Shelley Zalis

On that elusive work-life balance, her own version of perfection, and pivoting with positivity.

- SARAH LYNCH

For Shelley Zalis, the easy way isn't worth it. She's a lifelong solar eclipse chaser, jetting from Islands to Turkey's Black Sea coast as required just for the chance of glimpsing this rare phenomenon. And in her career, she's set similarly celestial goals.

She pioneered consumer research on the internet with her first company, Online Testing Exchange, selling it to Ipsos in 2010 for $80 million. Now, she's founder and CEO of the Female Quotient, a media, events, and consulting business focused on closing the gender gap in the workplace. To date, the company has built a digital community of more than three million working women globally.

But in blazing her trail of business success, Zalis-a wife and mother of three-toiled in a constant calculus of what to prioritize and how best to be present. We asked her about mindsets that have helped her make it all work.

You've said before that you don't believe work-life balance exists. Why? There's no such thing as balance. We have one life, five dimensions: our career, our family, our community, our friends, and the fifth dimension-which we women always neglect-ourself. When I was an employee, I never took time for myself-including maternity leave. I was pushing a baby stroller and taking phone calls.