The amazing life of Meg Whitman, one of the world's most powerful women

In just a few short weeks on November 1st, Hewlett-Packard - one of the nation's biggest and most venerable tech companies - is going to cleave itself into two huge Fortune 50 companies.

It is doing so under the stewardship of CEO Meg Whitman, who has spent the last four years trying to steer the big company through a turnaround to stop its declining profits and revenues.

This is just the latest big deal for Whitman, who has had a life and a career full of big deals during her legendary rise at internet company eBay and her entrance into GOP politics.

Her life and her career sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it's not - it's real.