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Tag: Entrepreneurs

  • Meet the self-made billionaire who bought a nearly bankrupt company off Warren Buffett for $1,000 and turned it into a $98 billion giant | Fortune

    A small investment made at the right moment has the power to launch ordinary people to millionaire status. All it took was $1,000 and an out-there idea for Jeffrey Sprecher, the founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, to set his business on a path to becoming a $98 billion behemoth.

    “I had this idea that you should be able to trade electric power, buy and sell electric power, on an exchange,” Sprecher recalled recently at the Rotary Club Of Atlanta. But there was a huge caveat: He “had no idea how to do that. I’d never worked on Wall Street, I never traded.” 

    At the time, Sprecher had heard that Continental Power Exchange—owned by Warren Buffett’s electric utility company, MidAmerican Energy—was about to go bankrupt. Despite Buffett’s business pumping $35 million into it, the company was still struggling. And so Sprecher saw this as an opportune moment to swoop in and pursue his entrepreneurial vision. 

    “I bought the company for a dollar a share, and there were a thousand shares. So I bought it for $1,000, and I used that as the basis to build Intercontinental Exchange.”

    Thanks to his quick thinking and business savvy, Sprecher now boasts a net worth of $1.3 billion. But the journey to the top was not very glamorous. 

    Living in a 500-ft studio and driving a used car while scaling the business 

    That measly $1,000 investment made back in 1997 served as the launchpad for Intercontinental Exchange, founded just three years later. A small team of nine employees set off to build the technology in 2000; setting up shop in Atlanta, Georgia, Sprecher and his staffers went all-in on building the business up from its former demise. 

    It was all hands on deck, and even as the founder and CEO, Sprecher was doing the menial labor to keep everything in order. With money being tight, the entrepreneur lived in a small apartment and drove a used car to the office to keep Intercontinental Energy afloat.

    “I bought a 500-foot, one room studio apartment in Midtown…I bought a used car that I kept and I’d go into the office from time to time,” Sprecher explained, adding that he “took the trash out, shut the lights out, answered the phone, bought the staplers and the paper for the photocopier. That was the way the company started.”

    Nearly 26 years later, the company boasts a market cap of $98 billion and a team of more than 12,000 employees—and has proudly owned the NYSE for over a decade. 

    Entrepreneurs who made a key investment at the right moment

    Some of the wealthiest entrepreneurs made their billions by spotting the perfect window to invest small and earn big. 

    Take Kenn Ricci as an example: the serial American aviation businessman and chairman of private jet company Flexjet is a billionaire thanks to his intuition to buy a struggling business four decades ago. After being put on leave from his first pilot job out of the Air Force, he turned a sticky situation into a 10-figure fortune.

    “I worked for [airline] Northwest Orient for a brief period of time. I get furloughed. Unemployed, back living with my parents,” Ricci told the Wall Street Journal in a 2025 interview, reminiscing on how he made his first $1 million.

    But instead of throwing in the towel, he spotted a golden opportunity. Ricci took a contract pilot job at Professional Flight Crews, and one of the companies he flew for was private aviation company Corporate Wings. The budding businessman was intrigued when its owners put the business up for sale at $27,500 in 1981—and jumped on the opportunity to buy it. By the early 1990s, the business was pulling in $3 million a year.

    But people don’t need to buy and scale a company to make a worthwhile investment; millennial investing wiz Martin Mignot became a self-made millionaire thanks to his ability to spot unicorn companies before they make it big. One of his biggest wins was an early investment in Deliveroo—back when the business was just a small, London-based operation. 

    “They had eight employees. They were in three London boroughs. Overall, they had a few 1000 users to date, so it was very, very early,” Mignot told Fortune last year. “They didn’t have an app. Their first website was pretty terrible and ugly, if I’m frank, but the delivery experience was incredible.”

    Lo and behold, Deliveroo grew to become a $3.5 billion company with millions of global customers. And as a partner at Index Ventures, Mignot is part of a team reaping billion-dollar rewards from forward-thinking investments in tech businesses including Figma, Scale AI, and Wiz. Aside from his day job, Mignot has also strategically put money towards iconic European start-ups including Revolut, Trainline and Personio. Before he was even 30, he solidified himself as a notable investor—and advised others that “It’s about owning equity, that is the key.”

    Emma Burleigh

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  • Will.i.am grinds from 5-to-9 after his 9-to-5—because work-life balance is for people ‘working on someone else’s dream’ and not for visionaries | Fortune

    Will.i.am is busy. When he’s not writing hit songs like “OMG” for Usher, he’s looking for the next big pop star on The Voice UK, or running his new AI company, FYI. So how exactly does he balance it all? 

    The Grammy Award–winning artist turned tech entrepreneur revealed to Fortune that he maxes out the 5-to-9 after the daily grind of his 9-to-5, and he advises Gen Zers to forget about work-life balance if they want to emulate his success.

    “If you’re trying to build something that doesn’t exist, it’s about dream-reality balance,” he says. “Work-life balance means that you’re working for somebody else’s dream. You just have a job supporting somebody else’s dream, and you want to balance your work and your life.

    “But if it’s dream-reality balance, then it’s not work. It’s a dream that you’re trying to put into reality, and you’re ignoring your current reality.”

    For example, after working on his tech venture from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Will.i.am says that he goes back to work on his creative business until 9 p.m. But before his AI company was a reality, his day was flipped. He’d work on music first before dipping into his tech side hustle well into the evening. 

    It’s why he advises young people to reframe how they think of their time off work and their current 9-to-5 reality.

    “I’m not really paying attention to this reality,” he explains. “I’m trying to bring that one [a new business venture or idea] here and focusing on how do I get people who believe in this dream to help me materialize it? So for that, you have to make some type of sacrifice to bring this thing that doesn’t exist here.

    “From that perspective, work-life balance is not for the architects that are pulling visions into reality. Those words don’t compute to the mindset of the materializers.”

    Will.i.am doesn’t even take time out for his birthday—and goes to work in China on Boxing Day

    Of course, many young people already put in hours to their side hustles and personal development after work. Millions of Gen Zers and millennials are tuning into people’s 5-to-9 evening routines on TikTok. 

    But Will.i.am says chipping away at your dream when most people are off work extends to weekends, birthdays, and holidays.

    “I didn’t party. I was always a square, meaning, ‘You work too much, man, let’s go out.’ Like what? Go out. I don’t want to go out. I just always worked,” the rapper says. “It’s your birthday what are you gonna do? Work. You ain’t gonna celebrate?”

    The multimillionaire says he’s always saved the celebrating for the stage, where he can finally enjoy the fruits of his labor.

    “There’s nothing that’s ever gonna feel that glorious than when you’re actually at a festival. But how do you get to headline a festival? You’ve got to work. My friends would go out and party, hanging out with chicks, doing drugs, drinking. I was just in the studio working, writing songs.”

    To this day, he says that he hasn’t gone out and celebrated a birthday—including his most recent one, which was just last week on March 15.

    “Like on Christmas for the past 12 years: I could celebrate Christmas with my family, and then on the 26th, I fly to China because that’s dream maker heaven. Anything you want to make is there.”

    Will.i.am was speaking to Fortune in Rome for the rollout of Raidio.FYI radios in Mercedes-Benz cars.

    Will.i.am’s daily work routine

    7 a.m.: Will.i.am is not a part of the CEO-approved 5 a.m. club. Instead, he told Fortune he wakes up at around 7 a.m., and he sticks to this routine whether he’s living in L.A. or London. 

    8 a.m.: “I walk, do my calls, and get to work,” he says, with the aim to start work at 9 a.m. 

    9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: “I get a lot done from nine to 12, do my little lunch, then back to work at one, finish at five, and that’s all my tech, like entrepreneurial activities.”

    5 p.m. to 9 p.m.: “The night hours are creativity,” he says, adding that specifically between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. is when he gets the best ideas. “That’s the juicy bits, [when] I’m freaking soaking in emotion, to where I just rinse it out in the phone.” 

    9 p.m. onward: When Will.i.am was in his late twenties, he says going to sleep at 4 a.m. (and waking up at noon) was the norm. But now, at 50 and balancing both his tech and music ventures, he starts unwinding for bed after 9 p.m. and is asleep by 11 p.m. 

    A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on March 23, 2025.

    Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.

    Orianna Rosa Royle

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  • Startup founders urged to prioritize accounting and tax planning | Long Island Business News

    In Brief:
    • Startups often make costly mistakes when accounting is deprioritized.
    • Founders should understand cash flow, tax rules and entity structures.
    • LLCs and multi-entity structures are rising due to pass-through tax benefits.
    • CPAs advise revisiting business structure as the company grows and evolves.

    Starting a business can be both exciting and daunting, and while the potential upside can seem promising, the path for a startup may be packed with pitfalls, especially those that forego strategic advice from tax professionals.

    SHASHI SINGAL: ‘Ultimately, the decision on how to structure a business is shaped by a complex mix of tax rates, deductions and long-term strategic goals.’

    While streamlined startups are usually efficient and adaptable, they often leave their founders juggling multiple roles, which can lead to mistakes. “Entrepreneurs often find themselves managing multiple aspects of their business, from operations and marketing to finance and HR,” says Shashi Singal, a tax partner at Anchin in Uniondale. “In the midst of this multitasking, it’s common for accounting to take a back seat to other priorities, and for occasional errors and misconceptions to happen.”

    Learning the basics of business accounting beforehand can help founders avoid playing catch-up later, according to Singal, who suggests becoming familiar with some key concepts, including understanding the differences between profit and cash flow, knowing what counts toward book income and what is considered taxable income, and finding appropriate tax software order to establish accurate and efficient record-keeping. “While it may seem tedious at first, setting things up correctly from the beginning can save entrepreneurs the hassle and cost of fixing and cleaning up their records later,” she says.

    Startups that fall behind in record-keeping can suffer in other areas of their business. “If a business has inadequate accounting staff or software which cannot provide the reporting needed, it can negatively impact the entrepreneur’s ability to accurately budget, forecast and understand the financial performance of the business,” says Paul Becht, principal at Baker Tilly in Uniondale. “A strong accounting department possessing the right technology with the help from an experienced and robust outside accounting firm can help the business owner properly convey the company’s financial performance to banks, investors and other interested third parties.”

    PAUL BECHT: ‘If a business has inadequate accounting staff or software which cannot provide the reporting needed, it can negatively impact the entrepreneur’s ability to accurately budget, forecast and understand the financial performance of the business.’

    Recently, more owners have decoupled components of their business for more accounting leverage. “Business owners are increasingly creating multi-entity structures to separate operations, real estate and other activities in order to take advantage of pass-through entity credits and other tax benefits,” says Brittany Mayoka, CPA and chief operating officer at Harbor Accounting Group in Syosset.

    This is due to the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act being made permanent earlier this year, as well as New York State’s tax code revisions that offer alternatives to more traditional state and local tax deductions. “One of the most notable changes was the introduction of the 20-percent qualified business income deduction (QBID) for eligible pass-through entities,” Mayoka says. “At the state level, New York implemented the Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) in 2021, which allowed for a state and local tax (SALT) deduction work-around.”

