• Business Insider went to different coffee shops and cafes across Manhattan to figure out the best places to get done without a WeWork membership.
• We ranked our experiences by the noise level, availability of outlets and bathrooms, and WiFi speed.
• Au Bon Pain and Starbucks took the top spots.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

With WeWork in tumult and more people than ever working from home, remote workers face a dilemma: Where can they actually get their tasks done?

A "hotdesk" membership at a WeWork, which according to the company's website is targeted at individuals who need full-time access to a coworking space and lets them work in any of WeWork's coworking spaces, still comes with a steep pricetag. In New York, it will cost you $470 per month.

With that in mind, two Business Insider reporters spent a day doing their typical work — everything from editorial planning calls to writing stories — at six different coffee shops across Manhattan.

While the company based in New York City, the reporters only spent time in coffee shops that are national chains (and some are international). Because the time spent in the shops were during the busier parts of the city, the experience probably varied from those of smaller cities or quieter parts of the Big Apple.

Because Business Insider wanted to cover as many spots as possible while spending enough time in each to get a feel for a working environment, two different reporters checked out three sites each. Juliana took upper and midtown Manhattan (and many selfies), while Allana stayed downtown and was too shy to take any selfies.

Read more:Adam Neumann leaves a global empire of coworking spaces. These are the cities with the most WeWork offices, and how much they cost.

The reporters evaluated the coffee shop experiences on four different criteria: the noise and ambience of the store, the availability of outlets and seats, bathroom availability, and WiFi. Each category was ranked on a scale of five stars, with those scores averaged to find the winners.

Along the way, we had a few surprises — both positive and negative. From a shockingly good iced coffee to a conference call in Dunkin', here's what we learned.

SEE ALSO: We taste-tested hard seltzers from 9 popular brands and ranked them from worst to best

Dunkin' got an average of 2 stars, mostly due to the hustle and bustle and a lack of outlets.

Reporter: Juliana

Noise/Ambience: 2 stars

In addition to the pop music blasting, Dunkin' had a fairly nonstop stream of customers coming in and out. Like the good millennial/Gen Z remote worker that I am, I had to turn up my podcast to the highest setting to hear it.

Availability of outlets and seats: 3 stars

There were two spacious booths, two window tables, and two other standalone tables, with a total of around 20 seats — again, pretty good for a Dunkin'. However, there were no outlets available to customers. A posted sign said there was a 20 minute time limit, but I had no problem staying for about two hours.

Bathroom availability: 0 stars

I was told to use the bathroom in the store next door.

WiFi: 3 stars

For the most part, the WiFi was pretty strong. I had some trouble logging into our BI content management system, but once I was on it the lags were annoying, but not disruptive. I got kicked off the WiFi after about two hours.

Total average: 2 stars

While I love Dunkin' for its food and coffee, I'd only do work here as a last resort.

As a Bostonian, I have strong feelings toward Dunkin'. I know that, regardless of whether or not there's five feet of snow outside, it'll always be open, beckoning me with its garishly pink and orange cups.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I think that maybe Dunkin' is best for grabbing a quick coffee. This Dunkin' certainly excelled in making my drink quickly and filling large donut orders. But trying to do a conference call in there resulted in me hearing maybe half of what my team members were saying.

If there was nowhere else for me to work, I would return to Dunkin'. But I don't think my phone or laptop battery would be too pleased about it. 

Pret A Manger got an average of 3.75 stars — it won points for seating and bathroom facilities, but outlets were surprisingly limited.

Reporter: Juliana

Noise/Ambience:3 stars

Pret was relatively spread out, and the food area was nice and separate from the seating — meaning that lunch rush noise didn't travel as much as I anticipated. However, I did not anticipate that everyone coming in wearing AirPods would be on phone calls. Those calls, combined with the not-very-quiet music playing, made me have to turn up my podcast to about three-quarters volume.

Availability of outlets and seats: 3 stars

The array of seats meant that I didn't have much difficulty finding one. Pret had window seats, a large communal table, several standalone tables, and two booths, for a total of what seemed to be around 35 possible seats. 

However, the booths were the only tables with outlets, and they were difficult to access. I had to wait until someone left to grab one of these two coveted tables, and scrounge around on the Pret floor to plug in my laptop.

Bathroom availability: 5 stars

There were several single-stall bathrooms available, all of which could be accessed by a code on the receipt. They were clean and lovely. Would pee at Pret again!

WiFi: 4 stars

The WiFi connection itself was fine. But I had a lot of difficulty logging into the WiFi portal on my laptop and phone. Once I finally got on, we chugged away with no problem. 

Total average:3.75 stars

If you're looking to get work done around other people who are hustling away, I'd recommend Pret. But be sure to have your laptop fully charged.

In all honesty, I was a little underwhelmed by Pret. I went to a Pret specifically situated near my alma mater, as I knew it would have a particularly studious vibe. But I quickly remembered why I never studied there during my undergraduate days.

For a place that seemed to offer ample seating, the outlet ratio was way off. And since Pret runs such a grab-and-go business, the amount of people coming in and out created a fairly frenetic energy (and a good amount of noise). Even though I was working, I felt stressed by the people running in and out from offices and classes. 

However, if I needed to get work done while feeling like I'm surrounded by other people grinding away, I would probably return to Pret. I would, however, get there early and maybe bring an extension cord for those hard-to-reach outlets. 

Au Bon Pain got 4.5 stars for ample seating, outlets, and good ambient noise.

Reporter: Juliana

Noise/Ambience: 5 stars

By the time I got to Au Bon Pain, my final coffee shop of the day, I had a pretty raging headache. Between having to turn up my podcast very loud, listening to fellow coffee shop goers talking on the phone, and thumping store soundtracks, my head was not happy. 

But Au Bon Pain was not only cavernous enough that I couldn't hear other conversations, it was playing lovely (quiet) ambient jazz and classical music. I, all of 22 years old, suddenly fostered a deep appreciation for ambient music.

Availability of outlets and seats: 5 stars

There was a huge amount of seating — communal spaces, booths, standalone tables. This Au Bon Pain could probably fit around 70 people comfortably.

Even better was the outside patio area. People were soaking up the sun and enjoying their food.

But the real star? The outlets. Oh, the outlets. They were at essentially every table! There were 32 in total. I loved them all.

Bathroom availability: 4 stars

To get into the bathrooms, you needed a code from your receipt. Signs on the door reinforced this. They weren't anything groundbreaking — if anything, the two available seemed like not enough for such a large space.

WiFi: 4 stars

The WiFi did connect right away, and it was slow at times. Admittedly, I have many tabs open at once, so I don't think this was an issue on the Pret WiFi.

Total average: 4.5 stars

Au Bon Pain was a great place to get work done. Their communal seating looked perfect for a business meeting, and I left feeling productive and all charged up.

This was actually the second Au Bon Pain I went to. The first one, part of an upper Manhattan hospital complex, boasted nothing that my beloved second Au Bon Pain had. There was barely any seating or outlets. So the most important takeaway here is to scope out your Au Bon Pain ahead of the time; they can differ fairly drastically.

That being said, I was blown away by my Au Bon Pain experience. The one I went to was located in a particularly busy and touristy part of town, and yet I still had no trouble snagging a seat. And after my outlet difficulties, plugging in my phone and laptop easily was a sweet, sweet relief. 

I would absolutely come back to Au Bon Pain to do work for the day. The variety of seating seems like a great option for different types of work environments — and did I mention the number of outlets? Another nice bonus is that this Au Bon Pain closed at 5 pm — so if you're looking for a little bit of office normalcy, the crowd clocking out at 5 could help. 

Panera Bread got an average of 3.6 stars for having good bathrooms and WiFi, but being noisy.

Reporter: Allana

Noise/Ambience: 3 stars

The Panera got a little noisy during breakfast. Only about a third of people there were doing work; the others were talking to neighbors or were on the phone. The chatter wasn't enough to bother or distract me, but I do wish the music played a bit softer.

Availability of outlets and seats: 3.5 stars

When I went to the Panera in the morning I could easily grab a table with outlets, but once lunchtime rolled around I saw people hovering over tables for a spot. There weren't too many outlets either, but I was lucky enough to get one.

Bathroom availability: 4 stars

There was a bathroom, but you needed a passcode to get in.

WiFi: 4 stars

The WiFi was reliable and easy to access. It went a little slow at times, but it was fine for the most part.

Total average:3.6 stars

If you can stand a bit of background noise, I would recommend going to Panera. The tables are good for spreading out your work, or for working on a group project.

McDonald’s got an average of 2.75 stars for not having a lot of seating or outlets, as well as not having easily accessible WiFi.

Reporter: Allana

Noise/Ambience: 2 stars

I've mostly ever gone to McDonald's for lunch, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I went to try to do work. 

I went to a McDonald's in lower Manhattan. The already busy area was even more crowded as I went during the climate strike on September 20.

I can still get work done in noisy environments, so I wasn't immediately turned away. And while the McDonald's was busy, no one was being especially loud — everyone kept talking to themselves at their tables. There was mostly a huge crowd in front of the register, but once they got their food a lot of people left. 

Availability of outlets and seats: 2 stars

The seating/outlet situation was the most frustrating part of trying to do work at McDonald's. I ordered on an iPad a coffee to dine-in.

I had managed to find a nice table away from the crowd. There wasn't an outlet, unfortunately, but there weren't many outlets anywhere in the McDonald's.

I waited for 15 minutes and I still did not get my coffee. I realized I still had to go to the register to pick it up. That's not the ideal option, as I had my laptop out and couldn't abandon my things. So I had to pack up, leave the table, and get the iced coffee. 

By the time I got back, my table had been taken.

Bathroom availability: 5 stars

There was a bathroom, and it didn't need a passcode. They were also very clean.

WiFi: 2 stars

I think McDonald's had a WiFi, but I couldn't easily find it, so I just resorted to a personal hotspot from my phone.

ASIDE: The iced coffee from McCafe was the best iced coffee I've ever had, hands down. I cannot recommend it enough.

Total average: 2.75

I wouldn’t recommend going to McDonald’s to do work, but I would highly recommend stopping by for an iced coffee and then heading to a library or another quiet area with WiFi.

Starbucks got 4.75 stars for having reliable WiFi and plenty of outlets and seating.

Reporter: Allana

Noise/Ambience: 5 stars

Starbucks was easily the quietest coffee shop I had been to, even though I was still in a busy area of downtown Manhattan. I went toward the end of the day when the line wasn't too long, and many people were there by themselves to also do work. 

Availability of outlets and seats: 5 stars

Every seat had an outlet, and there were open spots even though I was at a relatively small Starbucks. 

Bathroom availability: 5 stars

There was a bathroom and there wasn't a passcode to get in.

WiFi: 4 stars

The WiFi was reliable and easy to connect to. It went a little slow at times, but overall it was fine.

Total average: 4.75

Unsurprisingly, I would highly recommend going to Starbucks to get work done. With their availability of outlets and good WiFi, they are designed as perfect places to use your computer.

• Katrina Lake is the founder of the personalized-clothing service Stitch Fix, which passed $1 billion in net revenue for fiscal year 2018. She will also be a judge on the new season of "Shark Tank."
• She attended Harvard Business School with an idea of the company she wanted to start and focused more on practical experience than the degree itself.
• Business Insider correspondent Shana Lebowitz interviewed Lake about her mindset going into business school and how well it served her.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Katrina Lake knew she would spend more time pursuing her goals outside class than in it. She applied to Harvard Business School anyway. 

The idea, Lake told Business Insider correspondent Shana Lebowitz, was to make sure she had a fallback plan just in case her big idea for a company didn't work. In this case, her plan B would be most people's unattainable plan A. 

"I went to school thinking I can be a mediocre student and just get by in school, but spend as much as my free time as I can on getting this company off the ground," Lake said. "I wanted to get the company off the ground and pay back my salary, pay down my student loans the day I graduate. And if I wasn't able to do that, then the risk profile of entrepreneurship wasn't going to be for me."

Lake went on to found Stitch Fix, a personalized-clothing service that continues to grow exponentially. The company went public in 2017. The service passed $1 billion in net revenue for fiscal year 2018, and based on its most recent quarterly report, it has raised its revenue expectations for fiscal year 2019. It sits at a $1.89 billion market cap as of this writing.

When Lake was considering business school, however, she didn't know Stitch Fix would succeed as spectacularly as it did. Lake has previously said she was risk-averse growing up and even thought about applying to medical school. That perspective on risk should be interesting to watch, as Lake is going to be a guest judge on the newest season of "Shark Tank."

Lake ultimately decided against medicine. She majored in economics at Stanford and got her MBA at Harvard.

The idea for a company in the retail space had already taken root by the time she applied to business school, but she didn't outright admit in her essays that she wanted to start a company.

"I think I said that I'm going to lead a company that is transforming apparel retail and I talked about the space and why I was interested in it, but even in my application essay I wasn't bold enough to say, I'm going to start a company," Lake said.

When she got to campus, though, she did everything around entrepreneurship that she could, in classes and clubs and everything in between.

"I was able to set goals and to have a plan where I could pursue entrepreneurship, but in a way that didn't feel like crazy, scary, disruptive to me in my life," Lake said.

The key, she said, is understanding the potential of your idea when you have it and then structuring a plan so that you navigate entrepreneurship in the best way for you. Lake's approach stands in contrast to the stereotype of the Silicon Valley dropout, and that's because she matched her path to the level of risk she would face along it.

"That was the way that I could find entrepreneurship tenable given my risk profile," she said.

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• Ken Kocienda spent 15 years at Apple as a principal engineer working on the iOS autocorrect function, as well as the Safari browser and Apple Watch.
• He wrote a book about his time at the tech giant titled "Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs."
• Kocienda shared with Business Insider the qualities that make for a great candidate to work at Apple, including creativity and an interest in design.
• He also advised that applicants not be afraid to not know everything in the interview.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

If young engineers want to work at Apple, they can't just be technically outstanding. They have to combine creativity with an exemplary skill set, according to Ken Kocienda, a former principal engineer at Apple who designed the iOS autocorrect function and also worked on the Safari browser and Apple Watch.

