Best of Forbes 2025: Women In Business

What did it take to dominate in 2025? Vision, grit, and a rock-solid core to name three of the common qualities we found among the women we spoke to this year. And today we're talking about these women who have built monumental businesses with these qualities. And it all starts with one simple but powerful truth. Building a legacy begins and ends with your mindset. This If you'd like to watch the full interviews, we've linked to them in the description below. Oscar award-winning actor Halle Berry has embraced entrepreneurship in what she calls her greatest act. This second act landed Halle on the 2025 Forbes 50 over 50 list, and as she told me during an interview for that list, she feels invigorated by the work she's doing to promote women's health and to end the stigma that so often surrounds menopause. This journey was sparked by a shocking diagnostic failure. Halle was told that she had herpes when she was actually experiencing perimenopause. She relaunched her wellness company into something called Respin Health, aiming to be a one-stop shop for all things menopause. Respin offers information, coaching, nutritional advice, and also personalized exercise guidance. We need education. We need federal and state funding dollars. Doctors need to be retooled. You mentioned my misdiagnosis. Yes, that's true. And I can't say I really blame my doctor. He was a wonderful doctor, right? He just didn't have the education because only 13% of doctors in our country really understand the menopausal body. It's one chapter in medical school. So you can't really blame them. But as the years go by, we will be able to blame them because when you know better, you do better. And we're talking about this loud and proud now, right? Women are coming out of the shadows. We're not afraid right now to start asking for what we need. I think doctors are starting to hear about this more and more. It's incumbent upon them to go back and get retooled and get the education that they never got because half the population makes it to midlife as women. And we deserve healthcare. We deserve doctors that actually know how to treat our bodies. You ask yourself, is that too much to ask? No, it's not. It's really not. We deserve that. Michelle Kang, the majority owner of the Washington Spirit and number five on the 2025 Forbes list of the most powerful women in US sports, is on a mission to revolutionize women's soccer. Raised in South Korea, Michelle's father taught her there was no difference whether you're a girl or a boy and encouraged her to work hard and pursue her dream of becoming a CEO. Michelle even convinced her parents to lend her the money, save for her wedding, to fund her first year of college. Her early career followed a meticulous three-decade plan, consulting to learn all the aspects of business, then work at a large organization to master leadership skills, and finally leading a major company. When she started her healthcare tech company, Cognizant, she used her IT background to apply unconventional ideas, similar to how Uber revolutionized transportation, to improve healthcare efficiency and quality. We asked Michelle what she considers to be her biggest win while running a company. I don't know whether it's the biggest win, but I think that because of just what I said in terms of trying to do something different, and in 2004 at that time, President Bush actually declared that every American who wants to have an electronic medical record will have one by 2014 and started investing in healthcare. In terms of IT, it was a massive investment. So a lot of big companies like IBM and all the large IT typical companies came in, but yet they really did not have the necessary tools or they're really kind of stuck with the vested interest in keeping the status quo and the legacy systems, as opposed to newcomers coming in and say, that's really not how you should do it. There are different ways of doing it, totally different ways of doing sort of like not unlike what Uber has come in and really totally revolutionized personal transportation. Whether it's our renowned 30 Under 30 Summit or Forbes BLK Summit, Forbes events draw eyeballs from around the world. This year, two of our most viewed videos came from panels at these events and highlighted the economic powerhouses of Atlanta, Georgia and Columbus, Ohio. Kandi Burris has had an illustrious career in entertainment from writing Grammy hits to Broadway hits and Lucy Guo took us on her career journey from co-founding AI startup Scale and her new venture Passes. I was having a conversation with my friend just yesterday and she was asking me like who were the people that I looked up to in the industry, like who are the people that inspire me and I was saying Queen Latifah, Steve Harvey, LL Cool J. These are people that inspire me because they have transitioned their career from one space to something totally different that people wouldn't have expected them to do if they just met them in the beginning, you know, and then she hit me back and she was like well why you your name is on that list as well and I was like well you said the people that inspired me and she was like well no you're on my list and it made me feel like that was so sweet but you know I guess I you know I aspire to to do those things and and seeing them being able to like you know see Queen Latifah back in the early 90s go from you know rapper to you know producer of television, actress, you know manager, she was managing art, she was doing all kind of stuff and so that was an inspiration of for me to be like you know what I was a teenager still so for me it was like wow I'm gonna do the same thing and I guess I spoke that and I've done that you know and I feel like I'm constantly working at taking it to the next level and accomplishing that dream of you know being in that list of greats. Lucy's early ventures showcased extreme cleverness. By fifth grade she was registering domain names like watchvampirediaries.net and photoshopping play buttons onto the trailers to stick ads on the site, monetizing traffic searching for tv episodes that didn't yet exist. We asked Lucy what her biggest takeaway is from her career journey and how she's learned to optimize and give back. I think it's optimize for learning and always be willing to help people out because everyone that you like help out unselfishly like I do think karma is a real thing it comes back at you and when you are successful I think you should reinvest into the ecosystem so nowadays I'm literally just trying to find all my favorite products and like you know people that I just believe in and reinvest in them because I remember what it was like you know first starting out and I had all these people just help me with like no questions asked and I don't think I would be here today without doing that. Emma Greedy a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Good American proves that the biggest professional gains come from pushing past your comfort zone. She chases fear finding that when she feels uncomfortable something good usually follows. Emma's journey began with a leap of faith. She left a corporate job because she decided she was a killer who could do it better herself. Though her first venture was in her words a mess full of mistakes she learned that sometimes you just need to not overthink things. I think the lesson that I probably would like to think about the most is that you know I feel like we all believe that there is some time that will come and that the stars will align and everything will be just right for you to make that step to push through to change something that you're doing and the truth is it's never the right time the truth is there's always going to be something on the horizon there'll always be something that it doesn't quite line up and you know there's a difference between having an idea and then doing something and I think that you just have to do right you just have to push through and get past that point of fear and try something and it's not about perfection it isn't about you know doing things completely right from the outset it is just about getting something done and you learn and you iterate and you change and you grow and all of that is fine nobody is watching you like you're watching you and I think that that is a really good lesson for anyone it's like just go for it. These powerful female entrepreneurs demonstrate that whether you are transforming finance, healthcare, technology, or sports, the biggest takeaway is this the perfect time to make an impact never arrives so just start. That rounds out the best Forbes Women soundbites of the year. Stay tuned on all things Forbes Women to get more insight and advice in 2026.