    The qualified business income deduction offers tax benefits to owners of limited liability companies (LLCs), specifically partnerships, which have become increasingly popular designations for startups. “Over the past decade, the use of the limited liability company structure has grown substantially,” Becht says. “This entity type provides tax flexibility, as business owners can elect to be taxed as a sole proprietor, partnership or corporation. At the same time, LLCs offer legal protection with less complexity than incorporated entities.”

    However, forming a partnership may not always be the best choice for entrepreneurs. “C corporations may be an advantageous option for startup founders seeking to benefit from qualified small business stock provisions, which offer substantial tax savings on gains from the sale of eligible stock,” Singal suggests. But several other factors may influence a startup’s incorporation strategy. “Despite the lower corporate tax rate, many small businesses continue to favor pass-through structures to avoid double taxation and reduce administrative complexity,” she says.

    Given the often complex parts of a small business, deciding which type of structure is best involves detailed planning. “Ultimately, the decision on how to structure a business is shaped by a complex mix of tax rates, deductions and long-term strategic goals,” says Singal. “Business owners must carefully evaluate these factors to select the most tax-efficient structure for their unique circumstances.”

    BRITTANY MAYOKA: ‘Business owners are increasingly creating multi-entity structures to separate operations, real estate and other activities in order to take advantage of pass-through entity credits and other tax benefits.’

    While carefully curated data can provide a clearer choice for startup founders that are deciding on a structure, the optimal structure for any business may change with time. “I always recommend running comparative tax models for each entity type before making a decision,” Mayoka says. “The analysis often reveals that a structure that seems simpler may actually cost more in the long run. Entity choice isn’t a one-time decision—it should be revisited as the business evolves.”

    Accountants can often provide valuable advice to startups, but maintaining a close relationship with a trusted CPA has helped established businesses optimize their accounting practices as they expand as well. “A few years ago, an entrepreneur operating a successful retail and distribution business wanted to branch out into real estate investment,” says Becht. “Due to the real estate venture being an entirely different line of business, it required a distinct accounting approach, as revenue would be generated from leases rather than product sales.”

    The strategy paid off, according to Becht. “Years later, the client now owns several LLCs structured to efficiently hold real estate assets and maximize favorable tax treatment.”


    JARED SCOT, LIBN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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  • Eva Alexandridis Wants the Beauty World to Slow Down

    They say patience is a virtue. Eva Alexandridis thinks it’s the bedrock of success. 

    As the founder of 111SKIN, Alexandridis would know. She’s been playing the long game since the brand developed its first product in 2008. For half a decade, she kept her luxury beauty line confined to her husband’s plastic surgery clinic. When she finally decided to bring the skincare line to retailers, she picked just one and actively decided not to sell elsewhere until she built enough demand. 

    Today, 111SKIN has tens of millions in global revenue to show for it.

    And yet, when Alexandridis tries to impart her wisdom to the next class of beauty founders, few want to follow her example. 

    “Founders these days don’t have the patience to learn and take the time to understand the business [or] understand the consumer,” she told Newsweek. “The expectation is that you can create a brand, scale it very quickly and sell it.” 

    Courtesy of Eva Alexandridis

    “It’s quite unfortunate because a few years ago, we had fast fashion,” she said. “We have seen this kind of desire to get the latest, the newest, at any price, preferably very cheap.”

    Today, it’s fast beauty. Consumers are no longer seeing the value in premium beauty brands. Sixty-three percent of consumers don’t believe those products work better than those from mass brands, according to W Magazine’s most recent By the Numbers column. Skepticism over premium beauty, in combination with price hikes and tariff threats, has fueled the rise of beauty dupes. 

    More than half of consumers, 53 percent, say they are open to buying lower-cost alternative products, W Magazine’s data shows. The publication also found that more than two-thirds of popular cosmetic brands purchased through retailers like Amazon and TikTok Shop are fake. 

    Now, Alexandridis is waiting for the tide to turn. She’s anticipating that the beauty world will follow in the steps of its fashion counterpart, which has recently seen a shift from fast to sustainable.

    “There is now this understanding that quality comes over quantity,” she said. “People are much more into slower brands, [brands] where you can purchase something and pass it off to the next generation.” 

    Beauty founders, like Aman Essentials CEO Kristina Romanova, are listening. A mentee of the 111SKIN founder, Roma told Newsweek that the best business lesson she learned from Alexandridis was to keep her team small for as long as possible and to not rush into expanding. 

    “When I started my journey as a businesswoman, I was quite young,” Romanova recalled. “At times, it felt like I [was] by myself in [a] sea of sharks where everyone [knew] the answers.” 

    “Eva was one of the first people who would always give me advice on business strategy, would share her knowledge and experience in the beauty industry and would always encourage me to believe in myself,” she said. 

    As an entrepreneur who struggled to trust her intuition, Alexandridis places immense stock in self-efficacy. 

    The concept of 111SKIN as a doctor-led beauty brand emerged out of her husband’s frustrations with his patients. A triple board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Yannis Alexandrides often complained to his wife that many of his patients were ignoring his post-op instructions. Having lived in San Francisco during Silicon Valley’s rise, Alexandridis suggested that her husband create a startup of his own—a beauty brand that would be both effective, but potent enough that it would streamline the many products that patients often were prescribed after surgery. 

    Her husband was a natural fit to serve as the brand’s de facto spokesperson. But as he stepped into the spotlight, Alexandridis found herself working more behind the scenes. 

    “For many years, I was very much in the background,” she said. “I felt like I had no right to [participate] in this industry. I didn’t have enough experience.” 

    She recognized that while her husband’s medical background helped build the brand’s doctor-led reputation, she remembered it feeling somewhat strange given that she was the one really leading it.

    “I was running the business,” Alexandridis said. “I [had] kind of forced him to be more forward-facing because I believed that credibility would come from him. I was, a little bit, disregarding my role in the company.” 

    It took years before she understood her role in the company and how critical her time and effort had been to its success.  

    “At some point… I realized there is no playbook in the beauty world. And if you use the old playbook, then you’re not really addressing the modern consumer,” Alexandridis said. “You build the brand as you go by having this two-way conversation with your clients, with the people in the clinic, and no one had more access than me.”

    She began recognizing that she was the one out in the field promoting 111SKIN. She was the one hearing the needs of customers. She was the one visiting spas around the world to build partnerships.

    “I kind of decided that I do have expertise,” she said. “It was a big revelation for me.”

    Looking back, she wishes she had trusted her intuition more. The biggest obstacle for her was the framing of that idea. She forced herself to rethink what intuition was, and rather than telling herself to listen to intuition, she asked herself to listen to the experiences and knowledge that she knew was stirring up gut feelings about certain decisions. 

    “My knowledge is so, so important because I am probably the only person in the company that has been there from day one,” she said. “No one has the history and the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years.” 

    “I realize there’s a value in speaking of all the hard lessons I’ve had to learn,” she added. “It’s quite empowering to share that versus just being a founder that has a beautiful lifestyle and pretending everything is perfect when the reality is not that.”

    Alexandridis also shares the ups and downs of her entrepreneurial journey as a way to weed out those who may not be a good fit for this type of career path.

    “Some people are better suited to be in an environment that is more structured, more organized,” she said. “My advice to younger people is to work first in a structured envrionment. Learn. See how you feel. If that’s something you love, then you don’t—not all of us have to be entrepreneurs.”

    “[You can] aspire to be an entrepreneur, but understand that it’s hard work and often much harder than working for someone else,” she said.

    She said the brands that are successful almost always have founders who are extremely involved in its operations and who view it as a full-time job, rather than a side hustle that can bring in passive income. She said she’s met with many aspiring founders who approach her wanting to start a business with no clear idea on what that looks like.

    “That’s not a winning proposition,” Alexandridis said. “The motivation with entrepreneurs these days is, ‘I just want to work for myself’ or ‘I want to create something.’ That’s not enough.”

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  • 5 Blind Spots That Sneak Up on Successful Entrepreneurs

    This article was written by Evan Nierman, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization member in South Florida and the CEO of Red Banyan, a global PR firm specializing in brand building, communications training, and crisis management. Below he shares about the prevalence of leadership blind spots and how addressing them can help you unlock a higher level of success.

    As an entrepreneur, you quickly realize that leadership demands more than vision. It requires navigating complex challenges, making difficult decisions, and guiding your team as the company grows. But here’s the thing: Even the most experienced leaders can fall into traps that hinder their ability to lead effectively. They are often blind spots—areas that are hard to see when you’re in the thick of things, but that can make or break your company. 

    The truth is that leadership mistakes are more common than most entrepreneurs want to admit. Even with years of experience, you can easily overlook nuances that can derail your growth. What sets the best leaders apart is their ability to anticipate challenges before they arise. 

    Here are five common leadership blind spots that even the most seasoned entrepreneurs miss and how to address them. 

    1. Failing to delegate effectively

    It is easy to get caught up in the do-it-all mindset. As entrepreneurs, we are wired to solve problems, fix issues, and keep our hands in every part of the business. But the problem? You can’t scale by doing it all yourself. 

    The more successful you become, the more critical it is to build a team you trust and give them the responsibility to take ownership. If you micromanage or hold on too tightly to certain areas of the business, you stunt growth and burn out your best people. 

    Delegate with intention and trust your team to manage key functions. Step back enough to let them make decisions. Start small, and when you see someone consistently meeting expectations, give them more autonomy. Your company cannot scale if you are the bottleneck in every process. 

    2. Neglecting company culture 

    When you are heads down, focusing on growth, sales, and bottom lines, company culture can slip through the cracks. A toxic culture, whether it involves passive-aggressive communication, lack of accountability, or unclear values, can poison your business from the inside out. 

    As an experienced entrepreneur, it is easy to think your business can survive without deliberate culture-building. Culture directly affects productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction. If your team does not feel aligned, they will not go the extra mile when it matters most. 

    Take an active role in shaping the culture. Be clear about your values, lead by example, and create a space where your team feels comfortable voicing concerns, offering feedback, and collaborating. A strong, healthy culture drives performance and sustainable growth. 

    3. Ignoring the importance of emotional intelligence 

    As a leader, your technical expertise and strategic vision are essential. But emotional intelligence is equally critical. Can you recognize when your team is disengaged? Can you sense when someone needs support or when a group is frustrated but does not speak up? Being emotionally in tune with your team is often the difference between success and failure. 

    Many leaders overlook how emotions, both their own and their team’s, affect decision-making, productivity, and morale. Recognizing and managing these emotions helps prevent conflict and builds stronger, more productive relationships with the team. 

    Practice active listening, empathy, and self-awareness. Take the time to understand how your team feels and how you are perceived as a leader. Developing your emotional intelligence is just as critical as business acumen. 

    4. Not investing enough in leadership development 

    As an entrepreneur, you are constantly growing your business. What about growing yourself? Once you reach a certain level of success, it’s easy to assume you have “arrived” as a leader. Leadership is a continuous learning process. 

    The best leaders continuously look for ways to improve. They seek feedback, invest in leadership development, and surround themselves with mentors who challenge them to grow. Leaders who do not invest in their growth risk limiting the potential of both themselves and their company. 

    Make leadership development a priority. Whether through books, podcasts, coaching, or networking with other leaders, continuous learning ensures that your skills evolve alongside your business. 

