By Fei Liena, Tu Qi

    HANOI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- "During my first five years of working, I totally wore myself out," Vu My Lan, a young Vietnamese lady, told Xinhua with a smile, at a Youth Forum held during the three-day Global Summit of Women in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

    My Lan studied Russian Literature in university, but after graduation she found out in dismay that her major couldn't help her find a good job. So she decided to start over again to study business management and insurance, after she found a junior job at Aon, a well-known insurance and crisis management company which set up a subsidiary company in Vietnam.

    During the following five years, the seemingly fragile girl had a busy life of working during the day, and rushing to the university to study at night. Things got crazy after she got married and had a baby, her life was totally occupied by the three "missions", which was a "really tough time", she said.

    But My Lan managed to finish school after five years, and the hard efforts were gradually paid off by a series of promotions at the company due to her increasingly effective performance stimulated by a professional knowledge of insurance and management in business.

    Within a few years, she became Aon's CEO in charge of business in the Asia-Pacific region.

    "It's all about hard work, you know," she said.

    Marie Laure Charles, a blonde French beauty, became Director General of Thales Co., Europe's largest electronic defense company, in charge of business in Argentina, Chile and Peru, when she just turned 30.

    "At first, I knew nothing about engineering and airplanes," she told Xinhua, "I have to learn everything from scratch. I forced myself to know every detail of our products...Now, I still work 15hours a day, but it's a price worth it."

    Yvonne Boice, president of the U.S. Fugazy International Travel Agency, advised participating girls of the summit who want to start their own businesses or seek career development: "Better start early. The younger you are, the less ambitious you are, its easier for you to take the first step."

    "For any woman who wants to accomplish in her work, career and family are always like having and eating a cake at the same time," she said.

    Thirty-year-old Marie found it difficult to have a family due to her long working hours, letting alone taking care of family members. "I set myself a deadline of 35 years old. I might give up my current career then and shift my focus to family," she said.

    Singaporean Lynn Tan said she knew nothing about China before she came to work in Beijing as the general manager of McDonald's China. "I was completely panicked," said she, adding "I didn't know how to handle the government and the media, and I was so young!"

    Luckily, her boss, colleagues and friends helped her out and she gradually grabbed her pulse at the new position.

    Lynn, also single, said it's ok for her to remain single for a while, since she is still young, "I haven't felt too much pressure yet".

    For those girls and women who desire career success, Lynn suggested a strong curiosity for new things, continuous improvement of learning and developing, and most of all, to work hard and put things they have learned into practice.

    My Lan put passion at the first place of being able to succeed, as passion enables women to keep doing the same thing without getting bored.

    "Women should dare to take risks when the right time comes," she said.