It’s easy to write off new entrepreneurs from unlikely places, and we as a society have trained ourselves to forget about those condemned to prison and correctional facilities. Yet the resilience shown by many prisoners, eager to reintegrate into society in productive ways, is the exact type of tenacity necessary to succeed in the unpredictable world of startups and freelancing. Non-profit Defy Ventures has been tapping into that previously untouched potential, setting the stage for inclusive entrepreneurialism. Finally, investors and business leaders are beginning to take notice.

THE DEFY MODEL: OPPORTUNITY AND IMPACT

Defy Ventures is a non-profit that challenges society’s perception of incarcerated individuals by viewing them as Entrepreneurs in Training (EITs)—full of untapped potential. This shift in perspective is more than semantics; it represents a profound change in how society perceives incarcerated individuals.

By providing hands-on training and traditional educational resources to inmates seeking career development, Defy helps overcome the lack of access to resources faced by inmates. The organization upgrades participants with leadership development, personal growth training, and startup incubation. Defy’s focus extends beyond startups to include gig workers, digital nomads, handymen, HVAC technicians, and freelancers, supporting small business owners with essential tools to kickstart their careers and make a meaningful impact in their communities.

The non-profit’s impact is far-reaching, providing a powerful solution to reduce recidivism rates. According to the report dated 2021, Defy Ventures has a three-year recidivism rate of less than 15% (compared to the national average of 39%), and 84% of Defy graduates who were seeking employment found job placement. Defy is changing the lives of EITs and reframing the narrative of what an entrepreneur can look like, where they can come from, and the environments in which they can thrive.

WITNESSING IMPACT: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A VEHICLE FOR CHANGE

Defy’s narrative of transformation demonstrates that the spirit of resilience and the passion of prisoners—combined with education, new opportunities, and support—translate into successful entrepreneurship from a segment of society too often brushed aside.

As an entrepreneur and volunteer, I was honored to participate in a Defy Ventures pitch competition and attend Defy’s graduation ceremony in a California prison. I went in with many misconceptions about the program and the participants, but my experiences with Defy rewrote those expectations. I learned that it takes nine months of rigorous study, examinations, and focus on personal growth, which prevents the faint-hearted and less resilient individuals from making it onto the EIT graduation list. Defy challenges participants and finds those with the tenacity and adaptability that any business leader knows are so vital in today’s tumultuous job market.

I believe that it is crucial to avoid romanticizing this journey or overlooking the past mistakes of the EITs. Instead, Defy’s aim is to recognize the current potential in each of them and provide them with the tools and opportunities to nurture that better future. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs came from troubled backgrounds and have overcome personal struggles, reinforcing that adversity often breeds resilience and innovation. Defy’s graduates embody this energy and possibility.

THE CALL TO ACTION: OUR ROLE AS INVESTORS AND ENTREPRENEURS

Inclusive entrepreneurship is the idea that all people, irrespective of their demographic, socioeconomic, or personal characteristics, should have equal opportunities to become entrepreneurs, start their businesses, and contribute to the economic development of their communities. As investors and business leaders, we can further this cause by considering how our portfolios can diversify and thus encompass ventures, freelancers, and entrepreneurs that break traditional molds.

Investors and business owners can consider collaborating with organizations like Defy Ventures and others that provide training and support to marginalized groups such as the incarcerated, immigrants, veterans, and refugees. Often non-profits eager to team up with hiring partners, these organizations have a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by marginalized individuals and can help develop their entrepreneurial skills. Collaboration can be a quick shortcut to finding untapped pools of freelancers and gig workers.

By investing money and support in these programs, you contribute to their sustainability and enable them to continue their valuable work, essentially lengthening the alternative entrepreneur’s runway through education and mentorship. There can also be tax benefits for supporting these organizations financially. When hiring, consider utilizing such non-profits as a starting point for due diligence and skill verification. They can provide insights and recommendations about the skills and potential of their graduates, helping you make informed decisions and identify talented individuals who may bring diverse perspectives and experiences to your team.

Another crucial step is to encourage your own HR teams to broaden their pool of applicants for both traditional employment positions and freelance or gig work. Leaders can encourage teams to request certain new hires or contracting positions be filled with alternative freelancers who will bring valuable and unique insight from their unique experiences. Consider implementing strategies such as storytelling screening processes, skills-based assessments, and targeted outreach to underrepresented communities to ensure a more inclusive and equitable hiring process.

By actively working with organizations that train marginalized individuals, supporting them financially, and widening the scope of applicants for gigs, financial leaders and business owners can embrace inclusive entrepreneurship. By doing so, they not only contribute to social impact but also unlock untapped talent, drive innovation, and create a more diverse and resilient business ecosystem.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The work of Defy Ventures and similar organizations serves as an inspiration for both young entrepreneurs who are seeking to make a difference and investors keen on partnering with organizations that promote inclusive entrepreneurship. The journey Defy Venture’s graduates embarked upon is about more than starting a business. It is about reclaiming prisoners’ lives, defying the odds, and breaking cycles of negativity. For the EITs, inclusive entrepreneurship is not just a vocation but a lifeline.

When I was in school, online learning wasn't nearly as accessible or developed as it is now.

There was a time when taking online courses was viewed as a weak alternative to face-to-face learning.

With the advent of new technology in distance learning, this has changed irrevocably. 

In fall of 2020, around 75% of all undergraduate students were taking at least one online education course.

However, even those who aren’t working toward a degree are increasingly preferring online learning due to its numerous benefits.

Here are some tips for learning online to deliver more value to your digital education.

Tips For Online Classes In 2023

If you’re taking an online class, you might be facing some unique challenges and might need tips for online classes. However, you need to remember that your efforts will pay off and deliver your desired destination.

Audo organizes online courses for people who want a positive change in their life and to acquire valuable knowledge for their future.

Here are 7 tips for learning online to help you get the most out of learning experience:

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1. Treat it like a real class

An online class can be just as real as an in-person class if you have the discipline to treat it as such.

This means being present and engaged in the class, with your camera on, not on your phone, and not skipping class just because you “don’t feel like going.”

The flexibility that online classes offer is a blessing and a curse. You can learn from anywhere, at any time, but you must discipline yourself to do so. 

Treat an online course with the same respect you would an in-person course, and you will reap the benefits of this incredible tool.

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2. Take responsibility

One of the best tips for online classes is just take the responsibility for your journey.

When you’re a student in a traditional school setting, your parents and teachers set deadlines for you and require you to meet them.

However, if you’re seeking out coursework on your own, it’s up to you to hold yourself responsible for your work in an online course.

You also need to figure out if you are a degree or a certificate preferring person.

If you want to succeed in your course and get the most out of it, then you need to be responsible for your education.

Set deadlines for yourself to complete all assignments before they’re due. It’s vital to learn how to manage your time, stay organized and be disciplined.

The more effort you put into self-discipline, the more you’ll thrive with your online classes.

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3. Set a routine

One of my best tips for learning online is the importance of building a routine.

Not everyone works best under the same circumstances, so you'll have to do a bit of work to find out what works for you.

Do you work best in the morning? Afternoon? Evening?

Do you prefer to study in small increments every day, or to schedule large chunks of time together once or twice a week?

The better you know yourself, the easier it will be to create your own personalized study routine.

Make sure you create realistic goals for yourself when you create your study routine.

  It’s no use telling yourself you’ll study 2 hours a day if you’ve never managed more than an hour. 

Start small and work your way up to build your confidence step by step.

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4. Check your progress systematically

Tips for online classes include productively is to check your progress systematically.

While it’s important to have a routine, it’s equally important to make sure that the routine you’ve created is actually serving you. 

Don’t just obsess over doing your routine perfectly–take a moment to ask yourself what works and what doesn’t. 

Have you been sticking to your routine?  Where did you deviate?  Did you make progress even if you didn’t achieve your goal?

As you work through these questions, try to be objective. 

If you find that you’ve overestimated your potential, don’t beat yourself up about it.

  Try recalibrating to see if there are changes you can make to help yourself get there. Or, perhaps the best thing to do is take a few steps back and be patient with yourself until you’ve grown a little more.

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5. Be kind to yourself and celebrate your achievements

One potential downside of online learning is that the lines between work and play can become blurred.

It's important to take breaks when needed, so you can show up for your class without burning out. 

Be kind to yourself when you don’t achieve your goals, and celebrate the times that you do.

This can be as simple as spending a night out with friends, which can itself act as a way to get you recharged and refocused on your goals.

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6. Avoid procrastination

Procrastination is the deadliest of all bad habits. It paralyzes us when we tell ourselves, "I'll do it tomorrow." Procrastination not only threatens your productivity and ability to achieve your goals but it also makes you stressed out and anxious. 

Putting things off only lengthens the amount of time that you have to worry and stress out.

Make sure you tackle the tasks you hate the most first when you make your to-do lists.

This will give you the push you need to keep going rather than stand still.

If you’re tempted to procrastinate, create a reminder on your phone.

You can also use online Pomodoro Timers to balance out work and breaks.

You’ll force yourself to take breaks, and you will train yourself to switch between the two seamlessly.

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7. Give it your all

Here we go with number one tip for learning online. You only have one life to live–surely you don’t want any of it to go to waste.

When you sign up for an online course, you’re taking a step towards an important goal. 

Maybe you’re learning a new language for a trip you have planned, or picking up a skill to help you get a promotion at work.

As you pursue your goals, remember to take a moment to remind yourself of why you made this commitment in the first place.

If you can visualize what it is you want, it will be that much easier to give it your all.

Remember that lifelong learning  is essential for good life quality. 

These tips for online classes will help you get the most out of your online education, without the benefit of in-person learning.

Follow these tried-and-tested tips, and you’ll create a routine that brings out the best in you.

How to become an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurial thinking is the ability to spot a way to do something better than it's been done before, and then to make it happen.

Entrepreneurship has taken many forms, from the artisan shops of the Middle Ages to the multinational corporations of today. However, every entrepreneur has his or her own unique story. 

While some entrepreneurs have been full-time business people, others have worked other jobs and used their skills as entrepreneurs at night or on the weekends.

Some entrepreneurs started companies that were intended to create only one new product or service; others were the founding patrons of entire industries.

Becoming an entrepreneur is all about building something out of nothing but an idea, and that’s a concept as old as time itself.

Who Is An Entrepreneur?

Most people don't understand what it means to be an entrepreneur. Many are even scared of the word, attributing to it negative connotations such as 'risk-taking' and 'failure.' 

Here we’ll take a  look at the very nature of entrepreneurship, from both a strictly factual perspective, and from a more personal perspective.

Deciding to be an entrepreneur does not make you one. Nor does being born into a family that encourages entrepreneurship or joining a startup immediately after graduating from college.

An entrepreneur is someone who organizes and operates a business, taking on significant financial risks to turn their dream into a reality.