Kocienda spent 15 years at Apple before moving on to write a book about his time at Cupertino, California, titled "Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs." Earlier this year, he joined Postmates as the principal engineer of its robotics division, Postmates X.

As a key player in developing the iPhone software used today, Kocienda was also responsible for hiring engineers to join his team. Recently, he shared with Business Insider a couple of key ingredients hiring managers at Apple want to see in applicants.

Apple wants engineers who think about the whole product package, from design to packaging

Apple looks for two specific qualities when they want to add talent to a team. "These people have to have both a technical skill and have an aesthetic outlook, a creative viewpoint that takes the technology side of their brain and matches it up with the creative, human-focused side of their brain," Kocienda said. "Because Apple wants to create great products that will make sense to people all over the world, we don't want techies."

Essentially, Apple doesn't want people who just know how to stuff as much technology into a product as possible. "That's when companies get it wrong, when they focus on the gadgetry rather than the user experience," he said, adding that young talent shouldn't be consumed by adding features just for the sake of it. "It has to make sense for the product," he said.

He recalled being invited by an industrial team one afternoon to test several Apple products packaged in shrink-wrap and laid out on a conference table. They wanted Kocienda to share his take, from an everyday user's perspective, on how he felt about certain packaging. "Apple is also focused on making this unboxing experience something you want," he said, "and I'm not sure if a lot of companies look at those smaller aspects."

Kocienda emphasized that when he was interviewing candidates at Apple, certain applicants stood out by demonstrating their interest and experience with design, no matter their field of expertise. "Apple is about product development, and that requires a broad spectrum of skills, from being a proficient programmer to having experience in design. If you paint pictures, even, let us know," he said.

He remembered one applicant who displayed a "wonderfully engaging sketching style — all in pen, clear black lines filled in with washes of color to highlight important detail," Kocienda said. On page after page, the applicant illustrated concepts for new software, ideas for improving the user interactions with existing software, and variations and proposals for new projects. 

"His drawings were his ideas expressed in the cheapest way beyond flashes of thought. They were charming and compelling," he said. When the candidate decided not to take a job at Apple, "I was so disappointed," Kocienda added.

Kocienda's trick to picking out unique talent and his advice for aspiring Apple engineers

Kocienda shared an interview exercise he often employed to find the right candidates. Called the "coat-check room," this scenario puts the candidate in a busy theater taking people's winter clothing, putting them on hooks, and giving the person a claim check to get their coats back later.

"It might not seem like it, but this situation presents many ways to model real-world activities as computing problems, such as, 'What's the best hook to use first? How might you number the claim checks? Is it more efficient to handle each patron individually or should you take them in batches?'" he said.

Over the years, many people thought he was trying to trick them and often gave overly clever answers in an effort to impress him. But he recalled one particularly insightful conversation that stuck out: "I remember one fellow who got off to a very slow start in his coat-checking interaction with me. He thought long and said little, until I made it clear that I wanted to hear his thought process — then came a flood of interesting ways of looking at the problems I presented to him. We started chatting about basic computing concepts like algorithms and data structures, and the time flew by."

Kocienda offered this one final warning to candidates hoping to nail the interview (which also doubles as commendable life advice): "Don't portray yourself as someone who knows all the answers. Some of the best engineers and product people are always open-minded and curious and always learning new things. You have to be open to new ideas and experiences and new ways of thinking about how to solve problems that we have today."

David Silverberg is a Toronto-based freelance writer who specializes in business, careers, technology, startup culture, and cannabis. He writes regularly for The Washington Post, BBC News, Vice, the City of Toronto, and Gamespot. He also wrote a solo theatre show in 2018, and "Jewnique" has been staged in Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto. His most recent book of poetry is "As Close to the Edge Without Going Over" (ChiZine). He blogs regularly on his website and posts passable photos on Instagram.

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• Roughly 10,000 students apply to Harvard Business School each year, but the acceptance rate is only 11%.
• Below, five successful applicants discuss what worked for getting in the door and what didn't.
• For instance, in your entrance essay, it's important not to overplay tales of overcoming incredible adversity. The writing should also be succinct and uncomplicated.
• Spend time working in the field you want to pursue — and don't be afraid to network.
• The managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid pinpointed three qualities shared by successful applicants, including the ability to enjoy and partake in "lively discussion in a classroom setting."
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The latest stats on Harvard's website show only an 11% acceptance rate for its prestigious MBA program. Those are intimidating odds for the roughly 10,000 students who apply to Harvard Business School each year. And education specialists Quacquarelli Symonds put Harvard at No. 5 in their 2020 Global MBA Ranking of the best business schools in the world. So, basically, it's very competitive.

If you're hoping to get a foot in the door, the best advice is often insider advice — something we specialize in at Business Insider. Read on to learn tips from the trenches about what worked and what didn't for HBS applicants who broke through the noise and were admitted.

Make your essay a 'window into your soul'

A critical component of any business school application is the personal essay — so when you're pitching to get into a school as coveted as Harvard, you need your written statement to not just shine, but sparkle and dazzle.

"At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, the essays are the windows into your soul," said Patrick Mullane, the executive director of Harvard Business School Online and an HBS graduate. "They are a chance to put a personality around the numbers that will make up much of an application. It's not enough to be a great writer — although that's essential. An applicant must also be able to communicate, in a relatively short amount of space, something that makes them human."

Mullane doesn't think this "something" needs to be a tale of overcoming incredible adversity, saying that overplaying that could be detrimental — and that the writing need not be complicated.

"Good communicators use simple language and short sentences to get their point across," Mullane said. "Comedian George Burns once said, 'The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible.' I think that's great advice for admissions essays as well."

Read more:The ultimate guide to nailing a sales pitch that closes the deal every time

Have a novel story to tell — and tell it well

Knowing that thousands of other top-caliber candidates may be following the above advice too, the question then becomes how to give your essay the best chance to rise to the top of the heap.

Mike Rivkin, an author and owner of Silverfish Press who graduated from HBS, said that having a different story to tell than the average college student might help tip the balance when it comes to winning over the admissions committee.

Rivkin said that though his college grades and scores were "good but not exemplary" and his extracurricular activities were modest, he focused his essays on his unique experience of running charter and commercial fishing boats out of San Diego. As a Coast Guard licensed captain who earned his money for college by fishing for billfish and tuna, he recognized that he had a story to share that few other applicants could mirror.

"Looking back, I think the novelty of such a background resonated with HBS's search for diversity," Rivkin said. "The details of running an expensive fishing boat and being responsible for all related charters, fuel, crew, maintenance, and more were not part of your typical application."

He added that some favorable letters of recommendation might have helped too.

Read more:A freelancer who has pulled in a 6-figure income every year since 2010 shares the exact process he used to quit his job and become successfully self-employed

Channel authenticity

In the quest to come up with a standout story, it's important to ensure that your essay is still true to who you are.

Shaifali Aggarwal, an HBS graduate and the founder and CEO of Ivy Groupe, a boutique MBA admissions consulting company, said that communicating authentically was a key factor that helped her get selected for the program.

"I took the time to think about my experiences across the personal/extracurricular, professional, and academic realms to gain an understanding of what my unique strengths and attributes were, and then highlighted those qualities through specific examples throughout my application," Aggarwal said.

Additionally, Aggarwal connected the dots in her story so that the admissions committee could understand the choices she made and how they linked to her future aspirations.

"To further differentiate myself, I provided color on why some experiences were instrumental in shaping who I was and were meaningful to me," she said. "In doing so, I demonstrated the human aspects of myself as well as self-awareness."

Give yourself enough time to write your masterpiece

Once you've identified the authentic tale that only you can tell and are committed to delivering it "George Burns-style," be sure not to sabotage your efforts by failing to carve out enough time to actually craft it.

Kaneisha Grayson, who was admitted to HBS with a 620 GMAT score and now helps others do the same as the founder and CEO of The Art of Applying, emphasized the importance of giving yourself enough time, space, and support to write an outstanding essay, saying that many applicants dedicate too much time and energy to getting "GMAT final" while leaving themselves with just a few weeks — or even days — to work on the essay.

"The essay is the part of your application process over which you have the most control," Grayson said. "By making your essay a concise, compelling, and authentic representation of your personal and professional accomplishments, goals, and interest in joining the HBS community, you give yourself a huge advantage over people who treat the essay as an afterthought."

Camilo Maldonado, a member of HBS Class of 2017 who cofounded The Finance Twins, also focused on highlighting his unique work experience in his HBS application.

When he applied, Maldonado worked at Bonobos, a men's apparel e-commerce company, where he was promoted to chief of staff at age 25. As a result, Maldonado had a lot of responsibility working for a smaller, less structured company.

"I made sure that my recommendations highlighted the experiences I had working at a high-growth company," Maldonado said. "I knew that many of the applicants at the top business schools come from Wall Street, Fortune 500 companies, or tech giants and that my less typical work experience would help me stand out."

Get your feet wet in industry

What else can you do to up your chances of getting into HBS in addition to writing a phenomenal essay? Some HBS grads mentioned working or interning in their field — whether in traditional MBA territory, such as finance and management consulting, or areas like startups, healthcare, government, or nonprofits — before applying to Harvard's graduate business program.

Paige Arnof-Fenn, the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, ticked all the boxes by being a Stanford undergrad and a self-described "good student, strong in math, did well on my GMAT — it did not hurt that my father went there too." She added to these credentials by working for two years on Wall Street as a precursor to her business school application.

"I had great recommendations from bosses, wrote good essays, and applied in the first round so felt I had a good shot to get in," Arnof-Fenn said — and she did.

Marques Torbert, an HBS graduate who's now the CEO of Ametros, also pointed to the value of working in industry before throwing his hat in the ring at Harvard Business School.

"Coming from a family background that didn't include business, finance, or higher education, I leveraged the resources and connections around myself that I already made," Torbert said.

With the help of a mentor and an alumnus of his high school, he started his career by interning and working for equity firms, where he gained a wealth of financial knowledge.

"With my drive to challenge myself, I wanted to expand my financial experience and understand the operations side of business," Torbert said.

Target these 3 characteristics

When Chad Losee, HBS's managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid, chimes in with admissions guidance, candidates for the program would be wise to listen.

Losee said successful applicants share three characteristics.

"First, they have demonstrated leadership, whether it be in an academic, professional, or extracurricular setting, and show the potential to have even more impact," he said.

"We're also looking for applicants who have analytical aptitude and appetite, are able and willing to analyze a situation and form an opinion based on that analysis, and enjoy a lively discussion in a classroom setting, a key component of our case method of learning."

Finally, Losee emphasized that the school seeks students who will engage in the HBS community and be respectful of their classmates.

"The best discussions come when there is diversity of thought, so it's very important to us that our student population reflects the global nature of business today," Losee said.

Rock your application — and then get lucky

Christine Telyan, an HBS graduate and the CEO and cofounder of UENI, a tech company in London, neatly summed up the view of many of her fellow alumni: While there are several necessary conditions for admission to HBS — strong undergraduate grades, nearly perfect GMAT scores, and interesting or competitive work experience — none on its own is sufficient.

"You need to have that fire of ambition in your gut that propels you to do things a bit out of reach," Telyan said. "You have to want to work on things that test the boundaries of business or society."

Telyan also pointed out the elephant in the room: In addition to doing everything right, you have to be extremely lucky.

"Countless capable, accomplished, ambitious applicants do not make the cut," she said. "Your profile needs to add just the right balance to the class of 900 students, which depends as much on the other 899 as it does on you.

"As with most successes in life, luck weighs heavily on why anyone is admitted to Harvard Business School, which should keep us all very grounded and humble."

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• As the nation's total student debt surpasses $1.5 trillion, many millennials have delayed buying a house or getting married to pay off their loans.
• Yet some Americans are turning the moment they pay off loans as a milestone in itself. Viral music videos, parties, and other celebrations depict people celebrating paying off their loans. 
• Business Insider spoke with six people who threw parties, made music videos, or booked vacations after they finished paying student loans on why they think the moment has become "this generation's milestone."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Guen Garrido threw herself a balloon-filled party this spring. Afterward, she booked a well-deserved massage.

It wasn't the 34-year-old San Diego resident's birthday or anniversary, and the celebration wasn't for anything you'd find on a Hallmark card. 

She had just paid off the last of $45,000 in student-loan debt she'd accrued after attending UCLA.

Read more: How grad schools became the hidden culprit behind America's student-debt crisis

Garrido isn't alone — about 35% of millennials say paying off student loans is the most significant life milestone they think they can achieve.

Those who've paid off the last of their installments are throwing parties, posting videos, and going on vacations to celebrate the feat.

"I definitely believe paying off student loans has become a millennial milestone," Garrido told Business Insider over email. "Paying them off, especially while under 40 years old, I think is a pretty big deal."

Business Insider spoke to six people who've celebrated paying their student loans in big way — and they're saying this is as important to them as getting married, having kids, or buying a first house.

SEE ALSO: 10 mind-blowing facts that show just how dire the student-loan crisis in America is

Music videos, popping balloons, vacations: How people celebrate being debt-free

To celebrate paying off her loans, Garrido wrote "DEBT" on big black balloons, filled them with green confetti, and posted a video to Instagram of herself popping them.

Garrido isn't the only millennial to throw herself a "student-debt-free party." Instagram hashtag #debtfreecommunity has over 600,000 posts of people sharing pictures from their celebrations, as well as memes and inspiring messages encouraging others to get there. Popular personal finance speaker Dave Ramsey even has a part of his podcast where people who paid off their loans can call in and scream, "I'm debt-free!" 

Read more:10 mind-blowing facts that show just how dire the student-loan crisis in America is

"It's kind of a mammoth task," said Cherie Lowe, a personal-finance author who threw a 150-person party to celebrate paying off over $120,000 in mostly student-loan debt back in 2012. The party, which featured the custom song "Sallie Mae Is Not My Lender" her friend wrote for the occasion, attracted people from across the country and made national headlines. 

"We as a society don't celebrate those milestones that revolve around money often because we're embarrassed it took us that long or we feel inadequate in some ways," Lowe added. "It's as important as a diploma and some of the milestones we have in our lives." 

