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Tag: living

  • How to Achieve A Deep Level of Focus by Breaking Habits and Taking Breaks | Entrepreneur

    How to Achieve A Deep Level of Focus by Breaking Habits and Taking Breaks | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As an entrepreneur, time management is crucial for achieving success. As an immigrant founder, I understand the importance of hard work and dedication to make your business thrive. However, it’s important to remember that working nonstop without taking breaks can lead to long-term negative effects. Studies have shown that prolonged work sessions can lead to burnout, decreased productivity and even physical and mental health issues. To be truly successful, finding a balance between working hard and taking time to rest and recharge is crucial.

    We all must start taking more breaks during our work day and disconnect for a bit. Rather than following the traditional belief that you should only stop when you’re tired, I think taking small breaks before you even start to feel tired is essential.

    This can help prevent burnout and increase productivity in the long run. I have seen the benefits of taking regular breaks and disconnecting from my own business, and I encourage others to do the same. It’s essential for us as successful entrepreneurs to lead by example and prioritize our well-being to continue achieving our goals.

    Related: Increased Productivity Will Increase Your Happiness

    It’s important to remember that everyone is different, and what works for one person may not work for another. However, finding activities that break out of our routine and give us a glimpse of the fun and judgment-free spaces can benefit everyone. This can be anything from walking, meditating, reading a book, or even taking a quick power nap.

    The key is to find something that helps you relax and recharge. It’s also important to take some time to disconnect from work and social media. This can help us to focus on ourselves and our well-being without any distractions. By finding activities that work for us and taking regular breaks, we can increase our productivity and enjoy the journey of being an entrepreneur.

    Below I’m sharing the three most unique time-off break ideas I can recommend:

    1. Making coffee and washing the dishes

    Taking a break from work is essential for maintaining focus and productivity. But instead of scrolling through social media or checking your phone, try something unconventional like making a coffee or washing the dishes. A recent study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that performing simple, mundane tasks such as washing dishes can positively impact our well-being. The repetitive motion of these tasks can be meditative, allowing you to focus on the present moment and release any pent-up stress or tension.

    Making coffee (a favorite activity of mine, especially a good iced espresso latte) can be a great way to break the monotony of work and give yourself a bit of pleasure. Plus, it’s a great way to take care of daily tasks and disconnect from technology. The aroma and the taste of freshly cursed coffee can help to enhance our mood and decrease stress.

    So, next time you need a break, try making a coffee or washing the dishes. You’ll be surprised how it can help you to relax, refresh your mind and increase your focus. There are great brands that offer a selection of decaf coffee beans and ground coffee for a more anxiety-free experience.

    Related: 3 Reasons Espresso Could Be Your Shortcut to Productivity (It Works for Elon Musk)

    2. Taking your dog for an unexpected walk

    It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind of work and responsibilities, which can lead to feeling burnt out and unproductive. Taking your dog for a random walk is a unique activity that can help break the cycle and increase productivity. Not only does it give you and your furry friend some much-needed exercise and fresh air, but it also provides an opportunity to step away from your work and disconnect from technology. It’s a small change that can make a big difference in your work-life balance.

    These unexpected walks can also help to return to work with a fresh perspective and renewed energy, which can increase productivity and a better work-life balance. So, next time you feel stressed or unproductive, try taking your doggy for an unexpected walk, and you’ll see the difference it makes.

    Related: Why You Need More Exercise as an Entrepreneur (and 7 Creative Strategies for Getting It)

    3. Disconnecting and enjoying hookah

    Smoking hookah is a unique activity that can be a great way to take a break from work and relax. Hookah, also known as shisha or waterpipe, is a traditional method of smoking flavored tobacco enjoyed for centuries in the Middle East, India and other parts of Asia.

    Smoking hookah is often considered a social activity, and it can be a great way to bond with friends or colleagues while taking a break from work. Preparing and smoking hookah is a ritual in itself and can be a great way to disconnect from work and other stressors.

    In addition to being a fun and social activity, smoking hookah also offers several benefits for your overall well-being. Here are two benefits of smoking hookah during your time off:

    1. Stress relief — Smoking hookah can be a great way to relax and unwind after a long work day. The act of inhaling and exhaling smoke can be soothing, and the tobacco flavors can help to calm the mind.
    2. Increased focus and concentration — Preparing and smoking hookah can be a great way to clear your mind and focus on the present moment. This can help to improve your concentration and focus when you return to work.

    Smoking hookah can be a unique and enjoyable way to take a break from work and relax. Whether you are smoking alone or with friends, smoking hookah can offer several benefits for your overall well-being and help you return to work refreshed and focused.

    In conclusion, taking a break from work is essential for maintaining focus and productivity. Making a coffee or washing the dishes is just one unconventional example of how to do this, but there are many other ways to break your routine and refresh your mind.

    It’s essential to find activities that work for you. Take the proper time to experiment with different options and find what works best.

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    Pierre Subeh

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  • Don’t Let the ChatGPT Boom Go to Waste | Entrepreneur

    Don’t Let the ChatGPT Boom Go to Waste | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    We’re on the cusp of a technological revolution not seen since the dotcom boom of the ’90s. Microsoft and Google are racing to launch competing products based on the tech driving it. All that’s left is for smaller startups to rebrand themselves to ride the hype and boom! We’ve landed ourselves in a bubble.

    Everyone who was around during the NFT golden era of 2021 knows exactly where I’m going with this. The hype surrounding OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, is giving us all a dose of deja vu. Luckily, there are key differences between the AI paradigm shift we’re currently experiencing and the NFT bubble from a year and a half ago.

    It’s crucial to separate fact from fiction and ensure AI innovators seize on this moment to push the boundaries of the technology efficiently and ethically.

    Related: What Is ChatGPT? Google, Siri and Even ChatGPT Are Confused About Its Existence

    The technology itself

    While we can draw lessons from the NFT boom of 2021, from a strictly technological standpoint, ChatGPT simply blows the Ethereum wallet on which you store NFT jpegs out of the water.

    We’re talking about a complex Language Learning Model (LLM) that digests massive quantities of text data and infers relationships between words within the text. Essentially, LLMs fill in the blank with the most statistically probable word given the surrounding context — and ChatGPT is doing this on a scale never seen before to write poems, movies and essays.

    Conversely, NFTs are stored on blockchain-based wallets to represent digital ownership over a particular asset — whether digital or physical. This could be a painting, a car or a meme. So the “NFT technology” we’re talking about is really just code for “blockchain.”

    That’s not to downplay the potential of blockchain, and particularly NFTs, to solve the digital ownership problem. For example, a world in which musicians regain the ability to own and sell their music online sounds promising for creators who have drawn the shorter stick in the democratization of information spurred by the internet. It does mean, however, that its potential to radically transform industries was massively exaggerated by many of the companies selling themselves as “Metaverse” and “NFT” platforms. And it’s certainly limited when compared with the potential of AI.

    After years of determination, blockchain enthusiasts are still trying to find a use case that will spark mass adoption. Sure, some average people invest in bitcoin and bought NFTs in 2021. But compare that to the number of offices that started using ChatGPT days after its launch, and we have a clear winner.

    Related: Does AI Deserve All the Hype? Here’s How You Can Actually Use AI in Your Business

    The challenges ahead

    It’s a lot harder to convincingly “fake” being an AI company. The blockchain industry is so intentionally confusing that companies in 2021 were trying to pass off digital art that wasn’t even blockchain-based as “NFTs,” and standard Play-to-Earn (P2E) games were adding “Metaverse” to their messaging.

    That simply won’t be a problem for AI. Instead, the AI industry has more serious challenges with which to contend. Companies across virtually every industry will integrate and build on top of ChatGPT and other successful generative AI tools, finding new and interesting use cases for them.

    For that to happen, AI innovators will have to spot ChatGPT’s flaws and leverage its strengths. Dr. Michal Tzuchman-Katz, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Kahun Medical, points to the improvements an AI model like ChatGPT would need to make a dent in healthcare and better serve doctors. The company built an AI tool that “thinks like a doctor” and offers doctors clinical intake before patient visits.

    While ChatGPT might be able to make textual interaction with patients smoother, it can’t think clinically like Kahun, which consults with its own database of peer-reviewed medical literature to produce responses and traces back to its originating sources.

    ChatGPT, on the other hand, produces answers based on comparing the user’s input with the input of thousands of others and isn’t as transparent regarding its sources. That’s a problem for other industries, too. There’s talk about students using ChatGPT to write essays and answer homework questions. But professional journalists and authors won’t be able to utilize the model beyond ideation and outline building if it can’t cite its sources thoroughly enough.

    And then there’s the bias problem. Conservative commentators have reveled in tweeting about examples of ChatGPT showing an obvious left-leaning bias. AI more broadly is also riddled with racial bias. Finding a solution to this will be one of the biggest challenges AI innovators face in expanding the technology’s use.

    As far as accuracy, we can, of course, expect ChatGPT to improve quite rapidly. The goal going forward for AI innovators is to take part in its expansion and improve upon it. Adding a transparency layer and tackling the bias problem will be key to ensuring it becomes more ethical and practical overall.

    Related: How Will ChatGPT Change Education and Teaching?