Entrepreneurship can be a deeply fulfilling, liberating and empowering way to live.

Starting a company and growing it from a seed of an idea to a thriving company, however, can be very difficult.

You need a lot of business savvy and skill in order to navigate the steps to becoming an entrepreneur. 

While some people are born with the traits necessary to be entrepreneurs, others have to learn them through practice. 

The good news is that, if you have enough drive and determination, you can learn how to be an entrepreneur.

Should You Become An Entrepreneur?

Why become an entrepreneur? The benefits are many, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. 

Here are a few of the main reasons you might find the answer on why become an entrepreneur and what changes it can deliver. Learn the steps of becoming an entrepreneur.

1. You want to be independent

The main reason why most people choose to become entrepreneurs is because they want independence.

When you create your own company, you work for yourself. 

You don’t have to report to anyone, get anyone else’s permission to make decisions, or be beholden to a schedule that you don’t set.

2. You want to have greater freedom and flexibility

Entrepreneurship grants you a certain level of freedom and flexibility that most people don’t have.

You can build a schedule around your own needs, control your own salary, and grow your business as fast or as slow as you want.

3. You see a niche in the market you want to fill

Entrepreneurs often start their own businesses because they see an unmet need in the market.

If you stumble across a business opportunity that no one else has identified, you can find success by offering people something they cannot currently get elsewhere.

4. You want to share your creative passion

A strong desire to help other people provides many entrepreneurs with the motivation they need to succeed. 

Passionate people who want to share their creative ideas with the world can make a difference in that way by becoming an entrepreneur.

5. You want extra income

Money should not be the primary motivating factor in your life, but it can be the driving force behind successful entrepreneurship. 

With financial risk comes the potential for great financial gain, and founding a company can lead to high levels of income.

Skills You Need To Cultivate To Become An Entrepreneur

You may have the most business savvy, but that doesn’t mean you should rest on your laurels. Here are some skills to practice every day if you want to become a successful entrepreneur.

1. Communication skills

Communication is key to working effectively with other people.  In order to be an entrepreneur, you need to know how to practice active listening. 

Improve your communication skills by reading up on civil discourse and active listening, asking others for honest feedback, and proofreading all written communication.

2. Leadership skills

Leaders know how to motivate, inspire, and guide the people they lead. Practice your leadership skills by taking on more responsibility, striving for discipline, and taking initiative. 

A hunger to learn and challenge yourself will help build you into the leader you need to be.

3. Strong focus

Entrepreneurs can’t afford to take their eye off the ball.  Hone in your ability to focus by setting goals for yourself every day. 

Consistently check in with your progress and make a daily effort towards your goal. You’ll soon develop a stronger sense of focus that will serve you well on your entrepreneurial journey.

4. A drive to learn

The best entrepreneurs are curious people. The more interested you are in learning, the more you’ll grow.  Use every challenge as an opportunity to learn. 

The only person you’re competing with is the person you were yesterday, so try every day to learn more than you knew before.

5. Flexibility

Routines help center us and keep us fixed on our goals.  But life throws us constant curveballs, which is why flexibility is a must-have for any entrepreneur. 

If you practice flexibility, you’ll be able to push through challenges without becoming derailed. Challenge yourself to adapt to new circumstances and practice humility by becoming willing to change when needed.

How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

So, how do you become an entrepreneur? There are many tips that can help you get started on the path to creating your own business.  

Here are a ten initiatives for an entrepreneurial plan:

1. Identify profitable startup ideas.

The first step in how to become an entrepreneur is to come up with an idea for your startup. 

A business is only as good as its ideas, which means that this is the single most important decision you’ll make in your journey.

Brainstorm on products or services your business can provide its customers; then do research to see which ones have the greatest potential for profitability.

2. Identify and focus on a growing category (or categories).

It’s okay if your business isn’t entirely unique.  Maybe you’re inspired by the variety of subscription box services popping up around the world and want to do something in that vein.

  As long as you’re offering something that no one else is (or doing it in a better way) and you market yourself properly, you can take advantage of a surge in popularity around a certain area—and eventually grow beyond it.

3. Fill an underserved demand.

Maybe you’ve been working in a coffee shop for years, and you’ve realized that there is only one bakery in your city that delivers gluten-free pastries.

Because the demand for this niche product isn’t being met, you could capitalize on it by starting your own bakery.

4. Make something better (or cheaper) than what’s out there.

Always look for ways to improve the things people are already doing.

If you can find a way to create a better way to do something that’s already being done, that’s a valuable business idea worth pursuing.

5. Validate your startup idea with buyer persona research.

Before you narrow your product focus, do your research on potential customers. The more you know about who your ideal customers would be, the better you’ll be able to serve them. 

By researching data on who your ideal customers would be, you’ll be able to focus your time on qualified prospects and develop a product that meets their specific needs.

6. Start with a minimum viable product (MVP).

A minimum viable product (MVP) helps you to improve your product early on by receiving and integrating user feedback.

This gives you a plethora of information about your customers with very little effort.

It also allows you to release your product as quickly as possible, test it before committing to a larger budget, and improve it based on customer feedback.

7. Create a business plan.

Your business plan is the road map to your company's future. 

Early investors want to see a formal business plan, so try to be as detailed as you can with it early on.  You can always refine it and add to it over time.

8. Continue to iterate based on feedback.

If you have a minimum viable product, seek feedback from your customers to ensure that you’re creating something that solves their problems.

If you don’t have a minimum viable product, incorporate feedback into your work to make sure you’re best serving your customer’s needs.

9. Consider a co-founder.

Having a co-founder or two can help you run your business and take some of the pressure off. 

It is easier to delegate work with someone else by your side who has different skills than you, and the stress of running a business will be lessened when there are more than one people sharing it.

10. Manage your business and keep learning.

Once you’re on the ground, you’ll want to keep learning new things about your business.

The more hands-on you are, the more you’ll understand how your business works and how you can improve.

Starting a business is not an easy task. It takes courage and risk. Some businesses succeed, and some fail.

You may think the challenges of starting a business are enormous. You’re right.

That’s why most people don't start a business, or taper off after the initial excitement and motivation fades.

If you want to become an entrepreneur, you need to start applying what you've learned in this guide, by adhering to the trends, and by being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.

You can be among the small minority of self-employed individuals who are successful in building companies they are passionate about.

Our lives are ever-changing. New technology is constantly being updated, skills that were valuable for us only a few years ago might no longer be relevant, and the speed at which this change occurs is increasing with each passing year.

Continuous learning is the best way to stay ahead of the curve. By continuously learning, you can develop your skills and grow in your career.

According to research, 54% of employees believe that continued training and new skills are essential to keep up with workplace changes. 

Too often, companies fail to implement the training necessary to help their employees succeed.

Constant learners, however, take it upon themselves to learn new skills and stay relevant by doing so.

In this blog post I will cover everything you need to know about the importance of continual learning, how it can benefit your life, and what steps you can take to practice it with purpose.

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What Is Continuous Learning?

Continuous learning is the continuous desire to keep learning, developing new skills and techniques, and refining your existing ones.

It is a pathway to not only developing the skills necessary to excel in your career, but also to grow and be a better person.

Unlike traditional schooling or on-the-job training, continually learning is something you take on yourself to grow and learn new skills.

You should never feel like you’re constantly learning without interruption. 

Continually learning is about being willing to take opportunities to improve your skills and abilities over the course of your life. It is a lifelong learning journey. 

The Benefits Of Continuous Learning

There are no limits to the ways in which one can benefit from continually learning. 

I owe much of my success to this practice, as I believe that my desire to grow and learn as much as possible played a major role in getting me where I am today.

Here are some of the ways in which you can benefit from being a continual learner:

1. Improve your skills

The first and most important benefit of continuous learning is that it can help you learn new skills.  80% of people agree that learning new skills would make them more engaged, but only 56% of people actually go out and learn new skills. 

When you make a habit of learning new things, you open up a world of opportunities. Even something as simple as taking an online course in programming can take your career to the next level. Get aware of how to learn new skills. 

2. Be confident at what you do

When you don't have the skills to do your job well, your mental health suffers just as much as your work does. 

‍40% of workers with poor training decide to leave their companies within the first year. 

This shows the importance of continual learning in building our confidence at work. 

When you know you have the skills to do what’s demanded of you, you find out just how much a sense of confidence can help you achieve.

3. Keep up with current innovations

You may be perfectly qualified for a job when first hired, but if you’re not a continual learner, you’ll soon fall behind. 

Technology changes rapidly, which affects almost every industry in the world.

As the world changes, so do the needs of business.

Accountants are switching from paper filing to digital, programmers have to learn new coding systems, and the real estate market is constantly shifting.

Continuous learning allows you to stay on top of new developments, learning new skills when necessary and adapting seamlessly.

4. Get ahead in your career

People who take the initiative and go above and beyond in their work are rewarded. 

If you take the reins of your own training, your superiors will notice your effort and reward you for it. 

Taking an extra online class or two might make you eligible for a promotion or provide you with an extra bargaining chip for a raise.

If you stay stagnant and don’t try to learn, however, don’t be surprised when you’re still working the same job after 15 years. 

To get something different, you have to do something different. Continuous learning is the key to getting you where you want to go in your career.

5. Become a more well-rounded person

Continually learning is not limited to your career. Continuous learners embrace growth in every area of their life, making them more well-rounded people. 

Pursuing personal development goals will make you a more likable person and improve your social and professional relationships.

By practicing mindfulness, you can become more emotionally adept. 

Learning to play a new instrument can also help you become more cultured and enrich your life through new hobbies.

How To Practice Continuous Learning With Purpose

If you want to become a continuous learner, you’ll have to make a concerted effort to practice it with purpose. Here are a few ways you can create a culture of continuous learning:

1. Maintain a growth mindset

The goal of continually learning is to create a habit of growth, so that you can keep growing throughout your life.

The more you embrace growth as a way of life, the easier it will be to welcome opportunities instead of turning them down.

If you cultivate a mindset of constant growth, you’ll be amazed at the opportunities that present themselves.

For example, you may notice a poster advertising a dance class or start researching online courses to find one that seems interesting.

When you choose to remain open to growth, continuous learning becomes a way of life.

2. Set goals for yourself

It’s difficult to be a continual learner if your desires are vague.  Sure, you may have a desire to learn Italian, but what exactly does that look like? 

Do you want to be fluent by a certain date? Take a certain number of classes in a year? Prepare for a upcoming trip to Italy?

If you set concrete goals for yourself, these goals can provide the necessary motivation to keep showing up for the learning process.

3. Get feedback from experienced personnel

Growth is impossible without feedback.  Without feedback from people who know what they’re talking about, you risk standing still. 

Seek out feedback wherever you can in order to identify opportunities for growth.

Ask your boss at work to identify areas in which you could improve and then check in with him or her regularly to see how you're growing.