    5. Overlooking the importance of work-life balance 

    It’s tempting to think that hustle and long hours are the key to success, especially in the early days. Once you reach higher levels of success, work-life balance is essential to sustaining leadership effectiveness. 

    Burnout doesn’t affect only employees. Founders are also vulnerable. When you are burned out, your decisions suffer. Creativity, patience, and overall leadership effectiveness decline. 

    Prioritize your health and personal life alongside your business. Take breaks, delegate effectively, trust your team, and schedule time to recharge. A well-rested, focused leader makes better decisions and guides the team with greater clarity and energy. 

    Even experienced entrepreneurs encounter leadership blind spots. Awareness and deliberate action are essential to address these gaps. The best leaders recognize their weaknesses and take steps to address them. 

    To continue growing your business, focus on strengthening your leadership skills. Recognize your blind spots, implement changes, and empower your team. You have reached this level of success because you are a capable entrepreneur; refining your leadership will empower you to take your business further. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Entrepreneurs’ Organization

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  • Founder of $100 million company never unplugs from work, but encourages her team to have work-life balance: ‘They didn’t sign up to be entrepreneurs’ | Fortune

    Founders can find it hard to step away from work when their company rests on their shoulders. The concept of having “work-life balance” has sparked fierce debate among entrepreneurs, who question if it’s even possible to have the best of both worlds: scaling a multimillion-dollar business, with enough downtime to recharge. Two-time founder Nicole Bernard Dawes is a strong advocate of unplugging from the job—but only for her employees. 

    “I think I probably am a little bit of a hypocrite, because I don’t unplug. I never do,” Dawes tells Fortune. “I never want to be the person that’s holding up a member of our team.”

    The serial entrepreneur encourages her staffers to totally disconnect from work once they’re off the clock, but doesn’t give herself the same breathing room. Having scaled two companies to success, she’s assumed the responsibility of always being on for decades. Dawes first founded organic, non-GMO tortilla chip brand Late July in 2003, which currently lines the aisles of Targets, Whole Foods, Krogers, and Walmarts across the country. Campbell’s acquired a majority stake of the business in 2014, eventually buying the rest of the $100 million company in 2017. In 2018, Dawes broke into another consumer packaged goods (CPG) market again, this time with zero-sugar, sustainably packaged soda line Nixie. The brand raised $27 million in new funding earlier this year, with its products being sold in over 11,000 major grocery stores. 

    With more than two decades of entrepreneurship under her belt at Late July, Dawes had pushed through economic downturns and many sleepless nights. But the hardships didn’t stop her from returning to the startup scene as Nixie’s founder—having grown up in the business world, Dawes is not so easily deterred. However, she doesn’t want work to overtake her staffers’ lives.

    “I signed up for this. I am the entrepreneur, I did this to myself—a self-inflicted situation. [My employees] didn’t sign up to be entrepreneurs,” Dawes says. “I am very comfortable taking downtime, but also making sure I’m available.”

    Dawes says never unplugging is “my life”—and she grew up in it

    Many leaders out there, like Google cofounder Sergey Brin, expect their staffers to clock in more than the typical nine-to-five job. But Dawes doesn’t hold her her employees to have the relentless work-ethic of entrepreneurs who pride themselves on having no personal lives. 

    “I think that where a lot of [leaders] differ, is extending that to their team. I feel very strongly that it should not extend to the team,” Dawes explains. “But I also feel like that is how I grew up. My father missed a lot of stuff because he felt like that was what you had to do. So I was determined I wasn’t gonna do that. I wanted to be present at things for my kids, and I wanted [it] to be okay for our team to be that way, too.”

    Dawes witnessed the pitfalls of entrepreneurship as a kid growing up in her parents’ food businesses. She spent her childhood years working the front counter of her mother’s health-food store, and roaming the floors of her late father’s $4.87 billion snack empire: Cape Cod Chips. As a kid in a family running two businesses, Dawes says it could be difficult for her parents to step away from the job. So when she decided to follow in their footsteps as a two-time founder of successful CPG brands, she knew exactly what to expect. 

    “When you decide to become an entrepreneur, there’s a lot of people [saying], ‘It’s stressful, it’s lonely, it’s all these things.’ And that’s true, but this is where I was really fortunate: I grew up in this business, so I entered eyes wide open,” Dawes says. “That’s why it’s really important to be passionate about your mission, passionate about your products. Because you do have to sacrifice a lot on the other side.”

    Dawes still makes time for the important things

    While Dawes admits she has difficulty stepping away from the grind, she still makes time for the things that keep her sane. 

    “You have to choose what’s the most important thing in that moment. I don’t think as an entrepreneur—at least for me—I’ve never really, truly, been able to shut off completely,” Dawes says. “But I also make time to have family dinner almost every night. There were things that were priorities to me, and I still make them priorities, like going out for a walk every day or exercising.”

    The entrepreneur also loves hitting the beach, reading, and cooking—and despite it feeling like a chore to many, Dawes really enjoys going to the grocery store. She calls it her “hobby”: observing what new products are stocked on shelves, and what items shoppers are gravitating towards. It’s gratifying to witness people pick up a bag of Late July or a case of Nixie drinks to bring home to their families, something she feels immensely grateful for. While getting her brands into those grocery aisles has been no easy feat, it’s all been worth it in the end. Dawes says passion is what eases the weight of her work-life balance. 

    “Sometimes when I wake up in the morning like, ‘I can’t even believe I’m this lucky that I get to do this job,’” Dawes says. “And because I feel that way, it doesn’t feel like working. I’m getting to do something fun all the time.”

    Emma Burleigh

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  • Skims founding partner Emma Grede schedules an ‘AI day’ once every six weeks to future-proof her career: ‘It’s like do or die’ | Fortune

    AI fluency is becoming a baseline expectation across industries and is even boosting salaries for some job seekers with experience in the tech. It’s also become a tool for business leaders like Emma Grede to future-proof her career.

    “We have no choice but to AI-proof our careers,” the Skims founding partner told senior markets reporter Madison Mills at Axios’ annual dealmaking summit BFD on Wednesday. 

    Grede added that she commits time once every six weeks, which she calls “AI day,” to “just sit and learn” about the tech.

    “I am encouraging every single—specifically women—in my organization to do exactly the same,” Grede said. “We don’t have a choice anymore. It’s like do or die.”

    Grede, also the chief product officer of Skims, helped launch the brand in 2019 alongside Kim Kardashian and her husband, Jens Grede. Earlier this month, the shapewear company raised $225 million at a $5 billion valuation in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

    The British-born entrepreneur, who has an estimated net worth of $405 million and was recognized by Forbes as one of America’s richest self-made women for the fourth year in a row, has talked at length about the importance of human connection in dealmaking,  business and getting herself ahead.

    But Grede toldFortune in August that fellow Shark Tank star Mark Cuban pushed her to come to grips with the tech when the two sat down to film an episode of her hit podcast show Aspire and compared their AI usage.

    “I was already kind of getting there, but if I’m really honest, that episode where we really delved into AI gave me a new urgency around how I use AI,” she said, adding that Cuban had 60 AI apps on his phone. “Yeah, he gave me a kick.”

    Right after wrapping, she said that she started looking into AI courses at the Wharton School and Harvard for the fall. “I need to figure this out, because I’m using AI like a 42-year-old woman,” Grede said.

    Still, scheduling time to learn about AI “feels against the very ethos of what feels right,” Grede told Axios on Wednesday, adding that she craves real conversation and connection with a human being. But she conceded the education will help in the long-run.

    “We have to future-proof our organizations and ourselves,” Grede said.

    Demand for talent

    Grede also told Fortune in August that she offered her staff a cash bonus for using AI long before Cuban’s wake up call.

    “About two years ago I put a note out in my office giving a cash bonus to anyone that uses AI in their work,” she said, adding that the incentive was a big hit—especially with the marketing and finance teams.

    She likened the new skill to the coding wave, which peaked in the mid-2010s and saw public campaigns encourage students and professionals to learn coding fundamentals. 

    A July report by labor market intelligence firm Lightcast found non-tech roles that require AI skills are soaring in value and job postings for the roles are offering 28% higher salaries—a pay premium of nearly $18,000 more per year.

    Almost three in four CEOs worldwide say competition for AI talent could constrain their future prosperity, and 77% say workforce readiness and upskilling will have a major impact on their business in the next three years, according to KMPG’s CEO Outlook 2025 published in October. 

    More than 70% are retraining high-potential employees in AI, the report said.

    Nino Paoli

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  • This 26-year-old was laid off from his ‘dream job’ at PwC building AI agents. He’s worried the tech he built has led to more job cuts | Fortune

    Titans of industry like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intel have all been slashing staff, and employees are hand-wringing about being next on the chopping block. Donald King, a 26-year-old who built AI agents for PwC, never thought he’d be the next one out the door—but he soon realized why consultants are called “hatchet-men.”

    After graduating with a degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, King landed a job at one of the “Big Four” consulting giants: PwC. He packed his bags and moved to New York to start his role as an associate in technology consulting, working with major clients, including Oracle, during his first year. But everything changed when PwC announced a $1 billion investment in AI; King was already intrigued by the tech, so he pitched himself to join the company’s AI factory team. Working 60 to 80 hours a week, he immersed himself in the tech, even throwing knowledge-sharing AI agent block parties within the firm that drew up to 250 participants. King logged a ton of hours—sometimes at the expense of his weekends—but was confident he was excelling in his role as a product manager and data scientist.

    “I was coding and managing a team onshore and offshore. It was crazy, it’s like, ‘Give this 24-year-old millions of dollars of salary spent per month to build AI agents for Fortune 500 [companies],’” King tells Fortune. “[It was] my dream job…I won first place in this OpenAI hackathon across the entire firm.”

    Although King was proving himself as a key AI talent for PwC, he did begin to question the impact of his work. The AI agents King was building for major corporations could undoubtedly automate swaths of human roles—perhaps even entire job departments. One Microsoft Teams agent his group created mimicked an actual person, and King was a little spooked. 

    “We had a late night call with all the boys that are building this thing, like, ‘What the hell are we building right now?’” King says. “Just saying ‘Treat them like humans’ is probably not the best way to think about it.”

    Behind the scenes, a layoff was brewing—but this time, for King. In October 2024, just eight months into his final role at PwC, the Gen Zer presented his winning project from the OpenAI hackathon: a fleet of AI agents that automated manual tasks. King was proud and felt confident in his place at the firm, but two hours later, PwC called King to inform him he was being laid off. The 26-year-old recorded the meeting and posted it on TikTok, raking up more than 75,000 likes and 2.1 million views. Commenters under his videos expressed shock that King would be let go after winning the hackathon.

    “I thought I was safe, especially after I won first place,” King says. “I just got a little blindsided.”

    King clarifies he doesn’t think there were any “nefarious” intentions behind his layoff, reasoning he was likely a random staffer dismissed after the firm had overhired in previous years. However, he does connect the dots between the AI agents he built for PwC customers and the layoffs that soon ensued at those client companies. 

    Fortune reached out to PwC for comment. 

    King believes his AI agents may have been connected to layoffs 

    While King doesn’t believe his former role at PwC was automated, he recognizes that the AI agents he built likely had an impact on others. The year after his layoff, King observed that some of the Fortune 500 clients he served were implementing staffing cuts. Those AI agents he helped create may have had a hand in the layoffs. 

