When Commuting Is A Way Of Life, A Train Tragedy Hits Home

Once again, tragedy grips my brave yet battered stretch of New Jersey corridor. This has not been an easy two weeks for New Jersey Transit or the millions of citizens who can call its trains and tracks and parking lots and platforms their second home. On the heels of a bombing incident at Elizabeth station and the subsequent capture of the bomber in Linden just a few miles down the track, a horrific accident at the Hoboken station left one dead and over 100 injured yesterday morning.

As part of the proud and populous cross section of society known as The Commuters, I live my life with the thought of trains somewhere in the front, back or constantly calculating corners of my mind. Each day, there is a voice inside that doubles as an inspiring life coach and ruthless timekeeper, asking: how long do I have to get ready before I have to get to the station? What train do I need to take to get to work on time? Which train will I make tonight? What time will that make dinner be? Which train am I missing because this meeting just won’t wrap? Can I make the train in time to pick up the dog from daycare? Can I make it home in time to take a quick bike ride before sundown? And so on.

As commuters, we spend a shocking amount of our days contemplating trains, and they are (both literally and metaphorically) the engines that make our lives go, go, go. But if trains are such an integral part of our everyday routines, the people we share them with must be as well... and that’s another fact I am just coming around to noticing.

A tragedy like Hoboken makes me realize that, like the trains themselves, we really don’t grasp how much the fellow citizens who ride the lines with us are part of our lives. If you ride the same trains at the same times every day, you are sure to see the same people again and again. The same cheerful (or, yes, maybe not-so-cheerful) engineers collecting tickets… the same harried businessman checking stocks on his i-Phone… the same industrious young woman touching up her makeup while taking a conference call… the same loving couple swapping pages of the New York Times… the same ear-budded upstart scrolling through his music folder. To them all, I’m surely “the same middle-aged neurotic guy audibly sighing and talking back to his inbox.”

As commuters, we spend a shocking amount of our days contemplating trains, and they are (both literally and metaphorically) the engines that make our lives go, go, go.

They’re with us every day, these familiar strangers. It’s both a habit and a comfort to see them in the same place at the same time, although nary a word is spoken or sentiment expressed. We don’t know their names or their occupations or their life stories, although we probably know exactly what they eat, drink and read every morning, which stop they get off at or which way they turn when they reach the top of the escalators at Penn Station.

When yesterday’s tragedy struck, I hadn’t begun my morning commute. Hearing the news, my first thought was for friends and colleagues living in Hoboken (all of whom are thankfully safe) along with those nameless yet familiar faces I ride the trains with every morning – and every single community of commuters just like us. Even though our particular train line doesn’t pass through Hoboken, the worry gripped me nonetheless – are they okay? In a horror that hits so close to home, they were the piece of “home” I longed to hear from, connect with. But in a tale all too familiar in modern day living, I don’t actually know them ― we merely co-exist in a choreographed dance known as the urban/suburban commuter grind.

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those injured and affected in the Hoboken tragedy. And beyond that, another sentiment grips me as never before. To all those friendly strangers who I walk by and wait with and ride next to every day ― as well as the heroic, hard-working conductors and transit staff who make it their life’s calling to take those journeys with us ― you are a part of my life and I am so glad to “know” you. And I’ll see you soon.

You Might Want To Check Your Washing Machine. It Could Explode.

First it was your cell phone battery, now your washing machine could be in danger of exploding. 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning this week to owners of certain top-loading Samsung washing machines, saying the appliances may pose safety issues.

The warning comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit customers have filed against the company claiming that their washing machines exploded during use, according to CNN.

Samsung said in response to the CPSC warning on its website that it was in active discussions with the agency about safety issues affecting some top-loading washing machines made from March 2011 to April 2016. The website also includes a way for customers to check if their machine is one of the affected products.

“In rare cases, affected units may experience abnormal vibrations that could pose a risk of personal injury or property damage when washing bedding, bulky or water-resistant items,” the company wrote.  

Do not buy or use #Samsung top-load washer. They might explode like ours did this morning. No joke. @Samsungtweets pic.twitter.com/WpifAgrgAl

— Chris Potts (@ctpotts) July 10, 2015

The company recommends consumers with affected models use the lower speed delicate cycle while washing bulky materials, saying that no “abnormal vibrations” slash explosions have been reported when customers use this cycle.

On Wednesday, Consumer Reports suspended its recommended status for any Samsung top-loading washing machine that earned that designation. The publication did note that none of the Samsung top-loaders experienced this issue during its washing machine tests, though researchers did not wash bedding or bulky items.

Carolyn Forte, director of Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, pointed out that today’s washers have super-fast spin cycles compared to machines in decades past. While she couldn’t speak about the Samsung cases in particular, she did note that high-spin speeds might cause a machine to go “off balance or become unevenly distributed possibly causing the machine to vibrate even more than normal.”

Head over to Samsung’s website to check if your machine is affected.

GM Wants To Fill The Gap Volkswagen's Dieselgate Scandal Left

In June 2014, General Motors CEO Mary Barra stood stern-faced in front of her employees and a battalion of cameras and said: “I never want to put this behind us.”

The Detroit auto giant had admitted to selling cars with faulty ignition switches that caused the vehicles to turn off without warning in the middle of driving. At least 124 people died in accidents caused by the defect.

Since then, the company has taken pains to refurbish its image. GM invested $500 million in the ride-hailing startup Lyft ― the “nice guy” runner-up to industry goliath Uber ― and vowed to help it build a fleet of self-driving taxis. It committed last week to running 100 percent of its operations with renewable energy by 2050. It poured money into electric vehicles, enough to beat Tesla Motors at its own game, bringing the first affordable, mass-appeal all-electric car to market. 

Now, GM plans to tap a market left wide open after the biggest auto industry scandal since its own infamous ignition switch failure. Last week, the automaker announced plans to offer a diesel option with the 2018 model Chevrolet Equinox, its best-selling small sport utility vehicle. The move comes a year after Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker by sales, admitted to cheating on U.S. regulatory tests for its diesel cars, which spewed 40 times the legal limit of smog-causing emissions into the air.

The German auto giant agreed to pay a record $14.7 billion to settle with the U.S. government. Last month, the Department of Justice announced a plea deal with an engineer who designed the engine workaround. Unlike any executives involved in GM’s scandal two years ago, he may now face jail time.

Both incidents implicate companies that took fatal risks by sending to market products that weren’t quite ready. Volkswagen failed to design a diesel engine that could meet U.S. standards, so it cheated, causing, according one study, up to 60 premature deaths. GM, fearing an expensive recall, continued to sell faulty cars for nearly a decade after discovering the flaw. 

Popular in Europe, diesel ― which is roughly 30 percent more efficient than gasoline ― has struggled to catch on in the United States. Diesel-powered vehicles made up just 3 percent of total U.S. sales in 2014. Volkswagen made up about half of them, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

As The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday:

GM hopes to fill a niche in the U.S. vacated by its German rival’s pullback. And Chevrolet last year added a diesel-engine option to its Colorado midsize pickup that has drawn favorable reviews from car critics, emboldening GM to expand its diesel offerings.

“It’s only been since the VW challenges that people have been sort of scratching their heads a little bit” about diesels, GM North America President Alan Batey said in an interview. “But we’ve been absolutely thrilled with how they’ve taken off for us.”

If GM can popularize diesel vehicles, the company can help reduce the overall carbon footprint of its fleet, which it’s aggressively pushing to modernize with electric, self-driving alternatives. Slashing, and ultimately finding ways to eliminate, carbon emissions from vehicles is critical to meeting goals set in last December’s historic 180-nation Paris climate agreement.

“We continue to have a positive outlook for diesel technology as it remains the most efficient internal combustion engine option,” Tom Read, a spokesman for GM, told The Huffington Post in an email on Monday. “There are no plans to phase out diesel technology as it will continue to be an important solution to achieving fuel economy and CO2 goals in a global economy.”

Last year, Barra, announcing the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, declared that GM was “a vastly different company today than just five years ago.”

