Excerpt: 'Tough Choices' by Carly Fiorina

Oct. 10, 2006 — -- Carly Fiorina, a former chairwoman and CEO at Hewlett-Packard, was once hailed as "the most powerful woman in business." But after HP's board of directors ousted her in 2005, she stepped out of the spotlight.

She returns with a highly anticipated memoir, "Tough Choices," about her astonishing rise and fall in corporate America.

Read an excerpt from "Tough Choices" below.

Chapter 5: Not Till the Lady Leaves Sales school, like every school, presented an idealized versionof its subject. It still took a lot of hard work, but in sales school thecustomers were always willing to spend time with you if you had agood idea, it was possible to talk directly to the decision maker,and your teammates were always willing to help you. When I finallyarrived at my real desk and started my real job, I was in for a rude awakening.

I joined Government Communications -- that part of AT&T that servedthe federal government. I didn't know it on my first day of work, but Iwas the first MDipper to join the sales team to which I'd been assigned.

MDipper was the not-so-flattering term used to describe people like me who camein with graduate degrees through the Management Development Program.Everyone knew who we were, and some of us quickly developed reputationsfor being arrogant and impatient to move on to the next assignment. Thesales district I joined was very successful, and they didn't think theyneeded any help from someone like me.

I approached my first day on the job with great anticipation. I was onmy way! I was going to do real work! I don't know what kind of welcome Iexpected, but what I got was a big let down. My boss said good morning anddirected me to my desk. It was stacked two feet high with books andpapers.

He said, "I've written down the accounts we're assigning you to. You canread up on them. Welcome aboard." On a single sheet of paper were theletters USGS, BIA, WPRS. I asked what they meant. He said, "You'll find themin there," as he motioned to the stack of reading material.

I don't know whether I was being tested or whether my boss just didn'tknow what else to do with me. I did as I was told. I started reading.

Five days later I was still reading. I knew that BIA was the Bureau of IndianAffairs, USGS was the United States Geological Survey and WPRS was theWater Protection and Resource Service. I also knew what the AT&T billingwas on each account, what the account team was hoping to sell them, andwhat each agency's mission was.