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    Ariel Shapira

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  • Disney CEO Bob Iger Admits the Company Must ‘Be Smarter’ | Entrepreneur

    Disney CEO Bob Iger Admits the Company Must ‘Be Smarter’ | Entrepreneur

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    A trip to Disney is an unattainable luxury for many Americans today.

    A typical family vacation to Walt Disney World for a family of four in 2023 will cost about $5,240, per Florida-based travel agency Magic Guides.

    Related: Disney World Tickets Are About To Be More Expensive – Prices Will Now Be Park-Specific

    Now, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger is acknowledging the inaccessibility of the company’s theme park costs, calling recent price hikes “too aggressive” at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Thursday, The Los Angeles Times reported.

    “In our zeal to grow profits, we may have been a little bit too aggressive about some of our pricing,” Iger said. “I think there’s a way to continue to grow that business, but be smarter about how we price so that we maintain that brand value of accessibility.”

    Iger, who’s been with the company for four decades (with 15 years as its CEO), resumed his leadership role last November after his successor Bob Chapek stepped down. Iger’s on track to retire again in two years, per Fox Business; the search for Disney’s next CEO is underway.

    Related: Disney CEO Bob Iger Wants Employees in Office 4 Days a Week

    Walt Disney Co is down nearly 28% year over year.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • 8 Ways to Take Advantage of the Extra Daylight | Entrepreneur

    8 Ways to Take Advantage of the Extra Daylight | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Every year, the United States “springs forward,” setting clocks ahead by one hour in observance of daylight saving time (DST). Sure, you lose an hour of sleep, but it lets you align your waking hours with the additional daylight hours during the warmer months.

    If you’re an entrepreneur, that extra hour can be a window of opportunity. With more daylight, you’ll have more opportunities to expand your skill set or build your dream.

    Need a place to start? Here are eight things you can do with that extra hour to make yourself a better entrepreneur.

    Related: If Running Your Business Feels Hard, You’re Doing it Right. Here’s Why

    1. Exercise

    It’s easy to let your self-care routine fall by the wayside during the winter. But longer, warmer days are practically an invitation to get out there and resume your exercise routine. Not only is exercise good for your physical health, but it’s also been shown to release endorphins that help alleviate stress.

    Even a simple daily walk or light jog can offer surprising benefits. Additionally, some communities offer group activities like cycling or ultimate frisbee that provide a social outlet or networking opportunities.

    2. Discover networking events

    Relationships are essential for entrepreneurs looking to build their businesses. The partnerships you form within your community can help you increase brand awareness, generate new ideas or seize opportunities to work together for a common goal.

    During the spring and summer, you may have access to outdoor networking activities in the area.

    You can find such events by talking to other entrepreneurs or searching for networking events on sites like LinkedIn. They might include picnics, sporting events or community outreach projects that let you make an impact in your community.

    Related: 4 Ways to Determine If Now Is the Right Time to Launch Your Business

    3. Fuel your reading habit

    Savvy entrepreneurs understand the value of a good book. Reading provides endless opportunities for self-improvement or success, and the latest books and publications can keep you informed about the best practices that affect your business or industry.

    But even reading outside your immediate subject matter can make you a more well-rounded individual and train your brain to think differently about the world around you.

    Many local libraries offer summer reading programs and book clubs that you can take advantage of, but you can also simply post up on the beach or in a lawn chair with a book or e-reader. And if you’re out walking or exercising, you might consider listening to an audiobook or podcast.

    4. Pause for self-reflection

    As much as the business world talks about data and analysis, surprisingly little attention is given to the process of reflection.

    Self-reflection isn’t complicated, but it’s an opportunity to take stock of your internal motivations.

    What are you truly passionate about? What do you hope to accomplish in the coming years? These are the kinds of questions you might ponder as you take your evening walk or lounge by the pool.

    The answers to these questions can be good reminders of why you got into business in the first place and provide motivation when the going gets tough.

    Related: How to Build Your Business Strategy in the Face of Uncertainty

    5. Pursue learning opportunities

    Learners make the best leaders. Along with consuming informative content, the summer might also present opportunities to participate in seminars, conferences or other educational opportunities that keep you engaged in your business or industry niche.

    While it’s not hard to find webinars or other virtual events, the extra daylight might also provide opportunities for in-person learning events. The real estate industry, for example, tends to ramp up in the spring, which might give you a chance to network or take classes to sharpen your business skills.

    6. Jumpstart your creative thinking

    Some of the most gifted leaders are known for thinking outside the box. When the weather warms up, it’s also an opportunity to get out of the office! Exercise, leisure and travel all provide opportunities for learning and growth and can serve as a mental “reset,” allowing you to return to your work with a fresh outlook.

    Not sure where to start? Ask yourself what’s one thing about your business you wish you could change. Then, start thinking about ways to answer that question.

    As you travel, look at the ways other businesses are doing things. This can help you think about your business differently and may spark new ideas for change.

    Related: 9 Simple Ways to Transform Your Morning Routine and Boost Productivity

    7. Spend time with loved ones

    Spending time with your friends or family won’t just make you a better entrepreneur; it’ll make you a better human being. Quality time with loved ones helps to combat stress and can keep you motivated when your business starts to feel burdensome.

    If you’re a parent, spending time with your kids allows you to pass on valuable life lessons to the next generation. Sports, camping, a day at the beach — these activities can give you some much-needed R&R and help you strengthen your personal ties.

    8. Cultivate gratitude

    What are you thankful for? That’s not just a question to ask over your Thanksgiving turkey. Gratitude can keep you centered on what truly matters and remind you that some of the things that bring you the most joy have little to do with your entrepreneurial success.

    Seeing nature in all her unrivaled splendor is a great example. Very few people go to the Grand Canyon and think, “I wish I were back at the office.”

    As you exercise, travel or spend time with family, pause and reflect on the world around you. Take time to appreciate the little things and keep this newfound gratitude front of mind to stay motivated while working on your business.

    Related: How to Wake Up Early

    Reset more than just your clock

    Warm weather and longer days mean opportunities to improve both yourself and your business. If you put these tips into practice, you’ll reset more than just your clock. You’ll also reset yourself, forming a new mindset that lets you greet each day with a sense of possibility.

    So give yourself a break. You may find that these ideas give you a new sense of purpose and make you a better entrepreneur.

    Related: How to Know When That Business Idea Is Good Enough to Pursue

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    John Boitnott

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  • 7 Tips to Avoid Falling Back When We Spring Forward with Daylight Saving Time | Entrepreneur

    7 Tips to Avoid Falling Back When We Spring Forward with Daylight Saving Time | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As entrepreneurs, most of us have traveled across time zones and do so frequently for both work and leisure. And do we complain? So despite knowing that it will happen, why do many of us complain every year when the clocks spring forward by one hour for Daylight Saving Time (DST)?

    I encourage you to take a different approach this year. First, the most important thing you can do is to change your attitude towards the clocks springing forward. Here’s how: Mentally prepare yourself in advance, and tell yourself and those around you that DST is nothing to complain about because we face it every year. We’re better off preparing for it and finding the silver linings and benefits of the time change.

    For example, more daylight in the evening allows for after-dinner walks. Such a walk fosters family time, lowers your blood glucose level, and it’s likely a deterrent from excess evening snacking or drinking. Is that a win or a win?

    I recall weekday mornings from past DST days when everyone in my house was slow to move, and nobody except for the clocks was springing forward. Friends called me to talk about their double doses of caffeine and how they yelled more at their kids to rush them out the door for school.

    Research shows increased car accidents and injuries at work after DST because our already sleep-deprived country is less alert. So, while we will still feel the time change because of our circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that’s governed by our body’s internal clock, below are some tips that should help make DST more manageable and help you better prepare not to fall back when the clock springs forward.

    Related: How Daylight Savings Time Affects Productivity

    1. Gradually prepare yourself with an earlier bedtime

    You may not feel tired at night but try to schedule an earlier bedtime before DST. By moderately making these changes before the time change, you’ll begin daylight saving time having almost adapted to the time change.

    From exercise to meals to your bedtime routine, move everything forward by 15 minutes each day. Particularly in the evening, be disciplined about washing your face, brushing your teeth, going off screens or whatever sleep routines you have earlier than normal.

    2. Don’t snooze, rather wake up 15 minutes earlier

    I’ve never used the snooze button. I feel it’s torture and not efficient nor motivating for the morning routine you’ve set out to do, so I mentally trained myself never to snooze. Now for you snoozers, you can call me crazy but give yourself some wiggle room during the week of DST for the morning time. Most of us adjusting to the time change will be slow-moving, and rushing will lead to a stressful morning, so use the extra time to prevent this rushed and chaotic feeling.

    The same goes for getting kids ready for school. Time is valuable, and the extra time will make the morning less hectic. Just please do not “snooze,” as this will keep your circadian rhythm from adjusting to the time change.

    Related: Stop Hitting the Snooze Button and Start Intentionally Building Your Life and Business

    3. Prioritize daylight exposure

    Get your sunshine early, within an hour of waking if you can, even if it’s stepping outdoors for a 5-minute gratitude practice, walking the dog or looking towards the light of the day while taking deep breaths. Light is the central driver of our circadian rhythm, and this morning sunlight alone will help your body’s internal clock best acclimate to the new timing of light and dark.

