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8 Things Power Couples Do Differently

8 Secrets Of Successful Power Couples
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Deputy Editor, HuffPost Women

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Entertainers Jay Z and wife Beyonce attend the Brooklyn Nets against the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball game on Friday, Nov., 23, 2012, at Barclays Center in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Power couples can seem like intimidating forces, managing to have their own wildly successful careers as well as relationships. Though Beyonce and Jay Z are probably just superhuman, the secrets of how most power couples make it work aren't reserved for the mega-rich and famous.

Here are eight things power couples do right:

1. Brainstorm together. In a January 2008 Fortune magazine feature, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates explained how much he depends on his wife Melinda's opinion. "Melinda and I would brainstorm about [the company]," He said. "You always benefit from your key confidante telling you, 'You think so-and-so stepped on your toes? Well, maybe he didn't mean to. Maybe you're wrong.'"

2. Work to improve themselves, individually and as a pair. In a March 2013 interview, Will Smith explained how he makes things work with his wife of 17 years, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith:

When we got started, we both truly connected on wanting to be better. That’s where it all started. There were other people that we were dating and other people that we were attracted to but there was a commitment to constantly be better that was what we connected on. Our whole world and relationship was that, “Hey, I know that I may not be all of that today but what I’m not going to do is lay around and not keep working to be better to deserve you.”

3. Support each others' pursuits and ambitions fully, even if that means taking turns. Sheryl Sandberg famously wrote in Lean In:

When it comes time to settle down, find someone who wants an equal partner. Someone who thinks women should be smart, opinionated and ambitious. Someone who values fairness and expects or, even better, wants to do his share in the home. These men exist and, trust me, over time, nothing is sexier.

The Clintons have certainly supported each other's political careers. While Bill Clinton was running for and serving as president, Hillary supported him -- and it was his turn to champion her during her 2008 campaign. He may well be back in that supporting role during the 2016 elections... here's hoping.

4. Exercise together. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer and her husband Zachary Bogue, an investor and former lawyer, make time to work out together. According to a profile of Mayer in the September 2013 issue of Vogue, the pair run half-marathons together and enjoying hiking and skiing.

5. Get divorced when it stops working. Sometimes a marriage just doesn't work out, and it's always best to know when it's time to let go. Power couples who have decided their relationship wasn't working any more include the insanely talented Amy Poehler and Will Arnett, who split up in September 2012 after nine years of marriage. "I'm 43, and I've found my happiness -- which is my kids," Arnett said in an interview with Details magazine. As Nora Ephron once wrote, "Never marry a man you wouldn't want to be divorced from."

6. Avoid the limelight. Bill and Melinda Gates famously refused to talk to the press about their relationship, and a 1995 Seattle Times article reveals the extent to which the Gateses protected their privacy: "While I understand that your readers may find my story interesting because of the man I married, it is a personal decision for me not to share information about our relationship or my personal life with the world at large," Gates allegedly wrote to a reporter who wanted an interview shortly after she married Bill. Melinda didn't give her first public interview until 2008, when she finally broke her silence to discuss the Gates Foundation.

7. Follow their own interests -- even when they work in the same field. FLOTUS and POTUS are great examples of this as lawyers-turned-politicians. Though she has a number of official duties, Michelle Obama has often focused on her own passion projects, from Lets Move! to LGBT rights.

8. Compromise on scheduling. Stella & Dot founder Jessica Herrin has been married to her husband Chad, the VP of a Bay Area software company, for 14 years. She told the Huffington Post that the pair make sure their work and travel schedules complement each other:

[My husband and I] have [also] evolved our careers over time to work together as a family. His used to involve a lot more travel, and he switched his role so that we weren't going in two different directions at the same time.

What other things do successful power couples do differently? Comment below, or join the conversation on Twitter @HuffPostWomen!

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Before You Go

7 Influential Women Who Failed Before They Succeeded
(01 of08)
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An important part of achieving what we set out to do -- and something that seems to be particularly difficult for women -- is overcoming bumps in the road we may experience along the way. We forget that failure is often a necessary part of eventual success. In order to remind ourselves of this, we've gathered the stories of seven fearless women who experienced failure before ultimately becoming legends in their respective fields. (credit:Getty)
1. Lucille Ball(02 of08)
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Lucile Ball is now remembered as the first woman to run a major television studio (she gained full control of Desilu Productions in 1962) and the winner of most every major entertainment industry award (including 13 Emmy nominations and four wins), but her success was hardly immediate. In fact, Ball's first films were failures, and she was even dubbed the "Queen of the 'B' Movies" in the 1930s and 1940s. Luckily for all of us, Ball went on to star in "I Love Lucy" and pave the way for women in the entertainment industry. (credit:Wikipedia)
2. Marilyn Monroe(03 of08)
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Though Marilyn Monroe became a successful actress (whose films grossed more than $200 million), her first contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1948 before she had acted in a movie. Soon after, though, Monroe met agent Johnny Hyde, who took her under his wing. Eventually she landed roles in "The Asphalt Jungle" and "All About Eve" and the rest is Hollywood history. (credit:Getty)
3. Oprah Winfrey(04 of08)
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Before Oprah hosted a talk show that dominated daytime TV for 25 years and became the queen of her own media empire, she was demoted at one of her early jobs. After working as a news co-anchor on Baltimore's WJZ-TV for seven and a half months in her early twenties, Oprah was put on morning TV (the "morning cut-ins" as she recalls) -- a significant step down from her original role. But the experience wasn't all bad: Oprah met her best friend Gayle while working in Baltimore, and her initial failure arguably launched her on her path to incredible career success. (credit:Getty)
4. Vera Wang(05 of08)
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Vera Wang's path to becoming the insanely successful designer she is today was hardly conventional. First, Wang -- who was a competitive figure skater in her youth -- failed to make the 1968 U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team. Thankfully for fashion fans, this failure prompted Wang to take a job as an assistant at Vogue in 1971, where she was promoted to senior fashion editor within a year at 23. After 15 years with the magazine, Wang was ultimately passed over for the editor-in-chief position. But she ended up exactly where she needed to be and is now an incredibly successful and iconic fashion designer. It's hard to even think of wedding attire without her name coming up. (credit:Getty)
5. Stephanie Meyer(06 of08)
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Before the Twilight series broke sales records, author Stephanie Meyer faced the failure of rejection -- multiple times. Meyer wrote 15 letters to literary agencies and received 14 rejections. Luckily, one literary agent took her on and eight publishers bid on the rights to publish the now wildly successful series which ultimately earned the author a place on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 List (and an ever-growing fortune to boot). (credit:Getty)
6. J.K. Rowling(07 of08)
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The Harry Potter author's story is practically the stuff of legends. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the first book in the series) as a struggling single mother on welfare and faced 12 rejections from publishers, eventually selling the book for the equivalent of $4,000. The series went on to break numerous sales records, be turned into an incredibly successfulfilm series and earn a permanent place in the hearts of children and adults all over the world. J.K. Rowling is now worth an estimated $1 billion. (credit:Getty)
7. Arianna Huffington(08 of08)
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Though Arianna Huffington is one of the most powerful businesswomen out there, she is the first to admit that she is no stranger to failure. While the first book Huffington wrote was well-received, her second book was rejected by 36 publishers. But failure, Huffington has said, is often the key to success. She told CNN this past March, "You can recognize very often that out of these projects that may not have succeeded themselves that other successes are built." She is now the author of 13 books as well as the President and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post Media Group. (credit:Getty)
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