    “It’s 100% connected,” King says. “I knew that consulting was a hatchet-man type job, I knew you’re going in to potentially lay people off, but I didn’t think it was going to be like this.”

    While King believes AI agents are akin to the reasoning power of a five-year-old, they still know “all the corpus of information in the world” and can automate mundane tasks. Oftentimes, that means entry-level jobs are most at risk of being disrupted. 

    “It’s automating tasks, 100%, those are gone,” King says. “If your job is doing those menial types of things, if you’re just emailing a spreadsheet back and forth, you can kiss your job goodbye.”

    Pivoting to his new life purpose: founding a marketing agency 

    While being on PwC’s AI team may have once been his dream job, the layoff didn’t crush his spirit. 

    “I’m grateful for it happening…It was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but then it turned into the best thing,” King says. “Overall, [I’m] very grateful that I got laid off.”

    In the aftermath of being let go, King says he was inundated with job offers from major tech companies to join their AI operations. However, the scrappy young entrepreneur sidelined the idea of returning to a nine-to-five gig; instead, King started his own marketing agency, AMDK. The business officially launched in December last year, less than two months after being laid off from PwC. 

    So far, King says AMDK has roped in clients ranging from small companies to billion-dollar enterprises, many of whom are looking for AI agents of their own. His end goal is to build a swarm of agents that help companies with their back ends—but after his experience on PwC’s AI team, he says he’s being cautious about the ramifications of his creations. He’s still learning the ropes of entrepreneurship, but wouldn’t trade the highs and lows for a salaried corporate job.

    “This is my purpose in life, versus this is someone else’s purpose,” King says. “[I’m] way happier.”

    Emma Burleigh

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  • The CEOs of Apple, Airbnb, and PepsiCo agree on one thing: life as a business leader is incredibly lonely | Fortune

    Being CEO has its many perks: Business leaders get to command the world’s most powerful companies, shape their legacies as pioneers of industry, and enjoy hefty billion-dollar paychecks. But in the steep climb up the corporate ladder, many won’t notice all the peers left behind until they’re looking down from the very top. It can be a lonely, solitary job.

    Leaders at some of the world’s largest companies—from Airbnb and UPS to PepsiCo and Apple—are finally opening up about the mental toll that comes with the job. As it turns out, many industry trailblazers are grappling with intense loneliness; at least 40% of executives are thinking of leaving their job, mainly because they’re lacking energy and feel alone in handling daily challenges, according to a Harvard Medical School professor. And the number could even be higher: About 70% of C-suite leaders “are seriously considering quitting for a job that better supports their well-being,” according to a 2022 Deloitte study. 

    To ward off feelings of isolation, founders and top executives are stepping outside of the office to focus on improving their well-being. Toms founder Blake Mycoskie struggled with depression and loneliness after scaling his once-small shoe business into a billion-dollar behemoth. Feeling disconnected from his life’s purpose and that his “reason for being now felt like a job,” he went on a three-day men’s retreat to work on his mental health. And Seth Berkowitz, the founder and CEO of $350 million dessert giant Insomnia Cookies, cautions bright-eyed entrepreneurs the gig “is not really for everyone.” 

    “It can be lonely; it’s a solitary life. It really is,” Berkowitz recently told Fortune.

    Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb

    Eugene Gologursky / Stringer / Getty Images

    Airbnb’s cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky is one the most outspoken leaders in the business world waving the red flag on loneliness. Chesky described having a lonely childhood, pulled between his love for creative design and sports, never really fitting in. But his mental health took a turn for the worse once assuming the throne as Airbnb’s CEO. His other two cofounders—who he called his “family,” spending all their waking hours working, exercising, and hanging out together—were suddenly out of view from the peak of the C-suite. 

    “As I became a CEO I started leading from the front, at the top of the mountain, but then the higher you get to the peak, the fewer the people there are with you,” Chesky told Jay Shetty during an episode of the On Purpose podcast last year. “No one ever told me how lonely you would get, and I wasn’t prepared for that.”

    Chesky recommends budding leaders actually share their power, so no one shoulders the mental burden of entrepreneurship alone. 

    “I think that ultimately, today, we’re probably living in one of the loneliest times in human history,” Chesky said. “If people were as lonely in yesteryear as they are today, they’d probably perish, because you just couldn’t survive without your tribe.”

    Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo

    Jemal Countess / Stringer / Getty Images

    Leaders at Fortune 500 giant PepsiCo face constant pressure from consumers, investors, board members, and their own employees. But it’s also tough to vent to peers who may not relate to—or even understand—the trials and tribulations of running a $209 billion company. Indra Nooyi, the business’ former CEO, said she often felt isolated with no one to confide in.

    “You can’t really talk to your spouse all the time. You can’t talk to your friends because it’s confidential stuff about the company. You can’t talk to your board because they are your bosses. You can’t talk to people who work for you because they work for you,” Nooyi told Kellogg Insight, the research magazine for Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, earlier this year. “And so it puts you in a fairly lonely position.”

    Instead of divulging to a trusted friend or anonymously airing out her frustrations on Reddit, Nooyi looked inward. She was the only person she could trust, even if that meant embracing the isolation. 

    “I would talk to myself. I would go look at myself in a mirror. I would talk to myself. I would rage at myself. I would shed a few tears, then put on some lipstick and come out,” Nooyi said. “That was my go-to because all people need an outlet. And you have to be very careful who your outlet is because you never want them to use it against you at any point.”

    Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS

    Kevin Dietsch / Staff / Getty Images

    Before Carol Tomé stepped into the role of the CEO of UPS, she was warned the top job goes hand-in-hand with loneliness. The word of caution didn’t phase her—at least, not at first. But things changed when she actually took the helm of the $75 billion shipping company. 

    “I would say, ‘How lonely can it really be? It can’t be that lonely?’ What I’ve since learned is that it is extraordinarily lonely,” Tomé told Fortune last year. 

    “When you are a member of an executive team, you hang together…Now, my executive team will wait for me to leave a meeting so that they can debrief together. It’s the reality and you have to get used to it. But it is super lonely.”

    Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

    NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images

    Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t immune to the loneliness that often comes with the corner office. More than 14 years into his tenure, he’s acknowledged his missteps, which he called “blind spots,” that have the potential to affect thousands of workers across the company if left unchecked. Cook said it’s important for leaders to get out of their own heads and surround themselves with bright people who bring out the best in them. 

    “It’s sort of a lonely job,” Cook told The Washington Post in 2016. “The adage that it’s lonely—the CEO job is lonely—is accurate in a lot of ways. I’m not looking for any sympathy.”

    Seth Berkowitz, founder and CEO of Insomnia Cookies

    Courtesy of Insomnia Cookies

    Entrepreneurship can be a deeply fulfilling and rewarding journey: an opportunity to trade a nine-to-five job for a multimillion-dollar fortune, if all the right conditions are met. And while Insomnia Cookies’ Seth Berkowitz loves being a CEO and all the responsibilities that come with it, he cautioned young hopefuls about the weight of the career. He, like Cook, advises aspiring founders to counter loneliness with genuine, meaningful connections.

    “It can be lonely; it’s a solitary life. It really is. [During] the harder times, it’s very solitary—finding camaraderie, mentorship, some sense of community, it’s really important,” Berkowitz recently told Fortune. “Because I go so deep, it’s sometimes hard to find others and let them in.”

    Emma Burleigh

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  • Kendra Scott says she launched her billion-dollar business from her bedroom with just $500—when she was pregnant with her first son | Fortune

    When Kendra Scott launched her jewelry business in 2002, she had no investors, no retail experience, and just $500 to her name. What she did have was a spare bedroom in her Austin, Texas home, a newborn baby, and the kind of determination that turns impossible odds into billion-dollar success stories.​

    “I built it out of my bedroom,” Scott said in a recent interview with The School of Hard Knocks, which has 5.6 million followers on TikTok. “Extra bedroom in my house, on a card table. 500 bucks, baby. That’s it.”

    Scott designed her first jewelry collection while pregnant with her first son, hand-wiring each piece with semi-precious stones. For years, she made jewelry as gifts for her friends, but in the retail space, she’d always felt like there was expensive, or low-quality, but nothing in between. So she set out to make high-quality jewelry at accessible price points.

    Just three months after giving birth, she put her first samples in a tea box, strapped her infant son into a baby carrier, and walked store to store through Austin, writing down orders from local boutiques.​

    “He was actually sitting on my lap and went to my first sales calls, going store to store with me. He was my little sales rep,” Scott said. “Babies do sell product, you know, babies and puppies. Bring them on your sales call. It works.”

    The early days tested her resolve. At the last boutique she visited on that first sales trip, Scott had to sell all her original samples to buy enough materials to fulfill the orders she had just secured. She sold her car, took out personal loans, and funneled every dollar back into her fledgling business. As a single mother, rent negotiations with her landlord became routine.​

    “Failure wasn’t an option. I had to succeed,” Scott told Entrepreneur in 2015.​

    Scott told The School of Hard Knocks she had “a scary relationship” with debt. She said she put up everything she owned up as collateral in order to secure loans. “I knew that if I didn’t make those loan payments or if I didn’t sell the product, I was gonna get that loan called. And that meant I was gonna be B-R-O-K-E,” she said. But that pressure forged discipline. “It made me be a very disciplined business owner. Even today, with a billion-dollar brand, every single dollar we spent, I look at it and make sure it’s gonna work for us.”

    Growth after crisis

    The 2008 financial crisis nearly brought everything to a halt. Scott’s business had grown beyond Austin, with showrooms in Dallas and New York and partnerships with major department stores. But when the recession hit, wholesalers disappeared overnight and her bank called in a line of credit that would have drained the company. After countless rejections from other banks, she found a lifeline at a local Texas bank, where a female president looked beyond the numbers and saw Scott’s potential.​

    “She gave me the loan. She kept my business alive,” Scott wrote in an article for Thrive Global in 2019.​

    That crisis forced a pivot that would define the brand’s future. In 2010, despite having sworn off retail after a failed hat business years earlier, Scott opened her first jewelry store in Austin. It was a hit: Customers could touch and try on pieces freely rather than viewing them behind glass, and they could customize jewelry in real time, choosing from more than 50 styles and 30 stone colors, with pieces assembled on-site within minutes.​

    “It was unlike any jewelry shopping experience that had ever existed. It was like a nightclub,” Scott told Foundr in 2022.​

    Lines formed around the block. Revenue exploded from $1.7 million in 2010 to $24 million in 2013. By 2016, when Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners acquired a minority stake in the company, Kendra Scott was valued at more than $1 billion. Scott remained the majority shareholder and CEO—one of only 16 women in the United States at the time to hold the title of founder of a billion-dollar company.​

    Tom Nolan, CEO of Kendra Scott Design, told Fortune earlier this year the company operates about 150 retail stores with plans to open 25 more by year’s end. The company generates several hundred million dollars in annual revenue, grew 20% year-over-year in 2024, and employs more than 2,600 people—over 95% of whom are women, according to Scott. The company has also expanded its product lines beyond jewelry into fine jewelry, home décor, beauty products, and a new Western-inspired lifestyle brand called Yellow Rose.

