Is it true that big money is just luck? My answer is somewhere in the middle. It's really hard to make it in business without luck, but if you bet only on luck, you've already lost. Look at crypto investors or day traders with their stories of sudden wealth. A guy invested his last money in a coin, it skyrocketed, and he made two hundred thousand in a week.
Entrepreneurs often live life at full speed. Between meetings, emails, client calls, and deadlines, it can be difficult to maintain regular eating habits or manage stress. Skipping meals, relying on caffeine, or snacking on whatever is convenient can become the norm, but these patterns can take a toll on health over time. Learning how to balance nutrition, stress, and appetite is crucial for maintaining energy, focus, and overall well‑being.
I've always worked, even after having children, but like many women, I squeezed myself around my husband, Neil, who was the breadwinner, working in the insurance industry in London. Between having our two daughters, who are now 22 and 18, I became a stay-at-home mom. I looked after the children and the house, and managed to shoehorn my own part-time career as a counsellor and therapist around that.
Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.
Malkin's operation, Fort Mill Sourdough, is one of a remarkable number of microbakeries proliferating across the United States, in big cities and small towns alike. Sky-high commercial rents and the impossible math of how to care for children while running a business have created the need for home-based bakeries. Flexible state licensing, digital tools and a hunger for sourdough -- which many consumers believe is healthier than mass-produced bread -- have created big opportunities for home bakers.
In an era obsessed with shortcuts, overnight success, and polished social media profiles, adversity is often treated as something to avoid. Something unfortunate. Something that signals failure. That assumption is completely wrong. Adversity is not a flaw in the entrepreneurial journey; it is, in fact, the training ground, the pressure that sharpens one's judgment, accelerates their adaptability and forges the kind of resilience no accelerator, MBA or funding round can manufacture.
In the heart of Florida's Treasure Coast, Kristin Brown Stuart FL stands as a model of what it means to combine entrepreneurial vision with a deep sense of social responsibility. Her professional journey, spanning business ownership, philanthropy, and performance leadership, reflects a rare synthesis of innovation and integrity. While many entrepreneurs pursue growth through scale alone, Kristin Brown Stuart FL has long emphasized purpose as the driving force behind every venture.
I decided to try a co-working space called BlankSpaces. If you're unfamiliar with co-working spaces, they are apparently the new trend for people who got tired of working alone at home. After chatting with a few of the usual suspects, I met Edward Lujan, a recently homeless entrepreneur, and Firas Bushnaq, millionaire and executive chairman of eEye Digital Security, working together on a new company.
Develop a start-from-scratch mentality. Imagine walking into your kitchen each morning and seeing a completely empty pot-no leftovers, no old recipes, just a blank slate. That's what I face every day as a creator: the daunting but exhilarating task of starting fresh. This mindset is essential for innovation. We can't rest on yesterday's ingredients. We must embrace a beginner's mind, a state of utter unknowing, like a child who can see infinite possibilities and the extraordinary in the ordinary.
"We are looking for passionate, driven entrepreneurs who are ready to take their business to the next level with an investment," Zemrak tells us. "There's no single mold with 'Shark Tank.' That's what's so great. What matters most is that you believe in your product, you know why it exists and you're ready to grow."
Balancing gut feelings with hard data isn't a soft skill. It's a strategic advantage. In an era where AI, automation, and ubiquitous dashboards flood us with metrics, it's tempting to believe that better spreadsheets alone will yield better decisions. But our most consequential choices rarely emerge from a cell in column D. They arise from an ongoing negotiation between intuition and rational analysis.
I cut back on drinking as my fitness journey accelerated. As a day trader, I was used to taking 4:30 a.m. group boxing classes before I started work at 6:00 a.m. In my late 20s, I started running ultramarathons. I stopped drinking alcohol in 2013, and it was one of the biggest life hacks I ever discovered. I had all this newfound energy, better sleep, better workouts - and no hangovers.
The 26-year-old real estate project manager from Munich came to the surf camp to improve her skills on the water. I came to talk with adventurous travelers about their big ideas, from new businesses to life after layoffs.
The Marines are a 24-hour responsibility. Once you commit, your personal ambitions take a backseat. Eventually, I reached a point where I wanted to explore those ambitions - specifically, entrepreneurship - while I was still young enough to act on them. I made the decision to leave the service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic - even though the civilian job market felt uncertain, and many encouraged me to stay. But retired service members who had built businesses offered a different message. They helped me realize that the military equips people with more transferable skills than they often think. The transition resources on base reinforced that point, so I felt ready to move on.
When things start to unravel, Nayyar doesn't reach for motivational podcasts or productivity hacks. He repeats one word to himself instead: Surrender. "Sometimes, if I find myself really banging my head against something, and it's just one of those days where everything's going wrong, I just tell myself surrender," Nayyar tells Fortune. "Take a breath. Take a pause. Let's just see what happens."