Find people who have the skills you want and ask them what they did to obtain them.

Feedback will give you an objective gauge of where you are in the learning process, so that you can accurately measure your progress.

4. Join groups to find other learners

Learning is a lot more fun when you are doing it with other people.

A great way to motivate yourself to learn new things is to join groups of people who share your common interests.

By taking online courses you can find new opportunities, advice and camaraderie in a new environment.

Online platforms can be particularly helpful by putting you in touch with other people taking the same online courses as you.

5. Check your progress

To keep up your motivation to keep learning, take a look at how far you've come. 

Check in with yourself regularly to see the ways in which you've grown. What new skills have you gained?

  What courses have you completed? What changes have you seen in your life since you started?

Writing these things down can help you see just how beneficial continuous learning has been in your life.

6. Put your skills to use

Never let a new skill go to waste. Put it to use in whatever way you can, even if it’s just a little bit, to keep yourself sharp.

If you’ve learned to play the piano, incorporate it into your life by booking a concert series with friends. 

If you’re learning a new language, plan a trip to another country to practice speaking with the locals. 

This will cultivate inspiration and drive in you to continue developing your skills and finding new skills to pursue.

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Why Adopt Continuous Learning In Your Life?

If you want to continuously learn, online platforms can help you do so. If you're interested in adopting continuous learning, then career building destinations like Audo can connect you with helpful courses that teach you valuable new skills.

One of my goals with Audo is to provide a space for people to discover new skills, gain knowledge and experience life-changing moments. 

With Audo, you’ll get specific course recommendations based on your own unique interests and skills.

You’ll start seeing the benefits of continuous learning right away as you join the marketplace, where you can put those skills to use.

If you consider yourself not missing an opportunity of learning, get tips for online learning to make the process more valuable. 

Continual learning requires a growth mindset, an unwavering thirst for knowledge and a dedication to change. 

If you embrace continual learning, you push yourself to a higher level of potential than you ever realized possible.

I encourage you to follow these tips and become a lifelong learner.  It may take some work, but the results will be well worth it.

How to learn new skills has always been one of the most popular questions during all the courses of time.

However, it gained more popularity due to the entry of novelties and new industry demands.

Learning new skills is an enriching, rewarding experience that shouldn't be confined to universities or corporate training sessions.

Being a skilled person means having a large toolkit of various skills. That allows you to solve a wider variety of problems in your life than someone with just one or two very specific skills.

But accumulating new skills is difficult. You can't just read a book, implement and repeat. That won't make you good at anything, or let you hold your own in the long term.

According to research, 80% of people agreed new skills to learn would make them more engaged. Despite this figure, only 56% of people actually go out and make the effort to learn new skills.

You can improve the quality of your life and career by learning new skills.  Read on to find out how to get started and keep building upon the new skills to learn.

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The Importance Of Learning New Skills

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to advance in your career, the skills that you have are what set you apart from your fellow employees. 

Not changing with the times is fatal for any sort of work. Of course, we're all given skills training at universities. But it's not enough to have taken a course in spreadsheet programming.

It is a lifelong learning experience. How to learn new skills? Surely, you have seen that new programs are coming along every day, so you have to know how to use each one.

If you focus on new skills to learn that are the most useful for your growth, you can impress potential employers and build a strong resumé.

Let’s say you want to be a graphic designer; by taking an online learning course to learn how to use Photoshop, you open yourself up to higher-quality graphic design jobs.

New skills and knowledge open doors to many different career possibilities. 

For instance, if you take a programming class and discover that you have a knack for IT work, you can use this information to your advantage when looking for jobs.

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How To Learn New Skills Quickly

Trying to learn everything at once can be overwhelming. In order to start the journey of new skills to learn quickly and completely, build a strategy to do so. Follow these tips on how to learn  new skills quickly and effectively:

1. Set goals for yourself

To move forward, you need to know where you’re going.  Ask yourself what your goals are.  A promotion at work?  A change of career?  Increased social connections? 

Once you have a sense of what it is you’re trying to achieve, you’ll be able to identify the new skills that will get you there. 

For example, if your goal is to get promoted to a management position, then you may want to take online courses that help you gain the soft skills needed to excel in that position, such as time management and conflict resolution.

2. Identify the skills you already have

While we may want to be good at everything, it usually doesn’t work that way.  It’s better to build upon our strengths instead of focusing solely on our weaknesses. 

A great way to identify useful skills to learn is to ask yourself which skills you already have. 

Are you good at working with people?  Skilled with technology?  Talented with language?  

For instance, if you have excellent people skills and want a position that requires managing other people, what other skills do you need? 

Maybe you have the people skills down but lack some of the technical knowledge required for the position. Online courses or training can help you become a perfect candidate for your desired position.

3. Break down new skills

It can also help to break down big skills into little skills. If you want to be more disciplined, break down your goal into smaller skills. 

Time management, motivation, and accountability are all useful skills that will help you achieve your larger goal.

Once you have identified the smaller skills that make up the larger skill of discipline, you can focus on learning each of them one at a time.

4. Make a list of obstacles and benefits

Before thinking on how to learn new skills, you need to know that learning is challenging. There will always be an obstacle standing in your way. 

It may be money, or time, or simply a lack of willingness. Whatever the obstacle is, you need to identify it.  You must overcome it if you ever want to learn the skill in question.

For each new skill you want to learn, write a list of the obstacles in your way. Maybe you want to learn to speak Spanish, but you have no extra money for classes and little free time to learn. 

To help yourself overcome these barriers, write out another list of all the benefits you’ll receive from the new skill.

Maybe learning Spanish will help you take on even more clients at work or take that trip to Spain you always dreamed of. Look at this list for inspiration whenever an obstacle is convincing you to give up.

5. Set up a rewards system

A great way to stay motivated while learning new skills is to set up a rewards system for yourself.

When you've successfully gained a new skill, how will you celebrate? It can be as big as taking a trip abroad or as small as going out to a favorite restaurant. 

Rewarding yourself for your efforts can help you create a positive association between learning and rewards.

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How to Learn New Skills Quickly| 5 Tips

Once you've gotten started learning new skills, it takes time, patience, and determination to keep going. Here are some suggestions for mastering new abilities:

1. Be realistic

You won’t become a master overnight.  Be realistic with what you hope to accomplish and give yourself a break if you’re moving slower than expected. 

As long as you stay consistent, none of your efforts will have been wasted.

2. Check your progress

Getting better at a new skill is hard, but it can be even harder when you don't have the right motivation. Take a moment to check your progress at regular checkpoints.

  What have you been doing lately to learn new skills?  What have you accomplished?  How far have you come? 

This will help you remember the effort you’ve put into learning something new and encourage you not to give up.

3. Keep practicing the skills you learn

The path of new skills to learn is an ongoing process, with some skills you learn once and that’s it, but others require practice to grow.

Keep practicing the skills you’ve learned and find new ways to incorporate them into your life. This will keep you sharp, and you’ll go from novice to master with time.

4. Find fellow learners

When you define new skills to learn with other people, you get a lot of benefits you wouldn’t get when learning alone. If you take an online course, reach out to the other people in your class to connect.

You can tap into a wealth of advice and opportunities by connecting with other learners in the same boat as you. They can provide invaluable feedback that will help you improve even more!

5. Seek out resources

While most skills are learned through trial and error, it can be helpful to take classes or join a group dedicated to teaching that skill.

If you like the idea of continuous learning, here are tips for online learning to help you boost your potential. 

Look for resources that teach some of the skills you’re interested in acquiring. For instance, if you want to become a web developer, research coding bootcamps and other online courses in that field.

You can even attend conferences dedicated to programming to network with other people in the industry.

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Why Adopt Learning New Skills In Your Life?

If you’re trying to learn new skills, an online learning platform makes learning easy and convenient. I created Audo to help Gen Z and Millennials gain career-relevant skills to set them up for success.

Unlike other online learning platforms, Audo takes into account your skills, experience, and passion to help you find which courses best suit your needs. 

Now that you know the most effective strategies to learn new skills, there’s no reason not to get started.

Following these tips will help you get started on this learning journey, and don’t forget to stop every once in a while to appreciate all of the useful new skills you’ve acquired to make your life better.

As industries continue to evolve and the nature of work becomes more dynamic, lifelong learning is becoming increasingly essential to stay competitive.

More and more, people are realizing that education is a lifelong process, not something limited to the years of formal schooling.

Lifelong learners continue to study, learn new skills, and try new things. They’re curious, open-minded people who continually adapt to change.

Lifelong learning became a requirement for me early on. As an Environmental Studies major who decided to build companies in the publishing and music industries while in college, it quickly became clear to me I needed to pursue learning opportunities beyond the classroom in order to make an impact.

I'm a big believer in seeking out new skills and using the digital resources we have at our disposal today.

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Top Examples of Lifelong Learning

So, what does lifelong learning look like?  The truth is that there are many ways to engage in it. The beauty of learning continually throughout your life is that you get to choose what, when, and how you learn. 

Here are some examples of lifelong learning to get an idea of how you might learn:

Taking a course

Don’t let your education come to an end once you’ve finished high school or college. Lifelong learning means taking advantage of opportunities to learn about a topic that interests you, whether it’s through an in-person or online course.

It could be a course to learn a new skill for work, to learn a new language, or to improve your creative writing skills. Online courses are an excellent way to keep learning on your terms.

Gaining a new skill

Everyone learns in different ways, but it's common for people to learn a new skill by taking classes or trying it out themselves. 

Some skills, like salsa dancing and playing the piano, have official classes you can take, but plenty of other skills, like baking crème brûlée, can be self-taught through trial and error.

Researching a fascinating topic

If you have an interest in something, you can take it upon yourself to learn more about it. 

You might be a fan of the Golden Age of Cinema and decide to read up on old filmmakers. 

Or maybe you’ve just found a podcast that covers financial tips for dummies. You can learn outside a classroom if you’re willing to go looking for it.

Familiarizing yourself with new technology

Plenty of jobs require you to use complex technology or software applications. Playing around with new tech can help you get a handle on it so you can take advantage of all it has to offer.

When you invest in new technology and learn how to use it, that's an example of lifelong learning.

Pursuing personal development

One of the best examples of lifelong learning is having a hunger to know ourselves better. 

When you pursue things like meditation, self-discovery, and even therapy, you’re engaging in the process of learning more about yourself and how you work. 

This is a worthy area of study that can never be fully explored.

6 Benefits Of Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learners experience countless benefits that those with closed minds do not. These include:

1. Better work performance

The more open you are to learning, the better your career will be. Lifelong learners continually gain new skills, improve their performance and learn from everyone around them. 

Strive to treat every experience as a learning opportunity and a chance to grow.

2. A healthier mind and body 

Learning something new can have a profound effect on your health. Not only does it help your mind stay sharp, but it can improve your mental wellbeing and self-confidence.

