CEO: Not all career advice is worth following—'Sometimes the boldest decisions come from trusting your own instincts'

After decades in the business world, Maya Rogers knows that not all career advice is worth taking.

Rogers, 47, is the CEO of Tetris, the video game her dad, Henk Rogers, helped bring to the world in the 1980s and created a company around in 1996.

Rogers was charting her own path at companies like Honda and Sony when, in 2005, her father had a near-fatal heart attack at age 52. It was a “wakeup call,” Rogers tells CNBC Make It, and so she moved home from LA to Honolulu to learn from and work with him.

Rogers joined the company as a director of business development in 2007 and took over as president and CEO by 2014.

She’s since gotten a lot of advice as the boss of Tetris, but not all of it has been worthwhile.

She once consulted a trusted advisor about an opportunity to create a crossover project with Puyo Puyo, a popular puzzle game series in Japan. At the time, it was largely unknown outside of Japan, Rogers says, and the advisor cautioned that the partnership could dilute the Tetris brand.

“After careful consideration, I decided to move forward, believing it was an opportunity to bring a fresh twist to Tetris and expand our audience,” Rogers says.

Puyo Puyo Tetris launched in 2014 and has grown into a series with several installments that have sold millions of copies worldwide, Rogers says. The opportunity strengthened Tetris’ presence in Japan, introduced Puyo Puyo to new audiences globally, and inspired a competitive esports scene, she adds.

“This experience taught me that trusted advice is valuable, but sometimes the boldest decisions come from trusting your own instincts,” Rogers says.

“Seek as much advice as possible,” she says. “But also, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make mistakes. You might fail. But that’s part of the journey. And that’s how you learn and grow.”

Thoughtful risks can lead to growth, even when they go against conventional advice, she adds: “You cannot innovate if you never take risks.”

Supporting women in business is a key issue for Rogers, considering just over 2% of venture capital funding goes to companies with women-only founders, as of 2024 data.

The accelerator has invested in over 100 businesses and includes a network of over 250 mentors, Rogers says. Some businesses focus on solving issues specific to women, including one that helps military wives find jobs, and another that helps women access medical care.

“It’s not that women aren’t capable, it’s just that we’re not getting the right exposure to be funded to grow our businesses,” Rogers says.

Beyond funding, Rogers says the the accelerator’s network of mentors has been invaluable: “Nobody succeeds alone,” she says. “You hear time and time again that when people start a company, they had somebody that helped them along the way.”

Mentorship has played a role her in own career by providing a community of supporters to help her recognize achievements she’s quick to downplay, like a recent award from the Women in Toys industry group.

“It’s so hard to take compliments, especially as women. But we’re the biggest champions of other people,” Rogers says. “As women we lead with heart, we can lead with confidence [and] intuition. Getting validation from mentors is a big part of it, like ‘Oh yeah, I should be proud.'”

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