“Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life.” ~Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Image: Forbes
When the Huffington Post surfaced on the internet in 2005, few people recognized it as a serious media platform. Times have certainly changed since AOL purchased Arianna Huffington’s brainchild for $316 million two years ago. Last year, The Huffington Post became the first digital media site to win a Pulitzer Prize. Arianna Huffington keeps pushing her boundaries– Spanish and Italian versions of the site are out this year, and she’s released one of the first iPad only digital magazines, Huffington.
Last week, Huffington was a keynote speaker at en event sponsored by the National Association of Professional Women. She told attendees that this was their time, that women today will not only need to succeed in the world of men, but change it. She curiously then spoke to the importance of sleep and admitted she commits to getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night.
Her commitment to rest and work-life balance included building two nap rooms into the Post’s new offices. She attributes encouraging napping to rises in productivity, especially over the common practice of working endlessly and giving up sleep. In response to Sheryl Sandberg’s mantra “Lean In”, Huffington says women must also learn to “lean back”, taking time for health and wellness.
Huffington Post released one of the first ever iPad only digital magazines, HuffPost.
With thoughts on how to rule the fast paced competitive world of media while also encouraging women to change the world, and take time for wellness for herself and her staff, Arianna Huffington is poised to shape the culture of the working woman even more in the next few years. She knows that today’s working woman is far more likely to develop heart disease or diabetes, and she believes it doesn’t have to be that way. While remaining a charismatic and sometimes controversial political figure, Arianna Huffington will continue to influence shape our ideas about work culture and media consumption in the United States, and soon, globally.