Whether GM can succeed where Volkswagen failed may be the clearest test of that yet. 

This story has been updated with a statement from GM.

The Future of TV is Digital Influencers

The digital age is transforming the very nature of advertising and the playing field of how brands and influencers can and should work together. Influencers from YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and other digital platforms are no longer being used to just fill leftover year-end advertising budgets or to create hasty one-off projects. This creates a market where a brand can truly benefit from these influencers as long as they are willing to invest to have a competitive impact. The name of the game is scale and to access the gates of scalability, brands must partner with influencers with the intent to empower and not disturb the content in a compelling manner while still delivering brand messaging.

The advertising model is changing to include these digital platforms from the very beginning to make a substantial impact particularly among Millenials. Brands have to be aware of how they work with influencers in order to build strong working relationships with them starting with clear KPI’s and an infrastructure to ensure success. In a day and age where impressions can be bought, it’s important that we think beyond viewership, and think about the journey after the impression.

With the huge influx of brand sponsorship demands, influencers have become more selective with what brands they choose to work with. They want to work with brands that fit their content and audiences well and brands that help them make great content. Developing a strong relationship with these digital influencers assures that brands will be able to reach the coveted Millennial audience with powerful content that both reaches and causes audiences to act.

This year at Ad Week NY, the Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), a Bill Gates Company, was invited to speak in a 30 minute presentation titled, “The Future of TV is Digital Influencers” featuring Ricky Ray Butler, SVP of Digital at BEN and Zach King, acclaimed Filmmaker & Instagram/YouTube personality.

Zach King is by no means new to the advertising industry. He is a filmmaker, Instagrammer, YouTuber and overall social media sensation.  He has been featured many times in articles across publications such as Ad Age regarding his memorable and viral work (you can find examples here).  Fans across the world have enjoyed his imaginative and magical video creations. Known for his “mini-masterpieces,” Zach King has earned the name of FinalCutKing.  This is a well-deserved title for his captivating videos that he produces online in partnership with brands. Zach's creativity, passion for people, and dedication has led him to create a successful brand as well as paved the way in 2015 to begin a multimedia production company. Together, Zach and his team create content for millions of fans as well as companies such as Walt Disney Pictures, Crayola, Nike, Coca-Cola, and many more. His work has landed him features on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, Adweek & People Magazine, and recently he was a contender on the hit CBS show The Amazing Race. All eyes are waiting to see what he’s going to do next, including his 25 million followers that he has generated to date.

Ricky Ray Butler serves as the Senior Vice President of Digital at BEN, a Bill Gates Company and has been a leader in the influencer space representing global brands and helping them work with influencers that have relevant audiences. Ricky’s work with BEN focuses on brand integration to increase awareness, establish product credibility and build an active community of brand advocates.  He is a pioneer in the digital video space and is an incredibly powerful speaker who has been featured at Vidcon, Playlist Live, and Ad Week Asia. Ricky has worked with thousands of influencers and top clients which include Ubisoft, Disney, Turkish Airlines, Dyson, Estée Lauder, 2K, and more.

It is a thrilling opportunity to have both Zach and Ricky Ray discuss how brands can partner together with influential creators to reach their audiences. The basis of their discussion lies in the dramatic decreases in traditional television viewing and how brands have an opportunity to connect with their audience in a genuine fashion across a community of viewers. Millennials and other viewers must be reached where they live and consume content - in the recesses of the internet and on the viewing platform of their choice.

To explore this conversation further, attend “The Future of TV is Digital Influencers”. The presentation will be held on September 29, 2016 from 4:15-4:45pm at the ADARA stage at Time Center Hall.

Advertising Week returns to NYC September 26 - 30, 2016! Our Huffington Post readers enjoy a 20% discount on Delegate and Super Delegate passes by clicking here.

The FDA Thinks A Chemical Too Dangerous For Floor Cleaners Is Fine In Your Mouth

By Jonathan Levine DMD

I, along with many of my colleagues, gave a sigh of fatigue and frustration when we read on Tuesday that the FDA banned a chemical called Triclosan from just about everything from floor cleaners to furniture polish, but failed yet again to remove it from toothpaste. I have been calling for a ban on Triclosan in toothpaste for years - its presence in toothpaste represents the regulatory entropy that occurs when the general public isn’t outraged enough. There is only one toothpaste left on the market containing Triclosan, and it’s Colgate Total. Colgate Total happens to be a market leader and one of the most popular brands in the country.

Everyone I know in the dental profession shares my concern for the risks of this ingredient. The FDA is worried enough to make sure it doesn’t seep into groundwater. The European Union has made sure to ban it, not just in toothpaste but in soaps, floor cleaners and detergents as well, as part of their effort to protect their citizens. And perhaps the greatest irony of all – Colgate-Palmolive is concerned enough about Triclosan that they quickly removed it from their cleaners and soaps when the European Union banned it in 2015. Somehow, they reasoned to keep it in Colgate Total toothpaste, a product that flows over consumers’ sensitive gum tissue, perhaps even being swallowed in saliva. The health risk that lead to action in Europe a year ago and in America last week is that Triclosan causes cancer, is a possible cause of antibiotic resistance, and can be an “endocrine disruptor” (a class of toxins that cause hormone production to go haywire and may be connected to everything from early puberty to diabetes to obesity).

This loophole in public safety is an easy fix, and the lack of action should upset everyone. Let’s look at the facts:

Triclosan was historically a chemical in surgical sanitation that “weaponized” soaps and therefore theoretically reduced infection. It did not appear in toothpaste until Colgate added it to “Colgate Total” in 1997. To be fair, the Colgate-Palmolive company submitted extensive safety studies as part of the FDA approval process and the FDA felt that the science showed the benefits outweighed the risks. Due diligence was performed by both parties - no argument there. Secondary research showed that over a three-year period of use, Colgate Total was more effective in battling plaque and gingivitis - I have no argument with its efficacy.

That research also showed that in the three-year period there were no adverse health effects observed. It’s important to note that much of the scientific literature that showed the efficacy of Colgate Total was research that was funded by Colgate-Palmolive. This is routine in the FDA review process, that the research evaluated by regulatory agencies is often funded by the manufacturing pharmaceutical or consumer products company. What’s routine isn’t necessarily best however, and while we should expect the corporations who want to bring a product to market to bear the cost of the safety research, we must always remember that it allows motives to get muddy. Without independent oversight, no amount of “research” should be taken at face value when funded by the manufacturer. Colgate-Palmolive here is a case in point: perhaps there were no adverse health effects observed in the three-year window, but with the class of toxins called endocrine disruptors, long-term effects are more peripheral, difficult to pinpoint, and would likely not be seen until many years later.

It’s a philosophical and ethical argument that speaks to the very essence of how we regulate public health: Do we need to prove something is safe before we allow people to use it every day inside their mouths, or do we let the public use a questionable product until someone can prove it’s harmful? And, are we letting a huge multi-national cooperation be the schoolyard bully and keep market share at the expense of public safety?

Putting a possible carcinogen in your mouth every morning isn’t an existential or abstract concept; it’s a simple choice that for now rests with each person until our oversight agencies start putting consumers’ health first. There are two aggravating factors which are inescapable: 1) The “benefit” that the FDA points to is presumably Triclosan’s efficacy in reducing periodontal disease. But 50 percent of the population still has periodontal disease and gingivitis so something clearly isn’t working and the “benefit” argument breaks down - but more importantly 2) There is substantial global concern and regulation about Triclosan as a carcinogen in other products, so much so that the FDA felt the risk was too great to even wash your hands with the chemical!

Surely the scientific rationale that applies to hand washing must also apply to whatever you put inside your mouth, no? And don’t we have a moral imperative to err on the side of safety rather than wait years for people’s deteriorating health to prove that Colgate-Palmolive was just throwing their weight around?