    I’m not a biohacker, but I do keep on top of the latest research and science in health and wellness, and I encourage you to check out this guide from Neuroscience Professor at Stanford, Dr. Andrew Huberman. Even on a cloudy day, natural light provides more brightness that helps to align the circadian rhythm than artificial indoor lighting.

    Related: 6 Benefits of Unchaining Yourself From Your Desk to Take a Break Outside

    4. Keep active and keep moving

    I personally look forward to and need my morning workouts as they help get my body, brain and soul moving and kickstart my day. But if exercising first thing in the morning isn’t what you enjoy, plan to get outside or move every day this week, even if just a brisk mid-morning or lunchtime walk (or even a ‘sweatwork’ walk meeting), which will energize all parties involved and help everyone ease into a better night of sleep.

    Added bonus? Walking as little as 2 to 5 minutes after any meal will help lower your blood glucose level, according to a 2022 study in the Journal of Sports Medicine.

    5. Eat well and go easy on the caffeine

    Proper nutrition is directly correlated to sleep. Eliminate added sugars, stay well hydrated with water and electrolytes and focus on eating good sources of protein, carbs and fat, such as fish high in omega 3s, nuts, vegetables and fruits. Eat dinner at least a few hours before bed, and limit spicy and heavy foods.

    Whenever my schedule allows, I prefer to eat what I call “linner,” meaning that it’s a combo lunch/dinner, and I eat this meal between 3-4 p.m. If this isn’t conducive to your schedule or ability to prepare a healthy meal, try making lunch the bigger meal of your day. Be aware of caffeine in beverages, including soda which is also loaded with sugar.

    It’s human and forgivable that most people will be doubling and even tripling up their coffee and green tea this week just to survive. But don’t overdo it. Too much caffeine will make you crash, so aim to stop drinking caffeine after 2 p.m. And particularly for this week, plan to ease up on alcohol intake as alcohol can interfere with a good night’s sleep.

    Related: Is Caffeine Boosting or Sabotaging Your Productivity?

    6. Ask for and give yourself some grace

    If your boss is flexible, ask if you can get to the office a little later for a couple of days so you can take the time to happily ease into the time change and avoid sleep-deprived and frustrated commuters at rush hour.

    If you lead a team or company, have a little compassion. Offer your team a slightly later start to the morning in exchange for meeting a specific deadline that week or having them agree to 15–30 minutes of fresh air early in the morning or the middle of the day. Happy employees = productive employees.

    7. Power nap

    More health and wellness professionals, experts and entrepreneurs are treating themselves to power naps for rejuvenation and mental wellness. The key for napping is 30 minutes or less; otherwise, you’ll feel like you got hit by a bus when you wake up! A nap should both calm your nervous system and energize you.

    Early afternoon naps are best, as naps late in the day can make it difficult to sleep. Not necessary, but if you’re curious about prioritizing a deeper night’s sleep, look into sleep tools such as weighted blankets, sleep meditation apps and light therapy.

    With these tips, you should be able to spring forward along with the clocks. As human beings, and especially as entrepreneurs, we are strong, and our minds and bodies can adjust. So when the clocks spring forward, shift your mindset to when the alarm goes off at 6 a.m. on Monday morning, and think that it’s 6 a.m. instead of saying, “I can’t believe it’s really 5 a.m.!” The better we prepare, the better we position ourselves for positive outcomes and longer, brighter days full of sunshine.

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    Elisette Carlson

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  • This “5-2-1 Method” Will Make You Smarter in Just 7 Days | Entrepreneur

    This “5-2-1 Method” Will Make You Smarter in Just 7 Days | Entrepreneur

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    Leaders must compete or collaborate with AI to adapt to the rapidly changing environment — and this method will allow you to do just that.

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    Ben Angel

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  • The government may stop issuing Social Security payments after the debt limit is hit — here’s why

    The government may stop issuing Social Security payments after the debt limit is hit — here’s why

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    There’s a very real possibility the government will stop issuing Social Security payments after the debt limit is hit.

    Scary as that prospect is, however, the alternative might be even worse: A little-known provision of a 1996 law could be interpreted to allow the Social Security trust fund to be used not only to pay Social Security’s monthly checks but also to circumvent the debt limit and pay all the government’s otherwise overdue bills.

    If that happens, any short-term relief to Social Security recipients would come with a potentially huge long-term price tag: The Social Security trust fund could be exhausted much sooner than currently projected—in just a couple of years, in fact.

    Read: I’ll be 60, have $95,000 in cash and no debts — I think I can retire, but financial seminars ‘say otherwise’

    These dire possibilities emerge from an analysis conducted by Steve Robinson, the chief economist for The Concord Coalition, a group that describes itself as “a nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public and finding common sense solutions to our nation’s fiscal policy challenges.”

    An issue brief he wrote, entitled “Social Security’s Debt Limit Escape Clause,” is available on the group’s website.

    Let me hasten to add that Robinson is not advocating that the Social Security trust fund be used in this way. In an interview, he instead stressed that he wrote his issue brief because we need to be aware not only that this “escape clause” exists but that its use could have unintended consequences. Though hardly anyone outside Washington knows that it even exists, and relatively few on Capitol Hill, the Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration are very much aware of it.

    Read: ChatGPT is about to make the business of retirement planning and financial advice profoundly human

    Before reviewing the details of this escape clause, it’s worth focusing on the political dynamics that surround it. Because the escape clause lessens the pressure on Congress and the president to come up with a solution to the debt crisis, neither side has an incentive to publicize its existence. But if the government is otherwise pushed to the edge of the fiscal cliff, and it’s facing the potentially huge consequences of an outright default (including the nonpayment of monthly Social Security checks), the political pressure to use the escape clause could be intense.

    The 1996 law that creates the escape clause was passed in the wake of the government hitting its debt limit in 1995 and 1996. Ironically, the intent of that law was to prevent the Social Security trust fund from being used for anything other than paying Social Security benefits. But, Robinson explains, that’s unworkable in the real world. That’s because Social Security checks are sent out by the Treasury’s general account, and if that account is in default the checks would bounce.

    Read: These 3 things will bring you happiness in retirement — and life

    If and when the debt limit is hit, therefore, the only way—in practice—for Social Security checks to continue being issued and cleared through the banking system would be for the Social Security trust fund to “lend” the Treasury sufficient funds that it could pay all the government’s unmet obligations. (I put “lend” in quotes because that’s not exactly how it works; the key is that the “loan” can be structured in ways that don’t count against the debt limit. If you’re interested in reading more about the complex logistics involved, you should read Robinson’s issue brief.)

    Therefore, if the debt limit is hit, which it is projected to do perhaps as early as June, Congress and the president will be on the horns of a huge dilemma:

    • Do they allow Social Security checks to continue getting paid, risking the political fallout of being accused of “raiding” the Social Security trust fund?

    • Or do they stop issuing Social Security payments, risking the political fallout of not issuing Social Security payments, on whom the very livelihoods of many elderly currently depend?

    You can appreciate why Congress and the president don’t want us to know that this escape clause exists. Once we are aware of it, they are put in a no-win situation.

    So fasten your seat belts for a wild ride in coming months as both parties play political brinkmanship over the debt limit and, by extension, Social Security. With both sides by the day hardening their stances, there’s a very real possibility that the debt limit will be hit.

    If that happens, we’ll be hearing a lot more about the little-known provision of a nearly 30-year-old law.

    Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. He can be reached at mark@hulbertratings.com.

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  • How to Juggle Being a Working Mom During Spring Break | Entrepreneur

    How to Juggle Being a Working Mom During Spring Break | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Between managing your business and your family, your schedule on a daily basis can be a little hectic. As a mompreneur myself for almost 30 years, I understand where you are coming from. From answering client emails to getting your kiddos snacks to completing chores, your day is full of motion. As crazy as it can get, you have a routine in place. You know what works best for everyone and you do an amazing job of juggling it all.

    But then something disruptive is thrown in like a school holiday. Your carefully crafted schedule gets thrown out the window, and it’s every person for themselves. Times like spring break can be extra stressful for mompreneurs because the kids are home, you might be trying to work and some of you might even be on vacation with your families — and still working!

    While I encourage you to take some much-deserved time off, I understand that is not feasible for everyone. I remember when I first started as a freelancer with my kids, I could not take time off, but I also did not want my family to miss out on vacation time. I spent many vacations — like spring break — working while traveling with small children. It was not easy, but it was worth it, which is why I want to share my tips with you for juggling everything when the kids are out of school for long vacations like spring break.

    These are tried and true tips that I have learned over the years, and I hope they help you enjoy time with your children.

    Related: Striking the Right Balance As a Mompreneur

    1. Have a plan

    When it comes to making a plan, start by figuring out how you want to divide your time between your family and business commitments. Do you want to give the kids extra attention during their break or do you want to keep your work schedule as normal as possible? Once you decide, create a schedule and stick to it. Consider setting aside specific blocks of time for each task so that you can stay on track and get everything done.

    You should also make sure to leave some wiggle room in case something unexpected comes up. Finally, don’t forget to include time for yourself in your plan. As a mompreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and neglect your own needs. But taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of your family and business. So make sure to carve out some time to relax and unwind.