    ​Advice for entrepreneurs

    When asked about retail’s future, Scott was emphatic. “Oh, honey, retail is so alive. And brick-and-mortar is not dead. Four walls are a place where you build community and build brand awareness. We need human touch. It can’t just be digital, and you’re able to do that in brick-and-mortar. Build brick-and-mortar for experience first. Connection over transaction. The transaction will follow.”

    The jewelry business margins, she noted, “are really good. They’re good margins.”

    But her most important advice had nothing to do with business strategy. “Leave your fingerprint. You’ve got one chance at this life. Your life is a grain of sand. Make it matter, whatever you do in your life. You have a reason that you are here. You have a reason to affect people in a positive way. Figure out what that is. And if you can do that through business like I’m doing, awesome, but leave your mark.”

    You can watch the entire interview with Kendra Scott and The School of Hard Knocks below:

    @theschoolofhardknocks She built a BILLION DOLLAR BRAND 🤯 I interviewed @Kendra Scott on how she turned just $500 into a Billion Dollar company! Since she started her business when she was pregnant, I asked her how it was possible! I also asked her about the margins in her business and whether or not she thinks the future of retail is dead. Lastly, I asked her the best advice she’d give to the younger generation. #wealth #entrepreneur #financialfreedom #motivation ♬ original sound – The School of Hard Knocks

    For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

    Dave Smith

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  • How Taraji P. Henson Took Full Ownership of Her Beauty Brand  

    Actress Taraji P. Henson isn’t the kind of celebrity who just slaps her name on a product line and cashes a check. With every product in her beauty line TPH by Taraji, she asks herself, “Is this something I would purchase if I was not involved?”  

    In 2020, she launched TPH by Taraji in collaboration with Maesa, a beauty incubator that also backed Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty.  

    TPH by Taraji later expanded to body care, but along the way, Henson became “frustrated” with the direction of the company. In April, she paid Maesa an undisclosed sum for full ownership, making her part of a growing cohort of female founders who bought back their companies.  

    “It feels amazing because I don’t have anything in the way of my vision and my creativity,” she told Inc. Editorial Director Bonny Ghosh at the Inc. 5000 conference in Phoenix on Thursday. 

    That doesn’t mean getting back her company was easy. She brought in new business managers who helped her negotiate the purchase. “I prayed a lot,” she added. “God was sick of hearing from me. It’s like, ‘I have the whole world to tend to. I can’t just keep listening to you, Taraji.’” 

    Henson’s journey to founding a haircare line began when she realized that caring for her scalp could help her mend her own damaged hair. She created treatments for herself, and when friends loved them, she realized there might be a bigger need for both the products and for better consumer education about scalp care. “If it was missing for me, then I knew there were other women out there that needed it,” she said. “I would go to the mall, and I would be like, I know her scalp is not clean.” 

    She still helps develop TPH products, and right now she’s focused on creating new formulas and scents for a planned 2027 relaunch. “I have a salon in my house, and that’s where I’m like a little scientist,” she said.

    “I’m building the minimal viable product there. I have the doll heads that they have in cosmetology school with the different kinds of hair. 

    “I would have been a cosmetologist if this acting thing didn’t take off,” joked Henson, who, of course, has had an extremely successful acting career, with starring roles in in Empire, Hidden Figures, and What Men Want. 

    Walmart, she said, added a scalp care section to its aisles in response to the popularity of TPH. And her products are so beloved among fans that when they’re sold out, customers will sometimes trade among themselves, rather than buying from another line. “That lets me know I have a community that I have to cater to,” Henson said.  

    “My scalp care was a game changer,” she said. “I know what I have. It’s just taking back control of the narrative.”  

    Jennifer Conrad

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  • Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

    Oklo Director Sold 50,000 Shares of Nuclear Start-Up Before Selloff

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  • The Hidden Costs of a Product Recall | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For entrepreneurs, few events are more damaging than a product recall. The immediate image is always financial: refunds, fines and settlements. But anyone who has been inside these cases knows the true cost runs far deeper. Recalls erode consumer trust, unravel years of brand building and expose systemic failures in leadership.

    I have seen firsthand how these crises unfold. In nearly every instance, the warning signs were there. Companies knew about risks. Employees raised concerns. Complaints trickled in. Yet leadership chose to wait, to monitor, to hope the problem would fade. It never does. When companies delay action, injuries multiply, lawsuits escalate, and reputations are permanently scarred.

    Related: Soar Above, Rather Than Survive, a Product Recall

    When delay turns deadly

    Consider Peloton. The company faced reports of injuries and even the tragic death of a child linked to its Tread+ treadmill. Instead of acting swiftly, Peloton resisted recalling the product. That decision led to one of the largest penalties in Consumer Product Safety Commission history. Peloton paid $19 million for failing to immediately report defects. The fine was only part of the story. The brand damage continues to ripple years later.

    Onewheel, the self-balancing electric skateboard, now faces lawsuits tied to sudden stopping issues that led to consumer deaths. The legal actions are only beginning, but the company’s reputation has already been drawn into headlines that focus on tragedy rather than innovation.

    Other cases may not grab as many headlines but still leave lasting scars. Ninja recalled hundreds of thousands of pressure cookers after reports of severe burns. Portable blenders were pulled from the market after blades came loose during operation. Werner ladders were recalled when they broke without warning. In every case, the cost of waiting outweighed the cost of acting early.

    Lawsuits are the beginning, not the end

    When a product injures a consumer, lawsuits arrive quickly. For many founders, that is the first moment they truly grasp the scale of the crisis. Litigation is costly, time-consuming and distracting, but lawsuits are not the end. They are the beginning.

    From my own work in product defect litigation, I have seen how one case rarely stands alone. A single injury multiplies into dozens of filings. What begins as an isolated incident can grow into a class action. Through discovery, internal safety reports, cost-cutting memos and ignored warnings come to light. That evidence does not just determine the verdict — it drives the headlines. The reputational damage is often far worse than the financial cost.

    Entrepreneurs must recognize that litigation is not just about settlements and legal fees. It is about the company’s culture being put on trial. Once a jury sees that safety took a back seat to profits, rebuilding consumer trust is nearly impossible.

    Related: Companies Often Choose Profits Over Consumer Safety — Here’s What It Takes to Hold Them Accountable

    The leadership failure behind every recall

    What connects these cases is not simply defective products. It is defective leadership.

    Too often, product safety is left to compliance teams or buried in operations. The CEO only steps in once the crisis explodes. By then, it is too late.

    The truth is simple. Product safety is a CEO-level issue. It belongs at the very top of the agenda. Decisions in the first hours and days after a safety concern emerges define the future of a company. Listening to engineers, taking consumer complaints seriously and acting quickly to protect customers are leadership choices. They are not legal technicalities.

    Entrepreneurs who understand this protect both their consumers and their companies. Those who treat safety as a secondary issue risk losing everything they have built.

    The hidden costs entrepreneurs miss

    Most founders understand the financial hit of a recall. Few recognize the long-term damage that follows.

    The hidden costs include the loss of consumer trust that cuts into lifetime customer value, the greater scrutiny from regulators and watchdog groups, higher insurance premiums, difficulty securing future coverage, the distraction of leadership who must focus on crisis management instead of growth and the brand damage that affects hiring, partnerships and investor confidence.

    These costs linger long after the settlement checks have been written. They erode the very foundation of a business.

    Why acting early saves businesses

    Entrepreneurs have one key advantage over larger corporations. They can move quickly. Without layers of bureaucracy, a founder can make bold decisions to protect consumers and preserve trust. Acting early may feel painful in the moment, but it prevents the cascading damage of lawsuits, headlines and regulatory intervention.

    The choice is not between acting and ignoring. The choice is between acting early when you have some control or acting later when you have none.

    Related: How to Avoid a Product Recall: Quality Control Essentials

    Protecting the future of the brand

    Every recall is ultimately a test of leadership. The companies that survive are those where CEOs accept responsibility and act decisively. The companies that fail are those where leaders delay, deflect or deny until the crisis consumes them.

    For entrepreneurs, the lesson is clear. Safety cannot be delegated away. It cannot be viewed as a legal technicality. It is a core leadership responsibility that protects both people and the future of the business.

    The real cost of a recall is not measured only in dollars. It is measured in trust lost, in reputations destroyed and in businesses that never recover. Entrepreneurs who understand this truth will treat safety not as a burden but as the foundation of lasting success.

    For entrepreneurs, few events are more damaging than a product recall. The immediate image is always financial: refunds, fines and settlements. But anyone who has been inside these cases knows the true cost runs far deeper. Recalls erode consumer trust, unravel years of brand building and expose systemic failures in leadership.

    I have seen firsthand how these crises unfold. In nearly every instance, the warning signs were there. Companies knew about risks. Employees raised concerns. Complaints trickled in. Yet leadership chose to wait, to monitor, to hope the problem would fade. It never does. When companies delay action, injuries multiply, lawsuits escalate, and reputations are permanently scarred.

    Related: Soar Above, Rather Than Survive, a Product Recall

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    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Donald Fountain

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  • I Fell for a $1.25 Million Scam — Now MrBeast Is Helping Me Hunt Down the Scammers | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    This is hard to admit, but I got scammed out of $1.25 million.

    The money is gone, and I can’t get it back. But instead of hiding, I’ve decided to share my story. My recent post on X about the $1.25 million scam went viral with more than 4 million views and thousands of reposts and comments.

    MrBeast even chimed in that he would give a $100,000 reward to anyone who could help track down the scammers.

    Now that I’ve had even more time to process the situation, I think it’s time to share the lessons I’ve learned from my $1.25 million mistake.

    How it began

    A few years ago, I donated $1.2 million to MrBeast’s #TeamSeas campaign to help clean up the oceans. After the donation, I was invited to spend a few days with Jimmy (MrBeast) and his team.

    So, when they reached out to me again for a donation to MrBeast’s Team Water campaign, I naturally wanted to help. During the discussion, we even talked about planning another meet-up.

    A few weeks after I donated $1 million to the project, I was added to what looked like a private group text with other major donors; it didn’t feel out of place at all. In fact, it seemed like the natural next step.

    The group looked legitimate. The names were impressive: Mark Rober, Shopify’s Tobi Lütke, Stake’s Ed Craven, Adin Ross. There was banter, casual voice notes and even more talk about the donor trip. It all lined up with what I’d been expecting — and I felt like I was in the “cool crowd.”

    Then came the pitch: a crypto investment tied to a major exchange. Everyone in the group “joined.” I didn’t want to be the outsider. So I wired the money. $1.25 million.

    Later, I checked in with the real Jimmy and felt my stomach drop. The group text was fake. My money was gone.

    Related: The 3 Biggest Mistakes That Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

    Lesson 1: Don’t make big decisions when you’re distracted

    When the scam was unfolding, I was away at a retreat that I’d been planning all year. This was terrible timing for me, but perfect for the scammers.

    I was relaxed and in the completely wrong headspace for any major decisions. My guard was down, and I was the perfect target.

    Having reviewed the texts afterward, I see several red flags that would have given me pause any other day. However, I was distracted and made a rash decision.

    Tip: Don’t make major decisions when you’re distracted, traveling or emotionally charged. Give yourself the space and energy to sit with the choices and only make a decision with a clear head.

