington woke up in a pool of blood on the floor of her home office on 6 April 2007, she knew that she had to make some drastic changes. Collapsing from exhaustion and lack of sleep, Arianna had hit the corner of her desk, cutting her eye and breaking her cheekbone.
In the weeks that followed as she went through a brain MRI, CAT scan, and echocardiogram to discover if there were any underlying medical problems, it quickly became apparent that her hectic lifestyle and work commitments had caused her collapse.
In 2007, Arianna had been named by Time as one of the worlds most influential people and was working single-mindedly on growing and developing The Huffington Post. Two years after establishing the groundbreaking news and blog site with Kenneth Lerer and becoming its editor-in-chief, Arianna was seeing phenomenal growth, with The Huffington Post quickly becoming one of the most widely read, linked-to, and frequently cited media brands on the internet.
Despite this amazing success, Arianna was overworked and exhausted, working 18-hour days, seven days a week as she built the business, expanded its coverage, and brought in investors. Her collapse in 2007 proved to be a desperately needed wake-up call that forced Arianna to rethink her work and life choices and implement daily practices to help her lead a more fulfilling life.