    2. Set boundaries

    During spring break (or any school holiday), you don’t have to drop everything and be with your children 24/7, but you should make sure that you have time to spend quality time with them. Have a conversation with your family about the expectations for the week like what activities you will do together, when you will have time to work, etc.

    It’s also important to set boundaries with work. If possible, try to block off time in advance to ensure that you are able to dedicate time to your family without feeling pressure from work. This could be an hour or two each day or a specific block of time during the day or week. Make sure to communicate your plans with your colleagues or clients and let them know when you will be available and when you won’t. That way, you can enjoy your break without worrying about emails piling up or missing an important deadline.

    3. Be flexible

    If you know that certain days are going to be full of activities with the kids, try scheduling any necessary tasks beforehand or make up the time later on. You may also want to take advantage of the extra time your kids have off by delegating some of their chores to them while you focus on your business. Being flexible during the spring break season doesn’t mean sacrificing your business goals. Instead, it’s about finding a balance between parenting and being an entrepreneur. With a little planning and creative thinking, you can have a successful spring break season both as a mom and a business owner.

    Related: Why This Mom Entrepreneur Is All About Quarterly Planning

    4. Get help

    If you need help managing the kids during spring break, don’t be afraid to ask for it! Reach out to family, friends or even childcare providers if you need assistance. You may also want to consider a babysitter or nanny who can help with activities and take the kids off your hands when you need to focus on work.

    If you have the means to do so, hiring a virtual assistant to help with day-to-day tasks can free up some of your time. You can also outsource some tasks such as bookkeeping, social media management or web design. This will allow you to focus on what’s important to you and your business. Finally, don’t be afraid to lean on your support network. Ask for advice or help when you need it. It’s often easier to ask for help than you think!

    5. Take time for yourself

    It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the extra demands that come with having kids out of school, so taking some time to relax and unwind can help you stay on top of your work by doing something you enjoy, like reading a book. Taking time for yourself can help refresh your energy levels and increase productivity. Finally, remember that it’s okay to take some time away from work during spring break. You don’t have to feel guilty about taking time off, as long as you plan ahead and make sure all your work is taken care of. Balance is key and taking the time to invest in yourself will help you keep up with all your responsibilities.

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    Lesley Pyle

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  • ‘Loud Layoffs’ Hurt Your Health — Shift Your Mindset Like This | Entrepreneur

    ‘Loud Layoffs’ Hurt Your Health — Shift Your Mindset Like This | Entrepreneur

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    Don’t let your biggest fears become your new reality.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • How Daily Exercise Helped Me Lead a Truly Productive Life | Entrepreneur

    How Daily Exercise Helped Me Lead a Truly Productive Life | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    At the start of 2014, I couldn’t run a mile. That year, I began to test theories about change and growth. I wanted to know if simple effort and consistent practice are enough to truly improve our skills and abilities.

    Turns out, they are. At the end of 2014, I ran my first official 5K race. By the end of 2015, I had run 20 half-marathons. Today, I’ve run over 200 half marathons and 11 full marathons, totaling 12,000 miles. I once “hated” the idea of running. Now, it’s my greatest love in life. The biggest surprise I’ve had is running hasn’t just transformed me physically — it’s transformed me mentally, too. Here’s what it’s taught me:

    Related: How Exercising Daily Has Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

    1. Sometimes, life is hard — but we can do hard things

    Running, especially in the beginning, was incredibly difficult for me. I’d never practiced it. Even jogging a few blocks left me out of breath and gasping for air. As I worked to improve as a runner, I realized that sometimes life is hard. It’s supposed to be that way. When we ditch our affinity for ease and comfort and instead embrace struggle and challenge, we open ourselves up to a whole new universe of possibilities. Instead of saying, “I can’t do that. That sounds hard,” we can lean in. As we do, several things happen.

    First, things we once deemed hard become easier. Our skills and strength aren’t fixed quantities — they can grow and expand. We improve, which allows us to handle more complicated scenarios and solve more complex equations. Second, we stop expecting things to be easy. When we don’t expect things to be easy, we grow comfortable with some adversity and pain. That’s when we find out that we can actually withstand adversity and push through. Consistent, daily effort and practice is the catalyst that ignites this process. In the beginning, you may not see massive changes, but you have to trust that it’s working.

    2. Our beliefs are the limiting reagent in the chemistry of our minds

    When we want to do something, it’s imperative that we believe we actually can. Our brain likes to be right, so it constantly looks for ways to validate or prove its beliefs. What we sometimes forget, however, is that we get to decide what we believe — and we can update our beliefs at any time.

    When I began running, I often believed that I simply couldn’t run any farther or take another step. “You’ve gone far enough, it’s time to stop,” my brain would shout at me. Then, I learned how to talk back to my brain. “Let’s just get to the red light,” I’d negotiate. Then, “How about just one more mile?” I’ve found that our bodies will do whatever our brains tell us to do. Often, we can accomplish much more than we think we can. We can keep going long after we think we can’t.

    As humans, many fall prey to this daily. We believe that reaching a compromise or agreement is impossible. So, it is. We believe a problem is unsolvable. So, it is. But almost always, if we believe there’s a way through and we remain determined to find it, we will. Here’s a tip: Taking a break from a problem and coming back to it later can be a remarkable tool. Just like our muscles, our brains sometimes need time to rest and rejuvenate. When you feel you can’t do anymore, come back after you’ve allowed your brain or body time to breathe. It’s amazing how differently you’ll view things after a break. This process refreshes stamina and creativity.

    Related: 4 Scientific Reasons Exercising Is an Entrepreneur’s Biggest Competitive Advantage

    3. Tools and resources are always available to help us; don’t go it alone

    With regards to literally everything in life — our relationships, our professional pursuits, our health and fitness goals — there is a plethora of research, books and mentors there to guide us. There is always someone who has already done what we want to do. Find these people, make friends with them and directly ask them for advice and mentorship. Observe them closely; learn from their examples.

    So often, we are afraid to ask for help for fear of looking foolish or being viewed as incompetent. We sometimes feel that we should do it all alone. This is a mistake. Reach out and leverage the people who have traveled in your shoes before. We, as humans, are not meant to function completely independently. In fact, our mere survival depends on our cooperation and partnerships with one another. With regard to my running, podiatrists have advised me on my feet and my shoes, friends have shared the financial burden of housing me during races and apps have provided me with music and tracking of my results. Without this, much of my running wouldn’t have been sustainable.

    4. Success is not a straight line; don’t expect every day to be amazing

    With regard to any problem we want to solve or any competency we want to develop, it can be tempting to think that every day should be better than the last. We sometimes think that once we’ve set a goal, started down a path and made headway, it should be nothing but smooth sailing.

    That thinking can cripple us. This is not how success works. There will be days when we lack the motivation to press forward. There will be disruption in our business. Unfavorable economic environments and new competitors in our marketplace can send us into a tailspin. Pouring rain can show up on the day we planned for our long run or you might twist an ankle on race day. These things happen. We sometimes take a step forward to only take two steps back. There are moments we might regress. What we do in these moments will define the trajectory of our lives. When we anticipate these moments, we handle them better than if we deny or ignore their existence. One of the best ways to avoid falling into this trap is to constantly remember our why and to stay passionate about and committed to not just the end results, but the journey.

    Without these four strategies, I would have failed as a runner, but also as a leader, a coach, an author, a friend and a partner. All these areas have thrown me challenges. Before becoming a runner, I didn’t want to struggle in life. When things got tough, I was more prone to quit or give up. Running has taught me that struggle simply means we’re growing. It’s taught me that no matter what’s happening around me, I always get to choose my response. Now, I use that in every area of my life, which has changed literally everything — maybe it can change yours, too.

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    Amy M Chambers

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  • Outsmarting Elon: The Dangers of Emulating Elon Musk’s Productivity Advice | Entrepreneur

    Outsmarting Elon: The Dangers of Emulating Elon Musk’s Productivity Advice | Entrepreneur

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    There’s a lot we can learn from Elon Musk, but productivity advice isn’t one of them. Here’s why.

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    Ben Angel

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  • Why Your Whole Team Needs to Be Involved in Company Change | Entrepreneur

    Why Your Whole Team Needs to Be Involved in Company Change | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, said that change is natural and constant. Nowhere is this adage more alive than in the business world; the entrepreneur’s origin story is built on change.

    Recently, Frontier Airlines enacted a change by removing its customer service phone number. This leaves customers to find solutions through digital channels. With this change, the customer experience will transform entirely, creating a significant difference in the organization. This approach will allow Frontier Airlines to uncover insights that might inform, validate and challenge its strategy.

    Making a bold choice such as this can be difficult, which is why many leaders and founders struggle with change.

    Related: Would You Rather Change or Let Your Business Die?

    Why is change so hard for a growing business?

    Many businesses insist on leaving transformational leadership in the hands of a small group of senior leaders or change managers rather than making it part of their team’s mission. Maybe because change is so crucial at the beginning of a venture — the scrappy entrepreneur needs to disrupt, innovate, sell their home and live in a basement. Then a company’s relationship to change changes.

    A familiar disappointment for company leaders is the feeling of getting slower as they grow. The profile of people who start and join a small company is vastly different from those who join as the company grows and becomes more stable. Stability becomes the preference and inertia the enemy.

