What happens to your business when you get taken out of commission?
I never really understood the depth of the old adage “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters” until the pandemic turned my personal and professional life upside down.
Take a second to ask yourself this question: What happens to your team, your company, and your livelihood when a personal crisis takes you out of commission? The more of a leader you are, the deeper your absence will be felt. …
I learned more from bored, antsy, innovative teenagers during the pandemic than I have in my entire entrepreneurial career
I run digital companies in the edtech, information product, consulting, and e-learning spaces, and I have for years. When Covid became an official pandemic — and things like virtual schooling and remote work became ubiquitous across the country — my initial plan was to maintain the status quo.
Last March, I donned a “this too shall pass” attitude, as I’m guessing many of us did. …
It’s always Day 1 and other business insights from Bezos
In the early nineties, very few people had heard of the internet. Jeff Bezos happened to be one of them.
Bezos saw that the internet was growing at around 2300% a year and decided that he wanted to come up with a business idea to ride that wave. He made a list of products to sell online and, soon, settled upon books.
Bezos first named his online bookstore Cadabra, as in abracadabra. And it was only after three months, that he changed it to Amazon, after the earth’s biggest river, and therefore, the earth’s biggest selection. While the company stands…
I signed a ~$2 million term sheet from the triage bed, forwarded it to my legal team, and then gave birth
A “maternity leave plan” is an oxymoron; bodies and babies don’t follow timelines. While I knew this in theory, it became painfully clear when, at a routine OB visit, my doctor told me that my fluid levels were dangerously low and I needed to be induced immediately. It would be pointless to tell him — and my placenta — that “immediately” wasn’t the right time. Though the thought did cross my mind.
Instead, I texted my husband to grab our things and meet me at the hospital, and then proceeded to waddle the half-block there. Alone on the triage bed…
I haven’t stepped away from the keyboard in 13 years. That changes now.
I wrote my first article, for The Smoking Section, in early 2008. I was a senior in college. On average, I’ve written 2,000–3,000 published words a week since then. That’s 13 straight years of pitching, deadlines, late nights, and early mornings. I’ve been on the verge of burnout more times than I can count.
Maybe it’s because I’m a Recession Baby, never quite secure in the journalism industry and when the next check is coming or disappearing. Maybe it’s the imposter syndrome that made me feel like I always have to prove myself. Maybe I don’t even know. …
Our post-pandemic working lives could become a ‘meh’ experience, where neither in-office or at-home truly shine
Here’s some good news: After a 13-month span that went from: “This is another seasonal flu, it’ll be over in two weeks” to “July is the new normal for work re-entry!” to “Okay, October 2020 is the build back better date!” to “Hmm, 2021 seems more realistic…” we’re now, finally, seeing enough progress in the rate of vaccinations and an overall reduction in Covid-19 rates that the concept of a “new work normal” actually seems within reach. …
It turns out I miss conference rooms, water coolers — and even networking
I used to be proud of being a cactus — a woman who was prickly, hard to know, content in my reclusiveness. After 16 years working in an office, surrounded by a constant stream of chatter, personalities, and politicking, all I craved was quiet. I wanted to focus on the work. Instead of having to work with brands that didn’t align with my values, I no longer had to smile through gritted teeth. In 2013, I left full-time life in favor of building a business on my own terms. …
One year after going remote, ‘Job Simulator’ helped me experience the mundane but beautiful moments of beige cubicle life once more
It’s been 378 days since I was last in an office. On March 6, 2020, I packed up my laptop, rode a packed New York City subway home, and have spent the vast majority of my time since then locked in my home/office/bunker, a one-bedroom apartment in Queens. But this week I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and visit the office again in the only way I felt comfortable: via the Covid-free experience of a virtual reality game.
I’m new to the world of VR. I’ve been playing video games since the eight-bit Nintendo Entertainment System days…
The messaging app works best when you use it for anything but work
A dream job is not a real job. A dream job consists of certain parameters: There’s the income, the environment, the expectations, the potential for growth and satisfaction. Those parameters are promises, but they don’t play out in reliable ways. A dream job exists only in its promises.
A real job exists in reality, and reality is filled with many undesirable things. For example, you can land your dream job, only to find out that in order to keep this dream job, you must participate in something as silly as a work retreat. Which genius convinced enough people to go…
One year later, an army of remote workers are still making rookie mistakes that lead to burnout
On March 18, 2005, I cleaned out my desk at Registered Rep. magazine, the financial publication I was (I can admit it now) a rather terrible business reporter for, and left a job I’d held for two years. I didn’t leave on bad terms. I liked all my co-workers and there were no sour feelings, but I also didn’t have another job set up. I just knew I wasn’t a very good business reporter, my boss agreed with me, and thus we went our separate ways. I turned in my key card, filled out some paperwork with HR, and hit…