It also keeps you mentally (and sometimes physically) active, which improves both your energy levels and your overall wellness.

3. Improved self-confidence

The more you learn, the more skills you acquire. 

As a result, lifelong learners are constantly improving, overcoming obstacles and fearlessly taking on new challenges.

They’re building themselves into the people they want to be, which allows them to tackle whatever life throws at them with self-confidence. 

4. Valuable new skills

Lifelong learning gives you new skills that can change your life for the better.

You’ll become familiar with a wide range of topics, more adept at using technology, and more cultured. You’ll gain hard and soft skills that help you navigate work and social life. 

Whether these skills are for personal pleasure or professional gain, they will enrich your life and expand your social circle.

5. Greater self-awareness

Many people wander through life without truly understanding who they are and what they want. It’s difficult to find out what motivates us, inspires us, and strengthens us.

Lifelong learners discover the things they like and the things they don’t.

They also gain a greater understanding of what interests them, what nourishes them, and what they need to do to succeed with self-awareness.

6. Stay up to date

Being out of touch with the rest of the world is one of the worst parts of having a closed mind. 

You’ll struggle to keep up with new technology, feel excluded from many conversations, and find yourself overtaken at work by people with up-to-date knowledge. 

Being a lifelong learner allows you to stay current, educating yourself with the latest innovations to make sure you keep up at work and in life.

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Tips To Start And Be Engaged With Lifelong Learning

If you’re interested in becoming a lifelong learner, just know that it's worth it and learn the true benefits of lifelong learning. There are a few tips you can follow to get started. 

These tips and examples of lifelong learning can be practiced daily to help you make continuous learning a habit, helping you get through the temptation to quit when you face obstacles. 

Try new things

The best way to see what interests you is to try new things.  Indecision can paralyze us, so it’s best to move forward even if you aren’t sure of the outcome. 

If you want to learn to speak a new language, find a class that seems interesting and take it.  Even if you decide in the end that learning a new language isn’t for you, you’ll learn more about yourself than if you had simply done nothing.

Be curious

Having an open mind is key to being a lifelong learner. When new opportunities present themselves to you, don’t ignore them. 

Ask questions, be curious, and feel free to explore. When you choose to be curious in the unknown, you open yourself up to new opportunities to learn and expand your horizons.

Set goals

To make sure that you’re continuing to learn new things, set regular goals for yourself. 

Maybe you want to spend a certain number of hours a day learning a new skill, or take a certain number of classes by the end of the year. 

If you have measurable and achievable goals, it’s easier to show up for your dedication to learn.

Find fellow learners

It’s a lot more fun to learn something when you’re doing it alongside other people. If you take an online course, get in touch with other members who have the same passion as you. 

This can help you find new courses or groups from which you can learn even more. 

Your fellow learners can also share their knowledge and advice on their own learning journey, which can inspire you to keep growing.

Getting Started With Lifelong Learning

I believe that people should be able to pursue courses that match their personality and interests rather than be forced into a narrow set of educational options.

That’s why I created Audo, an online learning and career-building destination that connects people with the resources to discover their passions and the courses they need to get ahead. 

Audo guides you in the learning and self exploration process, using A.I.-driven recommendations to help you find which online courses are the best match for you and your goals. 

Audo rewards lifelong learners by giving individual and effective examples of lifelong learning to acquire new skills and start earning money.

Learning throughout your life can help you improve your wellbeing and mental health, build new relationships, and more.

By committing to lifelong learning, you open yourself up to new opportunities and the chance to create a better future for yourself.

Gen Z'ers are leading the trend in freelance work.  Freelancing used to be viewed as a risky endeavor, a break from the security of a 9 to 5 job that wasn't always guaranteed to pan out. But as employees are increasingly less willing to stick to a traditional work routine, freelancing is skyrocketing in popularity and feasibility.  The number of freelancers in the US boomed from 57.3 million in 2017 to 70.4 million by 2022. That number is expected to keep growing, with estimates of 90.1 million freelancers in the US by 2028.

So what does this mean for anyone looking to set off on their own? Freelancing and the gig economy is a viable option worth considering. There are numerous avenues for people to find freelance work, as I’ll explain in this article. Read on to find out more about the ins and outs of a freelance career.

What Is Freelancing?

So what is freelancing? Freelancing is the act of performing specific work for clients while not being employed full-time by any one organization. One of the most attractive benefits of freelancing is that you are essentially your own boss, working for yourself instead of an employer. Freelancers can work for multiple clients at a time, whereas employees are typically committed to one company.

Freelance projects come in many shapes and sizes. While freelance jobs are generally short-term in nature, satisfied clients often request follow-on work from the same professionals again and again. Freelance professionals are available across a wide range of skills, including copywriting, programming, engineering, and marketing.

Who Can Be A Freelancer?

Freelancing comes with the freedom to work in the capacity of your choice, but how do you determine what niche to focus on and prepare yourself for success as a freelancer?

Freelancers have a wide variety of job opportunities available to them, including writing, graphic design and dog walking. Freelance job portals can help you find work in your preferred field.

One of the most important attributes of a freelancer is discipline. As your own boss, you’ll have to hold yourself accountable for your actions. You won’t be able to rely on a fixed income as a freelancer, so you’ll need to work hard at finding new opportunities if one falls through. This can be difficult at times, but there are plenty of people out there who have managed it. You may have to keep hustling for a while, but if you have the drive and persistence to keep going, you'll earn enough to see yourself through the various ups and downs.

Gen Z And Freelancing As A Career

Freelancing gives up the comforts of a full-time job, such as healthcare and retirement benefits. While you do have to pay your own health insurance, and you don’t get paid time off, you also gain freedom to set your own boundaries around work. You can work for whomever you want, whether it's multiple clients or just one. Your salary is up to you and your skills—in some cases, your salary can be comparable with or better than what a regular job earns.

The median annual personal income of freelancers has increased significantly over the last few years. Between 2014 and 2018, the percentage of freelancers earning over $75,000 a year leapt from 17% to 31%.  The more time you spend freelancing, the more clients you will attract and the higher your earning potential will be. Gen Z and Millennials have found that freelancing is a lucrative and rewarding career option.

How To Become A Freelancer

Becoming a freelancer isn’t as hard as it looks, and it’s easier than you think. Simply go to any website that offers freelancing jobs and assignments, and apply for them. Working on a freelance basis can be slow-going at first, but you can build up a client base and earn higher rates as you go.

Freelancing sites can help you find work or clients to work with. Here are some websites where you can find freelance jobs:

1. Fiverr

Fiverr is a valuable resource for freelancers of any kind.  You can create a gig for pretty much anything, from creating graphic designs to writing online articles and content. You set your own rates, and clients find you through Fiverr’s search feature.

2. 99Designs

99Designs is a graphic design company where you can create logos, websites, book covers, and more.  Depending on your niche, you can offer any graphic design service under the sun to interested clients through a secure and trustworthy platform.

3. Upwork

Upwork is similar to Fiverr, although it’s the freelancer who seeks out the client rather than the other way around.  This makes it easier to get started, however, as you can submit detailed applications to gigs that fit your qualifications.

4. Audo.com

Audo.com is a career-building ecosystem that uses AI to recommend which skills you need to succeed in your career.  I founded this company to provide Gen Z with the tools they need to learn skills and earn money at the same time.  All you have to do is fill out your interests, abilities, and experience, then watch as Audo provides you with a personalized skill path towards making money.  Once you’ve completed coursework, you can use your new skills in our marketplace to earn money as you continue to learn more skills.

5. Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is another site that works similarly to Upwork. Freelancers can create a profile and bid for projects with their own pitches that explain why they’re the best person for the job.  Freelancers will work out an agreed payment amount with the buyer, which will then be delivered to them through the site.

Like any career, freelancing has its benefits and drawbacks. Before you go down that path, make sure you’re willing to assume the risks that come with freelancing. While it offers you professional independence, it can also come with insecurity and the danger of failure. But the more you’re willing to take risks in order to follow your professional ambitions, the more opportunities you’ll have to establish your brand and reputation as you achieve your goals.

Certificate vs degree has become a question of many arguments. Going to college and getting a traditional education used to be the surest way to open up career opportunities for your future, but that’s no longer the case.

While traditional education is still considered the norm, it is no longer the only option for achieving career success, and more effective and attainable options are available today.

The number of people enrolling in certificate programs to gain a greater understanding of their industry, obtain vital skills, and become more valuable employees is increasing year over year.

According to a recent report, about 51.3% of American adults have a college degree, certificate or industry certification.

Degrees or certifications can expand your career options, but the path you choose should be the one that is right for you.

This blog will cover everything you need to know about certificate vs degree, so that you can make a more informed decision about which one is right for your career.

So, get entirely aware of all advantages and disadvantages to end up making smart decisions for the benefit of your career. Are you a certificate or a degree person?

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What Is A Certificate?

A certificate is a document that verifies you have completed a specific program of study within an industry.

Certificate programs usually offered by colleges, universities, or private companies.

While a degree offers a wide range of knowledge and expertise, a certificate program usually provides training for technical or skill-based jobs. Examples include:

• Marketing

• Sales

• IT fundamentals

• Data science

• Nursing

• Web development

• Dental or medical-assisting

• Firefighting

• Real estate

• Massage therapy

• Construction

• Plumbing

What Is A Degree?

A degree is an academic title that you receive after graduating from a university.

A degree vs certificate entails much more than the basic knowledge you need to work in a certain field, and can in fact prepare you for several different roles depending on your focus.

Degrees can be divided into four categories:

Associate degree

An associate degree is higher than a high school diploma but not as intensive as a bachelor’s degree.  It takes around two years for a student to complete.

Associate degrees can include:

• Associate of Arts (AA)
• Associate of Science (AS)
• Associate of Applied Arts (AAA)
• Associate of Applied Science (AAS)

Bachelor’s degree

To get a job in many fields, some employers will ask for a bachelor's degree. A bachelor's degree takes about four years to complete and includes general education classes in addition to courses pertaining to your specific major.

Bachelor’s degrees can include:

• Bachelor of Arts (BA)
• Bachelor of Science (BS)
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

Master’s degree

A master’s degree is a post-baccalaureate program consisting of more rigorous classes within a specialized field of study. Programs usually take between two-three years to complete.

In addition to degrees within specific niches, the three basic master’s degrees include:

• Master of Arts (MA)
• Master of Science (MS)
• Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Doctoral degree

A doctoral degree is the highest degree you can obtain, and it certifies your expertise in a particular field.

The types of doctoral degrees include:

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• Practitioner doctoral degrees, such as Doctor of Education (EdD) or Doctor of Health Administration (DHA)

The Primary Differences: Certificate VS Degree

So, do you need to go for degrees or certifications? What's the difference: certificate vs degree?

