this story is part of cnbc make its the moment series where highly successful people reveal the critical moment that changed the trajectory of their lives and careers discussing what drove them to make the leap into the unknown sallie krawchecks legendary wall street career almost ended soon after it began a pioneer in an industry where female executives were few and far between krawcheck has served as ceo or cfo at numerous wall street institutions including citibank and morgan stanleys wealth management division smith barney her first such appointment becoming ceo of research firm sanford c bernstein came at age 37 in 2001 in 2015 she made the leap from bank executive to startup cofounder when she launched a digital investment platform for women called ellevest where shes currently ceo most of that success hinged on a single controversial decision as a bernstein research director in the late 90s krawcheck shuttered the companys investment banking business it conflicted with bernsteins primary mission of providing clients with impartial stock research she says the move was slammed by her wall street peers the business was a moneymaker and bernstein analysts fled to competitors during dark and sleepless nights krawcheck secondguessed herself it could have been the end of my career she tells cnbc make it criticism gave way to praise after the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 sending stocks crashing bernsteins lack of investing exposure helped it fare better than many of its competitors fortune magazine hailed krawcheck as wall streets last honest analyst on wall street the consensus is often seen as the safest bet but krawcheck says she realized early that embracing her contrarian nature was the best bet for advancing her career in a maledominated industry you just have to be right more often than not she adds i learned pretty quickly dont say anything unless you have something to say and it should be different than consensus or just be quiet krawcheck says what made me successful was im a natural contrarian years later krawcheck again ignored many of her peers advice by launching ellevest a platform catering only to female investors she says ellevest has raised 144 million in funding and manages more than 15 billion in assets according to the company here krawcheck discusses when to trust your gut and do something unexpected and how to consistently succeed in highpressure situations cnbc make it why did you make the decision that could have ended your career did you know it would be a catalyst for your success instead krawcheck if youre advising an investor you want to advise them buy low but if youre advising a corporate client you want to advise them sell stock high if youre working for both of them who are you working for what really sparked it for me was we should be an independent firm if we get rid of the investment banking then we can be truly independent for the street it was viewed as a ridiculous junior varsity naïve move i was supported by bernsteins parent company and board of directors but it was terrifying because we were losing analysts and it was my choice i thought maybe being the outlier isnt such a smart thing then our business went vertical and i ended up on the cover of fortune magazine how do you recognize a window of opportunity and seize it especially when you know the consequences if it all goes wrong first of all i am incredibly analytical i tell the team here at ellevest i love your opinion but were going to make decisions based off of the facts and the numbers theres really nothing i enjoy more than a huge spreadsheet full of numbers and i sort of have an ability the numbers sometimes can pop for me where almost they turn into a picture in front of me i get this tingle that hasnt happened many times in my life but when it does im always like thats it thats a counterintuitive anticonsensus analyticallybased insight theres research about this when youre in a relaxed state this can all come together then dont look down i could see the stats on starting a business in ellevests first fundraising round the folks who funded it were my former colleagues and friends if i spent time thinking well what if i lose some of their money i would be paralyzed you just keep moving you were among the first female ceos on wall street how did you deal with the public pressure and spotlight i knew intuitively that i would garner more attention because i was a woman and because i was young my point of view on that was ok it is what it is the upside to running one of these storied wall street firms is that im going to get to turn it around im going to learn a tremendous amount im going to do something no one else has done and the downside is public failure and humiliation i dont know that i stopped to think about it too much there was so much work to be done the research is clear that women who fail are punished more than men who fail if you dont look then you dont have to think about it all of the time but did it sometimes upset me of course you know the skeptics are out there dont miss want to be smarter and more successful with your money work  life sign up for our new newsletter join cnbcs small business playbook virtually on may 4th where entrepreneurs will share advice and tips on how to handle economic uncertainty inflation and more so your business can succeed for the shortterm and the longterm register for free today