A fundamental lesson on being fired: Never lie about it. People will know what you're saying is a cover-up for how you really feel - embarrassed, discouraged, and afraid.

My parents found me very difficult to educate.

I was fired at the pinnacle of my career, on my 39th birthday. And in the year that followed, I learned that there are many psychological phases of being 'let go.'

Don't apologize for asking for what you deserve.

A fundamental lesson on being fired: Never lie about it. People will know what you're saying is a cover-up for how you really feel - embarrassed, discouraged, and afraid.

We have an almost desperate need for more women to run for office and for more women to really gut it out after they have kids and stay in their jobs and get to high positions in companies. We need women at the top more than ever. We need women's voices there because they are very different than men's voices and they bring a very valuable and necessary point of view to the table.

The needs of babies and toddlers were constant and drained the life out my sense of self and my familys relationship with each other.