 Some people believe a degree is more valuable than a certificate, and some think the opposite. 

The difference between a certificate and a degree usually involves the time and cost to earn them. 

Here are the main factors you need to know about certificate vs degree to choose your option:

Time commitment

Certificates are usually less time-consuming to obtain than degrees. A degree can take between two to four years to complete, while a certificate can be obtained in just a few months.

This is because certificates require fewer courses and can be taken according to your schedule.

Requirements

Another difference between a certificate and a degree is the requirements for enrollment.

Because most degree programs require a high school diploma or GED, they are often more viable options for people without either of these qualifications.

Depth and scope

Certificates teach you about a single topic. Degrees, on the other hand, allow you to explore a wide range of topics in depth.

This can be useful to people looking for comprehensive knowledge, while a certificate can be useful for those looking for specific knowledge.

Cost

The cost of a degree vs. certificate is based on the number of courses you take. 

Because degrees require many more courses to complete, the cost of a degree is much higher. 

However, both certificates and degrees offer financial aid options that can help.

Job opportunities

If you want to get a specific job, then a certificate might be enough to help you land that particular position.

But if you want your education to make you eligible for a wide range of jobs, then one degree can get your foot in the door in many places.

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How To Choose: Certificate VS Degree

In order to choose whether certificate vs degree, consider factors like your job ambitions, time constraints, and financial resources. 

Here are a few questions you’ll want to ask yourself before deciding:

• How quickly do you need to earn your credentials?

• How will you balance work and school?

• What field do you want to work in?

• How far do you want to advance in your career?

You may find that, while a degree would be ideal, it’s unrealistic for you to afford the time and money necessary to obtain one. 

However, you may find that obtaining a degree is a long-term goal worthy of pursuing through online and night classes.

Many personal factors need to be considered to think over degree vs certificate and come up with the right decisions.

Self Learning And Certification

There are plenty of ways you can get certificates through online or offline self-learning. These can help you upgrade your skills and even explore new careers.

One of the most difficult steps in starting along a path of education is choosing what to pursue. My company, Audo, aims to address that very problem.

Audo is a career readiness and management platform using AI to tailor data-driven career paths by integrating paid gig work into the learning experience.

Our AI-powered assessment maps your passions and interests to the careers that are right for you.

You can level-up your skills, earn certifications and turbocharge your career by taking courses and earning credentials from our education partners. 

Do your research before embarking on programs offering degrees or certificates.  Have a clear picture in your head about where you’d like to be in five years.

Do you want to be working your way up in the industry of your choice?  Freelancing while pursuing a master’s degree?  Starting your own business?

The path toward your goals will come into clearer focus if you can get a clear picture in your mind of where you want to be.

And if you want some assistance in creating that picture, take the Audo Guide assessment.

We’ve been hearing about 5G for a while now, even though the vast majority of consumers still can’t access it. Currently, 5G-ready devices are priced pretty high, and ISPs are each scrambling to market themselves as “the” leader in 5G coverage — just like they did with 3G and 4G. While 3G brought us basic mobile web browsing and 4G brought us high-speed mobile internet and streaming, 5G technology promises to kick things up a notch.

Thus far, consumers and media outlets have mostly focused on the promised speeds that will come with 5G — and for good reason. Theoretically, 5G could be up to 10x faster than 4G, though some reports indicate that people might get speeds nearly 100x faster than what they have now. To put this in real-world terms, this means you could be able to download a 2-hour, 4K Ultra HD movie in a matter of seconds.

However, the true potential of 5G isn’t the potential speed — it’s the accessibility. If you’ve ever traveled beyond the realm of your home Wi-Fi network (as I’m sure you have), you’ll know that wireless mobile signals vary drastically. This is especially problematic in rural towns, states, and even regions, where ISPs have invested very little in the way of infrastructure.

While people in rural areas should have the same speeds as everyone else, it’s hard to blame ISPs for their priorities; they simply can’t get the same return on investment setting up mobile internet towers in Cheyenne, Wyoming (population ~65,000) as they can in New York City (population ~8.42 million). Fortunately, 5G will make leaps and bounds in terms of high-speed mobile internet access for everyone — not just big-city dwellers.

Why is 5G so much better?

A big problem with 4G is network congestion. Sure, you can watch a movie on the train ride to work, but when thousands of other people are trying to do the same thing, you’ll often find yourself with a blank loading screen — even when you’ve got full bars. This is due to the fact that 4G has, by and large, reached its data-processing limits. As 4G became the norm for billions of people around the planet, it also showcased the technology’s inability to quickly transfer increasingly large amounts of data across blocks of spectrum. With 5G, this is no longer an issue.

5G will open the door for ISPs to control more spectrum, thereby allowing more people to use the same network simultaneously without reduced speeds. On top of that, 5G tech is inherently built to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and greater bandwidth by default. In other words, 5G will make everything you do online faster and easier.

But again, I’m doing the same thing that everyone else does — talking about speed when I should be talking about ease of access. Detractors have already tempered expectations about 5G’s capabilities in rural areas, which are mostly served by low-frequency towers. Since 5G is designed to function at mid-to-high frequencies, it will have less of an impact at the outset. However, the greater efficiency of 5G technology means that it could still provide less congestion and nominal speed improvements in rural areas.

Moreover, this is just what we can expect over the next 2 or 3 years. Beyond that, 5G infrastructure will likely make accessibility to higher-quality mobile (and home) internet even better. Plus, there’s another important factor that people need to keep in mind. In rural areas, most people are accustomed to unstable internet and mobile networks that deliver paltry speeds at best. Even a small uptick in average speeds and network access could make a huge difference to billions of people in underserved areas all over the world.

What does 5G mean for entrepreneurs?

There’s a reason why many young entrepreneurs leave behind their small hometowns and move to the big city to start their business endeavors. While it may be the “chic” thing to do, it’s also a sound business decision. Nowadays, most businesses are completely dependent on the internet. As a result, entrepreneurs need access to high-speed internet whether they’re working from home or just checking emails on the go. This means that mid-size and large cities are home to the vast majority of new businesses.

While this may just sound like the cost of doing business in the modern world, it also means that there’s a huge barrier to entry for entrepreneurs in rural areas who don’t have the funds to relocate to more expensive cities. Not only does this force many people to abandon their dreams, but it also robs the world of great potential. The next Bill Gates could be living in a small village in Africa, but without access to high-speed internet, he or she may never be able to show the world their true potential.

This is exactly why I’m excited about 5G. Sure, it stands to give the average consumer access to better quality mobile and home internet service, but it really means so much more than that. Once 5G infrastructure grows and 5G-ready devices become the norm (as opposed to the latest high-priced phones), billions of people across the planet will have the power of high-speed internet wherever they are, opening the door for almost limitless innovation. It may take a few years before we see the full effects of 5G, particularly in rural areas, but for many new and existing entrepreneurs, it will be well worth the wait.

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It’s crazy to think that we, as humans, have been expressing our creative side for thousands of years. The oldest cave paintings (that we know of) date all the way back to the Prehistoric Age. Now, human-produced AI and algorithms are capable of creating their own art. Thus, the creators of art have now become the creators of the creators of art. However, there are still many things that AI simply cannot do. Even with how quickly automation and other AI tech are advancing, I sincerely believe that they will never fully replace human beings in the realm of art.That said, I’m a huge proponent of further research & development in AI. I even use AI to better some of my businesses. At The Doe, we conduct cutting-edge evaluations through AI; by utilizing natural language processing (NPL) and other technologies in our user quizzes, we help our readers better understand differing values and perspectives. However, just because AI is useful doesn’t mean it offers a solution to every problem. After all, if I want to hear a great song, I don’t ask Siri to sing something for me.

Art Is a Distinctly Sentient Process

I don’t want to offend any bots that might be reading this, but art has always been something created by (and for) sentient beings. Humans (and maybe even a few other species) have the unique capacity to feel emotions and produce things with intent. That is to say, we can make things not just out of necessity, but also out of desire. More often than not, it is the desire to make something of beauty.Whether it’s a poem, a song, a painting, a digital NFT, or something else entirely, humans have the unique ability to create things with intention. We want to enjoy them. If we produce art for the sake of others (as is often the case), then we want them to be enjoyed, or at the very least, appreciated.As a writer and music producer, I have a special place in my heart for my fellow scribes and musicians. Writers use their linguistic abilities to create beautiful prose, informative articles, entertaining scripts, and profound stories. On the other hand, musicians use a combination of senses to create intricate melodies and harmonies, beats that seem to reach directly into your soul and make your body move, as well as completely new sounds that have never been heard before. While technology may help many artists practice their craft, it’s hard to imagine an algorithm producing Sylvan LaCue’s “Clam Chowda” or penning David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.

Artificial Intelligence Merely Replicates Human Intelligence

As it stands now, Artificial Intelligence really has no ground to stand on when it comes to creative intent. We currently have no formal way to measure sentience, but since humans created AI tech and we know (with near certainty) that it does not have a consciousness, we can conclude that an AI robot is not sentient — at least, not under current definitions of the term.Thus, AI is only able to replicate human intelligence and behavior. A robot can appear to feel sad, but that does not mean that it actually feels sad. Similarly, a robot can be programmed to create a beautiful work of art, but in this instance, who is the real artist? The human who wrote the algorithm or the robot that carried out the directive according to a specific formula? I would say the human, as the robot is merely a tool in the artistic process, rather than the creative mind behind it.

Even If AI Can Rival Certain Sentient Qualities, It Cannot Replace Human Creativity

In any case, there’s no doubt that AI is constantly evolving and improving, so how can I be so sure that AI will never fully replace human-made art? Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that AI evolves to the point that it is virtually indistinguishable from human beings. By all accounts, we have created a sentient robot with the capacity to feel, think, react, and create things from scratch with vision and intention. In short, I’m imagining a future in which AI can create art on its own, without any help or guidance from human beings.Even in this hypothetical future, human-made art would still remain distinct from AI-produced art. This is because every human consciousness is its own entity; we may have collective qualities and properties as sentient beings, but we are all individuals living our own little lives. Thus, human art will always be a reflection of human creativity that is unique to each person, and to our species as a whole. AI tech may evolve to produce its own art forms, but they will exist separately from what we create.So, even as fearmongers worry about robots writing news articles or algorithms creating hit songs, human art will always have its own space. We may not always be able to tell the difference between human and AI creations, but this fact is largely irrelevant. As long as humans never lose our capacity to exercise creativity and produce things of beauty, no robot will be able to take that away from us.