The average American is typically pretty content with working a 9-5 job, making a decent salary, and taking the occasional vacation. But to be a successful person and lead a luxurious lifestyle, one multimillionaire founder says it's time to come to terms with the fact that work-life balance doesn't really exist. "If you are leading an extraordinary life to think that extraordinary effort wouldn't be coupled to that somehow is crazy," Emma Grede, founder and CEO of Good American and Skims founding partner, told The Diary of a CEO podcast.
I was raised by entrepreneurs, but I never wanted to be one. Instead, I saw myself in a big corner office in the city. I started climbing the corporate ladder, but being laid off twice showed me that a corporate career wasn't as secure as I thought. I started freelancing, and soon opened a marketing agency called No Subject. We focused on events and influencers, back when we were still calling them bloggers.
If you're an entrepreneur or freelancer, building a personal brand and credible reputation is no longer optional if you want to grow your business. A personal brand helps you stand out in a saturated market and establish yourself as a trusted authority, and in turn, helps to drive more revenue. Social media is a key way to build your personal brand and reputation.
Anu Shah (also known as Anuja Shah or Anuja Sharad Shah) is a globally recognized entrepreneur and big-tech leader whose career is a masterclass in resilience and high-stakes innovation. Currently serving as a Principal Product Manager - Tech at Amazon, Shah brings a wealth of experience from her tenure at Meta (Facebook), where she led AI-driven creative automation and global brand advertising initiatives.
Melody Sabatasso stood in the lobby of San Francisco's Huntington Hotel, arms overflowing with a handcrafted denim patchwork skirt, a jacket and an assortment of other sewing equipment. She had just hitchhiked across the Golden Gate Bridge and to the top of Nob Hill from Marin County, and she wasn't amused to learn at the front desk that her famous client refused to see her for a final fitting. The budding designer wouldn't take no for an answer.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were great both great inventors of their time. Tesla was brilliant. He even felt sorry for how long it took Edison to come up with his inventions. But Tesla was eventually forced out of his company and he died penniless. Edison on the other hand racked up commercial success. He managed to motivate employees, woo investors, and win consumers. His inventions broke through to the mass market.
WOODstack and Adidas launched the Blood, Sweat & Tears Adistar Control 5 and hosted an event that highlighted the true grit, hustle, and community behind WOODstack's rise. WOODstack started in Brooklyn as a single, family-run storefront and grew into a multi-location retailer that supports community, culture, and New York's next generation of entrepreneurs. WOODstack builds on principles of hard work, family legacy, and service, and serves as a trusted destination for emerging talent, local creators, and New Yorkers who seek authenticity.
At the start of this year, I went back to contracting, and then I learned I had prostate cancer. It was stage one, and I was on active monitoring for six months. I did some more contracting up until July, when I was told I needed to have treatment. So, I had treatment, and all the signs were good. In August, I thought, 'OK, I can start looking to go back to work.'
For more than four decades, Larry and Lorna Hundt have shaped not only a company, but a culture. What began as a young university student's weekend bus runs between Waterloo and Toronto evolved into one of Canada's most creative and admired motorcoach and tour operations. As Larry reflects on a lifetime in the industry and the legacy of Great Canadian Holidays & Coaches, the through-line is unmistakable: entrepreneurship, innovation, and a devotion to people - passengers, partners, and employees alike.
Five Welsh entrepreneurs have been recognised for outstanding progress after completing the Business Wales Start-Up Accelerator, with the latest cohort underlining how intensive, targeted support can turn early-stage ideas into investment-ready businesses. The award winners completed the ten-week accelerator programme and were recognised across five categories, reflecting both the breadth and quality of entrepreneurial talent emerging across Wales. Collectively, the cohort demonstrated strong momentum in moving from concept to customer, validating propositions and building clear growth strategies.
Entrepreneurs often have to take a leap of faith to get their businesses off the ground-whether it be cashing out their 401(k)s for funding, or dropping out of Ivy League colleges to go all-in. Chess.com cofounder Danny Rensch started his 235 million-player empire when his life was on the brink of collapse. Although he initially believed his vision was unrealistic, he credits a bit of that self-delusion to the platform's success.
Today, we meet James Eder, the 42-year-old cofounder of Student Beans (a discount coupon company targeting the college crowd), who is now a work-life coach splitting his time between London and the French Alps, and author of The Collision Code.Eder was inspired to build Student Beans in 2005 after organising his university's summer ball-a party for over 600 students where he was responsible for sponsorship. "My calls to big brands led to me asking for samples and raffle prizes," Eder recalls to Fortune.
I'm French, but I absolutely love living in LA. Still, during my maternity leave, I returned to Paris to be closer to my family. There, my baby adored singing books. She was only a few months old, but they kept her engaged. When we returned to America, I couldn't find anything similar. At the same time, I was learning all the English nursery rhymes I hadn't grown up with. I loved singing rhymes like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Patty Cake."
