Essays & Articles About Business, Leadership, and Culture
Entrepreneurship For Humans
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Why We Just Keep Squeezing More In
Photo by Ferenc Horvath on Unsplash Sometimes it feels like I just can't slow down. I rush all day while I work—and then I rush to fit in a walk,...
The Eggbeater Effect: How Time-Saving Technology Just Makes For More Work
Before there were egg beaters, there were women with whisks and spoons beating eggs. As a woman who bakes and also owns a KitchenAid Pro stand...
Emotional Labor, Entrepreneurship, and My Breakdown
My mom was a seamstress while I was growing up. She started working at her sewing machine in the wee hours of the morning, paused to help my brother...
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Should Small Business Owners Be Worried about a Recession?
There’s a small village in interior Alaska called Anaktuvuk Pass. It sits inside the Gates of the Arctic National Park, the northernmost national park and the least visited park in the United States. Anaktuvuk is an anglicized version of an Inupiaq word that means...
Personal Branding and The Crafting of Self
I remember the first time I had my picture taken professionally. The photographer belonged to an artists’ workspace in an old goggle factory. The top floor was an event space—just a big empty loft with the original flooring, exposed brick walls, and giant windows. I...
Work Doesn’t Have to Make Money to be Valuable
On a typical evening, you’ll find my husband, Sean, and I on the sofa. We eat dinner and crack up watching the latest Good Mythical Morning episode. After, we move on to whatever television show we’re binging–currently The 100. I work on a crossword puzzle or...
How Positive Thinking Shaped The 21st Century Economy
Mary walks down Market St toward Oxford Street on a cold February day. It's 1866–Lynn, Massachusetts. Despite taking careful steps, Mary slips on a patch of ice and crashes to the ground. Electricity prickles up and down her spine. Each attempt to right herself is met...
Getting Paid: A Different Way To Think About Profit & Wages
No matter where you go online today, you’re bombarded with messages about getting paid. One quick YouTube search for “make money online” brought me to a video—actually, a series of videos all about the same thing—about the “laziest” way to make $100 per day. After a...
Always On: The Hidden Labor We Do Every Day
On April 11, 2022, over 15,000 Etsy sellers put their shops on vacation mode and went on strike. They spoke out against Etsy’s latest fee increase. They also protested a mandatory marketing program that costs additional fees and the Star Seller program, which tried to...
The Passion Paradigm and the Spectacle of Doing What You Love
What did you want to be when you grew up? I had a few ideas: pastor, band director, and professor. As a fairly unimaginative kid, I cycled through those three moderately practical options until 20 years old. My mom tells a story about me preaching from the top of our...
Hope Beyond Rugged Individualism
I'm sure I've picked up most of my US History knowledge outside of US history classes. For instance, I played in the pit orchestra for Annie in high school. And I learned quite a bit about the Great Depression. You probably know Annie's famous anthem, Tomorrow. And...
Refund Policies: What’s Fair and What’s Not For Online Businesses
“If you don’t see results, you didn’t want it bad enough.” That’s become the prevailing narrative of the online business refund policy. Of course, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee results. And there are reasons to remind customers and clients that, no matter what...