Eva Longoria says this quality is more important than an Ivy League education: 'Do you have the capacity to figure it out?'

Booking "Desperate Housewives" was a key moment in Eva Longoria's career. The soap opera star further cemented her place in Hollywood across eight seasons as Wisteria Lane's Gabrielle Solis before pursuing a career as a director, producer and entrepreneur. During her time on set of the ABC dramedy, Longoria learned crucial career lessons. After working with dozens of directors on "Desperate Housewives," Longoria tells CNBC Make It that she got to see leadership qualities she admired, and others she didn't want to emulate. One idea she refused to adopt: The director is always right. "I find that not to be the case," says Longoria, 51, adding that the lesson has served her beyond Hollywood. Filmmaking and entrepreneurship are about collaboration, she says, including hiring and consulting people who are smarter than you, and hearing from people who've been through similar experiences — whether they've succeeded or failed — and learning from them. "So that [idea] of, 'Go at it alone you and only you can make it happen,' is not true," Longoria says. "There's a village of brains that you should be tapping into." Longoria, who has a new partnership with the tech-device company Lenovo advising small business owners, says mentorship has played a big role in her growth as a director and leader. She says some of her best mentors are people she's never met or isn't close with personally. …