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The Transition to Remote Work

In many ways, the transition to remote work in the wake of Covid-19 has helped redefine existing conceptions of “company culture.” Even the term itself seems rather outdated; it conjures up images of bustling offices of decades past, with daily meetings, memos and synergetic pep talks. Though some organizations still function in this way, much modern-day business is done with teams spread out all over the world. Many entrepreneurs — myself included — now have to juggle multiple time zones and communication platforms, as well as differences in both language and culture.I’d like to make it clear that I am in no way complaining. In fact, I find the environment of remote workplaces exhilarating. That said, there’s no denying that we have entered an era in which traditional ways of developing and nurturing company culture no longer exist. Consequently, we have to find ways to build and promote cooperation, camaraderie, innovation and productivity — perhaps without ever meeting most of our coworkers face to face.

Company Culture Built On Communication

With the knowledge that work culture has evolved in a remote environment, many startups must spend a great deal of time considering and implementing various ways to strengthen the community from within. It may sound tedious to those entrepreneurs who are, frankly, just concerned with making payroll. You may wonder, who has the time to focus on company culture when there’s a never-ending to-do list? But when the “boss” is physically separate from everyone else, building strong professional relationships is essential.It’s not about monitoring people’s every move or badgering them for constant updates. Instead, it’s about developing a relationship built on mutual communication, trust and understanding. I seek to understand all of the people I work with — and do my best to make myself understood by them. Even when there is a clear hierarchical structure within the business, I want to let everyone know that they are heard and respected.While this may not be completely revolutionary, it is somewhat unique, even in the ever-growing world of remote work. Now that employees are no longer working under the noses of management, there’s a tendency in many companies to over-enforce policies that ensure productivity. In my opinion, this almost never has the desired effect. Instead, it results in more adversarial relationships, where business owners distrust their remote staff and remote employees resent their overbearing bosses.At my companies, most team communication takes place over Slack, email, Zoom or one of the productivity tools we use like Asana and Jira. Small nuances become important when much of our communication is no longer tied to facial expressions or body language. The need to over-communicate so that everyone can understand my tone and intention quickly becomes rather important. For this reason, I think one-on-one meetings allow us to understand each other on a deeper level. I never want to dictate; I prefer to collaborate.This is where I believe the future of remote company culture is heading. Rather than a series of top-down directives, objectives and policies meant to guide employee behavior, remote workplaces should be built on mutual trust and respect. This all begins with having the right people, in the right roles, who are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected output.

Turning Remote Company Culture Into Business Growth

While I personally like to communicate in writing, I’m not blind to the fact that many people are visual or auditory learners. So, in getting to know the people I work with, I also come to learn the most effective ways of communicating my ideas to them. While I may not prefer to brainstorm or think out loud on a call — as opposed to brainstorming in private and coming back with written thoughts — I recognize the importance of doing so in some cases. Sometimes people need to feel heard and seen, even if you’re reading everything they’re sending you. This helps facilitate an environment in which open dialogue is not only encouraged — it’s just the way we do business.Take one of my startups as an example. The first product we launched was our publication: It’s entirely stories from people’s lives. We simply tell stories that are not being told in other places. While we do verify authors and their stories, we publish them anonymously to ensure their ideas are considered fairly by the public. However, this also gives a voice to those who don’t yearn for the attention their story could bring them. I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t organize my businesses using the same foundational concepts. Everyone involved — from part-time freelancers to junior employees — has a voice. While we may not always agree on the same strategy or idea, it’s up to me to listen to them all.Even if they aren’t physically by my side, I know that I can depend on a network of people all over the world to help turn our mission and aspirations for the world into a reality. We all work closely together, exchanging ideas and information — often on a daily basis. In doing so, we ensure that no one’s ideas are disregarded, and everyone understands that they are contributing to something bigger than themselves — even when we’re thousands of miles apart.

The Bottom Line

While many of us may be using many of the same tools — Slack, Zoom and so on — the difference lies in how you use them to build relationships. I believe in maintaining a safe and professional working environment for everyone, myself included, but I’m not afraid to get personal. In fact, my businesses depend on it. By building trusting relationships with all of your remote teams and network of associates, you can ensure that you’re cultivating a company culture that is built for everyone.Originally published on Forbes.

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An Ever-Evolving Industry

The music industry is changing rapidly, with new avenues arising for both creators and consumers every day. This begs the question: What will the music industry look like in the future?As the cofounder of an indie record label, I’ve watched many of the most recent changes happen in real time. Despite only working in the business for a few years, we’ve had to constantly adapt to new trends — both in music creation and consumption. While musicians can largely continue creating music as they have for years, the way in which they market their music and reach their audience is always changing.It’s easy to see how the music industry is evolving at an ever-increasing speed. Though SoundCloud has been around for more than a decade and is still one of the biggest players when it comes to discovering new, emerging artists, TikTok has emerged as a popular application for both creators and consumers. First introduced in 2016, the video-centric social media application has taken the music world by storm. Many new artists have gained huge followings on the application and, despite the Trump administration previouslyattempting to ban TikTokciting national security concerns, it has remained one of the most popular avenues for free music distribution, particularly among Gen Z consumers.In a sense, this is the future of the music industry. Whether you look at it from year to year or month to month, the ability to adapt back-end strategies is a must. However, one aspect of music marketing that has become increasingly relevant in the late 2010s and early 2020s is what I like to refer to as the “scandal factor.” You can create great music and garner a following as musicians have done for decades, but if you want to make it big in such a fickle and ephemeral landscape, you have to turn the dial up to 11.What does this actually mean in practice? It not only means doing something that no one else has done — it means doing something that shocks, polarizes and ultimately shifts the download and streaming data in your favor.Lil Nas X provides a perfect example of a musician where controversy has garnered attention and helped build his musical brand. He first turned heads by teaming up with Billy Ray Cyrus to create the highly popular and oddly catchy “Old Town Road,” a mixture of traditional country and modern rap that exploded on Twitter. The following year, Lil Nas Xpublicly came outin 2019, which in and of itself, shouldn’t have been controversial. However, it made him a mainstream gay male rapper — a rapper with a country hit who has attained international success. Lil Nas X capitalized further on this “controversy” with hismusic video for the hit single, “Montero,” which evoked images of the Garden of Eden before showing a fictionalized version of Lil Nas X twerking on Satan’s lap. While many saw it as an ode to the freedom of sexuality, manyconservatives decried it as blasphemous. However, regardless of how you felt about it, the controversy only put more money in the rapper’s pocket.This desire for increasingly shocking material doesn’t just exist in the music industry, either. The old modes of building brands — from political campaigns to retail shops — are falling by the wayside, with new players driven by clicks, streams, downloads, retweets and so on. Social media, particularly TikTok, Twitter and Youtube, might be the primary facilitator (for now), but the desire for controversy and virality are what underpin modern success. To be noticed, you have to do something worthy of people’s attention — which often means doing something completely unexpected. I learned this first hand by building the first completely anonymous publication. By allowing people to write for us anonymously, we get juicer, much more “controversial” perspectives. We’ve seen how the “scandal factor” of the narratives we publish on The Doe can lead to virality on social media like Instagram.Some artists may not like this data-obsessed way of creating, but there’s nothing inherently new about it. Musicians — and their labels — have been motivated by profits, usually above all else. Now, profits are largely calculated using algorithms and data provided by online platforms. Therefore, the environment for music creation and consumption may have changed, but the underlying drive to create new, interesting and profitable media remains the same.

The Bottom Line

My advice to young artists? Don’t feel that you have to cheapen or somehow betray your passion for music just for shock value. That said, if you want to reach a larger audience, you have to find ways to use your unique talents to create something worth talking about. There are millions of artists out there, so the key is figuring out how to make your music loud enough to be heard above all the other noise.This is why I like to tell artists to treat their music like a product and less like an art form if they want to succeed. That means every time they put music out, they should be treating their fans or listeners, no matter how small that group is, like a focus group they can garner feedback from. The fans may not always know what they want until they hear it. But they do decide what happens to your career, so being arrogant about knowing what’s “the best art” is probably not going to work out for you. Purpose-driven artists can build their careers by understanding how they can market or portray their unique art — even if it means pushing the current boundaries of artist comfort.Originally published on Rolling Stone.

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The Impact of Music — on Musicians

Arts and music are the most expressive industries. The spotlight they cast on artistic output is the death of many talented and upcoming artists. Contractual idiosyncrasies in the music industry offer several benefits, but also several distinct disadvantages. The mounting pressure to write, produce, and perform great music takes a toll on the artists, if not properly monitored. Although the current music industry offers many artists an opportunity to succeed, many times the artist will work themselves into a very unhealthy state. The creative process, and the pressure to remain relevant, exposes them to strong responses of depression, morbid public meltdowns, mental issues, and ultimately, may lead to their death.

The Impact of Streaming

On a similar note, the tantalizing premise of streaming services has led to success stories for a number of artists. As a consequence, music streaming services have resulted in a generation of single songs that have more impact than albums. At the same time, streaming has inexorably altered the music industry, which habitually notes the ‘death’ of artists, and many become tagged with the label of being one-hit wonders. However, as Paula Mejia wrote:

While streaming continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, the system through which artists are paid for the music being listened to hasn’t evolved in tandem — meaning that, as dissenters note, many artists are still paid little, after services and labels take their respective cuts.

Because of this new impact of streaming on artists, it is imperative to address the hot topic on the minds of many people — the literal and metaphorical death of artists due to mental health struggles, and the impact of streaming gatekeepers.

The wider cultural shift across the music industry, beginning with the advent of streaming, has introduced new types of gatekeepers. The industry is no longer siloed into discrete functions, such as promotion, publishing, talent management, and royalty collection, as it was in past decades. Streaming has changed music consumption and distribution, which has significantly altered popularity characteristics. The data used to evaluate the popularity of music and the artists, is obtained from streaming services in various classifications or charts. For instance, the Billboard’s Hot 100 includes weekly figures of the most popular songs across multiple regions and genres. It also ranks songs by radio airplay impressions, sales data, and streaming activity.

A Short Chart Life

The digital vetting process filters through songs, separating dubs and creating songs/singles that chart for only one week, known as “one-week wonders.” Digital songs are considerably more likely to plunge from modern digital vetting processes and disappear from the charts into oblivion. As Jerry Lao and Kevin Hoan Nguyen wrote in their article:

The end result is that digital songs are significantly more likely to fall off the chart in the first week compared to CD songs, but the effect moderates over time as the digital songs are scrutinized and only the good songs remain.

Moreover, the processes favor established artists who often regularly dominate the weekly charts. The digital platforms increase the avenues and frequency of music evaluation, as well as the speed with which singles from less established but talented artists peak and disappear — a one-time spotlight phenomenon.

The Decline of The Rising Career

The bedrock structure used by modern streaming services is disproportionately biased against emerging and midsize artists. The unfavorable model guts the musical career of many upcoming artists. Popular streaming services, including Apple Music and Spotify, use a “pro rata” model to determine how revenues are distributed. According to Mejia, the meaning of pro rata is that:

Rights-holders are paid according to market share; how their streams stack up against the most popular songs in a given time period. The people who hold the rights to the most listened-to tracks, then, stand to make the most.

