Success! How I Did It

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has taken a series of smart risks throughout his career that have helped him reach the top. He began as a college student in Boston who managed a strawberry farm. He later became a hotshot Internet advertising salesman who sold the first-ever $1 million campaign online. He impressed Google's cofounders in an early job interview, and helped build their advertising business from scratch. Now he is the CEO of AOL, and he has lots of advice for others who want to run corporate America some day.

LeBron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He sat down with Business Insider's US Editor-in-Chief, Alyson Shontell, for a video interview to discuss his team's epic comeback in the 2016 NBA finals, what he eats, how he works out, and how he leads on and off the court. As it looks more and more likely that LeBron will be heading to another finals soon, we've taken that audio from that August 2016 interview and turned it into a special episode of "Success! How I Did It."

Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Two years ago, her husband Dave Goldberg suddenly died at age 47. She founder herself in a dark place, but had to figure out how to live in this new reality — "Option B" — without him. Sandberg spoke with us about how you can build resilience like a muscle, how she overcame her darkest days, how Mark Zuckerberg has helped her through, and why companies should think of sick leave, the same way they think of maternity or paternity leave.

Gary Vaynerchuk has millions of followers on social media, and has built two businesses to tens of millions in revenue. The "Planet of the Apps" star, investor and best-selling author reveals how he built his career, what it's like to eat dinner with Mark Zuckerberg, and tips for success (like dumping any "loser" friends who are holding you back).

Neil Vogel is the CEO of About.com, a beloved website from the 1990s. He's trying to modernize it by doing something that sounds crazy: He's shutting down the site, and launching a half dozen new brands in its place. Neil is also the founder of the Webby Awards and Internet Week, and was an early employee at dotcom success story Alloy Media. When he was 32, he took a year off to travel the country in a Ford Bronco, which changed his life and career. Here's his story.

TheSkimm is a morning email newsletter that tells 5 million subscribers — including Oprah — the news they need to know. But it was not easy for founders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg to get TheSkimm off the ground. The two were roommates who had a "quarter-life-crisis" and quit their jobs at NBC. Then hundreds of startup investors rejected them, and the went into credit card debt. Finally, the found success. They share their war stories and future plans on this episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It" with host Alyson Shontell.

Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal met while getting their MBAs at Wharton. They cofounded a glasses retailer, Warby Parker, and couldn't decide who should become CEO, so they both took the job. The Co-CEOs sat down with Business Insider's US Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell to discuss how they built a billion-dollar brand, and how they scaled the company as first-time founders.

Scott Belsky began his career at Goldman Sachs. But he didn't like it, so he saved $18,000 and bootstrapped a startup, Behance. He later sold it to Adobe for $150 million and made sure half his employees became millionaires. He also put early money in startups like Pinterest and Uber. Here's his best career and startup advice.

Bryan Goldberg, 33, is the founder of Bustle, a digital-media startup with 55 million monthly readers that covers everything from politics to "The Bachelor." Its latest valuation puts it on par with Goldberg's last startup, Bleacher Report, which sold for about $200 million to Turner Media. Goldberg reveals how he's built multiple valuable companies, and divulged details on a wild "OMFG" party he and his cofounders threw for Bleacher Report employees in Las Vegas after the acquisition.

Sean Rad, the founder of dating app Tinder, knew right away he had a hit app on his hands. In an interview with Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, Rad discusses the highs and lows of building a business. He explains how he came up with the idea for Tinder, how his team marketed the app so it'd go viral, and how hard it is to run a startup in your 20s — even when the startup is successful.