Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

The missed promotion. The botched presentation. The project that went sideways despite our best efforts. We’ve all been there, stuck in what I call failure’s funk: that heavy mix of shame, fear, and paralysis that keeps us replaying mistakes long after they’ve passed. In both life and work, this funk doesn’t just feel awful, it blocks learning. We’re so busy avoiding, denying, or criticizing ourselves that we miss the insight failure offers. We often hear that failure is life’s best teacher, but learning from it isn’t automatic. It doesn’t happen just because we failed; it happens because we do the inner work, reflecting, reframing, and choosing to respond differe…

Our culture of individualism pushes each person to try to be a star. “Team player” has even come to have the negative implication of subverting one’s own well-being and best advantage, and maybe even becoming invisible to leadership. To counteract these possibly negative effects of selfless invisible toiling, people often strive to make sure leadership sees their individual achievements. But research shows that the culture of individual stars is not what leads to team success. A McKinsey study found that superstar individuals often do not create the best teams: Thinking about themselves first leads to behaviors that disrupt team trust and problem-solving. Google’…

You know the scenario: It’s nighttime. You’re cozy under the bed covers, drifting off to sleep. Then, your eyes fly open. Wow, that was a big credit card bill this month. It’s time to make a budget. Your boss made that weird comment yesterday. Are you on thin ice at work? Forget work—are we on the brink of a world war? And what the heck is going on with that weird mole? Before you know it, the worries are flooding your brain. You’re wracked with anxiety—and sleep isn’t coming any time soon. “I think we’ve all had that experience where we seem to spiral at night and, in the morning—in the light of day—whatever you were stressing about the night before sometime…

The Miami Grand Prix, hosted at the Hard Rock Stadium’s 3.3-mile Miami International Autodrome, will look and feel different this year. In its fifth year, the race will spotlight the city with new experiences, activations like the MSC Yacht Club, and new sight lines for spectators. While relatively new to Formula 1’s 24 Grand Prix race season, the Miami GP’s agreement to serve as a host city until 2041 is an indicator that F1 is focused on investing in the U.S. market. It’s a big departure from F1’s history. “ We used to turn up in the U.S., race, and [then] expect everyone in the U.S. to continue to stay in love with us, engage with us, and that was probably ar…

Five Grand Slam titles and more than a decade as the world’s highest-paid female athlete. But the fiercest competition Maria Sharapova describes may be the one she’s navigating now. In her second act as an investor, entrepreneur, and podcaster, she discusses what the court never prepared her for: the deals she walked away from, the candy brand she built and ultimately shuttered, and what it really takes to sit across the negotiating table from Nike. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversatio…

The music industry has seen disruption before. Vinyl gave way to cassettes, CDs to Napster, downloads to streaming. Each shift rewired how the music industry distributes and monetizes songs but did not change what music fundamentally is or the fact that humans have always created it. Artificial intelligence doesn’t just change how music moves. It challenges who owns it and who gets paid for it. The real threat of AI isn’t that it can make songs. It’s that it reveals how fragile the music industry is. For years, artists have operated inside a system where millions of streams translate into fractions of a cent, algorithms dictate visibility, and ownership is often dilu…

A tall baobab tree greets people inside the Long Beach, California, headquarters of Vast, an aerospace company that is building the space station of the future. It’s planted beneath a skylight in the center of a white-painted circular lobby furnished with a sleek aluminum reception desk and built-in wood banquette that follows the curve of the walls. The tree and the room are symbolic. The former references trees in The Little Prince, a 1943 novella with a character who travels between planets, and the latter has the same diameter of a Haven-1 module, which the Vast team hopes will become home to researchers, astronauts, and travelers and eventually succeed the Inter…

Fire Rover is all about responding quickly and efficiently to crises: The Farmington Hills, Michigan-based tech company—which has now cracked the Inc. 5000 list five years in a row—works to detect and extinguish industrial fires before they get too big. So it’s fitting that Will Schmidt, Fire Rover’s CEO, joined the company in a moment of crisis, too. Schmidt says he initially met the Fire Rover team at a trade show in early 2018, back when he was still working for Pacific Western Bank. The firefighting company so interested him that he made a trip out to their Detroit-area headquarters for a tour. “It didn’t really fit into any box that I had at the time—it w…

In the not-so-distant past, the biggest question I’d get as a CEO was cut and dry: “What’s our plan?” Today, leaders across industries face a different, core question: “Are we built for change?” Unprecedented disruption is upon us, and just about every organization needs to transform quickly, in a big way. Having led five organizations, I have always architected and executed change as a core part of my remit. After decades of this work, I can confidently say that the formulas and frameworks that have worked for decades are no longer what we need. Because these unprecedented times call for something new, here are my top six tips for leading through change today. …

Walk down almost any city street, beach, or park, and you’ll see them: cigarette butts scattered along the curb, tucked into sidewalk cracks, or washed up along shorelines—4.5 trillion of them. They’re now so common they’ve become nearly invisible. But that ubiquity masks a growing environmental crisis—one that has only intensified as nicotine products evolve. For decades, cigarette butts have been the most littered item in the world. The filter—often mistaken as biodegradable—is made of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can persist in the environment for years. These filters don’t just sit there; they break down into microplastics, leaching toxic chemicals li…

You are bound to have one of those crazy days (or weeks or months) where your calendar is jammed with meetings, there are looming deadlines, and an emergency has cropped up that absolutely needs to be dealt with right away. Having a few things that hit at the same time can actually be good for you, but eventually, it is going to cause you problems. In particular, the researchers Yerkes and Dodson published a paper in 1908 (you read that right—over 110 years ago) talking about the optimal level of psychological energy called arousal. They suggested that when people have low levels of energy, they don’t get much done. That shouldn’t be surprising. As your arousal goes u…

