Women who have risen to the top of their professions have much to teach those just starting out. Listen to these words from some of today’s most successful women in a wide range of industries:

• Tina Fey, actress/producer: “Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it.”
• Anna Wintour, editor: “Even if I’m completely unsure, I’ll pretend I know exactly what I’m talking about and make a decision. The most important thing I can do is try and make myself very clearly understood.”
• Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo: “I realized in all the cases where I was happy with the decision I made, there were two common threads: Surround myself with the smartest people who challenge you to think about things in new ways, and do something you are not ready to do so you can learn the most.”
• Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook: “A good leader recognizes that most people won’t feel comfortable challenging authority, so it falls upon authority to encourage them to question.”