The FDA has been concerned about Triclosan for years. Triclosan is found in about 40 percent of liquid soaps, usually ones that are labeled as “anti-bacterial”. After washing your hands and face the rinsing puts the soaps into the water table after it goes down your sink drain, into the sewer and then to whatever body of water is fortunate enough to receive the sewage run off. Ralph Haden, a scientist at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University who has been tracking the Triclosan risk for years was quoted in the New York Times saying, “It has boggled my mind why we were clinging to these compounds, and now that they are gone I feel liberated. They had absolutely no benefit but we kept them buzzing around us everywhere. They are in breast milk, in urine, in blood, in babies just born, in dust, in water.”

There is some good news in that there is a large selection of toothpastes on the shelf without Triclosan, even several made by our very same Colgate-Palmolive! A simple conversation with patients by dentists can raise awareness and stimulate healthy choices. Conventional media attention can also educate consumers and drive better toothpaste selections. The most powerful vote of all is with the pocketbook - the huge companies who manufacture and sell toothpaste will respond to consumer demand. It’s just as easy for mega-manufacturers to change their dental hygiene lines as well—both Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble immediately responded by proposing re-formulations of their soaps covered in the FDA action. They had a head start when the European Union acted last summer and even Colgate Palmolive removed it from its soaps. (Yes you read that correctly!)

Why wait for the day when regulatory lethargy and big corporate cronyism subsides before you reduce your risk? Be an informed person as you brush your teeth every morning and make the decision that oversight agencies won’t by selecting smart, non-toxic toothpaste. There are far better ways to control plaque in the mouth than putting your health at risk by using a questionable chemical linked to hormonal and carcinogenic risks.

Lyft, Budweiser Announce New Program To Give Drinkers Free, Safe Rides Home

If you lift too many beers to your mouth, Lyft and a beer company might soon pay for you to get home safely.

Beginning Friday, the ride-hailing service in partnership with Budweiser will offer free (or at least substantially discounted) late-night rides to revelers in four states, distributing 5,000 $10 coupons every weekend for rides taken between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

The anti-drunk driving campaign will run through the end of the year in Colorado, Florida, Illinois and New York, all of which are both key markets for Lyft and Budweiser, a Lyft spokesperson told The Huffington Post, and among the top states for drunk driving-related deaths.

Lyft and Budweiser will give the ride credits to customers of legal drinking age via the companies’ Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Despite the apparent shift in tactics to a more hands-on approach, Budweiser says their responsibility to curb drunk-driving remains unchanged.

“While the approaches have evolved, the mission remains the same,” Katja Zastrow, Anheuser-Busch vice president of corporate social responsibility, told HuffPost in an email. “This ongoing Lyft partnership is the next step in spreading Budweiser’s ‘Give a damn. Don’t drive drunk.’ message.”

Zastrow said Budweiser teamed up with Lyft after success with similar pilot programs at music festivals earlier this year.

It’s interesting timing for the campaign.

Earlier this summer, a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found, counterintuitively, that Uber, a competing ride-hailing service, had very little impact on drunk driving rates.

A possible explanation: Those who drink responsibly were already finding safe ways to get home before ride-hailing apps exploded on the scene, either in a traditional cab or via public transportation. Meanwhile, people who decide to drive drunk ― already susceptible to making bad decisions due to their impaired judgment ― opt to endanger others rather than pay for a ride.

If that too-cheap-to-pay-for-a-ride theory holds water, we may see a drastic reduction in drunk driving rates in the four states targeted by Budweiser and Lyft.

“There have been conflicting reports on the impact that ride-sharing has had on drunk driving,” a Lyft spokesperson told HuffPost, “but we’re focused on our primary goal of this partnership, which is to reduce the 10,000 drunk driving-related deaths per year.

“Lyft can be a solution to the problem,” the spokesperson added, “and we are committed to making rides as accessible as possible to everyone who needs them.”

How To Win Friends And Influence People In The 21st Century

Do you want to win favor?

• Do not flatter with insincerity.
• Do not ask for a favor immediately.
• Do not approach every relationship with a sense of entitlement.

Every day, many busy people have dozens of unread emails, LinkedIn requests, and Facebook messages.

In this era, many employees and entrepreneurs have decided to reach more people through social media.

Liking a social media update, posting a comment, or sharing an article is fine. Although, it should not be done to yield a favor. Please do not approach business relationships as you do with dating.

If you take a girl out to a dinner and movie, you might feel that she owes you something.

Conversely, if you spend an hour trying to put on a "diva" look, you might feel that he needs to show you his appreciation with his wallet.

Abandon the "What Can You Do For Me?" mentality!

There has to be at least an equal exchange of value.

It does not matter what you deem to be equal. The person who is granting the favor has to find it to be equal. Otherwise, it is not a good use of their time.

I did not build my success on begging or equal exchanges of value. I built my success on delaying gratification, offering immense value, and then accepting offers from people who wanted to help me.

Did you know some people will go great lengths to give you almost anything? You can only win such favor when you become immensely helpful by delaying your self-interest for a while.

You may wonder how you could help someone who has more connections and resources than yourself.

"What could I really do to help that person?"

Unfortunately, that is the wrong question. The right question starts by discovering the causes that are important to them.

For example, take a look at their philanthropic efforts or intentions. Perhaps, you may be connected to that cause in some way. If so, now you can be helpful to that person.

Choose to be selfless. Do not ask the person to donate to your charity or buy things from you. Success is not for beggars.

Instead, offer a selfless proposition.

This is the first step to win friends and influence people in the 21st century.

You can choose to invest time in building relationships that will blossom organically. Alternatively, you can choose to go on a cold pitching marathon.

However, people are more likely to work with people that they like, know, or trust. This is only possible when you invest the time to build these relationships.

Fast Company Magazine discovered a study that showed sending 700 cold emails will only yield 12 replies. Do you still want to go on that cold pitching marathon?

If you ask me, I would focus on serving three to five people with the hopes that two or three of those relationships will blossom organically.

Remember, if you can be immensely helpful by delaying your self-interest for a while, people will go great lengths to do almost anything for you.

This is an abbreviated version of the article. You can read the full version at Reaching The Finish Line.

Wells Fargo Faces Proposed Class Action Lawsuit Over Bogus Account Scandal

Wells Fargo & Co, embroiled in a scandal over the opening of sham accounts, was sued on Friday by customers who accused the bank of fraud and recklessness for its behavior.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Utah, and seeks class-action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide.

Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last week, the San Francisco-based lender agreed to pay $190 million to settle regulatory charges that employees opened some 2 million accounts without customers’ knowledge, in order to meet sales targets.

Wells Fargo, the country’s third-largest bank by assets, has said it has fired 5,300 people over the matter and would eliminate sales goals in its retail banking on Jan. 1, 2017.

Federal prosecutors have begun examining Wells Fargo’s practices, and the bank’s Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf is scheduled to testify before Congress next week.

In the complaint, three plaintiffs said customers were hurt by “abusive and fraudulent tactics” used by employees who felt they had to “do whatever it takes,” including selling products they did not need or want, to meet sales quotas.

It was not immediately clear how the three named plaintiffs were specifically harmed by the bank’s alleged wrongdoing.

The case is Mitchell et al v. Wells Fargo Bank NA et al, U.S. District Court, District of Utah, No. 16-00966.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Wells Fargo CEO Blames Multimillion-Dollar Fraud On The Lowest-Level Employees

Less than a week after Wells Fargo was slapped with a historic $185 million fine to settle customer fraud allegations, CEO John Stumpf is starting to open up about the scandal.

But instead of taking responsibility for what’s been described as a “pressure-cooker sales culture,” Stumpf seems to be blaming low-level Wells Fargo employees for opening up millions of fake bank and credit card accounts and billing customers for services and products they didn’t request.

Richard Drew/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wells Fargo chairman and CEO John Stumpf, seen here in 2015, is putting most of the blame for his company's recent customer fraud scandal on some of its low-level employees.

In a Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal, Stumpf refused to say who was responsible for the corporate culture that regulators say led to the creation of more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that customers didn’t necessarily authorize.