    Lesson 2: Listen to reality, not the story you’re telling yourself

    When I was added to the text group, I honestly wanted it to be real. I’d talked with MrBeast’s team previously about planning a trip, and my brain connected the dots, telling me this was all part of the plan.

    This also had me overlooking red flags. I didn’t verify the phone numbers, and I didn’t double-check anything. I trusted what I wanted to be true instead of what the evidence showed. I was naive, and it cost me $1.25 million.

    Entrepreneurs make this same mistake all the time. We fall in love with our product, our marketing strategy or our “next” big idea. When our customers and data tell us otherwise, we often struggle to accept that reality and continue pushing what we want instead of what is right.

    Tip: Don’t fall in love with the story you tell yourself. Trust the data, trust what your customers are telling you, and be willing to adjust or pivot.

    Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid of mistakes — share them

    This was easily the most embarrassing mistake of my life. I’m a successful entrepreneur, and I made more than $50 million before 30 — being scammed was not supposed to happen to me.

    But, it did.

    The easiest way to deal with this mistake would be to hide it. But, I didn’t.

    Instead, I shared it. First with my family and close friends, then publicly online. The responses ranged from “idiot” to “martyr,” but overwhelmingly, people appreciated the honesty. Some even admitted they’d been scammed too, but had never told anyone.

    And then something unexpected happened: MrBeast himself spoke up. He offered a $100,000 reward for credible information leading to the scammers.

    Sharing reframed the story. From personal embarrassment to a community problem worth solving.

    Tip: Don’t hide from your mistakes. Own them, talk about them, and turn them into lessons others can learn from.

    Related: Beware of SEO Scammers — Here’s How to Spot and Avoid Mediocre SEO Agencies

    Final thoughts

    I’ll never see the $1.25 million I lost again. But I can use it as the most expensive learning experience of my life.

    If you take nothing else from my story, take these:

    1. Don’t make important decisions while distracted.
    2. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
    3. Don’t be afraid to talk about your mistakes.

    If you’re curious about how this scam actually played out, I’ve made everything public. On Great.com, we’ve posted the full chat logs, the wallet addresses and even the phone numbers tied to the scammers. You can see exactly what I saw — and if you spot something that could help track them down, you could earn the $100,000 reward from MrBeast.

    This is hard to admit, but I got scammed out of $1.25 million.

    The money is gone, and I can’t get it back. But instead of hiding, I’ve decided to share my story. My recent post on X about the $1.25 million scam went viral with more than 4 million views and thousands of reposts and comments.

    MrBeast even chimed in that he would give a $100,000 reward to anyone who could help track down the scammers.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Erik Bergman

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  • Using AI Gave Me Free Time — So I Turned It Into My Competitive Edge | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Artificial intelligence has changed my business entirely. The majority of my business is ecommerce-based, and AI has allowed me to automate many of the most time-consuming tasks. This shift hasn’t just saved me time; it’s made daily operations more efficient and enabled smarter, data-driven decisions that have elevated both productivity and customer satisfaction. In the early days, I spent nearly every waking hour creating products and listing them online. Every process was manual — from product descriptions to market research — and if I wasn’t actively working, nothing moved forward.

    But once I began incorporating AI into my workflow, everything changed. By automating some of the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks, I suddenly found myself with hours of free time each week. At first, it felt strange — almost unsettling — to no longer be chained to my desk for 10 hours a day. This raised a new and surprisingly tricky question: What should I do with this extra time?

    I quickly realized that I wasn’t alone in facing this dilemma. As AI and automation become more common, many entrepreneurs and business owners will find themselves in the same situation. Once your most tedious processes are handled automatically, how should you invest the hours you’ve reclaimed?

    When the time savings first hit, my instinct was to keep the momentum going by diving deeper into automation. I figured the best way to occupy myself was to learn more about artificial intelligence systems that could help automate my business even more. Meanwhile, all I was reading online was talking about how the AI revolution was occurring now, and to be successful, one must adapt and understand AI. I was constantly consuming new information, but wasn’t giving myself the mental space to process it. The quality of my learning declined, and my creativity began to plummet.

    Related: 5 Practical Ways Entrepreneurs Can Add AI to Their Toolkit Today

    It was a hard truth to swallow: You can only work so hard and absorb so much information in a day before your effectiveness starts to drop.

    At that point, I made a conscious decision to try something different. Instead of spending all my newfound time chasing more efficiencies, I decided to invest a portion of it into myself — outside the world of technology and business.

    I returned to activities that had once brought me joy but had been pushed aside by the demands of my business. I started going to the gym, which I hadn’t been doing consistently since college. I downloaded Apple Fitness and started using its guided meditations. I also started playing guitar in the evenings and making much more time for spending time with friends and family.

    The impact was immediate and unexpected. My stress levels dropped, my energy increased and I felt a sense of balance that I hadn’t experienced in years. Most surprisingly, my work performance improved dramatically.

    When I allowed myself to slow down, my productivity at work didn’t shrink; it grew. With a clearer mind and a healthier body, I was able to focus for more extended periods, think more creatively and approach challenges with a calmer, more strategic mindset.

    Simple changes made a difference:

    • Morning exercise gave me more energy throughout the day.
    • Meditation helped me approach business decisions with a clearer head.
    • Time with friends reminded me there’s more to life than my business.

    This wasn’t just about feeling better personally — it had a direct, measurable effect on my business. I made better decisions, communicated more effectively with clients and partners and spotted opportunities I might have missed when I was too buried in the grind.

    Many entrepreneurs pride themselves on living and breathing their work. That dedication can produce great results — but it can also lead to burnout, tunnel vision and declining performance over time.

    Automation offers us a rare opportunity, not just to get more done, but to create space in our lives for things that make us better humans and better leaders. Taking time to step away from constant work is not laziness — it’s a strategy for long-term success.

    Related: Are You Using AI Effectively — or Are You Wasting Its Potential? Ask Yourself These 5 Questions to Find Out

    How to manage your newfound free time

    When I started going back to the gym, meeting with friends, taking time off during lunch to take a walk outside and getting some sunlight, I felt much better and found that my creativity was coming back, as well as my ability to work with a clear head. Taking time to work on myself outside of my business has had a profoundly positive impact on me, both professionally and personally.

    Here’s the balance I’ve found works best:

    1. Dedicate part of your extra time to learning new tools, strategies or skills — but keep it intentional. Focus on areas that will directly move your business or personal goals forward.
    2. Physical and mental health is a business investment. Regular exercise, quality sleep and time outdoors will give you energy and mental clarity that directly benefit your work.
    3. Pursue your hobbies or revisit ones you used to enjoy.
    4. Creative outlets — whether that’s music, art, cooking or something else entirely — can recharge your brain and make you a more well-rounded thinker.
    5. Relationships take work and time; focus on continually growing and improving them.
    6. Strong personal connections improve resilience, reduce stress and can even lead to unexpected opportunities.

    Related: Why Smart Entrepreneurs Let AI Do the Heavy Business Lifting

    AI and automation are not just productivity tools — they are lifestyle-changing technologies. The real opportunity isn’t just in what they help you accomplish in your business, but in the freedom they give you to live better.

    The hours you reclaim are valuable. If you use them only to cram in more work, you risk missing the bigger picture. If you use them to grow as a person — in health, relationships and creativity — you may find that your business thrives as a natural byproduct.

    So, the next time automation gives you back an afternoon, ask yourself: Will I spend this making my systems faster, or making my life better? The answer you choose could change not just your business, but your life.

    Artificial intelligence has changed my business entirely. The majority of my business is ecommerce-based, and AI has allowed me to automate many of the most time-consuming tasks. This shift hasn’t just saved me time; it’s made daily operations more efficient and enabled smarter, data-driven decisions that have elevated both productivity and customer satisfaction. In the early days, I spent nearly every waking hour creating products and listing them online. Every process was manual — from product descriptions to market research — and if I wasn’t actively working, nothing moved forward.

    But once I began incorporating AI into my workflow, everything changed. By automating some of the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks, I suddenly found myself with hours of free time each week. At first, it felt strange — almost unsettling — to no longer be chained to my desk for 10 hours a day. This raised a new and surprisingly tricky question: What should I do with this extra time?

    I quickly realized that I wasn’t alone in facing this dilemma. As AI and automation become more common, many entrepreneurs and business owners will find themselves in the same situation. Once your most tedious processes are handled automatically, how should you invest the hours you’ve reclaimed?

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    David Peterson

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  • I Looked Successful, But Inside I Was Falling Apart — This Trifecta Method Took Me From Rock Bottom to Peak Performance | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Five years ago, I hit rock bottom.

    From the outside, my life looked like a highlight reel: scaling social enterprises, writing bestsellers, sharing stages with world-famous leaders. But behind the curtain, I was exhausted, angry, and disconnected. My health was crumbling under chronic pain, brain fog and a complete loss of purpose.

    The hard truth about burnout is this: you can look like you’re winning while you’re falling apart. I had pushed so hard, for so long, that I hollowed out from the inside. It wasn’t just overwork. It was a disconnection from what mattered — physically, mentally, spiritually.

    That collapse became a turning point. Out of desperation, I started exploring a new path anchored in science and self-awareness. What I discovered was a trifecta: biohacking, longevity medicine and fulfillment. Together, they restored my energy and clarity.

    In this article, I’ll focus on biohacking — because it was the gateway that reconnected me at the cellular level and gave me the foundation to rebuild.

    Rediscovering energy

    Biohacking is often misunderstood as a fringe obsession with gadgets and supplements. But at its core, it’s simple: creating the conditions for your body and mind to function at their best. Think of it as working on the smallest unit of life — your cells and microbiome — so they can repair damage, fight disease and fuel growth.

    My journey started with the basics: sleep, nutrition and movement.

    Years of neglect had left me with inflammation, lingering injuries and brain fog. Traditional medicine had no answers.

    Everything shifted when I met Dave Asprey, the founder of the modern biohacking movement. His philosophy was simple: change your environment — inside and out — and you can change your life.

    Dave’s story mirrored my own. At 28, despite outward success, he faced arthritis, prediabetes, cognitive decline and the biochemistry of someone twice his age. Determined to reverse it, he lost over 100 pounds, regained his energy and boosted his IQ. His journey sparked the creation of The Bulletproof Diet and the global biohacking community.

    Related: Why Smart Entrepreneurs Are Betting Big on Biohacking

    Rebuilding from the ground up

    I began experimenting with practices that seemed too simple to be transformative: cold plunges, infrared light, grounding in nature, fasting, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and a complete diet reset. Slowly, my energy returned.

    When I sought treatment for an old rugby injury that left me limping for years, I turned to regenerative medicine: stem-cell therapy and plasma exchanges. For the first time in decades, I walked without pain.

    But the biggest breakthrough wasn’t physical. With energy came clarity. With clarity came purpose. For the first time in years, I could hear the quiet voice of what mattered most.

    Lessons for entrepreneurs

    So what does this have to do with building a company? Everything.

    Entrepreneurs pride themselves on outworking everyone else. But exhaustion is not a strategy. Your body is your most undervalued asset, and when you neglect it, your business pays the price.