It has become clear that women—and working mothers, in particular—are up against all kinds of challenges that threaten their foothold in the labor force. But one trend that may be less evident is that men are also dropping out of the workforce, albeit for different reasons. The jobs report last week offered a more sunny outlook than expected, with an uptick of 115,000 jobs in April; the unemployment rate also held steady at 4.3%. The data also, however, points to a more nuanced story about a broader shift in the labor force. Last month, the number of men who were working or actively looking for a job fell to the lowest figure seen in decades, with the exception of an…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told members of his Cabinet on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning as calls within his Labour Party for him to step down grew louder. Starmer is trying to shore up support within his Cabinet following a febrile few days in the wake of hefty losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power. The meeting, which lasted about an hour, took place as around 80 Labour backbenchers, or nearly a fifth of the party’s representation in the House of Commons, said Starmer should stand down, or at least set out a timetable for his departure. Under…

When the history of the internet is written, the story of Digg might be one of its most fascinating chapters. The site that established the template later popularized by Reddit has ebbed in and out of relevance for much of its existence. Two months ago, it shut down. Now it’s back once again, and it wants to keep users up to speed on the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence. Like an overly determined game of whack-a-mole, the Digg website is live once more, with a headline reading “Hello Again” on its home page and a new mission statement. “The bet is simple: the internet has more noise than ever, and the people who can sort signal from it have never …

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems announced impressive quarterly earnings alongside nearly 4,000 job cuts. The dichotomy stemmed from the hardware and networking company’s embrace of a rapidly growing trend in tech: openly admitting that layoffs are due to AI adoption rather than poor performance. “The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told employees in a publicly shared email. “I’m confident Cisco will be one of those winners. This means making hard decisions—about where we invest,…

Many local government leaders across the country know the types of street designs that reduce the number of severe crashes, but they keep delaying the changes because they’re waiting for money. Waiting for a big federal grant. Waiting for a full reconstruction project. Waiting for the perfect, permanent solution. But while Americans wait, people keep getting hurt. There’s a better way, and it doesn’t require tearing up a single road. Road diets repurpose space that already exists. By narrowing or reducing car lanes on overly wide streets, cities can carve out protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuges, and calmer traffic conditions—without major reconstruction. But…

Everlane—once an icon of ethical fashion—is reportedly being sold for $100 million to Shein, arguably the least ethical fashion brand on the market. Everlane had been on shaky financial ground for years, and majority owner L Catterton began shopping it around in March. But few expected it to sell to a Chinese retailer credibly accused of forced labor and labeled by Yale researchers as “the biggest polluter in fast fashion.” It’s the latest blow to a wave of ethical consumer brands that sprung up in the 2010s to court millennials. Last month, Allbirds—the sustainable sneaker startup—sold off its footwear assets, abandoned its environmental mission, and pivoted to a…

With gas prices hovering around $4.51 a gallon, there’s little relief for drivers heading into the busy Memorial Day weekend, the official kickoff to summer travel. Or, is there? While it might seem like an unlikely panacea, Cracker Barrel could bring some unexpected solace. Here’s what to know. What’s happening? On Tuesday, Cracker Barrel launches a 10-week nationwide “Fuel Your Summer Road Trip” giveaway of $250,000 in free gas—and food—to Cracker Barrel Rewards members during this summer’s peak road trip season. The deal lasts through July 26. A total of 250 Cracker Barrel Rewards members will each receive $1,000—a $500 gas gift card and a $500 food gift…

Areaware, the 22-year-old design brand, announced its closure back in February, bidding farewell to its dedicated fan base and selling off the last of its quirky home goods in a series of final sales. Just three months later, though, the brand is getting a surprising second chance: Today, the puzzle company Piecework is announcing its acquisition of Areaware for an undisclosed sum. Piecework, founded in 2019 by Rachel Hochhauser and Jena Wolfe, plans to keep Areaware’s name, website, and socials separate, and will maintain the two as distinct sister brands. According to Hochhauser, who will serve as Areaware’s chief brand officer, the idea to acquire Areaware was…

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) on Wednesday reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $58.32 billion. The Santa Clara, California-based company said it had a profit of $2.39 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $1.87 per share. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.77 per share. The maker of graphics chips for gaming and artificial intelligence posted revenue of $81.61 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $78.75 billion. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http:…

I work in front of a screen. And I’ve been thinking about how AI will change my work. What does it even mean for my future? It’s completely normal to wonder about this. Most people are convinced artificial intelligence is a threat to their careers. But what they are forgetting is the human value they bring to their work. Aaron Levie, CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, recently pointed out that when people watch AI at work, they are most likely seeing it take over the first 80% of a task—the heavy lifting of repetitive processing. The last 20% is where you come in. Your domain expertise, judgment, and relationships. That is what makes you irreplaceable. AI can fi…

Earnings are in for two of the largest retailers, and they paint two very different pictures. Walmart, which has seen success in an economy where consumers are cutting back on spending and turning to budget retailers, now seems to be in a downturn, having just announced layoffs as it stocks falls. Meanwhile, Target, which was struggling a year ago amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising tariffs, and following consumer boycotts over a DEI rollback, seems to have hit reverse—with sales and stock price in an upswing. What’s happening with these two retailers? Here’s what to know. Walmart looks at impact of soaring gas prices On Thursday, Walmart reported s…