Oil tycoon and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller is considered the richest man in modern history. With an estimated net worth of nearly $400 billion (adjusted for inflation), he was America’s first billionaire, but he wasn’t born that way. In fact, Rockefeller was a child of abject poverty, with a deadbeat salesman father who was rarely around. Rather than succumb to these barriers, however, Rockefeller used…
There is a high school in Chicago that does not give failing grades. Instead, when students do not meet the requirements to pass a class they’re taking, they receive the grade “Not Yet.” The reasoning is that failure is a kiss of death for personal growth; when people are told they have explicitly failed something, they believe the failure is permanent and that they failed…
The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, “The man who says he can and the man who says he cannot are both correct.” His thinking was that a person’s attitude is the deciding factor of whether they will accomplish their goals. David Schwartz expands on this philosophy in his book The Magic of Thinking Big, where he posits that the key to all success is—you guessed…
Imagine you’re talking to a friend who’s having a problem at work. They’re worried about what to do and turn to you for advice. What do you say? Would you jump right in with possible solutions or lecture them? Most of us would, but Michael Bungay Stanier sums up how he feels about giving advice with a simple haiku: Tell less and ask more. Your…
We have become a society of easily distracted people. The constant barrage of notifications from our smartphones has us addicted to filling each moment of our lives with bursts of empty activity. We are taught by our jobs, through mindless email sending and our never-ending piles of busy work, that it is more important to look busy, rather than actually be busy. However, this shallow…
The rise of technology in our everyday lives comes at a cost. Not only are we more connected than ever, we are also more depressed and dissatisfied with our lives than ever. Some people even go to the extreme of cutting technology from their lives entirely, believing they were happier without. In her book, The Future of Happiness Amy Blankson assures that we can learn…
John Izzo learned two things during his ten-month sabbatical. The first thing he learned was that happiness does not exist outside of the self. Happiness is not a goal to achieve but a state of being, and one he believes to be the natural state of people. His second discovery was that happiness is more complicated than a choice. Certain negative mindsets get in the…
Our planet’s youngest generation of people face hardships unique to the era in which they live. With more debt and less income than generations before them, millennials have grown up in a financially stagnant world. Now, they're at an age where they must try to forge a path to financial independence, despite the grueling challenges that come with it. This journey is no small feat,…
Charlamagne Tha God knew his book was going to spark controversy with a title like Black Privilege, but he is no stranger to pushing buttons. However, he is quick to dismiss the accusations that he is eclipsing the reality of racism in America. In fact, the two have little to do with each other. “God created me exactly how he wanted me to be and…
Turns out, there aren’t two kinds of people, but three: Givers, people who help others with no expectation of receiving something in return; takers, who focus exclusively on their own interests and desires; and matchers, or people who believe that giving and taking should come in equal amounts. Adam Grant discovered through years of research that the least productive and successful people were typically givers.…
