A CEO who worked at Google and Amazon explains why she wasn't afraid to leave some of the best companies in the world

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy has an impressive résumé.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she started her career at Merrill Lynch in 1993, before moving to British Sky Broadcasting in 1995. About 14 months later, she left to go work for Amazon.

Cassidy eventually took on executive roles at Yodlee, Inc., Google, Accel Partners, and Polyvore, respectively.

Today, she runs her own business. The founder of theBoardlist.com, a website that aims to put more women on corporate boards, is also CEO of her video commerce and lifestyle site Joyus, which she founded in 2011.

After pointing out that Cassidy has worked at a lot of big companies, Adam Bryant of The New York Times said, "It seems you like new challenges."

Her response:

"I've learned that my risk tolerance is high. Partly it comes from having had to figure out that time after college when I was having trouble getting hired. And then it finally worked.

"I always say to people, once you realize you're employable, everything else is OK. I'm always willing to let go of something before the next thing shows up because I have the sense that I could put food on the table.

"The other part of it is that I'm very impatient. Whenever I think I'm stagnating and not going to get where I'm meant to go, I have this anxiety. So the anxiety of not getting there overwhelms the fear of uncertainty. So I guess I just trade one fear for another. People see that as risk tolerance, but it's more this sense that I'm supposed to contribute something more or learn something more."

Read the full New York Times interview here.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.