Student debt hit a record high this year. If too many people default on their loans, experts worry it could have economic consequences similar to the 2008 housing crash.

In one way, student debt has delayed Americans from achieving life milestones. Student debt has (in part) caused millennials to buy homes later in life, delay starting a family, and put off saving for retirement. 

The crisis has spurred political conversation. Canceling student debt mostly or entirely, once a progressive fringe policy, has become a mainstream talking point due to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders' policy proposals. Their fellow democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris even got called out for offering too limited of a debt-cancelation plan. 

The fact student debt has entered mainstream conversation could be why more people are being open about celebrating the moment they leave it behind, Garrido said. "With student loan debt becoming the 'norm,' paying them off, especially while under 40 years old, I think is a pretty big deal," she added.

Others, like blogger Chelsea McDonnough, say the increased media attention will only lead to more people celebrating finally paying off the debt.

After helping pay off her husband's $125,000 student loan in three years, blogger McDonnough considered throwing a college-student-themed party that would have served ramen noodles and cheap beer.

She ended up opting for a trip to New Orleans, as her birthday and the long weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincided with the milestone (though in retrospect, she wishes she could have thrown the party instead). 

McDonnough had been blogging about do-it-yourself projects and home improvement since before getting serious about helping pay off the loans her husband racked up from his master's degree. The blogger then switched gears to talking more about how the two were paying off debt.

Unlike many Americans who are nervous to talk about their debt, McDonnough said she knew blogging about it would help others struggling with their loans.

"We're not as embarrassed about having student loan debt because chances are most of your friends had or have student- loan debt, so they can relate," McDonnough told Business Insider. "It's our like our generation's milestone: to get rid of the debt we incurred to go to school and try to get good jobs."

There's even a rap song that many use as the 'turn up anthem' to celebrate paying off loans.

When New Orleans-based hip-hop artist Dee-1 paid off his loans, he felt a level of joy he "hadn't felt from anything else in life up until that point." 

The former middle school teacher (who had been rapping in his free time) had an undisclosed amount of debt he finally paid off after getting a signing bonus from his record deal with RCA Inspiration. The moment inspired him to the point where he made a song, "Sallie Mae Back," The 30-year-old graduated from Louisiana State University in 2008. 

Dee-1 said his song, which currently has 1 million views on YouTube, was despised by his label for being "corny." He released the song in 2016, and he said student loans at the time were barely brought up in his house and in the music he listened to. Most states don't require high school financial literacy education, and Americans feel more uncomfortable talking about money than weight. 

Now, however, people across the country tell Dee-1 they use his song as their "turn-up anthem" after paying off loans. 

Read more:Pete Buttigieg could become the first president with student loan debt

"We're saying that nowadays Americans are throwing parties to celebrate eradicating their student loan debt," he said. "That shows how much of a milestone this has become."

Similar to Dee-1, 25-year-old Gavin Buckland also made a video to celebrate paying off his student-loan debt.

The video depicts him disappointingly replacing steak with rice and beans to cut spending, and finally celebrating with confetti after he paid his debt.

Buckland, along with Garrido, won a trip to personal-finance company SoFi's annual party to help others celebrate paying off their student loans. He finished paying off $87,000 of student-loan debt he incurred after graduating in 2016 from Judson University.

SoFi's swanky Manhattan rooftop parties give attendees free cocktails and fancy finger food. The company hosts a debt-payoff party annually. 

"We hear from our members that carrying student debt is a major source of stress and the moment of paying it off is a huge accomplishment," SoFi CEO Anthony Noto told Business Insider when asked why the company hosts these parties. "We think these are moments that should be celebrated."

Some people post elaborate videos to celebrate paying off debt to inspire others struggling with their payments.

Caitlin Boston, a 35-year-old tech worker, recently posted a video of her dancing with two friends in a flashy purple leotard to celebrate paying off her student loans.

Boston graduated in 2009 and incurred over $200,000 worth of loans and interest. She worked low-paying jobs for years before landing a tech job at Google, where she discovered she earned less than her male colleagues. After negotiating for a better salary, Boston was finally able to pay off her loans. 

Boston told BuzzFeed News she wore a traditional Korean wedding crown to celebrate herself and her accomplishments. She also said she wanted the video to help destigmatize discussing debt and salaries openly.

"I wanted the video to be a genuine expression of joy and celebration that reflected that in spite of this debt that has taken so much out of me, spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally," Boston told BuzzFeed.

Some, though, say spending money to celebrate paying off loans is counterintuitive

"I felt like if we were going through a weight-loss journey and you lost a ton of weight and you celebrated by eating a lot of pasta," said Ashley Wilson, who spent just $25 to decorate a small party she had with her husband. "It didn't make sense."

Wilson paid off $22,000 in student debt in three years by cutting back massively. She did not have cable or internet during this time, and says she did not eat out once.

Zina Kumok, a personal-finance blogger who paid off $28,000 of student loans in three years as well, said that the point of paying off debt is less about achieving the moment, and more about building good money habits. Kumok said once when she was still in debt, she saw a $300 dress at Anthropologie and told herself she could've been able to buy it, had it not been for her loans.

But even after paying off her student debt, she realized that she didn't need to spend $300 on a dress. Similarly, she didn't feel the need to splurge on a debt-payoff party.

Read more:These are the 15 worst US states for paying off your student loans

"Everything I learned by paying off my student loans taught me I don't need a lot of money to be happy, I need financial security," Kumok said. Her one splurge when she paid off her loans was on a $20 pie.

Yet Wilson said if she could go back, she may have splurged on something bigger.

"It was a huge deal — emotionally it was big; financially it was big," she said. "Maybe I should've celebrated in a bigger way."

• Tammy Steffens, a fitness influencer, has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal jail after pleading guilty to charges of cyberstalking and sending threats to colleagues over Instagram.
• Steffens created at least 369 Instagram accounts used to harass and threaten people, one of which she told she would "slice you up into little pieces."
• Authorities in Florida also allege that Steffen faked the attempted kidnapping of her 12-year-old daughter and tried to pin it on a former business partner.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A fitness influencer has been jailed after creating at least 369 Instagram accounts to threaten and harass several colleagues and competitors in the fitness community.

Tammy Steffen, 37, has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison after she pled guilty back in December to charges of cyberstalking and sending online threats, according to the Department of Justice. A federal investigation found that Steffen repeatedly called, texted, emailed, and contacted via social media at least six people over the course of two years.

She made threats to their lives and the lives of their friends and family, and tried to discredit their professional reputations, federal prosecutors say. Steffen's threats included a message telling a victim she planned to "slice you up into little pieces," and a text to another saying, "all hell is gonna rain fire down on your world like never seen before," followed by a picture of a woman holding two knives with the caption, "I'm coming," according to the police report.

However, these threats over social media and text may have been just the tip of iceberg in Steffen's alleged scheme to take revenge against competitors and former colleagues in the bodybuilding community.

Florida authorities allege Steffen organized two separate incidents in July 2018 that she tried to pin on a former business partner, according to police reports. In the first incident, Steffen reported to police that a headless doll was left on the front porch of her home, with a note inside the doll that read, "new toy for the kids."

Just five days later, Steffen reported to police that someone tried to kidnap her 12-year-old daughter, according to The Washington Post. Steffen claimed that the person grabbed her daughter's arm and tried to drag her into the woods "against her will." She also pointed authorities toward a black laptop cover found near the location of the attempted kidnapping, in which a notepad was found with Steffen's personal information on it, according to the arrest report.

When police later questioned the child, they said she asked them what would happen to her mother if she told the truth.

However, authorities say they discovered Steffen had purchased the same kind of laptop cover and notepad a few days earlier at a local Walmart. Police say they also found a witness who overheard Steffen and a friend discussing the plan to leave the headless doll on her own porch.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office arrested Steffen in July 2018 and charged her with filing a false police report, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and tampering with a witness. Following her arrest, Steffen told her daughter to take the blame for the idea of fabricating the kidnapping, and told her she wouldn't get in trouble, according to police reports.

Steffen will serve her nearly five-year federal sentence after she finishes serving time related to the false kidnapping report. The Federal Bureau of Investigation didn't arrest Steffen until November on the charges of stalking and cyberbullying, the Washington Post reports.

Steffen once ran a business for training and coaching bodybuilders and bikini competitors called "Beyond Fit Bikini" out of Florida. The company hasn't posted on Instagram since January 10 (five days before Steffen was arrested), and its website is not up and running.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Michael Coghlan is the owner and CEO of SimpleTerra, an e-commerce site that sells alternative-living solutions such as container homes and yurts, and the owner of other smaller e-commerce stores.
• This year, he'll bring in over $1 million in revenue, $400,000 to $550,000 of which he'll keep as his salary, and he'll funnel the rest back into his successful enterprises.
• Coghlan told Business Insider that the key to his success was a lot of hard work — and a few online classes that taught him about the e-commerce industry and analytics.
• He suggested that young entrepreneurs find valuable mentors and continue to improve their skills every day to reach the $1 million mark in their early 30s.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The top 1% of American income earners make around $400,000 a year, so those who rake in salaries of $1 million or more are quite rare — particularly those in their early 30s. 

Business Insider tracked down one of these superhigh-earning people, Michael Coghlan, the owner and CEO of SimpleTerra, to learn how exactly he got there and how others could follow in his footsteps.

Coghlan, who is 31 and married with four kids, said this would be his first year clearing the $1 million mark. The majority of his income is generated from the e-commerce store SimpleTerra, which sells alternative-living solutions such as container homes and yurts and launched earlier this year. He additionally runs a few smaller e-commerce stores that are growing in sales each month, including Rec Room Hideout, which offers game-room tables, boards, and accessories. 

When it comes to finances, Coghlan takes 30% of the profits from SimpleTerra as owner compensation and funnels 70% of it back into the business. He expects to bank $400,000 to $550,000 as his salary in 2019, leaving around $700,000 to $850,000 to continue expanding SimpleTerra. 

Coghlan said a "decent chunk" of his profits went into what he called his "project" account. "I make savings accounts within my business whenever I have a new idea I want to try, and I have got this pretty big idea or project that I want to tackle in the next 12 months," he said. "I could reach out for funding or investors, but I am trying to build up that 'project' account to over $1 million on its own so I won't need any outside investment."

Whenever Coghlan doesn't have a big project that he's saving for, he tries to take 50% for owner compensation and put 50% back in for the growth of the business, rather than the 30-70 split. 

"While I know many companies believe growth is everything, and they pour every penny they have into growth, I think pretty darn highly of cold, hard cash in your personal bank account," he said. "So I try to keep a solid balance of growth and payments/bonuses to myself and employees to keep everyone pushing for more."

The path from volleyball coach to e-commerce CEO (with a few hiccups)

In his 20s, Coghlan had been happily coaching collegiate volleyball, but a change in his life situation made him rethink his career path. 

"When I was 25, I ended up having my first child unexpectedly," he said. "It wasn't until I had my daughter that I realized the job I loved was having me leave at 6 a.m. (before she woke up) and come home around 9 p.m. (after she went to bed). It was at that moment I began to look for alternatives to coaching." 

Coghlan said this career search resulted in his "stumbling" into e-commerce, which he became interested in specifically for its flexibility. "This is going to sound cliché, but I actually chose it so I could 'work from home' and 'be my own boss,'" Coghlan said. "I thought that making some money from home, so I could be around my family more, was going to be a piece of cake."

Read more: A 26-year-old college student took $200 and launched a $1.7 million swimwear business in a year out of her apartment. This is how she did it.

Within a month of looking for work to do online, he jumped in with both feet, launching his first drop-shipping store selling wine fridges and kegerators — but his haste had consequences. 

"It was a complete mess," he said. "I tried to rush things I didn't quite understand and ended up messing up my Google Shopping feed — the feed that gets your products shown on Google — so bad that I had to actually shut down the site and start from scratch all over again."

According to Coghlan, the problem was that his Google Shopping feed was "done completely wrong," so he had $300 wine fridges listed for sale at $3,000 and vice versa. This snafu resulted in tons of canceled orders and many vendors calling him upset that he was undercutting the minimum advertised price that was set. 

"Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing," Coghlan said. "But I could see the potential." He eventually took a course called Dropship Lifestyle that taught him the basics of e-commerce, web design, and paid ads so that he could improve his business savviness.

Through these early bumps in the road, Coghlan discovered that working from home as his own boss was actually not a piece of cake — in fact, it was quite the opposite.

"What I actually found out was that I was putting in more hours than my coaching job for less pay, when starting out," he said. "But I was happy because I was able to take a 30-minute break to have breakfast with my kids. I was able to stop working at 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. so I could see the kids and my wife, then get back to work from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and start it all over again at 7 a.m. the next day." 

His commitment to his new career paid off. Coghlan said he would never forget the moment he made his first real sale through that store. He woke up to it at 4:37 a.m.

"Making money while I was sleeping was actually possible," he said. "I just had to figure out how to do it consistently and without breaking my website in the process."

The 2 phases of growth that led to his millionaire status

The newly minted entrepreneur identified two phases of growth on his path to his current revenue level. The first phase he described as "simply trying to outwork everyone."

"I figured that if I put in enough hours every single day, I could work my way past my competitors," Coghlan said. 

To some extent, his plan worked, as he was able to save and then grow his wine-fridge store, getting it first to a $500 a month profit, and then building up to a $1,000 a month, $3,000 a month, and finally almost a $5,000 a month profit. 

Coghlan recognized, though, that more than hard work was at play in his success, noting an element of luck played into the equation through a chance tip from a vendor that caused his store to really take off. The tip was to sell a portable ice maker. 

"Not to sound like I grew up in the middle of nowhere, but I had literally never heard of it before," he said. "But it was $220 a pop, and I made $90 every time I sold one, so I said screw it and listed it on my site." 

The decision paid off, and Coghlan went from selling one ice maker a week to up to three a day within 90 days. "I thought I had made it," he said. 

Read more: A 34-year-old freelancer who quit the job she hated and now makes $200,000 a year debunks 3 of the biggest myths she's encountered about becoming your own boss

But it wasn't until his business reached what he described as the "second phase of growth"— incorporating analytics — that he started banking serious coin. 