    The demands of a company’s growth stage can reveal individuals’ unproductive relationships to change. These relationships can be put into three categories. Receivers of change believe change is being done to them. Resistors to change believe they can wait out the change, and controllers of change ultimately believe they can plan and manage their way through it. Being big doesn’t have to mean being slow or putting change on the back burner, and entrepreneurs can overcome these unproductive attitudes.

    Organizations growing most sustainably continue to disrupt at all stages of growth. The ability to continue to adapt and outpace the changes of the external environment requires change-ready leaders at all levels.

    What are the benefits of a change-ready organization?

    Companies with change-ready teams can tackle and rise above the challenges of their environments more easily than teams that rely on top-down change management. Companies that insist on only entrusting change to a select few leaders are bound to find a lack of change, engagement, diversity and connection with customers. We’ve already established that change is constant, and leadership needs to reflect that in order to have a change-ready culture.

    Here’s what sets change-ready leaders apart:

    • They’re more engaged. They understand that emotional agreement precedes strategic alignment, so they seek to bring everyone’s voices to the table.
    • They’re more adaptable. They are open to their teams’ conflicting views and assumptions and can adapt to the increasing rate of change in the environment.
    • They lead with a mutuality mindset. They know that diverse teams generate even stronger ideas that consider key risks and ensure their teams think from customers’ perspectives.

    Perhaps the most important benefit of developing change-ready team members is that researchers believe that “employee attitudes to change are key predictors of organizational change success.” People who see change as a constant and necessary source of opportunity are best positioned to turn change into positive forces for their organizations.

    Related: How to Better Manage Corporate Culture During Times of Transition

    How can leaders nurture change readiness?

    Instead of managing change from the top down, leaders could find that a more sustainable way of staying change-ready is to engage the whole team. How can leaders begin to cultivate a change-ready mindset among team members? Here is a playbook of initial strategies to try:

    1. Accept that change isn’t linear

    Change is messy. It progresses one day and falls back the next. Many leaders operate under the notion that periods of change in their companies will be followed by periods of calm or that change will eventually end. This is a misconception; business is change, and creating conditions of change readiness will be more enduring than making temporary preparations to handle a specific change.

    Therefore, leaders should adapt their mindset around change in their companies. At BTS, we know that change is no longer an individual sport but a team sport. Rather than a few elite surfers trying to conquer the waves, we see change more like white water rafting, where everyone must work together to make it through the waves.

    2. Build awareness of your own relationship to change

    Before you can successfully lead anyone through change, you need to heighten your own self-awareness of your productive and less productive responses. This starts with a biological reality: Although change is coming at us faster and more frequently than ever before in human history, biologically, we are wired to respond to change as a threat. In the past, threats to our existence were lions, tigers and bears; in the modern change-filled world, threats are things such as looking bad, being wrong or losing control.

    The first step any organization can take to build more change readiness is to help every leader understand their beliefs around change and offer them new tools and approaches to be more effective. This is the approach we took with a Fortune 200 company that, in anticipation of significant structural shifts for the organization, equipped all 50,000 employees with new tools and techniques to build resilience and change readiness.

    Related: 5 Key Ways to Create an Innovation Culture

    3. Engage your team to take ownership of change

    Identify the pivotal moments your organization faces in leading change and align on what change-ready behaviors look like in each moment. Cultivating a team of change-ready leaders will mean engaging team members in what change means. Share the targets and outcomes of strategic direction meetings, allowing time to hear all perspectives and test different ideas on the front line. Invite people to tackle those challenges themselves in their roles so that they feel ownership over the pivotal moments where change occurs in a day.

    To support this team-level ownership, shift behavior in the smaller moments that matter most. Back this up by creating the social networks and support structures that enable a wholescale mindset, giving each level and department a chance to own its change readiness.

    Change is constant, and it is a team sport. No one leader or manager can author change by themselves and expect it to serve the whole organization and a whole world of customers. Sustainable, successful change comes from a collective of people who feel positively about change: a team of change-ready leaders.

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    Anne Wilson, Kevin Bronk, and Kelsey Raymond

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  • This Is the Best Way to Form Powerful Habits That Stick | Entrepreneur

    This Is the Best Way to Form Powerful Habits That Stick | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Our brains are lazy — but not without good reason. Comprising only 2% of the body’s mass, the brain gobbles up 20% of its energy. About 86 billion neurons fight to fulfill their staggering metabolic needs. Laziness is an energy-conserving necessity for the brain.

    If we want to create powerful habits that stick, it doesn’t make sense to waste that energy. But that’s what most of us do when trying to change our habits. We scold and punish ourselves into adopting new habits. We bend over backward trying to justify unhealthy ones. These mental gymnastics deplete vital mental energy. We engage in thoughts, beliefs and actions that don’t actually support change. Instead, they stifle it.

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    Leah Borski

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  • I’m 66, we have more than $2 million, I just want to golf – can I retire?

    I’m 66, we have more than $2 million, I just want to golf – can I retire?

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    I’m 66 years and 4 months old.

    My Social Security payments start next month at $3,300 a month. I’m currently working part-time, three days per week, as a professional engineer for $95/hour for my long-time regular full-time employer of 28 years. (I want to leave this position ASAP or sooner.) 

    I currently have about $1.6 million in retirement accounts. My wife (60 years old) has about $600,000 in various regular and retirement accounts. We have a 16-year-old daughter at home attending high school and college in a dual enrollment program. If she stays with the program she’ll have her bachelors at 19. While in high school she takes college classes and we pay no tuition while she’s in high school. 

    Our monthly expenses are about $9,000-10,000 per month including health insurance for my wife and daughter. We own our modest single-family home with no mortgage. Taxes and insurance are currently about $6,000 per year. We currently have no debt, aside from an American Express and Visa that we pay off every month.

    I’m on Medicare. I get walloped for a double premium for part “B” because I’m considered a high-wage earner. The two of us are in reasonable/normal health for a couple of old farts.

    I want to throw in the towel on May 5 and play more golf. Can we do it?

    See: We’re in our 60s and have lost $250,000 in our 401(k) plans — can we still retire?  

    Dear reader, 

    Congratulations on saving so much for your retirement. That’s a wonderful accomplishment alone!

    Because I don’t have all of your financials in front of me, nor am I a financial planner building a comprehensive plan for your retirement, I can’t say for certain if you can retire. However, it does obviously sound like you’re doing well and that you’ve been planning. Instead of telling you to go for it or not, I’m going to offer a few things to consider before you pick up your mid irons. 

    More than $2 million (you and your wife’s savings combined) is a lot of money — I’m not suggesting otherwise — but when it comes to retirement, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically good to go once you hit the million-dollar mark. There are so many factors, some of which you mentioned like healthcare and debt, as well as saving and spending. 

    I harp on spending analysis a lot but to me, it’s so crucial when deciding if and how to retire. Why? Because this is something that, for the most part, you can control. That’s a pretty powerful feeling. 

    So my first suggestion: Review those AMEX and Visa statements, as well as money that comes out of any checking accounts, and make sure that you’re spending the way you want and need to spend. When you retire, you won’t have that part-time income anymore, and while you may be itching to get on the green, you’ll also be stressing out if you don’t have enough green in a decade or two. You’ve told me what your Social Security benefits will be and what your average monthly spending is, but I would suggest really poring over your spending and assessing how comfortable you’ll be if you continue to spend that way when you retire. 

    Check out MarketWatch’s column “Retirement Hacks” for actionable pieces of advice for your own retirement savings journey 

    There’s a second part to that analysis, which is how much money you intend to withdraw from your retirement accounts. I’m not sure if your wife is still working, but regardless, the more money you take out of those accounts every month, the less there is available to grow over time. Taxes also play a part here, depending on if you’re withdrawing from a traditional or Roth-style account. Those taxes could take a larger chunk out of your spending money, as well as potentially give you a heftier tax bill come tax time. 

    Think about this when your daughter goes off to college, too. She may not be there long if she continues with her hybrid high school and college courses (which is wonderful, by the way), but do you plan to pay for her tuition, and if so, where is that money coming from? Advisers tell me all the time: you can take a loan for college, but you can’t take one for retirement. It might be beneficial to have a separate savings account earmarked for education, if you don’t already have one of those or some sort of college savings account like a 529 plan, so that you’re not draining your retirement account for a tuition bill. 

    One last bit about that — plan for the unexpected. What will you do if a major expense arises? Will that money also come from a retirement account, or do you have an emergency account set aside to cover it? Saving a lot of money for retirement is amazing, but it’s not the only task individuals need to manage… coming up with a Plan B, and maybe even a Plan C and Plan D, is necessary too. 

    Also see: Are you planning for retirement all wrong? 

    Next, before retiring, check the way your money is invested. What’s your asset allocation like, and does it need to change? Don’t make alterations just to make them — and definitely don’t make them just because you read the markets weren’t doing so hot that day — but keep in mind this money does need to grow for decades to support you and your wife, so you will need to strike that balance. Reaching out to a qualified financial professional, such as a certified financial planner, can help you make sense of what the best investment mix is, but at the least, log in to your account or call up the firm where your accounts are located and check that asset allocation. 

