As the rest of the city was recovering from its postelection hangover, a hundred or so young Washington women filled into the basement of the Sixth & I Synagogue Wednesday night to soak up some career advice from Kate White, former editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. "I gave a dinner party [Tuesday] for almost 30 people, I do it every presidential election and I kept saying to people, 'I've got to be on a 9 o'clock train to Washington tomorrow,' " she joked. "Almost as if the Obama administration had called and said -- we need you down here tomorrow."

In reality, White was in town to promote her newest book, "I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know." Her biggest suggestion? Learn to savor it. "Because why work our butts off if we're not going to be able to really savor it and enjoy the fruits of our labor?" she mused. She also borrowed one of her "secrets" from a younger colleague, she said. "The first secret is you've got to go big or go home -- you've heard that expression right?" she asked the ladies. "I first heard it at Cosmo five years ago from this young woman on my staff and she was using it about Saturday night," White said to laughs.

But she did have a serious example, looking to Kate Spade, when the designer was trying to sell her first line of handbags. "She was sitting there in her living room and she looked at them and she thought, 'they're good enough, but they're not great, there's nothing for the eye to go to,' " White recalled. "So she got nail scissors and she went into each bag and she cut out the tag that says 'Kate Spade New York' and she sewed it on the outside." And there you have it: success.