"I can 100% attribute the growth of my sites the past few years to learning more about analytics," Coghlan said. "I took the Google Analytics course from Easy eCommerce Wins, and it literally changed the way I saw e-commerce." 

The CEO described being able to track down (to the keyword) which search terms were bringing in the most money, and then doubling down on those keywords to make more money as a "game changer." He advised anyone who wants to succeed in e-commerce to follow in his footsteps.

"If I were to ask majority of e-commerce store owners how much it costs them to get someone to sign up to their email list, or what their top five revenue-producing keywords are, or what ad group is producing the largest ROI, I would bet less than 10% of them could answer that," he said. "Now, with all of my stores having tweaks made by analyzing the data and working hard, I am able to see growth I did not even think was possible five years ago." 

While Coghlan started out drop-shipping, he has now been in e-commerce for seven years and moved far beyond that format. 

"While I had some great success with drop-shipping, it was a couple years after I started down that path where I began doing Amazon FBA," he said. "Creating products that I owned, instead of being the middleman like I was in drop-shipping, and selling those companies I created really took my earnings to the next level." 

With that background, he launched SimpleTerra and today has 10 employees to help shoulder some of the load. "I took everything I have learned over the past seven years from drop-shipping, Amazon FBA, SEO rankings, paid ads, retargeting, and rolled it all into a single site," Coghlan said. "Everything I learned over the last seven years has allowed me to create my most successful e-commerce store to date."

Prepping in your 20s to earn $1 million in your 30s requires finding mentors and continuing to learn and grow

When asked which strategies he recommends to those just starting out, Coghlan offered up two main pieces of advice. The first is to find a group of friends or business colleagues who are "doing better" than you are. 

While Coghlan said he'd found a mentor figure in the Division 1 head volleyball coach he worked with in his earlier profession, once he started working online, finding a mentoring relationship became more difficult. 

So within his first year of changing fields, he sought opportunities to present at a few e-commerce-specific events to make connections. This helped him meet people who were already successfully doing what he hoped to do.

"Those events were my first access to other entrepreneurs doing the same type of work I was, but they were making five times what I brought home," Coghlan said. "Being able to pick their brains on a regular basis, getting little nuggets of knowledge from them, and taking their advice to help me skip past some of the earlier pitfalls they had — but I could avoid — really made a difference for me." 

Even now that Coghlan has matched the income of these high rollers, he continues to meet monthly with the group of successful entrepreneurs that helped him get started, and he recommended that others do the same.

"I met these guys at random conferences or forums I had attended over the past two years and am trying to learn more from them now, as they are earning three to five times what I make currently," he said.

Coghlan's second piece of advice is to continue learning and developing your skills. 

"I see so many people obtain a certain level of success and knowledge in their industry and just stop trying to learn anything else," he said. "Or worse yet, they drop something that could work for them to chase the next 'shiny object' that is going to solve all their problems." 

Coghlan added that he believed the reason SimpleTerra has become what it has today was because he took everything he learned over the past seven years and applied it in some way to keep growing his business. 

"It is not just paid traffic or SEO that is growing my businesses now," he said. "It is finding better ways to collect emails, setting up lead magnets, getting mini-commitments from our customers in the form of '$5 Tripwires,' working on our email copywriting skills to get better click through rates on the announcements we make." 

Read more: I went from earning $65 an hour to building a multimillion dollar business on my own in two years. Here are the 4 most important steps I took.

Coghlan had a clear recommendation for 20-somethings trying to pick a big-money career path.

"Obviously, I am going to sound a bit biased, but I do think if you have the stomach for it, it would 100% be entrepreneurship," Coghlan said. "Specifically, online entrepreneurship."

He also added that he couldn't have achieved this level of business success without a high level of support from his spouse. "To have four kids as young as we do, as I was trying to navigate making money online so I could be at home more with her and the kids, was quite trying at times," Coghlan said. "But her support and belief that it could be done did wonders in helping me pick myself up off the ground every time something I tried failed."

E-commerce is not a path for everyone, but it certainly worked out for him.

"I have gone from barely being able to put food on our table, to living comfortably, to putting everything I had saved up to purchase a home into a new business that was untested, to finally making more than I ever have," he said.

SEE ALSO: One email put a 24-year old on a path from intern to COO in six months. Here's the exact text he used.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• In my second full year of freelancing, I made less than $40,000 while working 12-hour days. I knew something had to change. I wanted to find a way to earn more money without working myself to the ground.
• The book "Overcoming Underearning" gave me a five-step plan to help me increase my income. Ultimately, it gave me the confidence to go after the life I want, and my income increased at the same time.
• It taught me to examine some of my beliefs around money, and to start respecting my own time and my own work.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Like many business owners, I was obsessed with reading a ton of self-improvement and entrepreneurship-related books in order to improve what I do. And — if we're being honest here — to figure out ways to earn more money.

But boy did I struggle. In 2017, my second year of business full-time, I earned just shy of $40,000. I know this isn't a terrible salary by any standards, but I was working 12-hour days, almost seven days a week, running myself ragged.

So what changed? I read "Overcoming Underearning," a book by Barbara Stanny that was originally published in 2007. 

It's weird to think that one book can change your life, but it did for mine. So much so that in 2018 I crossed the six-figure mark in my business in October. I also drastically reduced my working schedule, got some semblance of my life back, and felt so much more confident about what I was doing.

While the exercises she has in the book aren't exactly new to anyone who's read a lot of self-improvement books, it was the way and the order in which she presented the information that worked wonders for my career.

I've divided the five life-changing lessons into the five-step plan she lays out in the book.

1. Tell the truth about your beliefs around money

Stanny notes that you need to start looking at your beliefs around money to overcome your earnings barriers. It was uncomfortable, but I dug deeper into some of my limiting beliefs around money.

One that surprised me is that I thought if I didn't work long hours, I couldn't expect to make a profit. Turns out, watching my mom and dad work long hours instilled this belief. Once I figured that out, I worked on telling myself the opposite — that I can earn a high income even if I work part-time hours — until it stuck.

2. Make a decision to be OK with earning more

Sounds deceptively simple, but making a decision to earn more money was much harder in practice. Stanny says in the book that I needed to commit to a profit motive, meaning that I needed to commit to making more money.

In essence, I had to get over my fears of wanting to earn more — it's not selfish. Once I set an earnings goal, it was easier to understand what I needed to do, which was to cut out a lot of things that weren't going to make me money. 

3. Stretch your fear muscles

Stanny mentions that the biggest barrier to overcoming underearning was fear. Frankly, I thought that I had gotten over my fear of pitching big-name clients. When it came to send the email, I would constantly stop myself.

I learned that stretching my fear muscles is to start asking for what I want in a small way. I started asking for trial articles from clients. I asked existing editors if there was room in the budget to pay me more. It didn't always result in more money, but it gave me the confidence to keep asking, helping me to land more clients.

4. Start respecting your own time

There were a few sub-lessons in this step, but one thing that really stood out to me was to take time for myself. It's deceptively simple, but hard for me in action.

I thought once becoming a mom that I wasn't allowed to have time for myself. Or if I did, it was to work on the business. Silly, right? Because I made a commitment to stop underearning, I started taking more time for myself. It was symbolic of the fact that I wanted people to respect me professionally. If I don't respect my own time, how I can expect people to do the same?

5. Spend on what matters, cut back on what doesn't

As a personal finance junkie, I thought I had it down pat when it comes to managing my money well. Boy, was I wrong!

I am really good atsaving money, but wasn't as strategic when it came to spending money to improve my business. I'm sad to admit that I spent a lot on subscriptions and courses that I never used. For example, I bought a high-end course (we're talking over $1,500 dollars) because I felt like it was the only way to increase my income.

I'm sure you know what happened: I started watching the introduction videos, then stopped. It's gathering dust.

When I made the decision to earn more, I forced myself to look at my business expenses. The fact that I spent on items that I rarely used was eye-opening. If I wanted to increase my profits, I knew I had to be more strategic about which products and services helped me do so.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but once I cut out 80% of my spending, my income shot up. The best part was that because I increased my profits.

At the end of the day, it wasn't about earning more money (though that's certainly a perk) — it was about building a better life for myself and my family. Now that I've reclaimed my time and crossed a bunch of goals off my list, I am confident that it will only get better from here. 

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• Amanda Frances is a self-made multimillionaire, digital course creator, writer, and podcaster.
• Five years ago, she left a Ph.D. program hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Now she's a multimillionaire CEO in Malibu, California.
• Her company grossed $1 million dollars in the first quarter of 2019 alone. Frances says it's because she knows the power of viewing herself as a brand.
• She believes in herself, posts authentically online, and lets different aspects of her life merge together.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Realizing the superpowers of social media, over the past 8 years I've created a following of over 500,000 women who I'm able to serve, support and empower through online courses, digital training programs, mentorships, and masterminds — as well as through my podcast and weekly YouTube training video.

In 2019, my company, Amanda Frances Inc., has processed over 18,000 transactions and grossed $1 million dollars in the first quarter alone. My company creates digital courses, coaching programs, and online trainings that helps hundreds of thousands of women take control of their lives, start and grow their own businesses, and create their own wealth. Each year, my company helps to create new six-figure, multiple six-figure, and seven-figure business owners. 

How did I go from being six-figures in student debt, dropping out of a prestigious Ph.D. program, while working multiple jobs at a time ... to leveraging the power of the internet to become an internationally known thought leader in the realm of financial empowerment for women?

By believing in myself. And by knowing the power of viewing myself as a brand.

Whenever someone asks me how I grew my business so quickly and no matter how many times I'm asked, I always cite a huge part of my success to personal branding.

Now branding is one of those terms that basically begs the question: What exactly is it? 

Simply put, your brand is just how people think of you.

Branding is not just about perfect color and font choices for a flashy website or photos of you in front of a private jet or clinking champagne glasses on a yacht. You can have those things if that's authentic to you — but to create a personal brand people know, love, and trust, we have to go deeper.

SEE ALSO: I went from being a nanny and cocktail server to a multimillionaire at 33. Here are my 3 tricks for getting ahead.

Start with a belief in yourself

The foundation of anything you create is believing in yourself first.

Doubts will come up. They'll come up often.

Examine them, shift them and get back into a place of deep faith and belief as quickly as possible.

My branding strategy is this: I know myself, like myself, and believe in myself. I let this be reflected through my work. (That is some magnetic stuff, huh?)

Of course, you will have to take a lot of practical action steps over the years. But your number one focus should always be maintaining deep belief in the power of your work and commitment to getting it into the world.

I encourage you to answer this question each day, "Why is my work needed and powerful?" This is something you can do with a friend or in your journal.

Be the real you

One of the most important parts of creating a powerful online presence and brand is authenticity. People are attracted to truth. They want the real you. You may feel tempted to build your brand to be who you think people want you to be along the way. But a contrived version of yourself is essentially a watered down version of your natural greatness. The world needs the real you.

Social media followers, clients, and customers are savvy! They know when you're just doing it for the 'gram! And while likes and follows are a measure of success for some, I have created an online presence where people feel safe to buy from me. (To the tune of 18,000 transactions this year.)

Showing up online in an authentic and transparent way will build massive trust and loyalty that keeps your fans and followers around for the long haul and purchasing on repeat.

Blur the lines between work and life

People have a lot of silly ideas about what it takes to be successful in our lives and businesses.

One idea is that when must be somehow balanced between work and play, family time and productive time, happy hour, and an hour of cardio.

And it's all noise.

The truth: The more you allow the sections of your life to merge, the stronger your brand will be.

Once I allowed family time, friend time, work time, and play time to all bleed into each other, my life got easier and my brand got stronger.

It doesn't mean that I am required to document everything I do in real life, online. But it means I can document any of it that I want, as I choose.

The thing is: You are your brand. It's all your life. So any and every aspect can be part of your brand. (Whichever parts you want.)

This means I might do a little work from the spa, gym, or social setting when I want to do. I might include friends of family in my social media posts or sales emails. It means watching movies on a plane when some people may write emails. It means I might not work on a Wednesday and work all day on Saturday.

I recommend that you allow your life and business to flow together, so that there is nothing to separate or balance.

Because of my belief in myself, my work, and my ability to monetize my mind and my life, I have created a brand that impacts hundreds of thousands of women through my free and paid offers.

This has allowed me to create a thriving, multimillion-dollar global brand with both the impact and income to show for it.

• Career marketplace Hired asked 3,600 tech workers to share which tech companies they want to work at most for Hired's 2019 Brand Health report.
• The final list is 30 private and public tech companies across the US, many of which are located in Silicon Valley.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jobs at tech companies are coveted

Career marketplace Hired asked 3,600 tech workers to share who which tech companies they want to work at the most for Hired's 2019 Brand Health Report.

Read more: The 10 most inspiring leaders in tech, according to thousands of tech workers

Here are the 30 tech companies that techies are most keen to work at: 

SEE ALSO: The WeWork IPO fiasco of 2019, explained in 30 seconds

30. Coinbase

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2012

Number of employees: 201-500

Elevator pitch: Coinbase is a digital platform for buying, selling, and storing cryptocurrency.

Source: LinkedIn

29. Instacart

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2012

Number of employees: 501 - 1,000

Elevator pitch: Instacart is an online grocery delivery service.

Source: LinkedIn

28. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Headquarters: Pasadena, California 

Year founded: 1936

Number of employees: 5,001 - 10,000

Elevator pitch: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a national research facility for robotic missions in space and scientific missions on Earth.

Source: LinkedIn, NASA

27. Quora

Headquarters: Mountain View, California

Year founded: 2009

Number of employees: 51-200

Elevator pitch: Quora is an online discussion platform for users to post questions and crowd-source answers.

Source: LinkedIn

26. Virgin Hyperloop One

Headquarters: Los Angeles, California

Year founded: 2014

Number of employees: 300

Elevator pitch: Virgin Hyperloop One is developing a "new mode of transportation," according to its website. The hyperloop vehicle moves people and cargo "via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle floats above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag."