    Also, you mentioned you’re already on Medicare. I would suggest taking the time now — well before open enrollment — to review your current and expected future health expenses, and then assess how helpful your current coverage is for you. I know you mentioned you and your wife are in reasonable health, but if there are any operations or services you think you may need next year, it’s better to start reviewing what plans provide you the best coverage for your situation so that you’re not paying more out of pocket than necessary. This is an exercise you don’t need to do immediately, but it will certainly help you feel more prepared come the end of the year when it’s time to keep your current plan or switch for something else. 

    As an aside, you’ll eventually pay less in Medicare Part B premiums when your modified adjusted gross income declines. Those premiums are based on your tax returns from two years prior. 

    You sound like you are on the right track, which is wonderful. I would just caution you to tie up a few loose ends before resigning so that you can tee up without worrying. 

    Readers: Do you have suggestions for this reader? Add them in the comments below.

    Have a question about your own retirement savings? Email us at HelpMeRetire@marketwatch.com

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  • Murdaugh Family Murders Explained, What You Need to Know | Entrepreneur

    Murdaugh Family Murders Explained, What You Need to Know | Entrepreneur

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    Update, March 2, 2023: After deliberating for three hours on Thursday evening, a jury found Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, on June 7, 2021.

    Murdaugh still faces a host of serious charges, including money laundering, insurance fraud, and alleged misuse of funds from a settlement related to the death of his housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. He will face sentencing in his wife’s and son’s murders on March 3, 2023.

    The story of the Murdaugh murders stems from a 100-year-old family legal dynasty in Hampton, South Carolina, that was put in the hands of fourth-generation lawyer Alex Murdaugh.

    But what took a century to build came crashing down in June 2021, when Alex called authorities after finding his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and his youngest son, Paul Murdaugh, shot dead in their 1,770-acre hunting lodge at 4147 Moselle Road in Islandton, South Carolina.

    These crimes led to a series of revelations about the family, which HBO Max unpacked in the new true crime documentary, Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty, that aired on November 3. Followed by another true crime series based on the once-prestigious family Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal which is set to release on Netflix on February 22.

    Image credit: Courtesy of Maggie Murdaugh via Facebook.

    Now in the same courthouse where generations of Murdaughs laid down the law, Alex is set to go on trial for murder, with jury selection beginning on January 23.

    “Murdaugh will not be shackled during the trial, which begins Monday in Colleton County,” a South Carolina Public Radio reported. “He faces life behind bars if convicted. Meantime, a portrait of his grandfather that hangs in the courtroom will be taken down.”

    Keep scrolling for everything to know about the case and the Murdaugh family.

    Who Are the Murdaugh Family?

    The Murdaugh family began in South Carolina at the turn of the century and have been prominent lawyers in the state for decades. Beginning with Alex Murdaugh’s great-grandfather Randolph Murdaugh Sr., who started Peters Murdaugh Parker Eltzroth & Detrick in 1910, generations of his family have continued to work at the firm, including his son, Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh II, grandson, Randolph Murdaugh III, and his great-great-grandsons Randolph “Randy” Murdaugh IV and Alex Murdaugh.

    The firm was successful with personal injury cases by taking advantage of a South Carolina law that allows people to sue in any county and not where an incident may have occurred — which can often result in favoritism and landed Hampton County on the 2004 list of “Judicial Hellholes“. However, this made the Murdaugh group the “go-to” lawyers in the county.

    Randolph Sr. also became the first elected solicitor, (or district attorney), of the 14th judicial circuit (district) in 1920. Randolph Sr. held the role for 20 years until his death. His son, Randolph “Buster” Murdaugh II, was elected to the position next. He worked from 1940 to 1986, until his son Randolph Murdaugh III took over, working from 1986 to 2006. Alex volunteered and worked part-time in the solicitor’s office after graduating from USC Law School in 1994 until 2021.

    The Murdaugh family were solicitors in South Carolina for 86 years straight; leading criminal prosecutions for their district, and playing a key role in deciding which cases get prosecuted (and when) from 1920 to 2006.

    What Happened to Paul and Maggie Murdaugh?

    Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot dead on June 7, 2021. Alex Murdaugh called 911 at around 10 p.m., claiming he had discovered the bodies. However, the coroner found that the two had died between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., per NPR, and they had been shot with different weapons — Maggie with an assault-style rifle and Paul with a shotgun.

    In October 2021, Alex was named as a person of interest in the case, although his lawyer denied the allegations and said he had no motive for the crimes, according to People.

    According to NBC News, sources close to the investigation said authorities found cellphone video evidence that places Alex at the scene of the crime.

    On July 14, 2022, he was indicted by a grand jury in connection to Paul and Maggie’s murders. He was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

    Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers maintain his innocence.

    Image credit: Courtesy of Maggie Murdaugh via Facebook.

    What Other Crimes Were Uncovered After the Murdaugh Family Murders?

    As investigators looked into the deaths of the mother and son, other unsolved crimes relating to the Murdaugh family were discovered.

    Two years before his death, in February 2019, youngest son Paul, 22, had been involved in a boat crash that left his friend, Mallory Beach, dead after being thrown from the boat. Though various witnesses said Paul had been driving the boat while intoxicated, according to a previous NBC documentary on Peacock, key evidence had gone missing in the case.

    Paul was charged with one count of boating while intoxicated and two counts of causing bodily injury, though people suggested he received special treatment thanks to his family’s legacy. He was released on bond and a date for his trial was never set, per People.

    Additionally, two weeks following the double murders that took place in June 2021, the state reopened an investigation into a 2015 case of a man, Stephen Smith, who had been found dead on the side of the road.

    While South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has not revealed what evidence caused them to reopen the case, per NPR, the Murdaugh name kept coming up in relation to the case. Sources speculated that Buster Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh’s eldest son who also worked at the family law firm, had a relationship with Smith, according to the Daily Mail.

    Furthermore, although Smith’s death was ruled a hit-and-run, he had a gunshot wound above his right eye and his injuries were not consistent with those sustained from vehicle trauma, according to the Daily Mail.

    Buster has not been named a person of interest in Smith’s death.

    What Happened to Gloria Satterfield?

    In addition to Smith’s death, SLED began investigating another case involving the Murdaugh family. In 2018, the family’s longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, died after Maggie Murdaugh called 911, claiming Satterfield had fallen down the stairs. It was noted that Paul was present during the call.

    Satterfield was a longtime caretaker of the family, and according to sources featured in Discovery + documentary Murdaugh Murders: Deadly Dynasty, she had told several people that Paul would kill small animals and often disregarded authority.

    Her cause of death remains unclear.

    At the funeral, Alex approached Satterfield’s sons and said since the accident happened on his property, he was going to sue himself for wrongful death so the boys can get some insurance money, according to The New York Times.

    With all legalities handled by Alex, the sons were told to wait for a settlement.

    Alex and his insurers did reach a $4.3 million settlement in the months after Satterfield’s death, but the Satterfield family didn’t see a dime.

    The Satterfield sons filed a lawsuit against Alex Murdaugh in September 2021, and SLED decided to exhume the body for an autopsy in June 2022, according to South Carolina’s WCSC. That same month, Alex agreed to pay the Satterfield family $4.3 million.

    Where Is the Murdaugh Law Firm Now?

    The alleged misappropriated funds in the wrongful death suit uncovered various other financial crimes including Alex stealing millions from clients and his family law firm, according to The New York Times.

    He was then forced out by his partners in September 2021, just three months after the double murders. The firm changed its name to the Parker Law Group, LLP in January 2021, according to WOTC South Carolina.

    Alex was also stripped from being a lawyer in the state of South Carolina indefinitely, and his name was removed from the firm that was once known as the “Murdaugh Law Firm.”

    What Happened to Alex Murdaugh?

    The following day, after Alex was forced out of the firm, he was shot in the head while changing a tire on the side of the road. The shot only caused minor damage and he was able to call for help.

    Days after he was shot, he checked into rehab for opioid addiction. It was there that he admitted to lawyers that he had hired Curtis Eddie Smith to kill him so his son Buster could collect $10 million in insurance money.

    On Sept. 16, 2021, he turned himself in to Hampton County Law Enforcement in connection to the suicide-for-hire scam, per People.

    Later, on Oct. 14, 2021, Alex was arrested on felony charges for misusing millions from the Satterfield estate and obtaining property under false pretenses, per NPR, and was hit with tens of charges in the months that followed concerning numerous financial crimes and deaths.

    He was indicted on murder charges for the deaths of his wife and son in July 2022.

    Image credit: Tracy Glantz/The Island Packet/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

    Where Are the Murdaughs Now?

    Alex Murdaugh is currently in jail and is set to go on trial for the June 2021 murders of his son Paul and his wife Maggie in January. If convicted, he could face 30 years to life in prison without parole and could be eligible for the death penalty, according to USA Today.

    Murdaugh faces a total of 90 charges, many of which include financial crimes such as stealing from the family law firm, money laundering through a drug ring, and committing insurance fraud.

    As for the rest of the surviving Murdaugh family, eldest son Buster was last reported to be “not doing well at all” since his father was arrested for the double murders, sources told People in July 2022.

    Despite previously working at his family’s law firm, Buster appears to have no involvement in the rebranded Parker Law Group.

    Meanwhile, Alex’s brother Randy still works as a practicing lawyer at the now-renamed Parker Law Firm. He denounced Alex’s actions and claimed he had no involvement in his mishandling of company funds in a statement to People in September 2021.