Stumpf insisted there was nothing in Wells Fargo’s atmosphere that encouraged these practices. “There was no incentive to do bad things,” he told the Journal. 

Instead, he appeared to lay blame at the feet of what he characterized as a minority of bad employees who didn’t “honor” the bank’s culture. Wells Fargo has said that at least 5,300 employees were fired over a five-year period for “inappropriate sales conduct.”

Not everyone in the financial industry accepts Stumpf’s assertion that Wells management knew nothing of the shady practices. 

“Stumpf has clearly forgotten Harry Truman’s maxim that ‘the buck stops here.’ He’s responsible for how the org runs,” said Helaine Olen, a financial columnist at Slate and the author of the personal finance industry exposé Pound Foolish.

“It takes a particular level of what my grandmother called ‘chutzpah’ to ― when you are earning millions of dollars annually ― to turn and dump the blame on what are fairly low-paid employees,” Olen told The Huffington Post.  

Shifting the blame to employees is “an astonishing indictment of how people in power think,” she said.

“Come on...this went on for years and they didn’t smell anything in the air about fake accounts?”Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is set to grill Stumpf next week when the Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on Wells Fargo’s fake customer accounts, has been equally dubious that the company’s higher-ups were in the dark about the sales practices. 

“Come on...this went on for years and they didn’t smell anything in the air about fake accounts?” Warren told CNN last week.

In a later appearance on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Stumpf modified his stance somewhat, telling host Jim Cramer that “the buck stops with all of us” and “especially me.” 

Stumpf also pushed back on the idea that he should resign in the wake of the scandal, telling Cramer the best thing he can do right now is to lead the company. 

Olen and Cramer both pointed to E. Scott Reckard’s bombshell 2013 story in the Los Angeles Times that exposed the very culture Stumpf denied knowing about ― even as the practices raised in the report prompted employee dismissals. 

“From that day forward, Wells had to know it had a problem,” Olen said. “But the settlement last week did not take on any of the higher-ups, and that is concerning.”

Olen said Stumpf’s denials “could come back to bite him” if the Securities and Exchange Commission decides to investigate Wells Fargo and finds evidence that contradicts his claims.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors said they plan to investigate the bank. No civil or criminal charges against anyone with Wells Fargo have been announced, but prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents.

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo declined to comment to HuffPost.

“We’ve seen that very few in the financial services sector are held to account for anything right now,” Olen said. “I find it hard to believe that if there’s already this [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] settlement, when there’s a fairly decent body of evidence saying Wells had to know about this. It defies reason that they were unaware of this.”

Ford Foundation's remarkable mea culpa will provide greater opportunities for people with disabilities

For 80 years, the Ford Foundation has sought to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement. Now stewards of a $12 billion endowment, when this remarkable organization's leader speaks, people listen. So it may well reverberate throughout the nonprofit world - and far beyond - now that Ford Foundation President Darren Walker has used the occasion of his annual letter to his constituents admitting that a new effort by the Ford Foundation to disrupt inequality had neglected people with disabilities.

Walker, who is African-American and gay said, "In the same way that I have asked my white friends to step outside their own privileged experience to consider the inequalities endured by people of color, I was being held accountable to do the same thing for a group of people I had not fully considered," Walker wrote. "Moreover, by recognizing my individual privilege and ignorance, I began to more clearly perceive the Ford Foundation's institutional privilege and ignorance, as well. It is clear to me now that this was a manifestation of the very inequality we were seeking to dismantle, and I am deeply embarrassed by it."

I have known Darren Walker for years and consider myself honored that he sought counsel from my organization and others in the disability community on this issue. He is an extraordinary man who has been a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors for two decades. When TIME magazine names someone to its annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" one could be expected to let that get to his head. Not Darren. His remarkable admission about the Ford Foundation's past ignorance and indifference to people with disabilities only underscores his humility and grace. He also knows when he's made a mistake and owns it.

The sad reality is people with disabilities have been marginalized for centuries. Even in this age of prosperity, people with disabilities remain underemployed and their skills underappreciated. Twenty-six years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, its full promise has yet to be fulfilled, as millions of Americans with disabilities still struggle to attain a quality of life equal to our non-disabled neighbors.

Personally, I have felt a special connection to the Ford Foundation since my longtime mentor, Mike Sviridoff, went to work for the Foundation in the 1970's under its legendary leader McGeorge "Mac" Bundy. Together, Mike and Mac worked tirelessly to nurture a variety of programs to address the problems of our cities, most notably poverty. Two years before President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the war on poverty, Mike led an antipoverty program in New Haven that was set up with a Ford Foundation grant. In its first 30 months, the program found employment for 1,500 people and became a national model.

Fast-forward half a century, the Ford Foundation continues to deliver proven results for poor and excluded communities around the world. But even more importantly, Darren Walker takes the unusual next step of putting Ford's own practices under a microscope, and leading by example. In his letter, Darren notes that "those who courageously--and correctly--raised this complicated set of issues pointed out that the Ford Foundation does not have a person with visible disabilities on our leadership team, takes no affirmative effort to hire people with disabilities, does not consider them in our strategy, or even provide those with physical disabilities with adequate access to our website, events, social media, or building. It should go without saying: All of this is at odds with our mission."

In a country where most foundations don't consider disability among their focus areas, for the leader of the nation's second-largest philanthropy to acknowledge this gross oversight and to appreciate the need to be inclusive of people with disabilities, is a game-changing move for the people my organization represents and for our nation as a whole. I hope his actions will spur other foundations, large and small alike, to examine if they, too, have ignored people with disabilities in their programs and employment. He concludes his letter with a hopeful tone:

"For my part, I am hopeful," he writes. "By demanding and expecting more of ourselves and our institutions, we can deliver more for others. In listening to each other, we will continue to learn. By listening more to each other, we can continue to forge a more just way forward, together."

Darren knows we'll all be watching. And we know he'll deliver. He always has.

Teen Cries Foul After Bakery Refuses To Make 'Trump 2016' Birthday Cake

Make America cake again!

McKenzie Gill was hoping to celebrate her 18th birthday ― and the fact that she would be eligible to vote ― with a cake that said “TRUMP 2016” on it. But the bakery department at Albertsons supermarket in Bossier City, Louisiana, denied the teen’s request.

“The woman behind the cake counter just refused to make me a birthday cake because I wanted ‘Trump 2016’ on it,” Gill wrote on Facebook. “Did that really just happen?”

Right-wing media attempted to draw parallels to Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Oregon bakery fined $135,000 for refusing service to a same-sex couple in a 2013 incident that made national news. In addition, the supermarket chain received a flood of angry comments on its Facebook page, and some Twitter users called for a boycott.

However, in this case, Albertsons said no one was trying to deny Gill. Connie Yeates, a spokesperson for Albertsons, told local CBS station KSLA: 

“Our Bakery staff member misunderstood the training provided regarding copyrighted phrases, and incorrectly informed the customer we could not fulfill her request. We would be happy to provide the cake as the customer requested.”

The teen bought her cake elsewhere. 

 

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Apple's iPhone 7 Is Officially Ditching The Headphone Jack

Bye-bye, headphone jack. 

Apple on Wednesday announced it has ditched the headphone jack in the latest iPhone model, the iPhone 7 ― a move tech industry watchers had widely predicted.

The iPhone updates, along with a new Apple Watch and new App Store games, were among the big reveals at the company’s Wednesday press event in San Francisco.

The controversial move to eliminate the 3.5 mm headphone jack is aimed at speeding the adoption of high-end Bluetooth technology but could instead turn off many existing or potential Apple customers. 

iPhone 7 phones will be connectible to either Bluetooth headphones or wired headphones that fit Apple’s proprietary Lightning port (the latter will come packaged with the new phones).

Apple announced that a Lighting jack to traditional 3.5mm adapter would be included with every new iPhone 7. The company also announced AirPods, a wireless version of its popular white ear buds, that connect via Apple’s new W1 chip, a proprietary wireless technology, rather than Bluetooth. 

