When my father was a child in upstate New York, he contracted polio. So did three of his younger siblings. It was devastating to the family. It was also, in a way none of them could have anticipated, a door that opened onto something extraordinary. The White children became part of Jonas Salk’s research, a small but real contribution to the science that would eventually defeat the dreaded disease. That experience lit something in my father that never went out, motivating him to become an epidemiologist. He played a role in the global eradication of smallpox, an improbable collaboration that,…
Author: Staff Writer
This weekend much of the Eastern Seaboard got hit with an unusual September nor’easter, bringing torrential rains, damaging winds, and coastal flooding from northern Maine all the way down to North Carolina. Here in New England, the heavy rains continued on Monday. This year’s record-breaking Super El Niño is at least in part to blame for the scrambling of the hurricane seasons in our two largest oceans—which has left the typically busy Atlantic for the most part untouched, while major storms are brewing in the Pacific. That could seriously damage California’s coast, impacting sea levels and possibly triggering floods, as…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways The first 60 days set the trajectory for a CEO’s entire tenure. They should prioritize listening and learning to understand the company’s culture and its strengths and weaknesses. Most new CEOs focus on reaching out to the obvious stakeholders, but the real edge comes from also reaching out to the former CEO, partners, recently exited clients and frontline employees. Look out for the faster-horse instinct among employees, watch for patterns over volume, ask where cross-functional friction occurs, build a KPI-based scorecard, and avoid restructuring too early. According to Equilar, between…
QUESTION: I was told that you had said the three wise men in the Nativity were Iranian and that they were the source of this final battle of Armageddon. Is that true? WP ANSWER: Yes, as far as the Nativity. The core concept of a final cosmic battle often known as Armageddon, also has ancient roots. Many historians trace this worldview back to the Persian prophet Zoroaster (around 1500 BC), who spoke of a cosmic struggle between good and evil ending in a perfect new world. This idea deeply influenced Jewish thought during times of great oppression, such as the…
If you want to get pumped up physically and emotionally, spend a few minutes talking with Sam Tooley, the founder and CEO of Alpha Fit Club, a boutique strength-and-conditioning franchise he started in a 700-square-foot studio in New Jersey back in 2019. Today the brand has 20 studios open and 30 more sold across the East Coast. On October 3, they’re hosting their biggest event yet: Alpha Games, where 1,550 members and 750 teams will compete at American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. I sat down with Sam to talk about the heartbreak that sparked his franchise and…
Britain has decided that leaving your own property empty for six months may now be sufficient reason for the government to begin taking control of it. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has announced that councils in England will be given expanded powers under Empty Dwelling Management Orders, reducing the qualifying period from TWO YEARS to just SIX MONTHS. The government will also remove requirements that councils demonstrate matters such as anti-social behavior or community support before seeking an order. They call this bringing empty homes “back into use.” I call it another erosion of the basic principle that private property belongs…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Leaders often mistake their own familiarity with a task for clarity, leaving teams to guess at what success looks like. Before handing off important work, say the outcome, show what good looks like, check for understanding and recap the agreement in writing. Most leaders walk away from a conversation believing they handed over a map. Their teams often walk away holding something closer to a postcard: pretty, partial and not nearly enough to get them where they’re supposed to go. That space between what the leader meant and what the…
Spain’s housing crisis has finally exploded into the streets. Tens of thousands marched through Madrid after an 87-year-old disabled woman, Maricarmen Abascal, was removed from the apartment where she had lived for more than 70 years. Police battled protesters trying to stop the eviction, and Maricarmen was ultimately carried from the building on a stretcher and taken away by ambulance. Protesters have now erected tents in Puerta del Sol, turning one woman’s eviction into a national symbol of a housing system that is breaking down. The Bank of Spain estimated that the country was already short roughly 550,000 homes last…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Before investing in AI, observe the people whose work it will change, since their extra clicks, workarounds and slowdowns reveal where technology can actually help. Measure AI by whether it improves business outcomes, not by adoption numbers or activity dashboards, because a system can be technically accurate and still miss what matters. A few months ago, I sat with the leadership team of a global retailer that had invested heavily in an AI recommendation engine for its customer service operation. On paper, the rollout looked like a success. Response times…
There is something deeply disturbing taking place in Europe. The generation that remembers war only through documentaries is increasingly willing to tell the generation that would actually have to fight one that military service should become compulsory. France provides perhaps the clearest example. An IFOP survey found that 64% of French respondents supported compulsory military service for people between 18 and 25. But look beneath that number and everything changes. Among the 18-to-24-year-olds who would actually be affected, support was only 40%. Among those aged 50 to 64, it soared to 80%. Among people 65 and older, 71% supported it.…