    Randy is also suing Alex for thousands in unpaid loans.

    How Much Are the Murdaughs Worth?

    It’s unclear exactly how much wealth the Murdaugh family once had, but several accounts and properties were found to be worth millions.

    When Murdaugh was held on a $7 million bond for 51 criminal charges, the court detailed Murdaugh’s assets, which included numerous real estate properties and even small islands, according to Greenville News.

    Additionally, the court found a retirement account worth between $2.1 and $2.2 million, and an IRA retirement fund valued at $350,000 to $400,000.

    He was also supposed to receive a trust for an undisclosed amount after his father Randolph Murdaugh III’s death in June 2021, plus probate assets after his wife’s death that same month.

    Furthermore, the family hunting lodge where Paul and Maggie were killed was listed in February 2022 for $3.9 million.

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    Sam Silverman

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  • TikToker Eating Only McDonald’s For 100 Days Losing Weight | Entrepreneur

    TikToker Eating Only McDonald’s For 100 Days Losing Weight | Entrepreneur

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    Last month, Kevin Maginnis went on his TikTok channel @bigmaccoaching to try a weird weight-loss experiment.

    “I’m going to eat nothing but McDonald’s for the next 100 days, the 56-year-old Nashville native said, “but instead of eating everything they give me, I’m going to go ahead and cut the meals in half just to prove to myself and maybe some of the other people watching that it’s not as much what you’re eating, it’s the quantity that we’re eating that really jacks us up.”

    @bigmaccoaching Challenge: Eating mcdonalds every meal for the next 100 days to lose weight! #mcdonalds #mcdonaldschallenge #weightloss #bigmaccoaching #transformativecoaching #nashvilleweightlosstransformation #weightlossjourney #100daychallenge ♬ Inspiring Emotional Piano – Metrow Ar

    That video now has 573,000 views.

    Maginnis started his unconventional weight-loss plan weighing 238 pounds. He has chronicled every day of his diet on TikTok, eating three meals daily, but only half of the meal.

    If you think all Maginnis is only eating salads and yogurt parfait, you’d be wrong. He’s eating from the full menu, including Egg McMuffins, Fries, and Big Macs. The only rules are to eat half, only drink water (so soda or juice), and no snacks in between.

    Some TikTok users expressed concern about food waste, but Maginnis assured them he was saving each un-eaten meal and eating it the next day.

    Related: Some McDonald’s Franchisees Aren’t Happy With Cardi B and Offset’s New Meal, Despite Proven Success of Celebrity-Tied Promos

    Is the diet working?

    Maginnis claims to have lost 12.5 pounds in 10 days. Yesterday, he went on the Today Show to discuss his journey, saying he estimated dropping 50 pounds in 100 days.

    “My health will be better. My blood work will be better,” he said. “And if you don’t believe me, follow along. Let’s find out.”

    Maginnis isn’t the first to try this experiment. In 2014, a high school biology teacher John Cisna only ate only McDonald’s for 90 days, asking his students to design his menu. By the end of 3 months, he’d lost 37 pounds.

    But most nutritionists and doctors do not recommend Mcdonald’s for three meals a day. Sure, you may lose weight, but other health issues must be considered, including the detrimental effects of diets high in sugar, sodium, and fat.

    “One of the most immediate effects of eating at McDonald’s is feeling extremely tired and groggy after your meal,” said Bansari Acharya RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist told Eat This, Not That. “Your body feels like it has low energy due to it trying to digest the overload of fat and sugar.”

    Fast Food has also been shown to raise cholesterol levels, destroy healthy gut bacteria, and make you more susceptible to diabetes.

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    Jonathan Small

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  • Is the American Dream Really Dead? Yes, Here’s Why | Entrepreneur

    Is the American Dream Really Dead? Yes, Here’s Why | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The United States of America was built on one main principle: one’s inherited socioeconomic status is nothing more than a circumstance of the past that is to be rectified by their true destiny. The U.S. used this simple ideology to propel itself as one of the five great power nations of the world socially, economically and politically. This principle attracted countless immigrants who fled their countries of origin to escape a predestined fate.

    It might be incomprehensible to those born into America’s idealistic regime, but on other continents such as Asia or Africa, it’s pretty common for a person’s future to be relegated to that of their ancestors. This is not an accident but a product bred out of extreme centralization and the elite pushing self-serving agendas. As a testament to this activity globally, Author Vasuki Shastry eloquently demonstrates:

    “Asia’s billionaire class is a toxic addition to this mix. There is strong evidence in developing Asia that the political and business class often collude at the expense of public interest, aggravating already rising inequality and low social mobility, such as India’s tendering of major infrastructure projects to favored business groups.”

    Centuries of strategic American propaganda have done an inconceivably good job at luring immigrants with the promise of a lucrative life built upon the foundations of hope and opportunity. I posit that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the vast majority to achieve Thomas Jefferson’s American dream, underpinned by a person’s right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

    Related: Is the American Dream Dead?

    ‘The rent is too damn high!’

    It’s no secret that the cost of living in America has been exorbitant for quite a while now, and the pace at which this has been increasing is historic. In 2021, we saw YoY inflation jump from 1.4% in 2020 to a blistering 7% — the steepest increase in YoY inflation since 1950, when we saw a delta of 8%. A year later, 2022 YoY inflation held strong at 6.5%, signaling a slight improvement. Concurrently, house prices increased by a record 16.9% in 2021.

    To put things into perspective at a micro level, the price of eggs rose a staggering 60% in 2022. Considering the rising cost of basic necessities, a reflected increase in wages would be expected. However, little evidence points to any impending meaningful increases, with wage growth holding relatively steady between 5 and 5.5% since the beginning of 2021.

    Related: The Cheapest States To Live in 2023

    ‘Just put it on my card’

    To make ends meet, Americans are now more than ever electing to shift their expenses to credit cards and other lines of credit. American households currently hold $11.67 trillion in debt — a 25% increase from the $9.31 trillion they held before COVID-19. While inflation certainly contributes to the rapid rise of this number, inflation within itself isn’t the most concerning piece of data when analyzing the financial health of the average American.

    Younger generations, millennials in particular, are struggling to buy homes despite taking on this debt. In fact, the median age for homebuyers in America today is about 47 years of age, eight years older than the median age prior to the financial crisis. To add salt to this wound, the average American currently has just $5,300 in savings, solidifying that this picture will likely worsen before it gets any better.

    Related: Is the American Dream Attainable?

    The secret behind true wealth creation

    We’re in a transitionary period, teetering on the edge of a new digital economy. With this, we’ve witnessed quick, lucrative returns when trading stocks or cryptocurrencies, compared with returns on property ownership. This makes it more effective to chase 10 to 100x returns in capital markets instead of buying your first home, and although this might seem intuitive on the surface, this only applies to a certain demographic.

    Suppose you’re a Wall Streeter or a software engineer at a leading technology company in a major city like New York or San Francisco. Given the entry point to the housing market is grossly higher than that of an individual living in Des Moines, the capital required to have any skin in the game is a barrier to entry within itself. Sure, you could buy a property in another city, but the cost, both monetarily and operationally, of having real estate that isn’t yours in combination with your own expenses is a tall order. You might have to sacrifice a few thousand dollars on rent by not owning property, but your net income in this scenario is best spent building a diversified portfolio of non-real estate assets.

    In an alternate scenario, where someone holds a modest job — making an honest living like the vast majority of Americans — and resides in an affordable city, one’s dollars are best spent investing in the property they live in, given that their entry point is likely accessible. Buying a house is the only investment you can easily pull off with 90+% leverage, meaning your upfront investment costs are subsidized. Conversely, buying stocks requires you to front 100% at the time of investment. What’s more, the two-way volatility of the stock market is far harder to track compared to the housing market, which, for the past few decades, has generally moved upwards more consistently. You can certainly buy stocks, but due to the availability of leverage, assuming you have access to credit, real estate can more likely yield higher returns off of a small investment.

    In contemporary society, the level of difficulty in achieving the American dream has skyrocketed. This picture-perfect life is visually synonymous with happily married couples with two children, a beautiful home and a white picket fence. However, the reality of this is vastly different. The latest numbers suggest people are no longer getting married, buying homes or having children nearly as much as in previous generations. Wealth disparity is at an all-time high, and divisions continue growing. The American dream is dead.

    Why they want you to believe the dream

    While the vast majority of Americans are feeling the pain of the Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy, the nation’s elite are not. Elon Musk lost over $200 billion in net worth to kick off this year, yet he is still one of the wealthiest people ever to live. After a certain point, more money does little to change your quality of life.

    In capitalist regimes, the rich remain rich because a willing middle class submits to their ideals. The rich own the credit card companies that the poor borrow from. The rich own the banks that pay out fractions of a percent in yield while making enormous profits via capital markets activities. The rich are also friends and lobbyists of the lawmakers that determine the fate of the majority in this country. The American dream wasn’t designed to make you rich; it’s a narrative spun by a coterie comprised of the nation’s elite. It’s a strategic and intricate device crafted to keep you where you are. It’s a donkey and carrot model built to serve the system. While you’re too busy chasing financial freedom through hard work and dedication, the American dream is adding more weight to your saddlebags.

