????大四注冊那天，紐約世貿中心遭到襲擊。海曼說，這起恐怖襲擊事件對她的職業軌跡產生了切切實實的影響。這位社會學專業學生毅然放棄了起初的論文計劃，轉而撰寫了一篇以新聞網絡如何報道911事件為主題的學術論文——她先后采訪了新聞主播特德?科佩爾和約翰?斯托塞爾。然而，她并沒有產生投身于媒體的念頭，而是開始思考一些商業問題。“911事件給這個國家的許多產業帶來了滅頂之災，我一向認為，動蕩中必然蘊含著創新機遇，”她說。“所以我想尋找最動蕩的行業，因為我覺得我將從中學到很多東西。這個行業必將發生大變革，大轉型。”

????于是，海曼開始四處尋找有待解決的問題，最終把目光投向了旅游業，因為911事件對這個行業造成的負面影響再明顯不過了。沒過多久，海曼就在喜達屋酒店集團(Starwood Hotels)謀得了一份參與制定公司戰略的差事。在那里，她與時任CEO、曾參與創辦W酒店管理公司(W Hotels)的巴里?斯特恩利希特形成了非常默契的工作關系。“由于他的緣故，這家公司當時極富創業激情，”她說。“所以，即使它是一家大公司，但各級員工都被視為創新源泉，有機會將自身的創意付諸實現。”

????海曼在營銷和合作項目的不同組別輪值了一年之后產生了一個想法：為喜達屋酒店集團創建一個婚禮事業部。她認為，喜達屋優先顧客獎勵計劃( Preferred Guest)應該針對最近訂婚的伉儷，以及與婚禮相關的活動，包括單身派對、婚慶、蜜月，不一而足。海曼主動聯系所在部門總裁，希望獲得200萬美元撥款，同時授權她在喜達屋酒店集團內部啟動這樣一個小型企業。她當時22歲，來這家公司還不到一年。這番舉動確屬大膽。但海曼說，她當時想：“也許有人覺得我這樣做過于激進，但最糟糕的事情莫過于老板否決這項提議。要是那樣的話，我一定要想法子說服他。”她的提議最終獲得肯定。這個事業部面向新訂婚夫婦的奢華蜜月服務大受歡迎，第一個財年就斬獲1,300萬美元收入。時至今日，它依然是喜達屋酒店集團的重要一員。

????按照海曼如今的描述，在喜達屋工作期間，她經歷過一個對其職業生涯產生重大影響的時刻。有一回，在一場有資深員工參加的重要會議上，海曼一如往常，毫無保留地表達了自己的想法。會后，一位任職時間更長的女士把海曼拉到一邊，說她開會時講得太多，“讓人覺得鋒芒畢露，愛出風頭，希望你意識到這一點。”這番話當然是出于好意，但海曼表示，這位女士也“想告訴我，如果大家覺得你一個22歲的小女生竟然如此咄咄逼人，一定會招致許多員工的不滿，尤其是那些男上司。我基本上沒聽她的。”

????離開喜達屋酒店后，海曼還曾先后在初創公司婚禮頻道網(WeddingChannel.com)和運動與時尚經紀公司國際管理集團( IMG)短暫工作過一段時間。2007年，她進入哈佛商學院。海曼的妹妹貝基認識弗雷斯（一位朋友的朋友），覺得她們兩人肯定很合拍。海曼承認，她最初的反應非常冷淡：“我現在的朋友夠多了，都應付不過來了。有機會碰到的話，認識一下也行。但我不會專門去結交她，”她對貝基說。然而，開學的第一天，她們兩人碰巧坐在同一個分區，很快就成了好朋友。

????弗萊斯出生于肯塔基州，從紐約霍勒斯曼學校(Horace Mann School)畢業后被耶魯大學(Yale University)錄取，專修政治學和英語。大學畢業后，她進入銀行業。“我生來好強，總喜歡追逐最好的東西，做最難辦的事情，”她說。“從耶魯出來后，大家都想去高盛(Goldman Sachs)這樣的投行工作。”大四前那個暑期，她獲得了一個在高盛實習的機會。第二年春天畢業后，她進入摩根士丹利公司(Morgan Stanley)戰略規劃部，開始從事內部并購和咨詢業務。一年后，也就是2006年，她跳槽至雷曼兄弟公司(Lehman Brothers)從事類似的工作。

????On registration day of her senior year, the World Trade Center was attacked. Hyman says it had a real impact on her career trajectory. A social studies major, she completely scrapped her planned thesis and instead did one on how network-news outlets covered 9/11—she interviewed broadcasters like Ted Koppel and John Stossel. But instead of deciding she wanted to go into media herself, she began thinking about business. "What Sept. 11 had done is wreak havoc on many different industries in the country, and I always think that in chaos there's innovation," she says. "So I wanted to find the most chaotic industry out there, because I felt I would learn a huge amount. There would be a lot of change and transformation."

????Hyman was searching for a problem to solve. She looked toward the travel industry because 9/11 was having such an obvious impact on it, and landed in corporate strategy at Starwood Hotels. There she hit it off with then-CEO Barry Sternlicht, who had also started W Hotels. "The spirit of the company at the time was very entrepreneurial because of him," she says. "So even though it was a huge company, there was an expectation that people at all levels of the company would have ideas and bring those ideas to fruition."

????One idea Hyman had, after a year of rotating through various groups in marketing and partnerships, was for Starwood to create a wedding division. She felt the company's Preferred Guest rewards program should aim for recently engaged couples and their wedding-related events, from the bachelor and bachelorette parties to the wedding to the honeymoon. Hyman approached the president of her division and asked for $2 million to start a mini-business within Starwood. She was 22 years old and had been at the company for barely a year. It was an audacious move. But Hyman says she was thinking, " Someone thinks I'm being too aggressive? The worst thing that could happen is he says no. And then I'll figure out how to make it into a yes." She did get a yes, and the division she came up with -- a honeymoon registry combined with luxury services for newly engaged guests -- thrived, generating $13 million in its first year. It is still in place at Starwood (HOT) today.

????While at Starwood, Hyman had what she now describes as a pivotal moment in her career. After an important meeting with some senior people -- during which Hyman, as she often would, spoke up and contributed ideas -- a woman who had been with the company longer than Hyman took her aside. She told her that when Hyman speaks out in meetings too much, "it comes off as being too aggressive and too pushy. And just be aware of that." The woman was trying to be helpful. But she was also, Hyman says, "trying to tell me that if you're perceived as being this hard-charging 22-year-old girl, that's going to be very off-putting to a lot of people in this company, especially people above you who are men. I kind of ignored her."

????After Hyman worked briefly for the startup WeddingChannel.com and the sports and fashion agency IMG, she entered Harvard Business School in 2007. Hyman's sister Becky knew Fleiss as a friend of a friend, and thought the two would hit it off. Hyman admits her first reaction was icy: "I already have more friends than I need right now. If I meet her, I meet her. But I'm not going to specifically look out for her," she told Becky. Yet on the first day the two of them happened to land in the same section and they became instant friends.

????Fleiss had grown up in Kentucky and New York, where she went to the Horace Mann School, then college at Yale, where she focused on political science and English. After graduation, she went into banking. "I have a pretty competitive personality in general, and I'm always trying to go after what is the best and the hardest thing to get and to do," she says. "And coming out of Yale, everyone wanted to work in investment banking, like at Goldman Sachs." The summer before her senior year, she got a Goldman internship, and the next spring, after graduating, she went to work at Morgan Stanley (MS) in the strategic-planning group doing internal M&A and consulting. After a year she moved on to a similar role at Lehman Brothers in 2006.