Source: Virgin Hyperloop One

25. Squarespace

Headquarters: New York, New York

Year founded: 2003

Number of employees: 502 - 1,000

Elevator pitch: Squarespace is a website building and hosting tool.

Source: LinkedIn

24. Stripe

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2010

Number of employees: 1,001 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Stripe is a online payment platform.

Source: LinkedIn

23. Robinhood

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

Year founded: 2013

Number of employees: 201 - 500

Elevator pitch: Robinhood is a millennial stock-trading platform.

Source: LinkedIn

Read more: The inside story of how Robinhood, a $6 billion investing app for millennials, blew a huge launch so badly that Congress got involved

22. Indeed

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

Year founded: 2004

Number of employees: 5,001 - 10,000

Elevator pitch: Indeed is a job listing website.

Source: LinkedIn

21. WeWork

Headquarters: New York, New York

Year founded: 2010

Number of employees: 5,001 - 10.000

Elevator pitch: WeWork is a coworking space company.

Source: LinkedIn

Read more: The WeWork IPO fiasco of 2019, explained in 30 seconds

20. Kickstarter

Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York

Year founded: 2009

Number of employees: 51 - 200

Elevator pitch: Kickstarter is an online fundraising platform for artists and creators.

Source: LinkedIn

19. Reddit

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2005

Number of employees: 201 - 500

Elevator pitch: Reddit calls itself "the front page of the internet." It's an online community with discussion groups. 

Source: LinkedIn, Reddit

18. Twitter

Headquarters: San Francisco, California 

Year founded: 2006

Number of employees: 1,000 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Twitter, the social media platform that allows users to "tweet" 280 characters, had 126 million daily users in February 2019.

Source: LinkedIn, The Verge

17. The Walt Disney Company

Headquarters: Burbank, California

Year founded: 1923

Number of employees: 10,001-plus employees

Elevator pitch: The Walt Disney Company is comprised of media networks (e.g. Disney Channel, ABC), parks (e.g. Disneyland), experiences (e.g. Disney Cruise Line), studio entertainment (e.g. Pixar, Marvel Studios), and direct-to-consumer streaming services (e.g. Disney Plus). 

Source: LinkedIn, Walt Disney Company

16. Facebook

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

Year founded: 2004

Number of employees: 10,001-plus

Elevator pitch: Facebook is a social media giant; it also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. Though the company has faced its fair share of scandals over the past 15 fifteen years — including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, for which cofounder Mark Zuckerberg had to testify before Congress — its market cap is $529.14 billion as of September 2019.

Source: LinkedIn, Forbes, Business Insider, Harvard.

Read more: The biggest scandals that rocked Facebook over the past 15 years, from Mark Zuckerberg's infamous leaked Harvard IMs to a $5 billion fine

15. Lyft

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2012

Number of employees: 5,001 - 10,000

Elevator pitch: Lyft is a ride-hailing app.

Source: LinkedIn

14. Adobe

Headquarters: San Jose, California

Year founded: 1982

Number of employees: 10,001+ 

Elevator pitch: Adobe is a software company with a focus on creative, marketing, and document tools.

Source: LinkedIn

13. Hulu

Headquarters: Santa Monica, California

Year founded: 2007

Number of employees: 1,001 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Hulu is a streaming service for television and movies. Its original series "The Handmaid's Tale" won the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding drama series in 2017, making Hulu the first streaming service to win a best series award.

Source: LinkedIn, Deadline

12. Tesla

Headquarters: Palo Alto, California

Year founded: 2003

Number of employees: 10,000-plus

Elevator pitch: Tesla is an automotive company making electric and self-driving vehicles.

Source: LinkedIn

11. Dropbox

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2007

Number of employees: 1,001 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Dropbox is a cloud service for saving documents and media.

Source: LinkedIn

10. SpaceX

Headquarters: Hawthorne, California

Year founded: 2002

Number of employees: 6,000-plus

Elevator pitch: SpaceX"designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets ... with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets," according to its website. It has contracted more than 100 launches to date.

Source: LinkedIn, SpaceX.

9. GitHub

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2008

Number of employees: 501 - 1,000

Elevator pitch: GitHub is a code-sharing website.

Source: LinkedIn

8. Amazon

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Year founded: 1994

Number of employees: 10,001-plus 

Elevator pitch: Amazon is an online marketplace. The company crossed a $1 trillion market cap for the first time in September 2018.

Source: LinkedIn, Business Insider

7. Slack

Headquarters: San Francisco, California 

Year founded: 2009 

Number of employees: 1,001 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Slack is a chat board for teams. 

Source: LinkedIn

6. Microsoft

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington

Year founded: 1975

Number of employees: 10,001-plus

Elevator pitch: Microsoft, the computer software and consumer electronics company, crossed a $1 trillion market cap for the first time in April.

Source: LinkedIn, CNET

5. Airbnb

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Year founded: 2008

Number of employees: 1,001 - 5,000

Elevator pitch: Airbnb is a global home-sharing website. 

Source: LinkedIn

4. LinkedIn

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California

Year founded: 2003

Number of employees: 10,001-plus

Elevator pitch: LinkedIn is a professional networking and job-listing website. 

Source: LinkedIn

3. Apple

Headquarters: Cupertino, California

Year founded: 1976

Number of employees: 10,001-plus

Elevator pitch: Apple, the visionary consumer electronics company behind the iPhone, became the first company in the US to reach a $1 trillion market cap in August 2018. 

Source: LinkedIn, Markets Insider

2. Netflix

Headquarters: Los Gatos, California

Year founded: 1997

Number of employees: 5,001 - 10,000

Elevator pitch: Netflix is a streaming service for television and movies; it won its first Oscar in 2017 for its documentary "The White Helmets" about rescue workers in Syria.

Source: LinkedIn, CNN

1. Google

Headquarters: Mountain View, California

Year founded: 1998

Number of employees: 10,001-plus

Elevator pitch: Google runs not only its search engine, but also Android, the OS used by nearly 87% of world's smartphones, and YouTube, the video platform used by millions each month. The company is involved in everything advertising to consumer hardware to self-driving car technology as well. 

Source: LinkedIn, IDC

• Hopefully, you go to business school to learn a lot. But that's not everything you should be doing during your time at an MBA program.
• Business Insider spoke with several alumni of Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business about the most meaningful things they got out of their degree.
• They mentioned plenty of opportunities outside the classroom that shaped their experience and careers, such as building a community of peers and mentors, traveling outside the country, and taking on leadership roles in student organizations.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

When you attend an MBA program, you expect to emerge smarter and wiser, brimming with insights on leadership, management, finance, and marketing from your classroom learning. But there's more to the business school experience than just what you absorb from your professors during lectures. 

Business Insider asked graduates from Harvard Business School (HBS) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) what they felt was the most important part of going to business school — and exactly what benefits and experiences people should aim to get out of attending an MBA program. Below is what they told us, including insight into how they leveraged things they didn't learn in class to do some impressive things with their careers.

Capitalize on the community to make meaningful connections and test out your 'risky' ideas

Coral Chung, Stanford GSB class of 2011 and the founder and CEO of the luxury handbag shop Senreve, told Business Insider that while she enjoyed the classes in business school, the learning outside of the classroom "is arguably more valuable," in part because of the long-term, built-in community it creates.

"Relationships with classmates, creating lifelong bonds, and having this incredible community of creative, entrepreneurial, and talented people who are all aligned in wanting to change the world — it's so powerful," said Chung. "I truly felt that I found my kindred spirits. In fact, our class is so connected that we created an annual reunion hosted in cool cities around the world."

Dilan Gomih, who received her MBA from Harvard Business School in May 2019, emphasized that MBA students should aim to learn how to take risks, inside and outside the classroom. "You have to trust that going to business school isn't an opportunity cost — it's an investment in opportunity," she said. 

Gomih explained how the general experience of participating in an MBA program helped provide validation of her ideas so that she could start moving toward the full vision she had of her career with more confidence. 

"Prior to HBS, I worked in finance and I could have predicted my path with a fair amount of certainty," she said. "However, knowing I had a passion for the wellness and fitness space — at the time I was teaching five to eight [indoor cycling] classes at Flywheel Sports on top of my full-time job in sales and trading — I wasn't unlocking my full potential." 

Gomih realized that her vision for what wellness means for the everyday person, and how accessible it is to people, may not exist yet. "However, HBS gave me the confidence to say, 'Why don't I try to make that happen?'" she said.

She emphasized that business school students should focus on building supportive, influential relationships. In her case, she met friends and professors not just in class but throughout her HBS experience who affirmed that the "crazy ideas" she had for what she felt passionate about were worth pursuing. 

"From continuing to teach while in grad school to helping implement some of my ideas as HBS' Chief Wellness Officer, every step of the way I had people cheering me on to say, 'You can do this,'" she said.

With the encouragement she gained throughout the business school experience and notably outside of actual classes, Gomih is currently working at a startup called Industrious as the chief of staff to the CEO, where she can focus on her passion for wellness.

Travel — because it's maybe the only time in your life when you'll be able to

Another benefit that comes to mind for Chung was the travel opportunities that Stanford offered to its MBA students.

"When I interviewed for Stanford GSB as part of the application, my interviewer said that her biggest regret during business school was that she didn't take advantage of the amazing travel experiences," recalled Chung. "I took that to heart and went on pretty much every global trip possible, to India, Brazil, [and] Japan, [and] did an internship in Paris and more." 

Chung described these experiences as "an incredible opportunity to get exposed to different cultures and become more of a global citizen." One international adventure, however, was particularly invaluable to her: participating in and leading the "Luxury Trek," in which she and a group of her classmates who were passionate about the luxury goods industry participated in a trip to visit Paris, Milan, and other European destinations to meet with C-level executives of major luxury brands and retailers, ranging from Gucci to Chanel to Hermès. 

The trip was "memorable and impactful," and she emphasized that it was her "direct inspiration" to launch her own luxury handbag company.

Siqi Mou, who graduated from Stanford GSB in 2016 and is now the CEO and cofounder of HelloAva, an AI-powered recommendation engine for beauty and personal care products, also participated in one of the GSB's treks organized by the Stanford Retail Club.

She served as CIO for this particular mission and summarized that the trip "ended up being one of the most useful real-world learning experiences." 

"We took a lot of classes in school every day, but a lot of knowledge and instincts cannot be learned in textbooks, and these contacts and connections ended up benefiting me for a long time," she said. 

In fact, like Chung, Mou ultimately founded and now runs a company in the beauty industry, which was in part inspired by what she learned on her trek outside the classroom. Mou advised current MBA students to seize on these types of outside learning and travel opportunities, if their business school offers them, to glean more information about their industry firsthand.

Serve in student leadership roles to evaluate your leadership potential

While the standard response about business school benefits is the relationships you make, Triston Francis, HBS class of 2019, advised that current MBA students up the ante in the networking arena by taking on a campus leadership position in addition to their required coursework.  

"I think that the best way to get to know classmates and faculty is by working on a project alongside them, ideally one in an area that [you are] passionate about," said Francis, who is now a consultant at BCG Singapore. "That is precisely what I got to do on a regular basis through my role as student body co-president, and it led to some of the strongest friendships that I will cherish for a lifetime." 

In this role, Francis managed a team of over 70 peers and a budget of $1.3 million. 

"The real learning opportunity came from thinking about how to motivate peers to be excited about giving up precious time in order to give back to the HBS community," said Francis. "Time during an MBA program is particularly precious for students, so this was a large undertaking."

What Francis learned from this experience is that when building teams, "focus on designing roles that allow people who are working with you to have a phenomenal experience and get from it what they want," he said. "Then, once they are excited about what they are doing, then you can think through how that fits into the bigger mission of your effort."

Francis emphasized that you don't need to be given a specific title like "president" in order to make an impact and bring people together. Instead, he advised current MBA students to take the initiative to create leadership experiences outside of the classroom. 

For example, in his first year at HBS, Francis and his roommate would host dinners at which attendees would share the personal statements that they wrote to get into HBS.  

"What we found was that people were really excited about it as a way of breaking through the ice and getting to know one another," said Francis. "My roommate and I ended up hosting about 100 classmates over the course of our first year to help everyone get to know each other." 

It was at one of these informal dinners that the pair facilitated that Francis met the classmate who he would later serve alongside as student body co-president. Even more importantly, Francis said that this fortuitous meeting resulted in one of his closest friendships. "I know we will stay in touch with one another for a lifetime," he said. 

SEE ALSO: Required reading: These are the books top professors at the best business schools in the country are having their MBA students read

READ MORE: BUSINESS SCHOOL PREP: The ultimate guides to getting into the top MBA programs in the US

Join the conversation about this story »

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• According to research by The New School, many American families experience downward social mobility in retirement caused by a lack of savings, and that can't be remedied by working longer. Saving more is the only solution.
• Nashville, Tennessee residents Mary and Steve Dacus haven't found retirement to be easy. Like many middle- and working-class Americans, they had only modest savings for retirement. 
• Steve was forced into retirement at age 62 after medical issues, meaning he doesn't get the maximum Social Security income each month, and that there's a gap between his employer's healthcare coverage and his Medicare eligibility.
• AARP surveys have found that about seven in 10 baby boomers plan to work in retirement. But, working can't be an alternative to saving.
• The Dacuses didn't plan for these issues. They spend about half of their retirement income on housing, and Steve is currently uninsured despite many health problems. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Mary and Steve Dacus of Nashville, Tennessee didn't retire to the life they thought they would. 

"I thought I was going to be able to sit down and do my songwriting and take a little time to breathe, because I've always worked hard all my life," said Steve Dacus, who retired early at 62 due to health issues after a 42-year career in sales for a plumbing supply company. 

"We really didn't think it was going to be a struggle," his wife Mary, who took disability eight years ago due to Lupus, told Business Insider. "We really thought that more people would take care of the seniors."

They had pictured a retirement where they'd have access to services like Medicare and affordable senior housing. They also thought that Steve would be able to continue earning and stay employed, even if just several hours per week.

The two spend about half of their $2,100-per-month retirement income on housing in Nashville. "The apartment that we live in is a one-bedroom and is old and is probably one of the nastiest places we've ever lived," Steve told Business Insider. "And it's $900 a month."