This model is vastly critiqued as unreasonably privileged because it prioritizes and benefits the services themselves, followed by top artists and labels.

As a result, emerging and midsize artists have little chance to earn a decent living. In addition to money considerations, there is a shift toward purpose and mood-driven playlists, instead of full album plays. This pattern is mainly adopted as an advertising tool that functions on the basis that more value is derived from people listening more. Therefore, singles are pushed and popularized to the extent they matter more than artists or full-length albums.

Striving To Succeed

Music has a powerful positive impact on listeners’ mental health, yet many artists are subject to a negative impact, as they struggle with dire mental health issues. Sudden fame, and a lifestyle revolving around music creation and live performances, can intensify mental health challenges, including substance abuse and other psychological issues. In a tangential way, the quest to enter and rise to the peak of the music industry can massively impact an artist’s emotional health. Artists report despair and suicidal thoughts after repeatedly being turned away while trying to rise to fame.

This rejection reflects the brutal competitive nature of the industry, as only a few achieve a successful career. Several aspects trigger these problems, including lack of confidence, anxiety due to rejection and failure, negative influence of others, and the impact of exploitation. The callous nature of the music industry is evidenced by the peak in record sales immediately upon the death of an artist. Mental health struggles are a real menace in the sector that continue to steal big talents, and numb shining stars; as co-founder of Guin Records, our mission is to provide better support to artists

The Impact of Performance Pressure

The music community produces significant pressure and stressors. Artists often experience high-pressure situations, including gigs and live shows, attended by thousands of eager and expectant people. Artists are human, and the body is pre-programmed to respond in different ways under stress, which includes various physical and psychological states. Hence, musicians can either perform well due to the heightened awareness from adrenaline rushes, or suffer panic attacks or even memory loss, which cause long-term anxieties. Several artists have reported instances of stress-related breakdown that trigger unhealthy habits such as drinking and drug abuse.

Demi Lovato, for instance, has been admitted in hospital for drug overdose in the past. Before this incident, Lovato was and is still among the most vocal artists on mental health awareness within the music community. Anxiety struggles are also prevalent among several high-profile artists. Such debilitating issues cause much exasperation, necessitating the need to address them publicly. If left unaddressed, issues arising from high-pressure music industry may rapidly deteriorate to feelings of severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

Behind the Scenes — the Artist Suffers

It is paradoxical that music and musical communities and events foster a supportive environment to relax and have fun, yet artists suffer behind the scenes. The music industry is often a smoke and mirrors business, where artists may be portrayed as figureheads who have greater fortitude than others. Media and even artists foster these perceptions and encourage misconceptions about the magnitude of financial success. Nonetheless, they conceal the dire health conditions, and even worse financial outcomes that often occur.

The industry provides a brief window of opportunity for an artist to peak, but is all too often the death of many aspiring artists. Although streaming is arguably an engine driving the music industry to new heights, it is a black spot for those labelled as one-hit wonders. The sector is characterized by monsters, including mental health disorders, depression, and the death of artists and talent.

The Death of an Artist

Unfortunately, the most powerful impact of mental health issues in the music industry arises after the death of an artist. This issue is reflected in the deaths of major acts such as Avicii, who reportedly committed suicide after struggling with thoughts about the meaning of life, and Michael Jackson, who struggled with painkiller drugs addiction for years before dying from a combination of drugs. Artists are perceived (by fans) and portrayed (by the media) as having fun, ‘living the time of their lives’, and as people with superhuman fortitude. With this increased attention, artists often become influencers, and the demand for them to share their personal opinions and become subjected to the pressures of scrutiny, become even higher.

Instances of depression, mental breakdown, and even death show a different side of the lives of musicians. This situation shows the complexity and skewed perceptions about the subject of mental health issues in the context of the music industry. Unlike the easily relatable and understood cases of depression and anxiety such as schizophrenia, mental disorders and associated death within the music community is a major menace. The morbid public meltdowns, depression, and mental issues and ultimate deaths of artists continue to intrigue people — but sadly, just not enough to take action.

Originally published on Thrive

Works Cited

Lao, Jerry, and Kevin Hoan Nguyen. “One-Hit Wonder or Superstardom? The Role of Technology Format on Billboard’s Hot 100 Performance.” 2016, web.stanford.edu/~xhnguyen/BillboardandTechnology.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2020.

Mejia, Paula. “The Success of Streaming has been Great for Some, but is there a Better Way?” NPR, 22 Jul. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/07/22/743775196/the-success-of-streaming-has-been-great-for-some-but-is-there-a-better-way. Accessed 15 July 2020.

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The practice has gained much more prominence over the last two decades. Since the advent of the Internet, millions of 9-to-5 workers have put their extra time and resources toward making money through side hustles. According to a Bankrate survey, nearly half of full-time workers take part in some form of “side hustle” outside of their traditional job.

These activities can range from starting a fashion blog to working as a freelance delivery driver — and everything in between. When my co-founder Sabine and I pivoted Dormzi from being a service-based network to a marketplace powered by young people, our vision was to help students lean into their side hustles. One of the challenges we’ve been seeing since doing so is that many aspiring entrepreneurs believe that they would have to completely drop their 9-to-5 job or schooling to turn their side hustles into thriving businesses. Fortunately, this is frequently not the case. To show how to turn your side hustle into a full-time business, let’s look at a few real-world success stories:

Big businesses that started as side hustles

It’s a common misconception that your side hustle cannot become a successful business unless you dedicate 100% of your time and money to it. While it’s true that you cannot just expect a side hustle to become something more without any effort on your part, you can turn a side hustle into a full-time business without quitting your day job. How exactly can you do this? By regularly funding your side hustle with a portion of your 9-to-5 paycheck.

It sounds too easy to be true, right? The fact is that many side hustles remain side hustles because people don’t put additional funds into them. For example, if you provide writing services, you could pay to develop a website that markets your services and makes you look more professional. Without a website, you’ll likely struggle to gain new clients and turn your side hustle into a long-term business venture.

So, to refute the naysayers, let’s take a look at some entrepreneurs who invested in their side hustles and now run extremely profitable businesses:

Aytekin Tank, Founder of JotForm

Before founding JotForm in 2006, Aytekin Tank worked as a senior web developer for a large Internet media company in New York City. During his five-year tenure, Aytekin Tank was frequently tasked with creating tools with which editors could create unique forms, like surveys. However, Aytekin Tank often found the existing tools on the market wholly insufficient.

Thus, JotForm was born. While Aytekin Tank toiled away at his day job, he spent his free time developing what would become one of the most popular online form builder tools in the world. His work as a senior web developer provided enough additional funds to turn his ideas into a reality. Over time, Aytekin Tank put away a small fraction of his paycheck until he was ready to launch JotForm. Then, he had the funds to hire a team, grow his start-up into a full-time business, and become one of the dominant forces in his niche. Today, JotForm has over 2 million subscribers and counting!

Andrew Mason, Founder of Groupon

While Andrew Mason working toward a Public Policy Degree at the University of Chicago, he started developing The Point, a platform that introduced the “tipping point” concept of donating funds towards a particular cause. With The Point, users could collectively fundraise in support of a common goal. However, if the goal did not reach a certain number of supporters or a minimum monetary amount, no one would be charged and the goal would be abandoned. This “tipping point” concept would later form the basis of Andrew Mason’s subsequent endeavor, Groupon, with partners Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky.

Andrew Mason and his partners put a great deal of time and effort into The Point, which proved to be a failed idea, due in part to its lack of focus. However, they found that one aspect of The Point was particularly popular: collective buying power with group deals. Thus, in 2008, Groupon was born.

Andrew Mason worked as a server and a series of other odd jobs to pay his way through college and put aside funds to create The Point. Additionally, he was able to launch The Point with funds from his future Groupon partners. Even once The Point turned out to be a bust, Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky stuck by Andrew’s side. The trio turned their initial failure into a massive success, creating a company that is now valued at more than $2.4 billion!

Eren Bali, founder of Udemy

In the mid-2000s, Eren Bali worked as a freelance web developer based in Turkey. While working for various clients, including the now-defunct Speeddate.com, Bali was putting his extra time and funds toward his own passion project. In 2007, he developed software for a live virtual classroom. He saw a lot of potential in his new creation, so he saved up the funds to move his base of operations to Silicon Valley.

Once in California, Eren Bali met up with Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani to found Udemy, an open online course provider. The site launched in 2010 with minimal funding. In fact, Eren Bali and his partners tried and failed 30 times to gain the interest of investors. However, the early success of the platform allowed them to raise $1 million in just a few months. Later, Groupon investors Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell would help raise more capital for the burgeoning company. By early 2020, Udemy was valued at approximately $2 billion!

How to Turn Your Side Hustle into a Full-Time Business

It’s easy to look at success stories and feel that these side-hustlers-turned-business-owners just got lucky. While there is a certain amount of luck involved in every entrepreneurial endeavor, there are actionable steps you can take to turn your side hustle into a successful full-time business. Based on the examples above, you can reverse engineer their experiences to find a process that works for you. So, let’s take notes from successful entrepreneurs like Aytekin Tank, Andrew Mason, and Eren Bali!

Find and perfect your idea

In all three examples above, the founders of successful side-hustle businesses had ideas that they put into action. Often times, these ideas combined their existing skills or passions with a gap in the market. For example, let’s say that you are an excellent communicator and have expert knowledge in a particular niche. You could begin consulting for businesses in that niche. From there, you could set aside funds from your job to market and grow your side-hustle consultation services into a full-time business! This brings us to the second important step…

Develop a funding strategy

Most people begin side hustles to make money. However, to turn a side hustle into a business, you’ll need some starting capital. As a result, you’ll likely need to dedicate a small portion of your paycheck toward building your side hustle. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s actually a sound business strategy.

Think about it; if you quit your job just to focus on your side hustle, you greatly reduce your income and risk putting all of your eggs in one unpredictable basket. Alternatively, if you regularly set aside funds from your job (or your side hustle) to build your business, you’re essentially investing in your future without taking on any additional risk. Over time, this nest egg could be enough to get your business up-and-running. If you still need more capital, you could always look for investors or take out a small business loan to get things moving!

Launch your business

It may seem like an unimportant distinction, but a side hustle becomes a business once you identify it as such. Side hustles are essentially part-time, temporary work to make extra cash; businesses are long-term investments with the potential to grow and create much larger returns. So, once you officially launch your business as an LLC or similar entity, you’ve taken an important step in your transition from side hustler to business owner!

As illustrated in the stories above, side hustles are generally low-risk. You spend a little bit of extra time and money to (hopefully) make more money or develop a unique idea. However, launching a business entails much more risk. When Aytekin Tank formed JotForm, he struggled to pay and manage his ever-growing staff. Andrew Manson’s first business launch, The Point, turned out to be a momentous failure, though it led him to develop a much better and more profitable website. Finally, Eren Bali and his business partners failed dozens of times to secure funding before finally getting the capital they needed to grow their business. In all three examples, these entrepreneurs launched their side-hustle businesses in spite of the inherent risks.

