9 Personal-Finance Secrets of Successful, Wealthy People

by murika Comment Closed
If you're patient and lucky and work hard at your business, one day you may find yourself facing the ultimate privileged problem: What do you do with all this money? It's a question I've been asked frequently since Inc. columnist Helaine Olen and I wrote a book about the financial advice that can fit on an index card. Now I hear from people lucky enough to have become millionaires--but who struggle to manage the dilemmas that accompany visible success, including requests for financial help from friends and relatives, and offers of investment opportunities. All of my advice to them fits on an index card. If you're selling your business, taking it public, or coming into some other business or personal fortune, this can help you, too....
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8 Smart Ways to Handle a Professional Disagreement

by murika Comment Closed
While effective teamwork is important to any business, not everyone will be on the same page 100 percent of the time. Disagreements, big or small, are inevitable when working with others -- but that doesn't mean your team is doomed. It is possible to work through a dispute and move forward as a team, with better understanding than before. We asked eight successful entrepreneurs to share their best approaches for handling disagreements with colleagues. Follow their advice the next time you and your colleagues seem to be butting heads so you can return to a state of cooperative collaboration. Bring everyone together and nip it in the bud. Saloni Doshi, co-owner and CEO of Eco Enclose, LLC, views gossip as a mushroom: It thrives in the dark and shrinks when light is shed on it. To avoid this, it's important to gather everyone together as quickly as possible to solve the problem before it gets bigger. "As soon as we hear discontent, we try to bring involved parties together to...
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Research Shows People Become Increasingly Unhappy Until Age 47.2.

by murika Comment Closed
If you're 30 years old and feel less happy than you did when you were 20, science says you're not alone. If you're 40 years old and feel less happy than when you were 30, science says you're also not alone. And if you're 47.2 years old and feel less happy than you did when you were 40, recent research says you're definitely not alone. Why? Research conducted by Dartmouth professor David Blanchflower on hundreds of thousands of people in 132 countries shows that people around the world experience an inverted, U-shaped "happiness curve." Starting at age 18, your happiness level begins to decrease, reaching peak unhappiness at 47.2 in developed countries and 48.2 in developing countries. The good news is that happiness levels then gradually increase. The bad news is you're unlikely to feel as happy as you did when you were 18 until you're in your mid-60s. (Eek.) Money isn't really a factor. According to Blanchflower, "The curve's trajectory holds true in countries where the median wage is high and where it is not," he says. Nor are a few other...
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6 Things Managers Should Never Ask Their Employees to Do

by murika Comment Closed
While your team may have no issue with following your leadership blindly, being transparent and treating employees as equals are qualities all managers should possess. Six entrepreneurs share which tasks you as a manager should never ask your employees to do and why. Judge or evaluate colleagues. If peer evaluation is an approach you're considering to evaluate performance, consider how this could negatively impact morale. "In my experience, peer evaluations seem to bring toxicity to most working environments, no matter how carefully they're done," says Adam Steele, owner and operator of link-building company Loganix. "You can't really act on anything without giving away who said what, and even protecting anonymity leads to people feeling paranoid." Steele recommends you stay close to your people instead so you don't feel the need to ask them to provide details on one another....
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How a Canceled Government Project Caused Elon Musk to Change His Career Plans

by murika Comment Closed
In high school, Elon Musk planned to pursue a career in physics. But then, in 1993, Congress voted to pull funding from the Superconducting Super Collider, which had been under construction in Texas for about 10 years. That event made a deep impression on Musk and set him on the career path he's still traveling today. "When I was in high school, I thought I'd most likely be doing physics at a particle accelerator," Musk said in a recent Third Row Tesla podcast. "I got distinctions in two areas, physics and computer science. Those were my two best subjects, and I thought, OK, I want to figure out what's the nature of the universe and so go try to work with people banging particles together and see what happens." Accordingly, Musk, who had started life in South Africa and then emigrated to Canada, attended the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in physics and economics. But then came the cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider, a victim of budget...
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Post COVID-19 Organisational Changes to Prepare For

by murika Comment Closed
Establish strategic partnerships for survival rather than based on the highest ROI Right now, and going into the post-COVID-19 workplace, the most important objective is to survive. For instance, instead of the pre-COVID-19 practice of establishing partnerships based on getting the best deal or leverage, smart businesses will need to be more strategic when choosing partnerships and alliances. They will have to choose between transactional and essential relationships. It’s no longer a matter of the maximum return on investment. It’s about partnerships that will hold, even in the worst post-COVID-19 scenario. Instead of asking “what is in it for me”, companies will have to start asking “what if?” For instance, what if there’s another wave in the horizon? How would that affect operations? It might even be expedient to turn down a lucrative partnership and instead get on board with a company that will stay with you even in the face of delayed payments and missed shipments. This is critical especially at a...
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How to Prepare for a Difficult Conversation You Can’t Have In Person