While they've considered moving to Missouri for cheaper housing costs, they've found they don't have the cash on hand to pay for the move. They still haven't ruled it out. "That's the next hurdle," Steve said.

They didn't plan on Steve being hurt and unable to work in retirement, didn't think they'd spend half their monthly income on rent, and didn't plan for the expense of Steve's healthcare in the three-year gap between when he was unable to work at 62 and when he'll reach Medicare age at 65. But, given how many Americans aren't saving enough for retirement, Mary and Steve aren't the only retirees feeling squeezed out of the life they once lived.

When he was working, Steve didn't do much to save for retirement — there wasn't a whole lot left over to save. The Dacuses say they lost $100,000 they did have saved for retirement during the Great Recession. And when the day that Steve couldn't work any longer finally came, the Dacuses found themselves reeling. 

Social mobility in retirement is often downwards

It's not uncommon for retirees to feel like their lives have changed after retiring, but it's also not uncommon for middle- or working-class Americans like the Dacuses to retire to a life that feels like less than the one they had before. According to a study by The New School's economic think tank, SCEPA, about two in five American seniors and their partner will experience downward social mobility in retirement.

The study found that downward mobility is caused by a lack of savings, and can't be prevented by working longer. The crux of the matter, the data finds, is that small retirement account balances of today's retirees aren't providing enough to supplement relatively small Social Security earnings. The study points out that due to physical inability and a lack of employment opportunities, counting on more years of earning income doesn't work — exactly what the Dacuses found out.

Working in retirement doesn't work

Steve had intended to take a part-time job, but found it hard to get one he could physically do that would hire him. His career left him with bursitis in both hips, and he is now unable to take on part-time jobs that require long hours of standing. His first post-retirement job was at a grocery store. "It was maybe five or six hours a week and at $10 an hour, you can't really afford that. It costs more money to drive back and forth to work," Steve said. 

Other jobs he held included a position at a call center and doing guitar repair at a pawn shop. But health problems landed him in the hospital, making him unable to go into work, and he lost those jobs. He's now stopped searching for work. 

According to AARP surveys, about seven in 10 baby boomers plan to work in retirement. But, working can't be an alternative to saving. The sooner a person starts saving for retirement, the sooner they can start to take advantage of things like compounding interest— and sometimes even employer matches— to grow their savings balance. In 2019, workers can contribute up to $19,000 a year to a 401(k) offered by an employer (plus another $1,000 if they're age 50 or older) and up to $6,000 in a Roth or traditional IRA (plus another $1,000 for people over age 50).

In an analysis of Census Bureau data by Capital One's United Income, just 20% of those over age 65 were working in February 2019. And especially for America's working class, the physical work they once had isn't an option in retirement. 

Retiring early may limit the benefits you can receive

Steve being unable to work wasn't the only problem for the Dacuses — he also became uninsured.

An unexpected cost of retiring early for many is covering your own healthcare expenses. Vanguard research from 2018 shows that the median cost for middle-of-the-road silver plan coverage on the government's Healthcare Marketplace for a 64-year-old totals $12,800 per year, including out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles.

Steve came to find that he had very few options the couple could afford when his employer's healthcare went away after retirement. While his wife has Medicare coverage, he is not yet old enough since he retired at 62 — the most common age for Americans to retire. For now, a financial assistance program through a local hospital is his only help with medical bills.

And then, there's the amount of Social Security benefits lost by claiming early. Social Security benefits can be claimed as early as age 62, but the earlier they're claimed, the less they pay out each month. Steve estimates that he would get about $300 more per month if he were able to retire at age 65 rather than 62.

For the Dacuses and many other middle and working-class Americans, retirement hasn't been as easy as it might sound. "I wasn't raised in a family where they taught you about money and proper ways to save and all that," said Steve. "Most of my life, I flew by the seat of my pants."

But it's a combination of factors that has made Dacuses' experience so difficult. In his words, it was a "perfect storm" of losses from the recession, a lack of planning and ability to save, counting on services that haven't worked for them, and a lack of employment.

They won't be the only American family to experience difficulty in retirement, given the research on how Gen Xers are struggling to save for retirement. About 47% of Gen Xers surveyed in a Morning Consult survey had nothing saved for retirement. A separate study conducted by online investment adviser Personal Capital finds that about a third of Gen Xers aren't prepared. 

"If I wrote a book, I'd say don't do what I did," says Steve. 

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• Since Adam Neumman's ouster from WeWork, reporting from Business Insider and many other publications has revealed several idiosyncrasies with the former CEO and the company that he founded.
• Neumann is perhaps the highest profile — or certainly, at least, the latest — case of the visionary startup CEO who gets into trouble as the company scales, goes public, or otherwise matures.
• Business Insider spoke with experts who explained an all-too familiar dynamic: a leader who is glorified to the point of excess, and their startup becomes something of a "new religious movement"— a cult.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

When WeWork filed its S-1 in August, the company was summarily roasted, starting with the second page. 

"We dedicate this to the energy of we — greater than any of us, but inside each of us."

A few pages down, under the "Our Story" section, the manifesto continues to go maximal. "We are a community company committed to maximum global impact," it reads. "Our mission is to elevate the world's consciousness." 

Since that filing six weeks ago, WeWork has been the biggest story in business news, with a constant cascade of drama, reaching a crescendo on Tuesday when Adam Neumann, the charismatic, controversial, visionary founder and CEO was demoted by the board, putting in his stead a pair of chief executives with decades of experience in tech between them. 

In that time, the reporting of Business Insider, and many other publications, has revealed several idiosyncrasies with Neumann and the company that he founded. One former vice president told us that working there was one of the weirdest years of his life, including many spiritual discussions with higher-ups, odd internal optics from Neumann, and a mandatory "camp" where he and thousands of other employees slept in tents. In one newsworthy incident, back in 2016, Neumann announced cost-cutting layoffs, and then tequila shots were handed out to employees. And then employees were treated to a performance by a member of the legendary rap group Run-DMC. Rebekah Neumann, his wife and now WeWork's former executive, reportedly asked that employees be fired because she disliked their "energy." 

Richard Markel, the vice president, told Business Insider that there was a massive disconnect between WeWork's stated goals of harmony and earth friendliness and the actual day-to-day running of the business — like when, in the lead-up to his eventually being let go, he came to work to find his calendar empty, having been taken out of all his meetings. "The way I was treated was so professionally repugnant, so unprofessional, so that it was almost like, 'Hey, WeWork, is everything you say bulls---?'" he said. 

Neumann is perhaps the highest profile — or certainly, at least, the latest — case of the visionary startup CEO who gets into trouble as the company scales, goes public, or otherwise matures. There's a whole Mount Rushmore of these figures, who are today famous or infamous examples of leadership. Steve Jobs. Elizabeth Holmes. Elon Musk. Leaders who push boundaries, disrupt norms, perhaps act strangely, and find themselves adrift in some way: taken out of the head of their company, revealed to be frauds, or not able to deliver on their great visions. 

These are often taken to be business stories. 

But really, these are tales of social psychology. 

And startups are, in many meaningful senses, cults. 

New religious movements 

Lorne Dawson is a sociologist of religion at the University of Waterloo. He has spent decades studying "new religious movements"— that's academese for "cults"— and his latest work has tilted toward terrorism and the process of radicalization. To Dawson, all these various social situations exist along a continuum. There's the normal state of affairs, then startup business contexts, and then further afield from that, religious movements, or even sectarian/extremist ones. The startup and the cult have very strong parallels, and deal with some of the same problems, he said — those of leadership, small group dynamics, and institutionalization. Both the startup founder and the cult leader face the innovator's dilemma. 

He knows about the dynamics personally. A family member of his worked for a small startup, ran by a serial entrepreneur who met national success. After selling the first company, he started another one on a new set of ideas, again heading for a big sale. When he'd hear about the office dynamic, he was struck by how much the owner and leader reflected the elements of what draws people into small religious organizations.  

"The very fact that you have strong focus on the inspirational, dynamic founding figure — that person will almost always be considered a charismatic leader," he told Business Insider. "The popular notion is that people have inherent skills or talents, but sociology and business management realizes that it's much more about positioning." 

The dynamic central figure leads followers to attribute certain powers to them. 

"The leader is the one with the money, contacts, the force to drive the thing forward, and everyone wants in on that action," he added. "In religious movement, it's the certain special knowledge that'll make your life perfect or grant you salvation. Or for business, you get in on the action. Not just being paid, but given percentage of company. You want the big payoff." 

That, in turn, can create a dynamic where the leader is glorified to the point of excess. And that, in turn, has a psychological effect: if the leader already had a strong personality with egomaniacal elements, those qualities can be exaggerated. (When people have power, dozens of psychology studies have shown, they grow even more confident.) And with that comes risk. 

Erratic behavior that would never be accepted in a normal organization is accepted in a small startup, just as what happens in a cult wouldn't be allowed in a mature religious organization. That lack of norms does come with potential business benefits: it allows a company to be very flexible and adaptable, ready to pivot at a moments notice, and it could feel like an exciting place to be. But it can also be destabilizing or alienating for employees, or even surreal.  

And then, Dawson says, small group dynamics can begin to take over. Employees compete to curry favor with the leader, and proximity grows important. In these contexts, even when the leader does erratic things, you defend it. And in the case of the unitary executive — where literally or metaphorically, the leader controls all the voting shares — there can be a desire for excessive social cohesion. ("You don't want a family to do everything that the father always does," Dawson says — being able to disagree with an authority figure is a sign of health in a group.)

With all of this comes vulnerability: "Because you don't have rules or regulations, that makes the group very flexible, but it creates demand for loyalty, social cohesion, and ultimately makes it brittle, so that the situation could break apart in a crisis," he says.

The needs that startups serve

People work for more than paychecks. They also have psychological needs to be filled. And consciously or not, visionary startup founders tend to be excellent at doing so. 

Jay Van Bavel, who runs the Social Perception and Evaluation Lab at New York University, is part of a group of researchers who study "identity leadership"— that's when leaders act in such a way, and cultivate a culture in such a way, that the group becomes a part of who you are. The logo is not just emblazoned upon a mug or a T-shirt, but the heart. "It's about when leaders, managers, CEOs, or visionaries cultivate a sense of in-group identity," he tells Business Insider. "We're 'us,' in it together, have this set of values that are virtuous, share a vision that's virtuous, and we have a set of norms or actions to achieve it." 

When a leader creates that culture, you get engaged followership. Folks feel a sense of identity, they understand the actions and norms to be taken — what, in management-speak, you'd call culture. It's exhibited a lot in sports teams: there's the Patriot Way or the Packer Way. Politicians employee it: those that use "we" or "us" more tend to get elected. And followers act to fulfill what they perceive the wishes of the leader to be — like when the White House asked the Navy to make the USS John S. McCain "out of sight" for President Donald Trump's visit on Memorial Day. 

In startups, it's making people feel like they're all in on some vision together. They'll work long hours, stay late, recruit their friends, use whatever social capital they have to build the organization. In a small or early company, especially if you're yet to hit big on funding, you might not have much you can compensate people with in terms of funds, so you create incentives that other firms can't offer. The sense of belonging, prestige, the feeling that you're doing something high status. (Tech is not alone in this: Anyone who's been paid in prestige in fields like fashion, publishing, or media can probably relate.) Again, same thing with sports teams: If you're a Yankees fan, you get some of the glow of being associated with a massively, historically successful organization whenever you lay eyes on the pinstripes. 

"You have strange followings of people like Elon Musk," Van Bavel said, "where you see overlap between both employees and consumers or fans." Even if you've never sat in a Ferrari, you might own the hat. 

Startups, Silicon Valley in particular, can also imbue a sense of morality, that you're pursuing some kind of meaningful social goal by schlepping into the office every day. Facebook's mission statement is "to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." Google's mission has "been to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

You're not just working a job; you're part of something bigger. 

Being a visionary comes with risks

One of the greatest challenges for a startup is scaling, that sought-after hockey-stick growth where users and revenue accelerate rapidly, and team size along with it. It's the stuff that headlines are made of: 2x, 10x, 100x. A new religious movement also wants greater attention, platform, and membership, otherwise it won't survive. Recruiting (or evangelism) are key to the success of both. But as either kind of organization expands, it can run into problems of structure. 

"As a group succeeds, attracting followers or growing and hiring, you have to start getting the delegation of authority," says Dawson, the religious scholar. In turn, the charismatic leader has to give authority away, and this, in turn, is the crunch point. "Most new religious movements die from becoming successful, ironically enough. They fall apart from schisms and struggles as they try to institutionalize," he says.

The inspirational leader can often be resistant. "They want the success, but not to give up the authority, power, freedom to do what they want," he says. And if the leader resists the delegation, the religion begins to fail in some way — higher-level subordinates will break off, start a competitive group, bring followers along or attract new ones. And that'll happen in startup companies, too.

There are, of course, exceptions. Dawson says that the Unification Church, popularly known as "Moonies" due the leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is one such example, since the group created a middle-management layer. 

The other, perhaps more central, issue is the "power of revelation," Dawson says. The messianic religious leader has to be coming up with ever new visions and messages from the divine. The founder needs ever new projects or innovations. In both cases, the leader is a medium in tune with some greater force in the universe — the higher power of god or disruption. 

"When they stop seeming to have that power to provide special things, then you start to notice their flaws and they get knocked down in their status," Dawson says, adding that Elon Musk has become something of a recent case study. There was PayPal, then Tesla, SpaceX, renewable energy and the car that goes in the tunnel.

"The inspirational leader is coming up with new ideas, they often make additional prophecies that fail and don't amount to anything, but that's not noticed, because everyone looks at their successes," Dawson says. "Musk has been hitting the border of that, people are starting to think he's lost his touch. Like a religious leader, he's fallen out of favor, no longer in tune with the hidden forces of the world." 

In Neumann's resignation memo, he noted that "scrutiny directed"  toward him had become a distraction to the company, as all those reports of tequila shots and private planes (later sold) came out.