    Here are five practices that changed my life — and can change the way you lead:

    1. Own your mornings
      I used to wake up and dive into email. Now I guard the first hours of the day for myself: meditation, movement, and cold exposure. These rituals anchor me before the world demands my attention.

    2. Treat recovery as fuel, not weakness
      Sleep, downtime, and therapies like hyperbaric oxygen aren’t indulgences. They’re performance multipliers. Recovery is what sustains high output.

    3. Align biology with purpose
      Energy without direction accelerates burnout. Energy with purpose drives innovation, collaboration, and fulfillment.

    4. Use stress as a tool
      Cold plunges, fasting, and breathwork are forms of “hormetic stress” — controlled challenges that build resilience. When you train your body to handle stress, you lead better under pressure.

    5. Build rituals, not resolutions
      Change doesn’t come from hacks you try once. It comes from rituals you repeat daily. My 4:15 a.m. wake-up, morning oxygen sessions, and meditation aren’t experiments — they’re anchors.

    Related: I Biohacked My Way to Better Mood, Sleep and Job Performance — and You Can, Too. Here’s How.

    From burned out to fueled up

    Looking back, burnout was the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to confront the unsustainable way I was living and leading.

    It took all three pillars — biohacking, longevity medicine and fulfillment — to rebuild my health. Biohacking gave me a reset at the cellular level. Longevity medicine created a long-term plan. Fulfillment reconnected me to purpose.

    Today, I lead with presence and energy. I show up better for my family. And I build from a place of alignment, not exhaustion.

    The lesson is simple: when you restore yourself, you don’t just lead better. You live better.

    Five years ago, I hit rock bottom.

    From the outside, my life looked like a highlight reel: scaling social enterprises, writing bestsellers, sharing stages with world-famous leaders. But behind the curtain, I was exhausted, angry, and disconnected. My health was crumbling under chronic pain, brain fog and a complete loss of purpose.

    The hard truth about burnout is this: you can look like you’re winning while you’re falling apart. I had pushed so hard, for so long, that I hollowed out from the inside. It wasn’t just overwork. It was a disconnection from what mattered — physically, mentally, spiritually.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Marc Kielburger

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  • Why I Prioritize People Over Profit | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Every business decision reflects a value system, even if it’s not named outright. When sales drop, do you cut costs or beef up your sales team once you’ve confirmed your sales strategy still works? That choice reveals where you put your weight, i.e., what you prioritize when resources are constrained but the company still has room to maneuver.

    For me, the answer is to invest in the right people. However, some organizations make the choice of never calling out which approach is driving their decision-making.

    Instead of making a strategic choice, these companies operate from unnamed assumptions. This leaves their leaders in a precarious situation. When a crisis hits, some choose security while others choose growth, creating confusion and conflict. That is a value killer.

    It’s people who create value, however you define it — be it profit, revenue, standards or culture — and the leader’s job is to give them the clarity they need to align their roles with organizational goals. So here is how to bring those values to the surface to create space for principled decisions, even when the right path isn’t easy or perfect.

    Related: Why Profits Over People Is Destined to Fail

    The cost of unnamed priorities

    Decision-making can be a good gauge of how well an organization is aligning its priorities. The bigger the company, the higher the cost of people pulling in different directions. McKinsey found that fewer than half of the 1,200 global business leaders it surveyed described their decisions as timely, and many of their decision-making processes were ineffective.

    Decision paralysis does not afflict companies because they lack data like sales, profit and headcount, but because they haven’t named their values or aligned their value within the company as part of their culture. When priorities aren’t explicit, people judge each other’s actions through their own value lens. Then they get frustrated when the other party is doing it differently.

    There are exceptions. When survival is at stake due to looming bankruptcy or market crashes, the scope of decision-making narrows and cost-cutting becomes unavoidable. However, in most downturns, I have to align the whole team on what we should do. It’s then that I prioritize people over short-term profit concerns, not because I ignore financial results, but because empowered people build sustainable businesses over time.

    When values clash

    The tension between people and profit isn’t theoretical — it’s a lived reality on a daily basis. Corporate culture is basically an aligned value system that needs to be called out so everyone follows it to maximize effectiveness.

    We need to see value systems not as obstacles, but as guiding forces. They help reveal what matters most when trade-offs feel murky. Think about these clashes of values, which companies of different sizes may face without clear priorities:

    • Speed vs. quality: Do you ship fast or perfect the product before going to market?

    • Innovation vs. efficiency: Explore new markets or optimize current operations?

    • Customer satisfaction vs. margins: Absorb costs to build reputation or protect profitability of the current quarter?

    • Centralization vs. autonomy: Head-office control or local decision-making?

    Confronted with these kinds of tensions, I don’t aim to impose my values, but I also don’t believe avoiding the conversation serves anyone. Instead of choosing between competing values, the goal is to agree on the structure for how we balance them or prioritize one over the other under what conditions. Forget neutrality. Prioritizing and balancing values is not a 50-50 proposition. Instead, we first have to lean into conflict to create clarity.

    Related: Holding True to Your Values Is an Essential Decision-Making Metric

    Bringing values to the surface

    The best approach to get everyone on the same page is practical, although perhaps sometimes uncomfortable. If I am on the management team and there’s disagreement between whether to cut costs or invest in more people, let that argument surface at the table so everyone can discuss it from their own perspective.

    Cost-cutting is not necessarily anti-people. And investing in people is definitely not anti-profit for the long run. But it may feel the wrong way when decisions aren’t grounded in a shared value framework.

    The safety versus speed crisis over at OpenAI showed how misaligned values can play out if leaders are divided. The board operated from OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission that put safety first, while CEO Sam Altman valued speed to market. When Altman was briefly fired in 2023, the chaos that followed — employee revolt and investor panic — put the organization at existential risk.

    The resolution came only when OpenAI built a frame that let them hold both safety and innovation together. To avoid value killers like OpenAI’s one-time crisis, values need to be named explicitly. If there’s conflict over assumed values, this is your opportunity to build structures that hold them in balance.

    Related: How Putting People Before Profit Fueled My Company’s Long-Term Success

    Values as navigation tools

    The lesson from OpenAI was that every growing organization faces moments when values seem to clash. In mission-driven companies especially, scaling brings tension between staying true to purpose and chasing market opportunities. Rather than avoiding that tension, it must be confronted.

    This isn’t about moral superiority or choosing sides in some philosophical debate. The organizations that thrive are the ones that make their priorities explicit and have the agility to balance them when they appear to conflict. That’s what putting people first actually means: giving your team the clarity they need to navigate complex choices and create lasting value together.

    Every business decision reflects a value system, even if it’s not named outright. When sales drop, do you cut costs or beef up your sales team once you’ve confirmed your sales strategy still works? That choice reveals where you put your weight, i.e., what you prioritize when resources are constrained but the company still has room to maneuver.

    For me, the answer is to invest in the right people. However, some organizations make the choice of never calling out which approach is driving their decision-making.

    Instead of making a strategic choice, these companies operate from unnamed assumptions. This leaves their leaders in a precarious situation. When a crisis hits, some choose security while others choose growth, creating confusion and conflict. That is a value killer.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Simin Cai, Ph.D.

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  • Don’t Run From Failure — Run Toward It. Here’s Why. | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    We’re trained to avoid failure like it’s a contagious disease.

    At school, failing wasn’t just about getting a bad grade — it was about getting labeled. If you didn’t pass, you weren’t just “behind,” you were branded. Pulled into extra classes, singled out in front of your peers and whispered about in the hallways. It can feel like public shame dressed up as education.

    When you grow up in that kind of system, what you learn fast is: Don’t mess up. Don’t take risks. Don’t give anyone a reason to think less of you. And the biggest lesson? Stay in your lane.

    The problem is that that mindset doesn’t prepare you for the real world — especially if you want to lead, build or create anything meaningful. Because here’s the truth: If you’re afraid to fail, you’ll never truly succeed.

    Related: Want to Be a Successful Entrepreneur? Fail.

    The fear that holds us back

    Fear of failure isn’t just about the actual mistake — it’s about the imagined fallout.

    • What will people think?
    • Will they see me as incompetent? Reckless? Stupid?
    • Will this cost me my reputation, my relationships, my livelihood?

    And because those fears feel heavy and real, we avoid taking the shot. We stay where it’s “safe,” never realizing that “safe” is just a slow, quiet way to fail anyway.

    As leaders, that fear can be deadly. It keeps us from innovating, from hiring bold talent, from experimenting with new products or ideas. It makes us reactive instead of proactive. And when the market shifts — as it always does — the leaders who’ve been too scared to risk anything are the ones left scrambling.

    How I learned to get comfortable with losing

    The real turning point for me wasn’t some massive success — it was being okay with losing. But that didn’t happen overnight.

    When I started my business, I brought that school-based fear of failure right along with me. I worried about how my decisions would look. I avoided risks that felt “too visible.” I overworked myself trying to make sure nothing went wrong — and when something inevitably did, I beat myself up for weeks.

    But here’s what changed everything: I realized failure without feedback is just a loss. But failure with insight? That’s an investment.

    When you stop seeing failure as a verdict and start treating it as raw material, it becomes the most valuable thing you have.

    Over the last eight years, I’ve:

    • Mismanaged people and learned how to lead better.
    • Made bad hires and learned how to recruit with sharper instincts.
    • Invested in projects that flopped and learned where my market actually is.
    • Lost more money (and time) than I’d like to admit — and learned exactly how to make it back (and more).

    None of those lessons came from the times things went perfectly. Every single one was purchased with the currency of failure.

    Related: 4 Key Strategies to Help Entrepreneurs Cope With Failure

    How school got it wrong

    Part of why this mindset is so hard to adopt is that it’s almost the opposite of what we were trained to believe.

    Our education system rewards perfection and punishes missteps. You’re graded on what you got right, not on how many creative attempts you made. You’re celebrated for the A, not for the questions you dared to ask or the risks you took to get there.

    And that’s fine if your career goal is “ace tests forever.” But in real life, success is about trying, adapting and trying again — fast. It’s about iteration, not immaculate execution on the first go.

    If you’ve ever wondered why so many talented people never reach their potential, this is it. They’ve been conditioned to fear the first step because they’ve been conditioned to fear the stumble.

    The leader’s advantage: Failing faster

    Here’s the mindset shift that’s changed everything for me: Don’t run from failure — run toward it.

    When you take a calculated risk and it doesn’t work out, you gain information your competitors don’t have. You see where the potholes are. You understand the dynamics of your market or your team in a way you simply can’t from the sidelines.

    Failure speeds up your feedback loop. And in business, speed of learning is a competitive advantage.

    When I stopped worrying about how failure looked and started focusing on what it taught, I moved faster. My team moved faster. We became more willing to experiment, to test ideas, to pivot quickly.

    And here’s the irony: The more comfortable I got with failing, the less I actually failed in ways that mattered. Why? Because the lessons compound. The insight you gain from one mistake prevents five more down the line.

    Turning failure into fuel

    If you’re looking for practical ways to reframe failure, here’s what’s worked for me:

    1. Separate the event from your identity. Failing at something doesn’t make you a failure. It makes you a human who’s gathering data.
    2. Ask better post-mortem questions. Instead of “Why did I mess up?” ask “What specifically did I learn, and how will I apply it next time?”
    3. Take the hit, then take the action. Feel the sting, but don’t camp there. Apply the lesson as quickly as possible so it becomes forward motion.
    4. Make it visible for your team. When leaders are open about their own missteps, it gives everyone else permission to try without fear.