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    Solo Ceesay

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  • Southwest Gets Creative to Fix the Agonizing Boarding Process | Entrepreneur

    Southwest Gets Creative to Fix the Agonizing Boarding Process | Entrepreneur

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    Boarding a plane is arguably one of the worst — and slowest — parts of travel, between the chaos of crowding beforehand and the scramble to shove luggage overhead.

    Southwest Airlines is trying to change that. The carrier is experimenting with tactics to speed up boarding at four gates at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and shave five minutes off the time the plane sits between flights, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    Related: How Southwest Airlines Created a Mass Market for Air Travel

    Today the average “turn” is 40 minutes for Southwest‘s smaller Boeing 737s and 50 minutes for the larger ones, per WSJ.

    According to research from Boeing, the majority of its standard body fleet has seen a 50% slowdown in passenger boarding time since 1970.

    “We want to truly understand at its most granular level of detail how passengers move on and off our aircraft,” Angela Marano, vice president of business transformation at Southwest, told WSJ. “How can we better understand some of the human behavior that slows that process down?”

    Southwest is already known for its boarding process, which forgoes assigned seats and instead assigns customers a letter and number based on when they check in for the flight. Its new attempts to accelerate boarding include playing up-tempo music, which research shows makes passengers move faster, and installing video monitors with boarding countdowns and carpeted areas in different colors to section off preboarding passengers.

    Related: Frontier Airlines Just Announced Its All-You-Can-Fly Summer Pass

    The airline’s behind-the-scenes strategy includes group chats between workers at the gate, on the plane and on the ground to keep things running smoothly and a designated employee with a mobile device to check oversized bags and register pets well in advance of boarding.

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    Amanda Breen

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  • How to Beat the Winter Blues and Get Motivated Again | Entrepreneur

    How to Beat the Winter Blues and Get Motivated Again | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    We all go through times when motivation is low. As the dead of winter sets in, the mornings are darker, the days are shorter, and you accept that the winter blues have taken their hold. Your motivation is positively starving.

    So, how can you beat the magnetic pull of the couch and the law of averages? Money is a popular motivator, but it can’t be money alone. A healthier body is also a common goal, but why is it important to you in the first place? Success can light a fire under you, but what does success even look and feel like for you?

    The true motivator is all of the great things that we can do with the money, the healthier body and the success. What would life be like? What trips would you go on? What great schools would you send your kids to? What beautiful home could you have? What charity or cause could you fund?

    If you are feeling unmotivated, you need to have a way to remind yourself why you have goals in the first place. You need intrinsic motivation. The drive within to take daily action towards your goals out of your own interest and enjoyment where the act of doing the behavior is itself the reward.

    With intrinsic motivation in mind, here is a simple action plan for getting motivated or re-motivated this winter:

    Related: 7 Things to Add to Your Routine to Combat the Winter Blues

    1. Grab a piece of paper, and make a list with the title “WHY?” at the top of it

    Write down all the reasons why you want to achieve your current goals. These reasons usually include a lot about other people, so be sure to include a healthy mix of these external motivators as well as your own intrinsic motivators. Examples might be the feeling of accomplishment, feeling proud of yourself, being able to pay for something you otherwise could not, keeping the promise to yourself, etc.

    2. Write down each separate reason on index cards

    Every day, flip through these cards during your morning coffee, on the train, during your daily journaling session or another time when you can be mindful.

    3. Imagine your life if your reasons were fulfilled. This is called creative visualization.

    Walk yourself through your day from beginning to end. What would your days be like? Who would you be spending time with? Where would you be? What would you and your family be doing if you were the success you want to be and made the money you want to make?

    4. Get clear on what you’re really spending your time on each day and if you really love it

    Are you genuinely living a life that feeds your soul? How are your actions adding to or detracting from this dream life? Whether you are or aren’t happily living out your calling, here is an exercise to help pinpoint exactly what is holding you back and causing demotivation.

    Exercise: Go through each task and put it in one of three columns entitled:

    • 1. Love | 2. Don’t love | 3. Neutral

    The list in the “Love” column can be celebrated and, of course, continued. The list in the “Don’t Love” column should be delegated or otherwise offloaded to turn off this energy leak. As for the “Neutral” tasks, decide if you can continue doing them while maintaining a higher level of passion and motivation. If not, delegate those as well.

    5. Stop to smell the roses

    Nothing can demotivate like never taking a break and edging up against burnout. Apart from enjoying your work, take time to enjoy moments and days when you aren’t working. Schedule a glass of wine after your workday, plan a massage at the end of the week, or go for a weekend walk in the country. These are all ways to celebrate the small successes and re-motivate yourself.

    Of course, the best way to begin this entire journey to intrinsic motivation is just to start. Only you can do this for yourself. Follow these five steps, and not only will you beat the winter blues, but you will accomplish goals with more ease and passion than ever before.

    Related: 10 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You’re Really Not Feeling It

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    Jeanne Omlor

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  • 5 Proven Habits to Create Success | Entrepreneur

    5 Proven Habits to Create Success | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    While habits are repeated behaviors, beliefs are repeated thoughts. Mastering both are critical to your success as an entrepreneur. By consistently engaging in beliefs and habits that support your goals and values, you can fulfill your potential and achieve your goals — whether that be in your finances and career, or in your personal development and relationships. Here are five proven habits to shape your mindset and create success:

    1. Know what your moral compass points toward

    In today’s world, it’s common to see people getting their beliefs and sense of self-worth from social media, the opinions of other people or the numbers in their bank account instead of how they show up in the world. They put too much value on what other people think of them. They don’t have a concrete sense of their morals. These people are indecisive, they don’t trust themselves, and they are easily swayed in their thoughts and beliefs.

    Having a clear understanding of your principles will make you stand out in a room of entrepreneurs for multiple reasons. Understanding your moral compass helps you increase your sense of self, including your strengths and weaknesses, and it helps you understand how to leverage those for the benefit of your business. Knowing your values will help you make strategic decisions about your company, and each of these decisions will help you stay on track with your vision.

    Whoever engages with you and your business will know your guiding morals and how that differentiates you from the competition. It’s going to help you attract like-minded individuals, whether that’s other business leaders, employees or even investors. Having clarity with your moral compass is one of the foundational ways to build a strong level of trust between you and your stakeholders.

    Related: 11 Simple Steps for Building Habits That Guarantee Success

    2. Show up with enthusiasm

    Successful people are enthusiastic about what they do. If you don’t feel enthusiasm in your life, start experimenting with things that will excite you. It doesn’t matter how you start — pick anything to incorporate into daily life that you feel enthusiasm for. That might be reading, going to the gym or investing time and money in hobbies or classes that spark that sense of eagerness in your life.

    No matter what you’re doing, challenge yourself to seek enthusiastic environments and build relationships with other enthusiastic individuals. Once you’re in that mindset, practice sitting in that feeling of enjoyment. That enthusiasm will gain momentum, which will seep into other parts of your life — including your entrepreneurship mindset and business growth.

    3. Walk with purpose

    It’s crucial for you to identify what you want in life and define your purpose. No matter how long it takes or the price, successful people will do whatever is needed to fulfill that purpose. Clarify your major goals, and then identify smaller goals that help you get there, like rungs on a ladder to reach the top.

    People without purpose take the path of least resistance. They shy away from doing difficult things, having difficult conversations or anything that takes true effort. The actions that take true effort are what actually scratch the surface of creating a better life for yourself. Finding your purpose and refining a plan to get there, especially when it includes doing those difficult things, is what will lead to exponential growth and success in any aspect of your life.

    Related: 8 Proven Habits for Ultimate Success

    4. Have faith in yourself and your abilities

    Those who are at the pinnacle of their success have one thing in common: They don’t depend on external validation. They trust themselves and don’t let fear into the equation of their decision-making. People who have faith in their abilities and principles don’t crucify others who disagree with them or those who don’t see their vision, because they don’t need their approval in the first place.

    On this journey to success, you will second-guess yourself. Prepare to be misunderstood, especially when everyone is going in a completely different direction. You will have to learn how to operate alone, and with critique, even if it means not being accepted by others. When that happens, remember to celebrate your wins, no matter how big or small. Every win serves as a mile marker on the path to your goal and reinforces your unwavering belief in yourself and your capabilities.

    5. Focus only on what matters to you

    Your attention always has to be directed somewhere. The question is, what will you focus your attention on? Will you focus your attention on ideas and mindsets that will make your environment better or worse? Don’t waste your attention on things that don’t matter. Don’t waste your attention on negative information that distracts you from overcoming hurdles or reaching goals that you know you have the potential for.

    This rule of being intentional with your attention applies to your personal and business relationships, too. Be direct in your interactions, and cut to the chase. This will not only save you time and money, but it will improve your communication and avoid potential conflicts down the road. Focusing the entirety of your attention on what really matters (your health, your self-improvement, your family, your employees and your business) will move the needle to become a better version of yourself.

    What are you doing to make today’s ceiling tomorrow’s floor? Practicing these habits and holding true to your beliefs will mold you to be a person who is productive, confident and self-disciplined. This will lay a solid foundation for you to reach financial stability and grow your company. You already have the potential and the gifts to reach your definition of success. It’s a matter of doing whatever you need to do — and paying the price you need to pay — to act upon that potential.

    Related: 9 Habits of Super Successful People and What You Can Learn From Them

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    Trevor Cowley

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