Arianna Huffington [New Media Magnate]

By: Julian Chavez | December 21, 2009 | Ten by Ten

Since founding the Huffington Post, authoring 12 books and being named one of Time magazine’s most influential people, Arianna Huffington’s influence has spread from the written word to the radio waves on public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica’s political roundtable, Left, Right and Center. A leading voice on the environment, Huffington was most recently recognized at Oceana’s 2009 Partners award gala for her contributions to conservation.

What is the most important lesson you’ve ever learned?
That fearlessness is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it. Indeed, fearlessness is like a muscle. The more you exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let your fears run your life.

Who is your favorite contemporary artist and why?
Frank Gehry, who transcends architecture to make true art, is my favorite contemporary artist. His work is both beautiful and challenging — and like with all good artists, it has evolved over time. As Ed Ruscha said in Sydney Pollack’s documentary on Gehry, he is unique in that he “mixes the ‘free-wheelingness’ of art with something that is really concrete and unforgiving … the laws of physics.”

What characteristics constitute intelligence?
Above all, a passion for learning. Curiosity. A willingness to rethink a long-held position. The ability to entertain two contradictory thoughts at the same time.

How would you describe the current state of American politics?
In need of a serious cleansing. It’s time to admit that our government is no longer merely “influenced” by entrenched special interests. They are running the show.

What do you think is the biggest threat to world peace?
The biggest threat to world peace is engaging in wars of choice — as Iraq was and Afghanistan has become — rather than wars of necessity. As Richard Haass, the head of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently put it: “If Afghanistan were a war of necessity, it would justify any level of effort. It is not and does not. It is not certain that doing more will achieve more. And no one should forget that doing more in Afghanistan lessens our ability to act elsewhere.”

What is your definition of success?
Knowing, when my head hits the pillow, that I gave it — whatever “it” may be that day — my all, and that I loved, if not all of it, almost all of it.

What do you consider your greatest professional achievement?
Taking the Huffington Post, together with our co-founder Ken Lerer and our great team, from the spark of an idea to a site that attracts more than 28 million unique visitors a month and is a part of the national conversation.

Which five people do you most admire and why?
Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel charged with monitoring the bank bailout: fighting tooth and nail to make sure the middle class isn’t forgotten.
Judge Arthur Schack of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn: using the letter of the law to keep banks from summarily foreclosing on houses and putting families on the street.
Dissident Chinese blogger Zeng Jinyan: a powerful voice whose writing has offered an intimate glimpse into her country as it teeters between openness and oppression.
Wendell Potter: after 20 years as a health insurance executive, he could no longer watch as the industry put profits before people and has become a powerful voice for reform — and an inspiration to whistleblowers everywhere.
Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation: She’s dedicated her life to passionately prying open information about The White House, Congress and regulatory agencies to make them more transparent.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
It’s something my mother used to tell me: “Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.”

How would you define love?
I wouldn’t except in the broadest sense. God is love. What taps into the better angels of our nature is love. What makes us feel most alive is love.

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