During the Wednesday announcement, Apple CEO Tim Cook described iPhone 7 as “the best iPhone we’ve ever created,” in what has become customary language for every new iPhone iteration. 

While explaining the wireless enhancements to the iPhone 7, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller chalked up the elimination of the approximately 138-year-old technology to “courage.” 

Consumers and tech reporters quickly noted that Apple’s “courage” doubles as a selling point for the company’s proprietary AirPods ― which are priced at $159 a pair and do not come standard with the new phone. 

Apple was somewhat inadvertently scooped on its big design change just hours before announcing it. 

Shortly before the event started at 10 a.m. Pacific time, an Amazon landing page for iPhone 7-compatible accessories revealed some of the gadget’s specifications. The products listed indicated that the new phone would have a dual camera and included only wireless headphone options for sale. Amazon quickly deactivated links to iPhone 7 cases, which would have revealed more details of the new design.

As iPhones have become some of the most popular cameras in the world, Apple devoted a considerable amount of time to the new dual camera, more powerful lenses, photo filters and software on the iPhone 7.  

Apple hasn’t launched a significant new product since the debut of the Apple Watch in 2015 ― and with a high price tag and slow adoption, it has yet to become a blockbuster item like the iPod or iPhone. 

The newest edition of the watch, called Apple Watch Series 2, features a waterproof design with built-in GPS and improved fitness tracking and navigation capabilities. 

Mobile games, which in December 2015 alone netted $1 billion for the company, are likely to attract even more players: Apple announced a new Nintendo game, Super Mario Run, which can be played one-handed. Pokemon Go creator Niantic announced an Apple Watch-compatible version of the game. 

The major updates from the Apple event include: 

• No more 3.5mm headphone jack
• Stereo sound speakers for iPhone 
• Two new colors for iPhone 7: “glossy black” and “black” 
• More powerful iPhone camera lenses, dual lens camera on back
• Longer battery life than any previous iPhone 
• iPhone 7 is dust- and water-resistant
• The new Apple Watch Series 2 (now waterproof and with built-in GPS)
• New App store games with Nintendo and Niantic 

CORRECTION: This article previously said the iPhone 7 has surround sound speakers; in fact, it has stereo speakers.

Agile Innovation for Jobs of The Future

Across countries in various offices many employees are developing more agile outputs in their workplace.

Agile approach in project management entails that every aspect of project can be continuously iterated and revisited during the project lifecycle. With this strategy, the waiting gets shortened and the sequential development is optimized: there is no need to complete every phase of the project before the next phase can begin.

What does it mean to be agile now?

Thanks to Dr Winston Royce who wrote a paper "Managing the Development of Large Software Systems" in 1970 knowledge workers in various industries have started to realize that projects and software could not be developed like automobiles on an assembly line.

The most wide-spread version of Agile, called Scrum focuses on obtaining empirical team feedback, creating incremental innovation in real-time as well as testing products or services with iterations that can be adapted easily.

When you compete globally and when you look at the time as your most valuable resource, your main metric for success becomes to get things done. In other words, you strive to produce tangible and measurable results every single day.

But in order to get things done we need to get down to work. How do we start working?

If we react to every single stimulus we receive, we will never get anything done.

For example, studies have indicated that on average three minutes pass by before an employee gets interrupted or switches to a new task. And usually after interruption it takes us around 23 minutes to get back to the state of flow and performance we had before the interruption.

Gloria Mark, professor at the University of California, Irvine elaborated on the aforementioned research results with the thought, ''We don't have work days - we have work minutes that last all day.''

This may sound grim, but it is a starting point to figure out where we are right now and where we are heading to. So many times per day we interrupt ourselves when we switch tasks and so many times we receive external interruptions as we made ourselves available to others.

Although task switching is unavoidable and everyday emergencies will continue to pop up, the focus is created when we pair similar tasks in advance and we organize priorities around three to five items that we must accomplish in a day. Also, it helps us to identify one of our activities that we will try to do better today than yesterday.

Now that I figured out how to laser focus and mitigate interruptions, how can I delegate non-core activities to others?

Yes, you need to learn how to empower your teammates to make decisions for two very simple reasons. First of all, you cannot be everywhere at the same time and you need to create the organization where people expand their knowledge by widening their comfort zone. On a daily basis we make around 227 decisions according to 2007 Cornell University research.

Therefore, it should be clear which teammate is responsible for the each project task. It would be ludicrous that the leader becomes the bottleneck in communication without whom not a single decision can be made.

Let's look how agile methodology can be implemented in three different industries: textile, law and healthcare.

No longer should management experts and futurists tell us which industries got disrupted. We just need to look at the way how we consumed information before social media boost in 2008 and nowadays that Snapchat targets marketing segments with minute precision and within a minute.

Twenty years ago it was difficult to predict in advance such a massive upheaval in retail, travel and ICT sectors we witness nowadays but in retrospect those incremental changes seem quite reasonable.

In textile industry you may adopt the entrepreneurial, agile approach both as you grow big or decide to stay small.

The towel company Southern textiles has optimized its production process since their technicians handle every single step from customers' perspective. Their system behind manufacturing, dying, printing, processing and packaging led them to produce up to 60,000 towels per day. Brands can also get personalized representation on towels thanks to advice and customized solutions of the company team.

How could you test a small retail business before launching it full upfront?

You should get agile in your approach again. You make an item of clothing by sewing and cutting; you post a photo of your creation on social media and you boost it to a pre-determined audience; then you test the demand and tweak the promotion. Go where the market is and instead of getting into the saturated area, create your own niche on marketplaces such as Etsy, Ebay or Amazon.

The first step in harnessing your fashionista entrepreneurial juices is to decide about the serger machine you will need to make items of clothes or accessories. Go to this serger comparison chart and decide what machine will satisfy your needs at best. Tech tools also become an agile ace up your sleeve because you can figure out how to push demand, decrease waiting times and engage those who may not have previously thought about buying from you.

Move beyond healthcare as we know it.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on agenda of all committed individuals, institutions and businesses, thus reminding us that fundamental healthcare needs to be provided for all people on our planet by 2030 latest.

If we apply agile principles in our work, we realize that there are several roads to take in meeting this lofty goal. The first one is to educate more medical staff for the higher demand not only because of the SDGs for the impoverished ones who lack basic medical amenities at the moment, but also for the aging population that wants to invest in prosperous and healthy longevity.

In order to coordinate the increased workforce, the new generation of experts with knowledge of medicine and project management needs to be trained. The profession of a healthcare administrator is on the rise since the ones who can supervise the medical staff with their flexibility and reliability get to mentor their colleagues and receive higher salaries.

Finally, medical services on demand and remotely will become the new standard since the virtual and augmented reality are developing at a steady pace. In the world where 2.2 million surgeons, aestheticians, and obstetricians are required for 143 million operations, the impeccably focused and coordinated staff which communicates remotely via VR and AR solutions may bridge the gap between the demand and supply in medicine.

Law services get also more agile and disrupted.

By now we have learned that agile teams which work side by side, especially in software industry, get to produce new products or features and to test them within several weeks.

When it comes to legal offices, the incredibly successful ones focus on the niche service they can provide better than anyone else. They both acknowledge possible glitches which may occur along the process and continue to expand on the expectations of their users.

Legal project management is different than industrial project management because the focus is not on creating uniformed products, but on personalized outcomes for clients.

For example, Mastriani Law Firm has identified eliminating debt for their clients as primary value proposition. Their process of protecting clients' interests focused on the results and for more than 95% of clients they have managed to completely eliminate interest or reduce the principle, without debt consolidation or bankruptcy.

Attorneys that want to adopt Scrum in their work will need to face the music like professionals in other industries. They will get exposed to a steep learning curve as they realize exactly in which segments their firm has not been managed completely efficiently. Likewise they will implement IT tools and new procedures in their own legal field, but with a new perspective.

