Greetings from the pinnacle! As I launch this blog, Postcards, I’m perched on the 15th floor of the Time & Life Building in the center of Manhattan — overlooking Rockefeller Center, to be precise. I have a sense, though, that I’m scanning the entire universe — wanting to share with you the most fascinating, most fun, and most valuable ideas about super-achievers and other powerful people.
I have lots of ideas — and scoops. Power, so to speak, has been my beat ever since I arrived at Fortune 24 years ago. I’ve written cover stories and let’s-get-personal profiles of prominent people in business and beyond — Melinda Gates most recently (the first solo profile she’s ever agreed to do). I’ve bonded with Turner Broadcasting founder Ted Turner and his bison at his Montana ranch, hung with Martha Stewart and her horses at her Westchester farm, delved into Oprah’s business brain, shopped Sears with Eddie Lampert and his mother — and come to know countless Fortune 500 CEOs. I’ll be mining these high-level sources and subjects to contribute to Postcards. Take a look at today’s guest posts — from Avon CEO Andrea Jung, JetBlue founder David Neeleman, and Arianna Huffington, the bonafide blog queen.
Though I oversee Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women list and chair the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit (the powwow for influential women of all kinds), don’t fret. Postcards is not only for women. I’ll be dishing on the big boys of business too. I’ll be pragmatic and to-the-point — as postcards tend to be. Every day, I’ll post a nugget of career advice — called Power Point. Another post, called Power Shift, will feature comments on the ups and downs of major players.
I’ll take you beyond the corner office. After all, isn’t real power “personal power”? Real power, I believe, is the power you wield no matter your position or paycheck — what you hang onto whatever happens in the job. I’ve spent much of my career exploring this concept. In that spirit, I once snorkeled with Hank Paulson in Palau, an island nation in the Pacific that renowned as a diver’s paradise. Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs at the time — and an avid environmentalist. I accompanied him and his wife on a Nature Conservancy expedition. And I can safely say that I’m the only business journalist on earth who has seen the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in pink nylon shorts.
We’ll have fun. We’ll learn together. Glad to have you along for the ride.
Regards,
Pattie
P.S. What what you would like to see on Postcards? Please send along your ideas.