Time to get started

Turning a side hustle into a big business doesn’t mean you need to quit your day job. In fact, a day job has allowed hundreds of entrepreneurs to routinely fund their side hustles, eventually transforming them into full-time businesses. Up-and-coming entrepreneurs sometimes argue that leaving their much-hated nine-to-five jobs to focus on a full-time business will increase their chances of success. While there is validity to the point that you can’t just “set it and forget it,” you don’t need to completely upend your financial life or career to build your business. Instead, routinely fund and dedicate extra time to your side hustle until you’re ready to launch your business venture.

Originally published on Entrepreneur.

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Today, small time farmers across the United States are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to unfair and unjust pressures put on these family run farms by mega corporations. This pressure has made it harder and harder for farmers to make ends meet to properly care for the health and wellbeing of their livestock. Unfortunately, nearly all farmers have to choose between, either, treating their animals humanely and making a small profit, or signing with a mega corporation to inhumanely raise livestock for a slightly larger profit. Poultry farms throughout the United States serve as a great example for how hard it is to compete with these corporations. 

The reality is that these mega corporations came in and changed the age-old standards of ethical farming. When looking at poultry farms, the price of meat and eggs has remained too low for too long for smaller farmers to compete and make a difference. Therefore, the poultry farmers have to make a tough choice between selling at the farmers’ markets, or signing deals with mega corporations for a better profit.

Factory farming, which is controlled by big businesses and corporations, are notorious for their inhumane treatment of animals. Poultry farmers, most of the time, have to compete with these mega corporations that find nothing ethically wrong with packing chickens into crates so small that they cannot move, failing to care for the medical needs in order to raise a bird bigger, faster, and cheaper. By completely neglecting any concern or care for the chickens, and placing these animals in horrific, unsanitary, and tortuous environments, big corporations are able to mass produce more eggs and poultry products at a discounted price. In exchange for money, they opt to torture animals.

This, in turn, drives down the price of poultry and eggs, considerably. Today, most farmers only make pennies per bird, due to the mass corporations that can afford to only obtain a marginal profit per animal because they own so many. Put in simpler terms, to make a $100, a mega corporation might only need to make 10 cents per chicken, since they have 1000 chickens. However, a small time farmer, who only has 100 chickens — but keeps them humanely, cares for their needs, and feeds them real food that is not genetically modified — would need to make $10 per chicken. This means that a small time farmer simply cannot compete with larger corporations that specialize in poultry. 

Ultimately, they, either, have to raise their productivity and, in doing so, sign a contract with a mega corporation, or remain small and sell at the farmer’s markets. Either way, the end result is the unfair treatment of poultry farmers and the continued mistreatment and abuse of chickens.

Not surprisingly, many smaller chicken farmers are reporting feeling extremely disgruntled and downright depressed over the current state of the whole enterprise. They remember the days, in decades past, when they could care for their chickens in an ethical and humane manner and still turn a profit because it was just them selling along with other farmers who grew for their towns. Now, you can buy the same brand of chicken all over the country. Because of this, fewer and fewer farmers are able to act ethically and earn enough to stay in business.

But there is hope. You as a consumer have the power to help these marginalized farmers and their animals who, ultimately, suffer the most. It is vital for all Americans to petition their governments — local, state, and federal — and demand that stricter laws and regulations be put into place in order to protect animal rights. Stricter laws will accomplish one of two goals: either, factory farmers will be driven out of business, or factory farms will be forced to treat their animals humanely and ethically. It is essential to keep in mind, that these larger corporations are lobbying lawmakers and petitioning to have their agendas upheld and undermine the legitimacy of truly dedicated and just farmers.

If factory farms shut down completely, then smaller farms will be able to thrive and prosper without having to succumb to barbaric practices. On the other hand, if these farms do abide by the laws and regulations which protect animal rights, then poultry farmers will be able to work in a humane setting and not be expected to abuse and mistreat animals in order to turn a profit. 

Either way, the farmer and the chickens will win and the corporations, which exploit farmers and torture innocent animals, will be thwarted in their nefarious actions.

Originally published on HuffPost.

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Social media influencers, bloggers, third-party review sites, and even major publications give negative feedback to businesses all the time. Learn how you can leverage media criticism to get your business ahead of the crowd.

One trait that applies to most new entrepreneurs is hopeless optimism. While many entrepreneurs and startup owners keep their feet on the ground when it comes to budgeting and business management, they may not be so level-headed about media criticism. In fact, most startup owners expect to receive nothing but praise and cheers when their products or services hit the market. Unfortunately, this is almost never the case.

However, every dark cloud has a silver lining. Rather than throwing in the towel when you get negative feedback, you should leverage media criticism to your advantage. When it comes to leveraging media critiques, there are essentially two schools of thought. One approach is the “P.T. Barnum Pro-Criticism” technique; the other is Eric Reis’ “Adaptive Learning” strategy. Though both methods are very different, they offer you two ways to turn negative media criticism into a useful tool to grow your business and ultimately stand out from the competition.

What is media criticism?

It may sound like a no-brainer, but many first-time entrepreneurs assume that any kind of negative feedback qualifies as media criticism. In fact, there’s a huge difference between consumers leaving your business bad reviews on Yelp and a journalist criticizing your startup in a respected publication. So, let’s evaluate the differences between consumer criticism and media criticism.

Consumer criticism

Consumer criticism refers to any kind of negative critique of you, your product, your service, or your business by a patron or customer. For example, let’s say you run a business that provides digital marketing services. A client uses your services, feels unhappy about their experience, and decides to write a negative review of your business.

This is a prime example of consumer criticism. It is simply a form of negative feedback from a customer or client. More importantly, the customer or client is not a public figure, nor do they hold any sway over a larger audience. However, their feedback will likely be in the public view, so it does have the power to negatively affect your business and possibly deter future clients.

Media criticism

Alternatively, media criticism refers to negative feedback from a public and/or authoritative source. Sometimes, consumer criticism can also be media criticism. For example, if a prominent Youtube star makes a purchase from your startup and creates a negative review video for their Youtube channel, this would be a form of both consumer and media criticism.

In any case, media criticism generally comes from individuals or organizations that have a large audience or have the ability to sway public opinion in a substantial way. Here are a few common examples:

• Journalists
• Prominent social media influencers or bloggers
• Celebrities
• Newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets
• TV programs, radio shows, and podcasts

Needless to say, there can be many different sources of media criticism. When many new startup owners are faced with media criticism, they may feel the urge to crumble under the pressure. After all, being the target of public criticism from a popular or authoritative source can be painful. So, how can you get over the initial hurdles and leverage media criticism to your own advantage?

Different approaches to managing and leveraging media criticism

As previously mentioned, there are two unique approaches to leveraging media criticism. The first approach is the “P.T. Barnum Pro-Criticism” method. This is a rather famous — and perhaps infamous — strategy implemented by world-renowned New York Showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, P.T. Barnum. So, let’s take a closer look at the notorious showman’s strategy for using media criticism to grow his entertainment empire.

P.T. Barnum’s pro-criticism method

Though P.T. Barnum dabbled in a wide variety of ventures — from politics to journalism — he is most remembered for his traveling circus and widely publicized hoaxes. He became highly successful due to his keen observation that media criticism can be a good thing. In fact, many historians attribute the famous quote, “there’s no such thing as bad press,” (sometimes quoted as “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”) to Barnum.

One of Barnum’s most famous hoaxes was the “Feejee Mermaid,” which was the corpse of a monkey sewn to the tail of a fish, with paper-mâché to craft certain parts of the head and body. Despite its highly questionable authenticity, thousands of people flocked to Barnum’s New York-based museum to see the exhibit. In this instance, Barnum used controversy and negative media attention to grow his empire. This was further exemplified with his second most popular hoax, “General Tom Thumb.”

As part of his touring circus, Barnum employed several dwarfs and little people, one of whom he dubbed “General Tom Thumb.” The young boy began performing at the age of 4, with Barnum claiming that he was “The Smallest Person That Ever Walked Alone.” The act was so popular that Barnum took it to Europe, where Queen Victoria was both entertained and saddened by the young entertainer. His appearance before royalty — and the subsequent media frenzy — led to a hugely successful European tour.

So, how can these stories help you as an entrepreneur? The fact is that there is some truth to Barnum’s media criticism theory. Press — whether good or bad — provides exposure for you and your business. In short, it makes more people aware of your brand. For example, my business, The Doe, is a digital publication for anonymous contributors. Since we strive to encourage conversation and differing viewpoints, we have faced media criticism in the past. Most recently, we experienced backlash related to an article that argued against voting in the 2020 election due to the lack of quality candidates. Some of our more prominent followers took to social media to deride the article’s viewpoint, but as the founder and CEO of The Doe, I decided to lean into the criticism. Rather than ignoring, however, I always choose to respond to our critics, as often those conversations can be the most enlightening as a founder.

Eric Reis’ adaptive learning

In his much-lauded book, The Lean Startup, American entrepreneur Eric Reis puts forward a method for handling media critiques as a startup owner. Part of this process is a practice that Reis calls “Adaptive Learning.” As the name implies, entrepreneurs must analyze feedback so that they can adapt and learn from past mistakes. In short, it takes the same process that startups can use with consumer criticism and implements it with media criticism.

However, the ideas behind Adaptive Learning are far more complex than simply learning from one’s mistakes. In fact, Reis promotes a three-step process that every startup owner can use to their advantage. The illustration below provides a broad overview of Reis’ process:

As you can see, every startup must begin with a vision. This step defines the goals of your startup. To get to the next step, you must identify actionable steps that can get your startup up and running. Once you’ve identified these elements, you can start seeing how your business operates and how it is received. Are you able to profit right from the start? Is consumer feedback positive or negative? How about media critiques?

If you’re getting any negative feedback or taking note of metrics that could be improved, this is the moment to adapt and learn. This process of building, measuring, and learning is the foundation of Adaptive Learning. As you can see from the illustration above, you can continue through this process multiple times to improve your business and leverage media criticism to your advantage.

It’s inevitable

At one point or another, media criticism is an inevitability for every startup owner. Whether it’s a blogger who doesn’t like your product or a journalist who thinks your practices are questionable, there will always be media critiques of your business. Remember, you shouldn’t see media criticism as a reason to give up; you should see it as a reason to improve and build your business. Whether you use the P.T. Barnum Pro-Criticism approach or Eric Reis’ Adaptive Learning method (or even a combination of the two), you have an actionable path to success. You simply have to use your ability to leverage media criticism so that your business can grow and get ahead of the crowd!

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