Because agile project methodology focuses on rapid team feedback and fierce collaboration, it can be implemented in law offices fantastically because high demands of this job may require ''fighting in trenches''. Californian-based attorneys at Mova Law Group have specialized at helping clients experiencing traffic accidents and their value proposition is not to charge any fees upfront unless they win in the court. This strategy takes the pressure off clients and embodies greater trust in the legal team who can focus on their best performance.

It was noticeable in legal companies which became more agile that there was an overlap in responsibilities among staff, so once they re-organized a task list so that one key person was required to deliver results, the efficiency increased significantly.

Sometimes law experts create innovative compensation schemes so as to incentivize their staff or contractors. Air miles may be the perfect gift for driven people fond of travel. That is why The Smith Investigation Agency has decided to award those who engage in activities such as Private Investigator Training course, Investigative Research Services or Reward Milles for Surveillance. Apparently, for those interested to contribute to investigation niche the sky is the limit.

Hopefully, now you feel more at ease to question your work methodology until now and to use processes so as to deliver more successful, efficient projects.

Agile method and Scrum in particular will increase your productivity, but you need to spark creativity in your life occasionally, which is measured by a gut feeling and intuition rather than different charts and bars. From this week onward start question yourself more often not only what you do during your working hours, but also how you do it.

Photo credits: Daily Burn, Stroke Interiors, Setster

When to Jump, an independent media partner of The Huffington Post, is a curated community featuring the ideas and stories of people who have made the decision to leave something comfortable and chase a passion.

Break-Ups to Boss Babes

I owe it all to the ex-boyfriends. Shout out to them all.

If I hadn’t had failed so many times in my relationships, I never would’ve started a blog in college venting about my dating woes. If I never started that blog, I wouldn’t have written over 10,000 hours for it - learning the ins and outs of what to post, when to post, blog imagery, captions, template styles and personal branding.

The blog took a back seat in the priority bus when I was hired to takeover the marketing and branding strategy for a luxury goods store in Greenville, South Carolina. The job required me to have a public role in the community and attend networking events, luncheons and dinners with decision makers. I loved every second of it. I was living in the literal lap of luxury. Surrounded by glamour, working with brands big and influential - I was totally enraptured by the lobster dinners and fancy wines.

Then an event happened that changed me. I flew up North to fall in love — but it was unreciprocated. In retrospect, that was the best thing that happened to me. I remember my snotty, tear-stained face pressed to the window as I flew home. I knew I couldn’t be the same person who flew up 700 miles trying to make meaning of her life with a stranger she barely knew. I had gotten so off-track spiritually — I needed to find a purpose for my beating heart.

So, I moved home, regrouped financially, and took a moment to strategize.

Two months later I launched a new blog, www.ashleybrownwriting.com, that focused its attentions on telling diverse stories. For six months I balanced my full-time job with my blog, writing about new businesses, minorities, and the under-represented. The more I wrote, the more I noticed the difference some of the stories were making in my community. My hits skyrocketed when I covered Latinos making a difference. I did a 10 Most Eligible Bachelors of Greenville, South Carolina, that helped the hidden nice guys get the female attention they deserve.

After six months I hit 100,000 views and decided to leave my full-time job to start a marketing strategy company. My employer became one of my clients and within two weeks I had a full plate for the next six months. It’s kind of unreal how quick everything has happened and I feel very blessed. Whenever my head gets too big, God knocks it back down with a dose of reality. I’ve started to develop a niche in my market working with female entrepreneurs and female-owned businesses. Women own one out of every four businesses in Greenville, South Carolina. I’d like to see that number rise.

Writing is where my heart lies. I’m working on pieces about addiction in marriage, homelessness in Greenville and women’s sexual health. I also write about young business owners as they launch their businesses and need press. When I saw how many people actually read this thing, I woke up and realized that I have to hold my business and myself accountable to making a difference. It’s not about me or my legacy, but about using this platform to help people connect, grow and heal together.

The blog pulls about 10–15 story requests daily and I’ve had to learn the hard way how to balance that with the commitments of running a business. 80 hour weeks don’t feel like 80 hour weeks when you’re working for yourself though — I think a lot of entrepreneurs say that.

I decided to take the jump when my heart screamed for me to listen. The more I listen to my heart, the more alive I feel. Naturally I was terrified, but the thought of not listening to my heart and never growing scared me even more. I jumped as quickly as I could, full force.

Initially, I was so afraid of what people would say that I didn’t tell friends or family until after I had already lined up the office space, done the paperwork, met with the lawyers, accountants and given my notice at work. My heart was pushing me to take this risk and I was afraid that someone might sit me down and encourage me to table the idea until later down the road.

I greeted my own fears as old friends and began to welcome them instead of pretending I was some fearless maverick. When I announced my decision and some people were skeptical I laughed with them instead of taking their fears of my failure to heart.

I think the key to success is learning to love failure. I’ve failed 1,000 times. The first 999 times I failed were scary. But by the 1000th time I started to laugh at myself and my astounding ability to fail on such a grand level. In retrospect, I’m grateful for all my dating and career mishaps now. Every single one of them pushed me to believe in myself and to encourage other women to take the jump and follow their passions.

As my Queen Beyonce says, if someone tells you that your dreams are too big, “Tell them boy, bye.”

Boy, bye.

When to Jump, an independent media partner of The Huffington Post, is a curated community featuring the ideas and stories of people who have made the decision to leave something comfortable and chase a passion. You can follow When to Jump on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more stories like this one, sign up for the When to Jump newsletter here. (Note: The When to Jump newsletter is not managed by The Huffington Post.)

10 Ways Ridiculously Successful People Think Differently

Successful people come from all walks of life, yet they all have one thing in common: where others see impenetrable barriers, they see challenges to embrace and obstacles to overcome.

Their confidence in the face of hardship is driven by their ability to let go of the negativity that holds so many otherwise sensible people back.

Obstacles do not block the path; they are the path.

This perspective helps successful people to think differently to everyone else, which is important, because if you think like everyone else, no matter how smart or experienced you are, you'll hit the same ceiling. By thinking outside the box and going against the grain, successful people rise above their limitations.

We all know how important it is to approach problems with radical optimism and creativity, but this is easier said than done. In a study conducted at Adobe, 96% of employees identified creativity as essential to their success, both in terms of their income and the value they bring to the world. What's more, 78% wished they were capable of thinking differently, believing that they would progress through their careers more quickly if they did.

Too often we attribute creative and "different" thinking to natural, innate characteristics that belong only to the lucky. The truth is that you can study how ridiculously successful people think and incorporate their approach into your repertoire.

1. They're confident. If only we knew of all the great ideas that never came to fruition because people lacked the confidence to put them into action. Successful people confidently act on their ideas, because they know that a failed idea is not a reflection of their ability; instead, they see it as a wonderful learning opportunity.

2. They're composed. Ultra-successful people are composed, because they constantly monitor their emotions and understand them and they use this knowledge in the moment to react with self-control to challenging situations. When things go downhill, they are persistently calm and frustratingly content (frustrating to those who aren't, at least). They know that no matter how good or bad things get, everything changes with time. All they can do is to adapt and adjust to stay happy and in control. If you'd like an objective measure of how you do at this, consider taking an emotional intelligence test.

3. They're honest. Super-successful people trust that honesty and integrity, though painful at times, always work out for the best in the long run. They know that honesty allows for genuine connections with people and that lying always comes back to bite you in the end.

4. They seek out small victories. Successful people like to challenge themselves and to compete, even when their efforts yield only small victories. Small victories build new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for reward and motivation. This increase in androgen receptors enhances the influence of testosterone, which further increases their confidence and eagerness to tackle challenges. When you achieve a series of small victories, the boost in your confidence can last for months.

5. They're always learning. Super-successful people often know more than others do, because they're constantly trying to learn. They vow to constantly grow, and they fill every spare moment with self-education. They don't do this because it's "the right thing to do"; they do it because it's their passion. They're always looking for opportunities to improve and new things to learn about themselves and the world around them. Instead of succumbing to their fear of looking stupid, truly exceptional people just ask the questions on their mind, because they would rather learn something new than appear smart.