The charismatic leader was always pushing for not only greater scale, no matter the loss, but new investments or innovations, putting money into wave pools and superfood, launching the co-living space WeLive, the "micro-school" WeGrow, the boutique fitness offering Rise by We. 

On Tuesday, amid the turmoil and his demotion, Neumann sent a company-wide email touting WeWork's mission. "The spotlight on us has never been greater than at this moment, and with this visibility we have an opportunity to expand our global business to more people than ever before," he said.

It's a nice note for the founder's tenure to end on: identity leadership, powered by we. 

Sherin Shibu contributed to this story.

SEE ALSO: The VC's ultimate guide to sniffing out risky healthcare startups — and not getting tricked into backing them

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Navy has its own Area 51 and it's right in the middle of the Bahamas

• Adrian Granzella Larssen is a content strategist, editorial director, and founder of Sweet Spot Content. Eight years ago, she was the first employee at The Muse.
• She writes that the first impression you make on a recruiter, a prospective client, or a potential partner is often your LinkedIn profile. 
• To make it as effective as possible, the 2,000-character box for your professional summary should tell a story about your career history and gives context to your path.
• You also want to encourage people to reach out to you, and show them what you're like as a person.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The first impression you make on a recruiter, a prospective client, or a potential partner often isn't your business card or your resume. 

It's your LinkedIn profile. 

And that's a good thing! Rather than being confined to a piece of paper, you have a blank slate (well, a few blank fields) to tell a story about your professional self for the world to see. 

But with all that freedom, where do you begin? 

A friendly photo, a strong title — that's all pretty simple. But that 2,000-character box for your summary can be a bit more daunting. 

And that's fair. In that space, you need to accomplish some important things. For example:

• You want to tell a story about your career history, something that ties all of your jobs and responsibilities together and gives context to your path.
• You want to get found in LinkedIn searches by recruiters, hiring managers, or clients.
• You want to give those people a teaser of who you are — not just what you do, but why you do it, and what you're like as a person.
• You want to encourage those people to reach out.

Read more: There are 11 types of emails you'll send when you launch a business. Here's a template for each that will help you gain new clients and keep your old ones loyal.

It's a lot to cover in a little piece of real estate, but here's a template that'll make it easy:

The template

I'm a [your title] who helps [your target audience][what you do]. 

Why? [Your back story]

For the past [years of experience], I've worked with companies like [past employers] to [key skill 1], [key skill 2], and [key skill 3]. In addition, [big accomplishments].

I've also [additional work history], which [how you use it today].

Additional things I do well: [additional skills]

If you're [reason others would want to connect], I'd love to chat. Reach out at [contact info].

Read more: One email I wrote brought in 100% of my clients after I started my business — here's the template

How to make it your own

Here's a rundown of what to put in each of those template prompts:

Your title: This doesn't have to be your exact job title; instead, use a broader, three- to five-word description that someone might type when searching for people with your background. (Think: B2B product manager, diversity and inclusion leader, or freelance beauty writer.)

Your audience: If you're an entrepreneur, this might be your ideal client. If you're looking for a new job, you'll want to list the type of companies you've worked for (or want to) — for example, healthcare startups or public relations agencies. And if you've worked for a variety of places, think about the thread that ties them together, such as "companies that do talent management differently."

What you do: This is the big theme of your work — the umbrella of what you do. An example: As a marketing manager, you might be responsible for growth, SEO, and social media, but here, you could write something that ties those tasks together, like "create lasting brands and engaged communities." (We'll get to the more specific skills later on.) 

Your backstory: Here, you'll get to share a bit about why you do what you do. What led you to this field? Why are you passionate about your work? No matter what your story is, talking about your "why" will help readers get to know you better and put a personal spin on your professional background.

Years of experience: In this spot, add how many years you've been doing this to make your experience level clear to recruiters. (If you think it's irrelevant, or are worried about age-related discrimination, feel free to leave it out.)

Past employers: List a few of the companies you've worked with before. It doesn't need to be a laundry list, just a few of your most eye-catching employers.

Key skills: Here's where you'll get into more detail about what you do. What are your most important responsibilities? What are the skills that are most in-demand by potential hiring managers or clients? List three to five of them here. 

Big accomplishments: Now it's time to brag! What are some of your accomplishments — the things that make you stand out from others in your field? If you've received special certifications, won awards, or been featured in publications, this is the place to highlight them. You can also use this area to describe some of the results you've achieved or accolades you've received on the job.

Work history and how you use it today: If you've changed careers or your work has evolved over time, it can be helpful to explain this here. Briefly mention what you've done in the past, and then, more importantly) highlight how it helps you in your career today.

Additional skills: Anything else you'd like to mention? Here's an easy catch-all area to add other keywords that recruiters or potential clients might search for (like, "public speaking,""management" or "volunteering").

Reason others would want to connect, plus contact info: Finally, invite people to reach out to you and give them the best contact information to do so. Pro tip: If you're looking for a job and don't want to tip off your current employer, say something vague like, "I'm always excited to chat with others in the digital media space — feel free to reach out."

Read more: There are 7 types of emails you need to master to land your dream job. But they're easy to mess up. Here's a copy-paste template for each that will make you look great to employers.

Final thoughts

Of course, you can and should adapt this template. Don't be afraid to add quotes, testimonials, or funny anecdotes to make it your own.  

And remember: While your LinkedIn profile summary should tell a story about who you are, it doesn't have to tell the whole story. (There's a character limit for a reason!) Think of it as a highlight reel — the top hits of your career that will make a prospective client or employer excited to learn more.  

SEE ALSO: I was the first employee of a huge startup. Here’s my advice to anyone thinking about joining an early-stage company.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sharks aren't the deadliest creatures on Earth. Here are the top 10.

• Daniel Lubetzky is the founder and executive chairman of KIND Healthy Snacks — and he's also a guest judge on the latest season of "Shark Tank."
• In an interview with Business Insider, the founder and investor revealed the traits that underlie his decision to invest in a startup.
• Lubetzky said he would never invest in a company that claims a social mission when in fact all it wants is to sell a product — and the social mission is just a means to sell the product. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The value of your company is inextricably linked to the value you offer the world.

That's how KIND Healthy Snacks founder (and "Shark Tank" guest judge) Daniel Lubetzky filters through startups when he's looking to invest.

Lubetzky founded his healthy-snack empire in 2004, and it's now estimated to be worth around $2.9 billion. The company produces snack bars you may have seen in your office kitchen or in grocery store aisles. Lubetzky is an investor as well as an entrepreneur, and while he is appreciative of socially minded founders, it's not the only factor that causes him to back a startup.

"I, of course, have chosen in my journey to attach myself to ventures and investments that have a social impact component because that's what gives me meaning," Lubetzky told Business Insider. "But I don't think it's a prerequisite for me, and it's not an absolute prerequisite for me to only invest in companies that have a social mission."

That's because the value that the company offers consumers via quality and other factors takes precedence over the social mission. In fact, the only thing that Lubetzky would never invest in a company that claims a social mission when in fact all it wants is to sell a product — and the social mission is just a means to sell the product. 

As a founder himself, Lubetzky prioritizes fulfilling the dreams of the company founders he interacts with, regardless of the equity stake that he ends up buying in that company. He says his goal is to guide and empower the founders to fulfill the mission of their companies.

"I am very careful about choosing to partner only with people who are high integrity, that share the values of respect, integrity, hard work, and kindness," Lubetzky said. "They have to be someone I can believe in."

In the early days of KIND, Lubetzky established his own values as a founder by asking how the company could do kind things for its consumers. 

"We would give umbrellas to people when it was raining, or we would carry their groceries," Lubetzky said. "It was all us surprising our consumers with kind acts."

Lubetzky tied the mission, actions, and even branding of his company to a culture of kindness. It should come as no surprise that his number one criteria for working with entrepreneurs is associating with people who share the same values. 

The multiplied impact of developing the need for social good in entrepreneurs also applies to culture. As Lubetzky put it, a founder's personality is often reflected in the company's culture, for better or for worse.

"You've seen in the news a lot of examples of people who are doing self-dealing," Lubetzky said. "Then you go into their companies and you get that feeling that the company's DNA is very much connected to that behavior. It really sets the tone."

SEE ALSO: The newest 'Shark Tank' judge explains how a Harvard MBA fit into her decision to become an entrepreneur — and how she founded a personal styling company worth $1.9 billion

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what airlines legally owe you if you're bumped off a flight

• The film "Hustlers" hit theatres in early September and has become a critically acclaimed box-office smash.
• But what do real life hustlers think of the $33 million-dollar success? We asked three women who worked as exotic dancers during the same era to reflect on the film's accuracy.
• "There were moments ... that just rang so true," said one woman who worked as a stripper in Seattle from 2012 to 2015.
• "I wish I could say that this film humanized dancers to the general public, but I'm afraid it has not," said another, who was an exotic dancer in New York City and Las Vegas from 2000 to 2010.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Director Lorene Scafaria's film, "Hustlers," is a box-office smash and a darling of professional film critics.

Washington Post's Ann Hornaday described the movie — which follows a crew of high-end strippers who band together to turn the tables on their wealthy Wall Street clients — as a "funny, naughty, entertaining kick in the pants." New Statesman declared it "a refreshing example of changing attitude towards sex work," while The Nation called it a "subversive joy," featuring women rebels who critic Joshunda Sanders characterize as "quite literally stealing back their power." 

But what do real life hustlers think of the $33 million-dollar success? We asked three women who worked as exotic dancers during the same era to reflect on the film's accuracy, as well as their time on stage. Here's what they said.

SEE ALSO: My husband paid me $15 an hour to be a stay-at-home mom. Here's what I learned.

Maggie McMuffin

Worked as a stripper in Seattle from 2012 to 2015

There were moments [of the movie] that just rang so true. The montage of lap dances and then getting shut down. Management being sh*tty. Bouncers saying they won't help if you don't tip. 

I've seen people point out that the movie shames [dancers who sell] "extras" and full-service work (strippers who sleep with clients). I'm torn on that because I don't want civilians to see that and think the only heroic strippers are the ones who don't give blowjobs. On the other hand, a lot of strippers are really sh*tty to workers who do that, so how it was presented felt like an accurate representation. 

I took a lot of joy in watching sex workers flat out steal from a-hole men. It was a power fantasy for me and I think a lot of us dancers. [Sex workers] are already criminals [in most people's eyes, so I guess I'm not as offended by us being presented as criminals if we're also being presented as real people. 

It did need to be more gay though. I don't buy that a group of sex workers that big didn't contain a single queer person.

The club [where I worked] had some of the highest house fees in the country. It was already hard to work in for lots of reasons but then there was this few months where people weren't coming in. There wasn't much money for anyone. And management was just pumping us for more fees, talking about raising house fees, yelling at us for not working harder, good security guys were leaving. I knew if I didn't leave I was going to wind up hating my job. I transitioned to full-service sex work (both independently and in legal brothels). I've been doing that since, along with some porn and sugaring here and there. I like my job. It's right for me. It's also just part of my life. It's one of the least interesting things about me, but it's the thing I find myself explaining to people the most. 

Read more:A legal sex worker shares what it's really like to work in a brothel

Essence Revealed

Worked as an exotic dancer in New York City and Las Vegas from 2000 to 2010

I liked that there were jokes in there that only strippers would get. The dressing room sisterhood scenes were great. Showing how much we pay out to work is something many outsiders are unaware of. 

People only think about the fact that we take off clothes and make money. I don't think people believe me when I say that I got paid to mostly sell conversation and flirty attention. The job is a sales job. The product was flirty conversation and attention with dancing thrown in. I preferred talking to them. My goal was how long can I keep my dress on in the VIP Room, so I liked seeing the scenes of them dancing for the customers still wearing their dress. Sometimes, there was no engaging [sexually] — only conversation. This was one of the hardest parts of the job — doing everything you can to stay within your own boundaries. 

I retired when the investment bankers lost their jobs, and expense accounts. It was no longer lots of money for just conversation and air dances. These had been my products, and they were no longer in demand. I don't knock anyone's hustle, I just know where my personal boundaries at that time were. 

That scene where Destiny tries to get a retail job, and couldn't even get that, hit so hard. That sh*t is real. People think I freelance just because. It's because I have no resume that commands the kind of base pay I'd find acceptable for 60-80 hours of my week.

No one feels the need to be polite to strippers — not even the film's producers, because they had the club closed for two weeks without compensating the real strippers who were out two weeks' pay. I wish I could say that this film humanized dancers to the general public, but I'm afraid it has not.

Akynos

Danced in the Bronx in the mid-90s 

It was a very diverse group of characters as far as size and color, and I appreciated and respected them for doing that. But real strippers who have actually worked in these clubs know that that's a farce. In a club like Hustlers — which is a very high end, white club — you would never see two black girls working in this club. Not at the same time anyway. Especially the dark-skinned black girl — or a black girl who's hair is afroed and kinky? In a club like Hustlers, there's no way you would never actually see that. Usually they have a token black girl. 

And you would not see a fat girl. Maybe if she was white, and she had started out working there, and had been working there for a long time. Clubs like Hustlers, they're completely racist in how they book dancers. Someone like me— and I've tried this before, to come into clubs like that — they literally won't even let me walk in the door. Too short, too black, too fat — even when I was 30 pounds thinner, and younger. We know that was a lie, but I still appreciate them for giving fat and black women roles in this movie, because we do exist in this industry.

I did not work in a very high-end club. I worked in the trenches of the Bronx. A very famous club, but very hood. Lots of hip hop music. Lots of Latinos. Lots of black people. But as a black woman dancer I didn't really stand to make a lot of money most times because I was dark-skinned. It could be super challenging, which is why I ended up leaving. I couldn't compete with girls coming in — well, in the movies, they were selling $300 blowjobs, but in the clubs I worked at, they'd be coming in and doing shit for $50. At that time, I just wanted to dance.

Melissa Petro is a freelance writer living in New York.

• Truck drivers have one of the country's most hazardous jobs.
• In some states, driving an 80,000-pound vehicle can be even more risky.
• Here's where truck drivers are statistically most likely to get into a fatal accident. 

