Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment, Inc.
"I think [success is] a combination of a number of things. One, it is a sense of confidence, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of creative freedom . Being at a position in my life where ideas that I have, thoughts that I have, I'm able to put into effect, share with other people, as well as listen to other people's ideas and implement them. I think it's also about being at a stage in life where you have a sense of freedom, sense of maturity, a sense of – a very optimistic view of life in general. There is the obvious, which is the financial freedom, but I think for me personally most significantly it's the creative freedom. There are certain parameters and certain boundaries, but I'm very comfortable living within those."

On the Influence of Parents:
"I was raised in a family atmosphere and in an environment where my parents, really instilled in me a sense of quality, a sense of decency, a sense of human rights and that anything I set out to do in my life, if I worked hard, and I paid the price, then I should have it. “Pay the price” meaning if I worked hard in school, if I got the grades, if I did that, I would succeed. That I should accomplish. That I was entitled to whatever dreams, whatever ambition I had, that I should have those things because of the fact that I'm their daughter and those are the things that I should have in life and, ironically, and I think I mentioned this to you before, my parents paid very little attention to the actual physical aspects of things that I accomplished. Their emphasis was more on -- did I personally feel a sense of accomplishment. Did I personally feel that I had worked as hard or that I had devoted as much time and energy to a particular assignment or task or goal that I should have and that I should value those things for myself and not for them. "

On "Going with yout Gut":
"I think that [optimism is] something that I was born with. I don't think that it was something that I could attribute to any particular event in my life. Ironically when my mother tells stories of how I behaved as a child or how I reacted to things as a child, it's that I had a very optimistic outlook on life. I equate optimism with passion and when I approach something or set out to do something, I have a sense that things will turn out for the best and my attitude toward something is that things will be positive and I think there will be a positive outcome. So, I have a very high level of energy and the prospect of something being successful or something being creatively fulfilling is exciting to me, and that manifests itself in enthusiasm and passion. That's not to say that I don't feel disappointed if something doesn't come to fruition, or something doesn't really achieve the goals that I've set out, but I think part of wanting something a great deal or feeling very strongly or passionately is the fact that there will be disappointments. But, I think that I can feel disappointment with the same degree of intensity that I can feel passion, but again, all of that is a result of commitment and giving yourself to something 100%."

On Taking on New Challenges:
"I think that much of our business is predicated on the reality that there will be failure, and you cannot let that influence your desire to take risks . There's a seasonal structure to our business and every year we sort of reinvent ourselves and, I think that when you have a creative drive, when you have a vision for something, when you are a part of a collective creative division, (and working in a network you are part of a very big organization within which there are many different creative divisions). . .it's a communications business, so you have to communicate, you have to find a way to express ideas and to be a facilitator for producers and artists and writers and actors and directors to communicate their ideas. You can find yourself settling and find yourself basically mired in the business aspect of it, as opposed to really going out on a limb, taking chances and really doing what you are supposed to do in network television, which is to set out to communicate creative ideas to the broadest segment of the population."

On The Paths of Life:
"I was raised with CBS being, for most of my life, the network that we watched. I was raised on Walter Cronkite. These were shows that I heard about. I watched Captain Kangaroo, so in truth it was the first network I was ever introduced to. In that way I wouldn't be surprised if fate played some hand in my being at this company today. In many ways, I think that the people in my professional life, Leslie Moonves , John Kimbell, my husband… I have been incredibly fortunate to have been graced by very decent honest dedicated men, who valued my input and my participation, so I think that I was lucky in that my path crossed theirs, and I'm incredibly grateful for the good fortune that my family is the beneficiary of. But I think that, like I said, fate is just a moment in time if you're not prepared for it and I think that the people who influenced me, prepared me for these moments in time."

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