6. They expose themselves to a variety of people.There's no easier way to learn to think differently than spending time with someone whose strengths are your weaknesses or whose ideas are radically different from your own. This exposure sparks new ideas and makes you well rounded. This is why we see so many great companies with co-founders who stand in stark contrast to each other. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from Apple were a prime example. Neither could have succeeded without the other.

7. They keep an open mind. Exposing yourself to a variety of people is useless if you spend that time disagreeing with them and comforting yourself with your own opinions. Successful people recognize that every perspective provides an opportunity for growth. You need to practice empathy by putting yourself in the other person's shoes so that you can understand how their perspective makes sense (at least, to them). A great way to keep an open mind is to try to glean at least one interesting or useful thing from every conversation you have.

8. They're fearless. Fear is nothing more than a lingering emotion that's fueled by your imagination. Danger is real. Danger is the uncomfortable rush of adrenaline you get when you almost step in front of a bus; fear is a choice. Exceptional people know this better than anyone does, so they flip fear on its head. Instead of letting fear take over, they're addicted to the euphoric feeling they get from conquering their fears.

9. They turn tedious tasks into games. Every job entails some degree of tedium. For most people, tedium leads to sloppy, rushed work. Only the most successful people find ways to make the tedious interesting. By turning tedious work into a game, they challenge themselves and produce high-quality work, making things interesting in the process.

10. They dream big but remain grounded. Successful people reach for the seemingly impossible, but they do so in a way that is actionable and realistic. While you may not know exactly how you're going to achieve your dream, you need to make progress no matter how small the steps. For example, Elon Musk's goal at SpacEx is to "Occupy Mars." While this is a big dream, Musk keeps it realistic by engaging in regular steps that, some day, may get him there. SpacEx just landed a rocket upright on a boat in the ocean for the first time ever. It's a far cry from colonizing Mars, but it's an essential step in the process.

Bringing It All Together

The above behaviors can make any of us more successful if we use them every day. Give them a try, and see where they take you.

What other habits set ultra-successful people apart from the rest? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Big Companies Backing Obama's Climate Agenda Also Fund Its Enemies

Many of the corporate giants touting their support for President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda are also backing that agenda’s biggest opponents. 

Companies including DuPont, Google and PepsiCo donated to droves of U.S. lawmakers who refuse to accept the scientific consensus on humanity’s role in climate change, according to a new analysis of public records by Reuters.

The report, published Tuesday, sheds new light on what is often a disconnect between the policies that large companies advocate for and the candidates behind whom they put their money. 

Reuters reviewed donations made during the 2016 election cycle by political action committees of the 30 biggest publicly traded U.S. companies that signed Obama’s “American Business Action on Climate Change Pledge.” The 2015 commitment, signed by 154 companies, served as a public promise by large businesses to push for environmentally friendly policies and to support strong climate action like the historic accord reached in Paris last December.

During the period reviewed by Reuters, two companies ― PepsiCo and the chemical giant DuPont ― doled out half or more of their political spending to the campaigns of more than 130 congressional lawmakers listed as “climate deniers” by Organizing For Action, a Democratic-leaning nonprofit founded by former Obama staffers. 

Google, AT&T, General Electric, Verizon and Mondelez gave more than a third of their political donations to candidates, almost all of them Republicans, on that list, Reuters found. (Verizon owns AOL, The Huffington Post’s parent company.)

A GE spokeswoman said in a statement that the company backs “elected officials based on a wide range of issues, but we have consistently been outspoken about the need to address climate change and have invested over $17 billion in cleaner technology R&D over the last 11 years.”

None of the other companies named above responded immediately to The Huffington Post’s requests for comment.

The Republican Party has long been the more business-friendly of America’s two parties, advocating for tax and employment policies that are favorable to companies’ bottom lines. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, members of the party ― particularly those with backing from the fossil fuel industries, like coal and oil ― have denied the role of human activity in causing global temperatures to rise. Obama has slammed Republicans for being “the only major party that I can think of in the advanced world that effectively denies climate change.” 

That has produced a schism between some big businesses and the party that claims to represent their interests.

Last September, an unlikely coalition of companies ― including Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Johnson & Johnson and Walmart ― committed to using 100 percent renewable energy within a decade.

Corporate purchases of clean energy skyrocketed last year ahead of the Paris treaty, which was formally ratified last week by China’s parliament. This was particularly true among companies that had never bought renewable power before. Of the more than 20 corporate giants that inked major renewable energy deals last year, 15 of them were first-time buyers, accounting for 67 percent of the market, according to a report by the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute.

Rocky Mountain Institute

First-time corporate purchases of renewable energy for this year already top those in 2011 and 2012 combined.

Still, the tension between certain companies’ political spending and their stated environmental values is sometimes hard to ignore. In June, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote an op-ed lambasting companies for failing to lobby on behalf of climate-friendly policies. He criticized firms like PepsiCo for remaining part of trade associations that fail to acknowledge climate change, or that even deny its risks outright.

“Washington’s dirty secret is that even the American companies that are really good on sustainability put net zero effort into lobbying Congress on climate change,” he wrote in Forbes. “We are far closer to getting something big done on climate in Congress than most people think, but the good guys in the corporate sector have to start showing up.”

But there may be cause for optimism, according to Anne Kelly, a senior program director at the nonprofit Ceres, which pushes investors and companies to take environmental risk and sustainability seriously.

By backing candidates who question the science behind climate change, some companies could gain influence over those candidates and sway them to more climate-friendly positions, Kelly said.

“Our hope is that by funding certain lawmakers whose positions on climate and energy do not match the companies’ positions, they’re actually encouraging those lawmakers to evolve and giving them cover,” Kelly told HuffPost on Tuesday. “We understand that lawmaking is complicated and [companies] may need the support of those people for other issues that may have nothing to do with climate or energy, though that’s not an excuse.”

Mark Zuckerberg 'Deeply Disappointed' SpaceX Destroyed His Satellite

Elon Musk isn’t the only tech titan mourning the fiery destruction on Thursday of one of his SpaceX rockets.

The rocket was two days away from launching a satellite into space that Facebook planned to use to beam internet down to sub-Saharan Africa, part of the Silicon Valley giant’s goal of connecting the world online. There were no reported casualties in the explosion.

“As I’m here in Africa, I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Thursday.

Facebook had planned to lease bandwidth on the Amos 6 satellite from SpaceCom, the Israeli firm that operates it. It would have been the first step in what may be Facebook’s most ambitious project yet ― providing fast access to the internet, or at least to Facebook, everywhere in the world. 

wow. This is an unequivocal middle-finger from Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/Ztxc2zWCO1

— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) September 1, 2016

Thursday’s conflagration is certainly a setback for Facebook ― but perhaps not a major one. In June, the company completed the first successful flight of its solar-powered Aquila drone. The four-propeller aircraft, which has a wider wingspan than a Boeing 737, flies slowly at an altitude of up to 90,000 feet, relaying a Wi-Fi signal back to the ground in a 60-mile radius. 

“Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well,” Zuckerberg said on Thursday. “We remain committed to our mission of connecting everyone, and we will keep working until everyone has the opportunities this satellite would have provided.”

Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off the launch pad, Feb. 11, 2015.

The cause of the SpaceX explosion is still unknown, but it appears to have begun at an upper oxygen tank while the Falcon 9 rocket was being fueled, Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, said in a tweet.

It’s not the first time the private space firm has lost a rocket this way. In June 2015, a SpaceX rocket exploded when a strut ― a steel rod that’s about two feet long and one inch thick ― snapped, releasing helium into the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank. The company has crashed a handful of other rockets over the past year as it attempted to land one upright on a platform after bringing it back to Earth. Musk founded SpaceX 14 years ago to make space travel cheaper by building rockets that can be reused. In April, the company finally nailed the landing. 

It’s unclear whether Facebook would work with SpaceX to launch other satellites in the future. But for what it’s worth, Silicon Valley can be surprisingly forgiving of its own:

Unlike essentially every other kind of challenge a startup runs into, you probably don't hear "it's not rocket science" much at SpaceX.

