Arianna Huffington, appearing before 300 at Bloomberg’s on March 30, preached a gospel of health and wellness aimed at combatting “stress and burnout.”

Arianna Huffington & Jackie KelleyArianna Huffington (L) with Bloomberg Media COO Jacki Kelley

photo: Jane Landers

Huffington founded Thrive Global last year which is dedicated to helping people to reduce stress in their lives particularly by improving sleep habits.

She is the author of 15 books, the most recent being Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, and The Sleep Revolution.

The Huffington Post, founded by her in 2005, was sold to AOL for $315M in 2011. Verizon purchased AOL in 2015.

The event organized by New York Women in Communications with the assistance of Katherine Latham was called "Cocktails & Conversations: Thrive with Arianna Huffington."

Jacki Kelley, Bloomberg Media COO, conducted the interview with Huffington. 

Mother’s Advice Cited

Huffington said her mother’s most important advice was that "We want guarantees before we fail and often the things that we most want are not guaranteed, there is no certainty. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is the stepping stone to success.”

Huffington, asked by Kelley why she sold the Huffington Post, said, “The journey that got me to Thrive Global started with a bang on April 6th, 2007, when I collapsed from exhaustion and broke my cheekbone on the way down. That was the beginning of my realizing that I have been living my life under the delusion that in order to succeed I had to burnout. Not just my delusion, but a truly global delusion under which hundreds and millions of people are living. That was the beginning of writing The Sleep Revolution.” The book was published in 30 languages.

Huffington Cites “third feminist revolution.”

Quoting from her book on “Thrive,” Huffington said, “Men created the workplace,” she said. “The way workplace has been designed it is not working. We need to redesign them. That is really why I am so passionate about it. I didn’t want to write and speak about it but actually to help people to take steps to change the way they work and be more effective as a result.”  

Kelley: "Can you share the Metrics in Thrive?"

Huffington:

"Thrive is based on the four pillars for a successful life.

1. Wellbeing - If we sacrifice our health and wellbeing, there is no foundation. 80% of our problems are stress related.

2. Wisdom - We are so disconnected from it--drowning in data and starved for wisdom.

3. Wonder - We are always multi-tasking to make us more efficient, but we miss out on the mystery and wonder of life.

4. Giving - a shortcut to happiness.”

People Need More Sleep

“Your life will improve dramatically if you get the sleep you need,” said Huffington. "If something unexpected happens, you are not running on empty; you have some reserves to draw on.”

She also advised keeping the phone outside of the bedroom; having a bath that “soaks away” the activities of the day; sleeping in complete darkness and silence, and obtaining eight hours of sleep.

Said Huffington: “I really believe that the way workplaces are fueled by burnout and stress, is going to make it very hard for women to stay and rise to the top. I am the only woman on the board at Uber, and I have been very involved in the changes that we are making there now.”