by murika Comment Closed
There's no easy way to handle a difficult conversation. Whether you're facing a high-stakes negotiation, delivering delicate feedback, or seizing a new opportunity, the words we share can have unmistakable impact. And with so many daily interactions now forced online, the physical distance and emotional detachment can make these virtual exchanges even harder. Delivering a well-placed message takes skill and savvy, but good communication starts with clear thinking, careful planning, and calibrated emotions. Here are four ways business owners and leaders can prepare for tough conversations with greater intention and reflection, especially when they can't have them face to face....
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Don’t Become an Entrepreneur If You Want Passive Income

by murika Comment Closed
Entrepreneurship isn't passive. It is very active. Since becoming an entrepreneur, I have met a handful of hopefuls looking to do the same.  When I ask why, they often respond with some indication that they want to generate a means for passive income and recurring revenue. The reality is, there is no guarantee that becoming an entrepreneur will grant you this financial security and revenue each month.  But it does gives you something else. If you're considering joining the entrepreneurial world, make sure you want it. I have found the lifestyle of an entrepreneur brings three unique gifts, ones that are far more valuable than income....
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Covid-19 Impact on Distribution of Available Job Openings

by Judith Kiruja Comment Closed
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the employment sector hard across the world with job losses being recorded in millions. Closer home, the Kenyan job market has not been spared by the scourge. Over one million people in Kenya lost their jobs due to companies closing down or businesses downsizing to survive the economic downturn brought about by the pandemic. In some instances, sectors like the hospitality and travel industries have faced total shutdowns, forcing companies to send their staff home on unpaid leave or layoffs.Read more...
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Beware of burnout, workers warned

by murika Comment Closed
Are you in a people-helping ministry like teaching, counselling, social work or healthcare? Then watch out for burnout, warns Mutheu E. Talitwala in her book, Burnout. Subtitled ‘How my Past Defined my Drive in Life and into Burnout and my Bounce Back to Wholeness’, Burnout is more than just Mutheu’s personal struggle. It provides insight into a condition that has caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). In May 2019, WHO recognised burnout as a syndrome “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”....
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What to Say When People Ask Why an Employee Was Fired

by murika Comment Closed
1. What to say when people ask why an employee was fired I just fired someone. It was necessary, and I've got no regrets. But while this person was terrible in many ways, they did have a great relationship with some staff members they worked with. And those staff are asking us (no doubt influenced by personal contact from the fired employee) why we did it so "suddenly" (it wasn't sudden), and how we could deprive them of someone so wonderful. Of course, our official stance is to say, "this is an HR matter." But wow, does that response not fly and people are pushing to know more. When, if ever, is it acceptable to give more information internally? Green responds: I'd say this: "I don't want to get into the details of Jane's situation--just like I wouldn't share confidential information about your employment with others here--but I can tell you that when someone is let go, it's never sudden or a surprise. It comes after multiple conversations with the person about what...
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Surviving Job Redundancy: Career and Emotional Advice

by murika Comment Closed
Redundancy in the workplace refers to when an employer decides to let go of staff because the roles they hold are no longer needed due to a reshuffle of company focus or downsizing. Redundancy only applies to a role that completely disappears in a company. If someone else is brought in to take the place of the laid-off employee, that is not redundancy. Redundancy at work might catch you when you least expect and upset your life and plans. The important thing to always remember is that redundancy doesn’t necessarily reflect on your professional value, just the lack of value to that particular company. Additionally, you will discover that it is easy to get back on your feet. That being said, it is not uncommon to experience negative feelings like discouragement, disillusionment and a sense of being malicious targeted.  Even though losing your source of income abruptly can be upsetting, it is important that you get over the negative feelings fast and...
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The only five money principles you need to know

by murika Comment Closed
Principle #1 Spend less than you earn One of the most important personal finance principles is to spend less that you earn. No matter how much you earn, if you spend all of it as soon as it lands in your account, you will be stuck in the perpetual payday-to-payday cycle. Making sure that your monthly expenses are less than your income is the only way to ensure that you have something saved for the future. Although you should save as much as possible, most personal finance experts recommend aiming to save at least 20 per cent of your income. The best way to ensure that you spend less than you earn is by creating a budget and sticking to it. You can use a budgeting app if you don’t know where to start. Principle #2 Earn more to save more You can start saving with your current income, no matter how little. However, to boost your saving rate, you actually need to earn...
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This Mental Bias Could Derail Your Career if You Don’t Actively Work Against It

by murika Comment Closed
Psychologists say the worst time to make a long-term decision is in the middle of a dramatic crisis like the pandemic because a powerful mental bias called the availability bias makes it very difficult to step outside of the moment. As a leader, understanding the availability bias is the key to minimizing its potentially damaging impact. Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist, and his research partner, Amos Tversky, identified what they called the "availability heuristic." It simply means that we form a picture of the world based on examples, events, and experiences that come readily to our mind. If everything you see, read, and hear is bad, then you're more likely to expect the future will be bad, too. The problem, according to Kahneman in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is that events we experience vividly today do not provide the most useful information to make wise decisions about your future....
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