梅格就读于普林斯顿大学（Princeton University），并获得了经济学学士学位。 随后她在哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）深造，于 1979 年获得工商管理硕士（MBA）学位。 她的第一份专业工作是在辛辛那提（Cincinnati）宝洁公司（Procter & Gamble）担任品牌助理。 但是梅格不久就愉快地再次前往加州，这次是以新嫁娘的身分与她的丈夫格里夫•哈希（Griff Harsh）同行，她的丈夫接受了旧金山加州大学的神经外科住院医师实习。 梅格加入了顾问公司贝恩（Bain & Co.）在旧金山的办公室，她在那里工作了八年，最终升为副总裁。 在贝恩，梅格透过「高度专注于少数几项改变，却能产生总体最大效用」方式，发展了她分析挑战和解决问题的敏锐能力。 另外，在居住于旧金山的这段时期，梅格与格里夫决定开始家庭生活，他们的儿子格里夫（Griff）和威尔（Will）诞生了。

梅格的职业生涯引领她走向美国一些最知名公司的管理职位，这些公司包括迪斯尼、Stride Rite、FTD 和孩之宝（Hasbro）。 每个职业生涯停靠站都帮助梅格为她在 1997 年秋季所遇到的前所未有的机会做准备，那时她遇到一家名为 eBay 小型新兴企业的创办人。 梅格已磨炼出自己的领导风格，强调倾听和团队精神。 她是经验丰富的大型且复杂机构的管理者。 梅格立即看到 eBay 具有成为伟大公司的必备要素。eBay 密切结合了因特网传讯与连网能力，能建立新颖高效的交易市场。 它同时还有非常罕见的元素 -- 由热爱 eBay 的使用者所组成的社群，这些充满活力的份子齐心协力使 eBay 持续运作和成长。

在 eBay，梅格创造了历史。 梅格带领 eBay 穿越网络泡沫的兴衰，目睹许多高速发展的新兴企业之崩溃覆灭，而 eBay 却一季接一季的急剧成长。 当她加入 eBay 时，公司仅有 470 万美元的年营业额和 30 名员工；而在十年后，当她于 2008 年 3 月退休时， 公司已拥有将近 80 亿美元的年营业额，并在全球有 15,000 名员工 - 单在加州就有数百万名使用者。 在这个过程中，梅格出现在许多「顶尖执行长」的名单和全国性杂志的封面上。 《时代》杂志将她列为全球最具影响力的人物之一。 《财星》杂志将她列为 2004 年和 2005 年商界最具影响力的女性之一。 而《商业周刊》年年将她列为商界顶尖经理人之一。

Is it possible to run a multibillion-dollar corporation on the power of trust? Must you set aside your authentic self as you climb the corporate ladder? Is there another role for technology beyond saving costs and creating efficiencies? In The Power of Many, Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay, speaks to these questions and more, identifying ten core values that steered her—and can steer any leader—to success without ethical compromise.

During her decade at the helm of eBay, Meg Whitman transformed it from a tiny start-up into a nearly $8 billion global powerhouse, revolutionizing the way goods are bought and sold online. Fortune magazine twice named her the Most Powerful Woman in Business.

Now, with the vitality, candor, and often self-effacing humor that is her trademark, Meg lays out the ten core values that she credits not only with her strategic success but with many of the joys and satisfactions of her private life. Values such as trust, authenticity, courage, and validation are not naive, Meg shows us, and they are definitely not a luxury. Rather, they are essential tools for success that go hand in hand with traditional business practices—like holding oneself accountable or growing a company efficiently. She believes they are the foundation of strong management in the twenty-first century. Today, technology and the transparency it brings demand that organizations demonstrate a character that aligns with the values of their communities.

Meg illustrates the origins of her values and the underpinnings of her approach with compelling stories from her extraordinary career and her down-to-earth upbringing—from the harrowing twenty-two-hour system outage that nearly sunk eBay to the indomitable spirit of her eighty-nine-year-old mother, who grew up in Boston society but worked as an airplane mechanic during World War II. It was her mother, Meg says, who gave her “a bias toward action.” Here, too, are stories of finding her equilibrium during the time when she had young children, and in her marriage to a neurosurgeon with his own highly demanding career. Meanwhile, her experiences at some of America’s best-known companies, including Disney, FTD, and Procter & Gamble, offer valuable case studies of what can go wrong and right, and how even mistakes can be transformed into opportunities.

Meg Whitman shows us that achievement can and should be teamed with optimism, trust, and honesty. The Power of Many offers the insights and motivation we need to propel ourselves to the next level—to scale, as Meg would say—in business and in life.