    Related: How to Turn Failures Into Wins As an Entrepreneur

    The real goal

    At the end of the day, the point isn’t to fail for failure’s sake. The point is to strip failure of its power over you so you can move without hesitation.

    If there’s one mindset that’s been critical to my success, it’s this: Be okay with failing — because the lesson you learn is worth more than the hit you take.

    The faster you embrace that truth, the faster you’ll grow — not just as a leader, but as a human being who’s willing to show up, take the shot and trust that even if you miss, you’re still moving forward.

    We’re trained to avoid failure like it’s a contagious disease.

    At school, failing wasn’t just about getting a bad grade — it was about getting labeled. If you didn’t pass, you weren’t just “behind,” you were branded. Pulled into extra classes, singled out in front of your peers and whispered about in the hallways. It can feel like public shame dressed up as education.

    When you grow up in that kind of system, what you learn fast is: Don’t mess up. Don’t take risks. Don’t give anyone a reason to think less of you. And the biggest lesson? Stay in your lane.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Ginni Saraswati

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  • CEO’s ‘Powerful’ Business Change Leads to 8-Figure Revenue | Entrepreneur

    “It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.

    A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.

    Seymour envisioned a new era for Aligne — the brand could fill a white space she saw in modern women’s clothing: the need for design-led, wearable pieces at an accessible price point, delivered with an omnichannel approach.

    Related: 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Became a CEO

    Seymour set out to make it happen, essentially “refounding” the company. She joined the business as managing director in 2022, relaunched Aligne under her vision in 2023 and was officially named CEO in 2024.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    “I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”

    During her first several years as CEO, Seymour focused on Aligne’s community building online and “design handwriting,” then branched out from a direct-to-consumer strategy to an omnichannel approach with U.S. retail partners.

    In fact, despite being a London-founded brand, Aligne sees a larger part of its business unfolding in the U.S., Seymour says.

    The CEO even recently relocated from London to New York to support the U.S. office and team as the brand continues its expansion.

    “ We’re still based in the UK, so I travel back and forth,” Seymour says. “London to me is our creative hub; it’s part of our DNA being a British brand. That’s super important to me and something we don’t want to lose. So we’re very much creatively driven out of London, but commercially driven out of the U.S.”

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    Related: ‘We Got So Many DMs’: This 27-Year-Old Revamped Her Parents’ Decades-Old Business and Grew Direct-to-Consumer Sales From $60,000 to Over $500,000

    As a still relatively young British brand, Aligne gains validation with a U.S. audience through retailers that have loyal customer bases.

    “In  the UK, it’s easier to be direct-to-consumer only because the UK is much smaller and more attainable,” Seymour says. “But in the U.S., to resonate as the next contemporary brand that people should be looking at, I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”

    Aligne recently launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d always hoped to partner with one day, after the company direct-messaged her to express its interest in the brand. Aligne is also available at Anthropologie.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    Related: Her Self-Funded Brand Hit $25 Million Revenue Last Year — And 3 Secrets Keep It Growing Alongside Her ‘Mischievous’ Second Venture: ‘Entrepreneurship Is a Mind Game’

    “There’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

    Despite the long-term goal to expand in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a brand and its relationship to customers before tackling those partnerships, appreciating how important that strategy is for sustainable success.

    Whether you’re refounding a business that already exists or starting one from scratch, knowing who your customer is — and quickly — will make or break its growth.  ”And that’s easier said than done,” the CEO notes. “There are so many factors. With every iOS update, there’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”

    Aligne’s target customers are “confident, working” women, and acknowledging what those consumers wanted in a clothing line helped guide the brand’s design shift and the direction of its collection, Seymour says.

    Related: This Is the Real Secret to Exceeding Your Customer’s Expectations

    Dialing into that customer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal year in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year revenue growth and revenue approaching eight figures.

    Most of Aligne’s pieces are priced between $100 and $300. Although Seymour recognizes why some brands evolve into the “premium contemporary” space amid rising costs and tariff challenges, she says the company is committed to its accessible price point.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne

    “I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support.”

    Being a CEO is a lot harder than Seymour thought it would be when she was 20 years old, she admits. But she appreciates how the job has allowed her to draw on her experience as a buyer, which demanded a “balance of art and science” much like the executive role does.

    “[There might be a] week that I’m so artistic and designing the concept and the line, and there’s other days where I’m definitely leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “But I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support in those areas because a CEO wears so many hats.”

    Related: I Founded a $1.7 Billion Startup for Small Businesses — Here’s the Secret Every Entrepreneur Should Know

    One of the biggest lessons Seymour’s learned during her tenure as CEO so far is the value in listening to her instincts — even when it’s difficult. Over the first couple of months of the company’s refounding, Seymour sometimes hesitated to say what she wanted, then didn’t get the results that she desired.

    “Three months in, I had this moment where I brought the team together and was much clearer about what I wanted,” Seymour says. “That brought them more on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a team and our values. If you have an idea and you’re building your own business, trusting your gut and not being scared to say it is powerful.”

    “It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.

    A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • My Strategy for Helping Leaders Reclaim 10+ Hours a Week | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Most leaders know the frustration of wasted meetings. Long agendas, too many attendees and little to show for hours lost. For one group of senior leaders I worked with, this wasn’t just an annoyance. It was cutting into strategy time, slowing down decisions and draining energy across the business.

    In less than a year, we cut their meeting time in half. Each leader won back more than 10 hours every week, and the organization became faster, clearer and more accountable.

    Here’s how it happened, and how you can do the same.

    Related: Stop the Meeting Madness: 19 Ways to Make Your Meetings Matter

    The problem: Meetings controlled the leaders instead of the leaders being in charge

    This team was leading a complex global transformation across three regions. Their calendars were wall-to-wall with standing meetings, catch-ups and recurring calls. People often left with unclear decisions, leading to more follow-up meetings just to fix what hadn’t been resolved the first time.

    The result was lost time, slow decisions and a sense that no one could ever get ahead. The leaders were spending more time managing meetings than leading the business. Over time, even talented people became frustrated. Some started blocking out fake “focus time” just to survive. Others disengaged quietly, attending meetings but contributing very little because they no longer believed anything would change.

    That loss of energy was as damaging as the loss of time.

    Step 1: Define what deserves a meeting

    We started by asking a simple question: Does this really need to be a meeting?

    Many recurring calls existed because “We’ve always had them.” That logic had never been challenged. We cut every meeting that wasn’t tied to a decision, a problem that needed solving or collaboration that truly benefited from live discussion.

    Updates that could be shared in writing were moved to a short weekly summary. Everyone received the same information, but they could read it in minutes instead of sitting through another call.

    One senior manager told me later that this was the first time in years he could start his day by planning priorities instead of bracing for back-to-back calls. That shift gave him more control and a clearer sense of direction.

    This step alone cleared out hours from everyone’s calendar. It also reframed meetings as intentional choices rather than habits carried over from the past.

    Step 2: Put guardrails on time and attendance

    Next, we established strict rules.

    Meetings defaulted to 30 minutes. Longer sessions had to be justified. Every meeting required a clear lead who owned the agenda, kept the conversation on track and confirmed next steps.

    Attendance rules changed, too. Instead of large calls with every stakeholder, we invited only the people who were critical to the discussion. If input was needed later, it was requested offline.

    This change reduced group fatigue and raised accountability. Smaller groups made faster decisions. Leaders also realized that not being invited to a meeting wasn’t exclusion; it was respect for their time.

    Related: Data Doesn’t Lie: Shorter Meetings Can Make You 3X More Productive

    Step 3: Standardize decisions

    One hidden reason meetings drag on is that people leave without clarity. That lack of closure is what fuels the cycle of repeat conversations.

    We solved this by introducing a simple “decision log.” Every meeting ended with three key things:

    1. The decision made

    2. The identified owner

    3. The next step

    It took discipline, but once the team adjusted, decisions stopped bouncing around. Follow-up meetings shrank because everyone knew who was responsible and by when. Teams didn’t have to revisit the same issue over and over.

    The decision log also became a leadership tool. Leaders could review it weekly to see what was moving forward and what was stalling. That visibility improved accountability across the entire transformation.

    Step 4: Track the wins

    We measured meeting time before and after.

    Leaders logged their weekly hours, and within weeks the difference was clear. By the end of 12 months, meeting hours had dropped by more than 50%. On average, each leader reclaimed over 10 hours a week.

    The biggest win wasn’t just time. It was energy. Leaders felt less drained and more able to focus on the work that actually moved the business forward. Several commented that they finally ended their week with a sense of progress instead of exhaustion.

    One leader said she could finally prepare properly for board discussions because she had blocks of uninterrupted time again. Another shared that his team trusted the process more because decisions no longer shifted or disappeared. These were small cultural shifts that created lasting impact.

    The human side of fewer meetings

    It’s easy to think of meeting reduction as a numbers game, but the benefits go much deeper. With fewer meetings, leaders gained the space to think, plan and lead. They could show up with more presence in the meetings that remained because they weren’t already depleted.

    This had an impact on trust. People began to believe in the process because they saw that decisions stuck and time wasn’t wasted. That trust built momentum. Leaders became known for clarity instead of endless discussion.

    When people feel their time is respected, they give more energy back to the work. That cultural benefit often matters more than the hours saved.

    From this experience, three lessons stood out.

    • Treat time as a resource. If a meeting doesn’t create value, it’s a cost.

    • Put strict guardrails around time and attendance. Meetings expand to the size you allow.

    • Standardize how decisions are made and captured. Without this, meetings repeat themselves.

    These aren’t complex ideas, but they require discipline. Leaders who apply them consistently change not only their calendars but their culture.

    Related: Our Meeting Obsession Is Hurting Our Work And Our Wellbeing

    What you can do now

    Look at your own calendar and ask yourself three questions:

    • Which meetings exist only out of habit?

    • Which can be replaced with a short written update?

    • Where do decisions get lost, forcing repeat conversations?

    Answering those questions honestly is the first step to cutting your meeting load in half and winning back the hours you need most.

    Try applying one change in the next week. Cancel a standing call that adds little value. Shorten a 60-minute meeting to 30. End every meeting with a clear decision and next step. These small shifts build confidence, and once you see the results, it becomes easier to apply the larger changes.

    The point of cutting meetings is not to slash your calendar for the sake of it. The goal is to create space for the work that matters most. When leaders reclaim their time, they gain clarity, energy and the ability to lead with focus instead of reacting to every demand.

    Start with your calendar. Once you take charge of your time, every other part of your leadership gets stronger too.

    Most leaders know the frustration of wasted meetings. Long agendas, too many attendees and little to show for hours lost. For one group of senior leaders I worked with, this wasn’t just an annoyance. It was cutting into strategy time, slowing down decisions and draining energy across the business.

    In less than a year, we cut their meeting time in half. Each leader won back more than 10 hours every week, and the organization became faster, clearer and more accountable.

    Here’s how it happened, and how you can do the same.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Bayo Akinola-Odusola

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