Leader No. 21: Star Hughes Reaches as High as the Sky, and Ivanka Trump

At just 19, Star Hughes graduated from college and went on to be one of the youngest students to graduate from an MBA program in one year.

Now 22, she’s the director of business development for her parents’ company, Hughes Marino—a tenant representation firm in San Diego.

Hughes, who was featured in Forbes magazine, is also involved in the San Diego Symphony and Jewish Family Service. She said she’s inspired by her parents and the daughter of Donald Trump.

“Ivanka Trump is my biggest inspiration, “ she said.  “She is such a beautiful, brilliant, poised and classy woman, and she’s in commercial real estate too!  I’ve read her books, I own her shoes, and I think she does an amazing job of balancing it all.”

Advice for young people:

 “The one lesson that has resonated most in my life is to be a long-term thinker.  I think that the reason I was able to accelerate through school so quickly and find my dream job at age 21 was because I have always been such a long-term planner; I make decisions not only thinking about the impact it would have on my life tomorrow, but the impact it would have on my life five years from now.”