It's important to look people in the eye and have direct conversations. I actually have a rule that if an issue takes more than five sentences to explain it, don't send an email. Pick up the phone instead, because it'll take less time to resolve it.

Give yourself time to work on your dream. If you want to start a stationery company or if you want to start an Internet site... Whatever it is, pick the thing that you love, and allot the time, but know and value the downtime as well.

I would not invest in any shoe that is too trendy.

Choose something that you're passionate about. So for me, that's creating jobs for women who don't have a voice. I would like to be their voice until they're strong enough and on their feet to have their own and really be heard. The way that I can do that is not necessarily by hand-outs, because my hand-outs wouldn't be great enough to really affect change. It's by providing jobs.

If I didn't love the hourglass, I wouldn't love myself.

There's a beauty in that innocence that comes from not knowing. It allowed me to take a lot of risks and I took them because I chose a company in a field that I love. So for me, it didn't even feel like working.

Because my business life is so busy, my home is really my sanctuary. That is where I reflect and spend quality time with my girls.