— Aaron Levie (@levie) September 1, 2016

7 Things I Didn’t Expect To Learn While Working Remotely

I never felt completely comfortable in a typical office environment. Looking back at my early 20s, it was probably foolish of me to leave a stable, well-paid journalistic job to pursue an uncertain life of a freelancer that would enable me to work with a flexible schedule and be my own boss.

Back then, remote work wasn’t such an established buzzword, but it was essentially what I’d been doing and gradually continued to do full-time ever since. Firstly only tentatively for clients who were located in the same city, later for clients hundreds of miles away.

I love working remotely, and I’ve spent countless hours talking to other remote people finding out what is it about remote work that makes them tick. Now I decided to take a step back and look at the things I didn’t expect to learn while working remotely.

Setting boundaries can be harder than you think

After working in an office with a specific schedule, suddenly you have to set your boundaries and decide how much work is too much. It’s easy to become overworked when you don’t have others around you to compare your load. Setting boundaries is important for both your health and your work motivation. For me personally, this is one of the few aspects of remote work that I still struggle with every now and then.

Sometimes a simple chat (online or in person) with a fellow remote colleague can put things into perspective, other times you just go with what feels right. But since remote workers are generally known to work harder than their office-based counterparts, slacking off isn’t something you usually get to fight.

You may be glad for a routine

When I talk with people who are eager to start working remotely, I get to hear often that they hate routines and the predictability of their usual work days.

I’m personally not entirely big on routines and like to break them once in awhile, but I found that having some sort of a routine or a ritual to detach from work is helpful as much as structuring your working time. 

My workday usually ends with a quick 30-minute workout ― it makes for a nice transition from thinking about the job to become relaxed, and also this way I’m sure I get some daily (or almost daily) exercise. After those 30 minutes I’m ready to turn on the resting mode and enjoy the rest of the day.

It’s not about being left alone all day

If you’re like me, you’re quite happy being on your own and don’t really long for contact with others. Bad news is, working from home does not guarantee minimal contact with other people. Quite the opposite. Even if you’re an introvert, you’ll have to learn to become more extrovert in both, online and offline world. 

I found that the community around the location-independent lifestyle is one of the greatest benefits this lifestyle has. Whether you have a problem that needs solving, need another opinion or want to change a job, fellow remote professionals are the best way to get it sorted.

Community also helps you to feel like you belong somewhere, which might be tricky if you work alone most of the time. Facebook groups and Slack chats like Buffer community and #nomads are best places to look for fellows with a strong community feel.

Constant traveling is a productivity killer

You’ve probably heard those aspirational stories of people who move from country to country every couple of days, living the dream life of a digital nomad. The truth is, being productive while constantly traveling is a myth. Or a very demanding lifestyle that can’t last for very long. 

Being always on the move, having to deal with accommodation, poor Wi-Fi, fatigue and dropping energy levels make all work to be something you don’t really look forward to.

Having a long-term base (though “long-term” can mean different things for different people) is much more beneficial to your productivity and enables you to feel more local.

Meetings can be helpful

I’m from the generation that happily prefers online chat over other means of communication, so this one might come in as a surprise, but remote work made me realize that calls and meetings can be, in fact, productive sometimes.

Online chats tend to make our communication brief and concise, which is generally good, but a lot of details may slip. Calls make people chattier so you get to know the bigger picture and exchange ideas easier. And however digital our age is, personal meetings are still the best way to grow relationships. An honest handshake, a direct look into someone’s eyes or a situation joke help you build a unique bond and those just can’t be emulated online.

It’s all a very nice bubble, but a bubble nonetheless

Many people from “outside” won’t understand very well what you’re doing or how is it possible that you don’t work in an office. Over time you get used to doing a lot of explaining ― to your family, friends, potential clients… it might take time for them to really get your work, and some may not get it at all. 

Being constantly from head to toes in the remote community makes you think that everyone understands where you’re coming from and that things that are normal for you are normal for everyone. Think ability to work without a boss in the same room, collaborating exclusively online, planning your own work schedule, etc.

It’s important to keep in mind that our work realm coexists with other work realms and remind ourselves to be more down to earth. 

You will not want to go back

Once you get used to the location-independent lifestyle and start enjoying the benefits it brings, it’s incredibly hard to go back. Talking to others and interviewing people from the remote community I’ve never heard anyone say, “Yeah, I’ve returned to being office-based and it feels great.” 

So yes, the life of a remote worker definitely lead to some out-of-my-comfort zone moments and surprising situations, but I know now that I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Follow Simona on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sim_vanco

Related...

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• What It's Really Like To Be A World-Traveling Digital Nomad
• To The Burned-Out Mom Working From Home
• 5 Reasons You Will Fail At Working From Home

Do You Really Need an MBA to Succeed in the Tech World?

Are MBAs going to become more or less useful in the tech and startup industry in the next ten years? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Adam Enbar, Co-Founder & CEO, Flatiron School, on Quora.

MBA skills are becoming increasingly more important, but getting an actual MBA may not be the best way to get those skills anymore.

There are actually two things that I want to address:

1. How important are the skills you learn in an MBA?
2. Is an MBA the best way to acquire those skills?

How important are the skills you learn in an MBA for the tech and startup industry?

As a startup founder myself, I strongly believe that the type of skills you're expected to gain through an MBA (sales, marketing, strategy, leadership) remain critically important to the tech and startup industry. In fact, these skills may be more important than ever. Today, most tech startups are no longer successful because of pure technological innovation, with the exception of outliers like TESLA or Oculus. They are successful because of the way they leverage technology to upend business models. Just look at Airbnb or Dollar Shave Club or Warby Parker: they are disrupting their respective industries by using existing technology in a smart and innovative way to solve a specific need for their customers.

The tech industry needs more business leaders who not only understand technology (even if they're not technologists themselves), but can also spot opportunities to apply that technology in new ways to improve business models. Then comes the really hard part of developing sales and marketing programs: acquiring new users and customers. Even with the greatest engineering team in the world, if a company doesn't have enough customers or can't differentiate their product among competitors who are all offering the same thing, it will have a hard time staying afloat.

Is an MBA the best way to acquire those skills?

Like many degree programs, an MBA has (or should have) two main benefits:

1. Skills that will help you to be successful on the job in the future (which I touched on above)
2. Access to the school's network and brand

The second benefit only really applies to a subset of elite MBA programs, though I'd argue that pedigree is generally becoming less of a differentiating factor in the workplace. Plus, the Internet now enables so many new and powerful ways to network in business, such as accelerator programs like Y Combinator, which arguably rival the networks of some of the best MBA programs.

Having worked with hundreds of hiring partners at Flatiron School, I know that what really matters to employers is whether you have the skills to succeed in a role - regardless of whether those skills are acquired on the job, through traditional higher education or via an accelerated type of education like a bootcamp.

The challenge then becomes assessing those skills. For technical roles, such as the ones we prepare students for at Flatiron School, they're fairly straightforward to evaluate (although there's still room for improvement in the hiring process for developers). We know our Full Stack Web Developer program prepares grads to be operational as junior developers on day one. But for roles in sales or marketing, it's much harder to assess someone's skills, and that's why some employers still rely on a degree or credential to demonstrate that a candidate has, at the very least, completed coursework that's relevant to the job.

But is that a good enough reason for you to invest a lot of time and money into an MBA? Is it the most efficient way to acquire relevant business skills? I'm not sure. In fact, based on my experience running Flatiron School and helping hundreds of grads find jobs, my gut tells me no, it's not.

That's not to say an MBA is not the right option for some people (I went into a huge amount of debt for my MBA and can confidently say it was more than worth it). Where we go wrong in education is assuming that there's only one path to success. In my experience, a one-size-fits-all approach in education is rarely the answer. I imagine new types of business training programs will begin to emerge (if they haven't already) that will give people more options when deciding where to invest their time and money.

This question originally appeared on Quora. - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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