Of all fatalities on the road, 2.4% nationwide are truck drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But in some states, that number is much higher.

At 8.8%, North Dakota has the highest truck-driver fatality rate in the country. That's partially due to the state's oil boom. North Dakota is the worst state overall for workplace fatalities, and the majority of those deaths were "transportation incidents."

Other states' fatality rates are connected more to their inclement weather, as is the case in Oklahoma and Colorado.

We used NHTSA data to find the states with the highest truck-driver fatality rates, and spoke to eight truckers to find out why driving there is so dangerous.

Here's what they had to say:

SEE ALSO: Truck drivers fear for their safety on the road — but the vast majority of them face a much bigger threat

Colorado

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers:  3.5%

"For Colorado in particular, it's definitely the black ice and winds, and there are a lot of mountains too. It's extremely dangerous to drive there. Many truck drivers use that state as a shortcut to the West, but it gives a lot of stress for a driver and wear and tear for the truck.

"In my opinion, it's better to take I-80 until Utah and then go to Los Angeles through Salt Lake City. It's a lot easier that way. It's a little more miles, but you are a lot more safer that way.

"Also, Colorado has a lot of open space — that's why it's easy for black ice to form on the freeways."— Deymon Lavor

Texas

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 3.6%

"Texas is truck country, both in regular pickups and 18-wheelers. I seem to have a much easier time navigating most roads here because non-CDL (Commercial Driver's License) drivers are more aware of our needs.

"I almost never encounter a 'Texas-bred' pickup truck that is not super on-point about how we maneuver in traffic, and who makes room for us when the specific situation calls for it.

"I don't enjoy the flash flood warnings in rainy months or days, and I've seen enough news footage that I'm glad I have missed that 'dance' every time I drive through Texas when they occur." — Red Viking Trucker 

Alabama

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 3.6%

"I'm wondering if being a central state has anything to do with that, because drivers bringing freight on longer trips would be tired in the middle of the trip. Alabama would follow under that, because you are allowed 11 hours of driving, and Alabama would be a state that you could get to towards the end of that 11 hours from most of the major shipping cities and states.

"I must admit the real dangers I have found (in Alabama) would be the logging trucks. They will pull out in front of you from some dirt road with a load of logs hanging way back.

"There are a lot of logging trucks, especially in the center part of the state. Driving around Birmingham and Montgomery can be challenging."— Terry Wilson

Oklahoma

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 4.6%

"Southwest cities, like Oklahoma City, are dangerous in the spring weather with the thunderstorms and tornadoes activity."— Rene Meneses, trucking since 1987

Nebraska

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 5.9%

"In Nebraska, in my opinion, the most dangerous situation is the weather condition. High winds in wide open spaces (for example, Interstate 80 Omaha to Denver) could be the very worst. With an empty trailer, the wind can blow you off the road and it ends in a rollover.

"Further the winter conditions on icy roads and high winds are very dangerous, too.

"But, if the weather is fantastic, driving through Nebraska is a fabulous adventure. I personally like the wide-open spaces, the landscape and sometimes lonely roads."— Joe Flege

Wyoming

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 6.7%

"The winds especially near Elk Mountain, where the freeway turns diagonal, the wind often blows trucks over causing many accidents in the winter and the summer.

"From November all the way 'til May, it seems like, I-80 is closed most of the time because of snow, ice, and wind. Trucks can be waiting on the side of the road in a line as far as 10 miles waiting for the freeway to open. This can be as long as a few days and newer truck drivers don't know this and are not prepared, and quite often they do not have any food or places to go to the bathroom."— Jack S. Halquist

North Dakota

Percent of overall vehicle fatalities that are truck drivers: 8.8%

"North Dakota is a big place, but the only time I had problems was in the winter due to icy road conditions, coupled with the need to make good miles. The envelope was often stretched in terms of safety.

"Driving west to east in bad weather would often mean that your left side would be at minus 10 inside the truck, whilst the rest of you was warm. Then there was the blowing snow to contend with, which piled up in ridges, and whenever someone overtook you would have a 'whiteout' for many moments and the danger of losing control of the truck.

"Four-wheel drivers also caused many accidents in bad weather due to their inability to drive to the conditions, and they would often be crawling along at 20 miles per hour in conditions where you could drive faster, safer."— Mick Flynn

"Roads can be slippery, and big trucks can end up in ditches. Shoulders are often covered with snow, and they are hard to see.

"If a heavy truck goes on the shoulder, it can get pulled in the ditch. Also, small two-lane roads can have deep snow on them (when they are not plowed), and you can just get stuck. Modern highway trucks are not designed to 'off road.'

"Last but not least, if the traffic stops suddenly, big trucks need more stopping distance on snowy/icy roads. Daylight is short, and you often have to drive after dark, when deer and moose like to stroll around."— Sergei Dratchev

• Debra Roberts, LCSW, is an author, a relationship expert, and a communication specialist with over 20 years of experience working with challenging relationships.
• The need to be liked is a fundamentally human one. And people do business with people that they like.
• Employers should be teaching with their employees about the importance of likability and relationship building.
• Employees should recognize the other person's experience, learn, listen, and validate it.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

We all want to be liked.

Dr. Roger Covin, a clinical psychologist (and author of The Need to be Liked) refers to our need to be liked as "a fundamental human drive that most people are born with, and it is completely normal."

So how do we take this concept of likeability and apply it to real life relationships, both in business and in our personal lives?

A research study from 2009 describes wanting to be liked as The Fundamental Principle of Liking (FPL). FPL states that at a basic level, people like others whom they believe have positive, desirable traits, such as generosity and kindness. These positive traits are at the core of building lasting relationships.

And in business circles, a popular saying is that "people do business with people they know, like, and trust." Simply put, "being liked" is a critical part of starting a new business relationship with a customer or employee.

With this in mind, employers should be teaching their employees about likability and the importance of relationship building so they can create immediate positive connections with customers and quickly be seen as trustworthy. As those relationships develop, customer retention will increase and ultimately, that customer's lifetime value will boost the company's revenue. It's a win-win and all it starts with basic training for how to be an effective communicator.

Yet, most business owners presume the training process is difficult and time-consuming, and they don't know how to teach this likability skillset to their employees. In reality, it only takes a few minutes … and it's well worth the effort.

Read more: I'm an executive headhunter and emotional intelligence expert. Here's my 3-pronged solution for making salary negotiations easier.

Whether you're a business owner who wants your employees to learn effective relationship building skills, or on a first date and hoping to have a second, here's a great five-minute "likability approach" to increase your odds for success:

A great 5-minute approach

Let's start from the beginning. By nature, people respond positively when another person makes them feel important, heard, and cared for.   

This is why I always recommend that you start by listening to the other person's needs and concerns. Listen with genuine curiosity and interest. Validate their experience (i.e. their feelings) and a relationship will automatically begin to grow.

You don't necessarily have to agree with the other person's feelings or opinions, but you must respectfully and authentically acknowledge their experience in that moment … because everyone wants to feel heard and important; it lets them know they matter to you.  

It's that simple.    

The bottom line is: the more important the relationship is to you, the more important it is to demonstrate an understanding of the other person's experience. This is how we connect with others.

When an employer takes a few minutes to sit with an unhappy employee and tries to understand the reasons for their dissatisfaction, that's the start of a connection. The employee likes that his/her boss took time to check in. It shows concern and caring. 

If a customer service rep begins a conversation with a tough customer by acknowledging the long shipping delays and apologizing for the inconvenience, rather than avoiding the potential confrontation, the conversation has a better chance of going in a positive direction. It's their responsibility to let the customer know they matter and that their happiness is important to the company. In both scenarios, the focus of the interaction is on the current experience that the employee or the customer is having. When we recognize the other person's experience, we are starting to build a relationship.  

After employees use these skills, to learn, listen, and validate their customer's experience, the connection can become immediate and automatic.

While it obviously takes time to fully grow trust and feel safe in any relationship, it's a much quicker process to start by connecting and getting the other person to like you. We can create that instant connection (in five minutes or less) with an employee, a customer, or even a first date, when we make a conscious effort to actively understand the other person and connect with their experience. Regardless of the type of relationship, in business or your personal life, it's all the same strategy.

Pay attention, listen, and validate. Let the other person know that what they're saying and how they're feeling matters to you, and you'll be on your way.

Debra Roberts, LCSW, is an author, a relationship expert and a communication specialist. She has over 20 years of experience working with all types of challenging relationships. She's the author of The Relationship Protocol, a practical communication model for starting conversations, defusing conflicts, and having more fulfilling relationships. Visit TheRelationshipProtocol.com 

SEE ALSO: The billionaire founder of Spanx uses 3 body language tricks to make a great first impression

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• Podcasts are more popular than ever — so popular, in fact, that Monday marks International Podcast Day.
• In the last decade, podcasts became a part of mainstream media, thanks to true crime shows like "Serial" and interview shows like "WTF with Marc Maron."
• We've compiled 17 podcasts that will teach you a little bit about everything from politics to history to Hollywood.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the last decade or so, podcasts have gone from a niche interest to mainstream media. They've become so popular, in fact, that Monday marks International Podcast Day, which celebrates all things podcast-related, including the 14th annual People's Choice Podcast Awards.

True crime podcasts like "Serial," which premiered in 2014, became national sensations. Then there was comedian-turned-podcaster Marc Maron, whose "WTF" became popular enough for President Barack Obama to be a guest in June 2015.

According to the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans age 12 or older have listened to at least one podcast episode per month as of 2019, up from 15% in 2014. That trend doesn't show any signs of slowing down, with the field slated to cross the $1 billion annual revenue mark in 2021. 

There are tons of great podcasts on nearly any subject you can think of, but we've collected some of our favorites that are perfect for those of us always eager to learn something new, whether it's about the economy, history, or even the inner workings of Hollywood.

Here's some prime listening material for your next commute.

SEE ALSO: 14 books Mark Zuckerberg thinks everyone should read

'This American Life' provides a deep look into American society.

"This American Life" has become a byword for oral storytelling.

Beyond being a place for moving and hilarious stories, "This American Life" does staggering levels of reporting; few outlets made the financial crisis as human and understandable as Ira Glass and the gang.

It lives up to the hype.

Start listening here.

'Fresh Air' will give you an intimate look at your favorite writers, celebrities, and journalists.

NPR's "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross has been on the air for more than four decades, and her interviewing skills have earned her accolades like the Peabody award, the Columbia Journalism Award, and a spot in the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Gross may have a smooth, relaxed speaking style, but the way she digs deep into her interview subjects will keep you engaged throughout the conversation, whether it's about Jake Gyllenhaal's acting process or how filmmaker Lulu Wang made a movie inspired by her terminally ill grandmother or historian David Blight on his new biography of Frederick Douglass.

Start listening here.

'Freakonomics Radio' will show you surprising connections.

Journalist Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven D. Levitt became sensations when their book "Freakonomics" was published in 2005.

In 2010, Dubner launched a podcast with the same mission as their bestselling books: ferreting out connections between seemingly unrelated things.

Unsurprisingly, the shows tend toward the intellectually provocative, with the biggest hits having titles like "Is College Really Worth It?" and "How Much Does the President of the US Really Matter?"

Start listening here.

'Marketplace' will keep you up to date with the world's top business news.

Every weeknight host Kai Ryssdal guides you through the day's top business news on the podcast version of American Public Radio's "Marketplace."

Besides a rundown of top stories, you'll also be able to hear exclusive interviews with the likes of Twitter cofounder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey and even former President Obama.

You may also hear Business Insider senior finance editor and "Marketplace" contributor Linette Lopez weigh in with some commentary.

Start listening here.

'Planet Money' will simplify some of the most complex and important economic issues in the world today.

NPR's "Planet Money" team describes its show as: "Imagine you could call up a friend and say, 'Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy.' Now imagine that's actually a fun evening. That's what we're going for at Planet Money."

Twice a week, you'll get an entertaining, well-reported look at issues like the Tijuana tech boom that will leave you satisfied with a foundational understanding of the subject, all in just 15 minutes.

Start listening here.

'Masters in Business' will give you insight into the brightest minds on Wall Street.

Investor and author Barry Ritholtz sits down each week with a power player from the business world for his podcast produced by Bloomberg.

With his unmistakable Long Island accent, Ritholtz discusses his subjects' careers and research, whether it's "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach, renowned economist Richard Thaler, or even celebrity chef Bobby Flay.

Start listening here.

'WTF' offers unexpected revelations about success.

Few things can be more instructive than a life story, and comedian-turned-broadcaster Marc Maron draws the ups and downs of life out of people with a certain raucous grace.

Some especially intellectual episodes include his interviews with comedian Wanda Sykes, actor Vince Vaughn, or the late Robin Williams.

Start listening here.

'Radiolab' will help you appreciate how mysterious science is.

WNYC's "Radiolab"— the brainchild of top reporters Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich — investigates everyday oddities with a blend of science, philosophy, and music.

The duo is able to make high-level science both remarkably accessible, practical, and fun.

You may want to start with the "Colors" episode, where you can learn about a sea creature with so many colors the human eye can't even process all of them.

Start listening here.

'Invisibilia' will lead you on a journey to the frontier of psychology.

Radiolab made a spin-off, "Invisibilia," whose name is Latin for all things invisible.

It's a podcast about the unseen, unconscious forces that guide our lives: biases, dreams, and quirks of perception.

The first episode tells the story of a boy who couldn't communicate for 12 years. His only company was his thoughts — until, one day, it wasn't. 

Start listening here.

'The Tim Ferriss Show' will help you understand the mechanics of success.

Tim Ferriss puts the life into life hacking. His "4-Hour Workweek,""4-Hour Body," and "4-Hour Chef" books have all become bestsellers for the way he combines insight with irreverence.

His podcast carries that rascally inquisitiveness into long-form interviews, with subjects ranging from billionaire investor Peter Thiel to Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull and neuroscientist Sam Harris.

Start listening here.

'Startalk Radio' will open your mind to the cosmos.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the public face of astronomy, and his voice is just as magnetizing.

Dig into his podcast to learn about space tourism, comets, and the basics of astrophysics, to name a few.

Start listening here.

'The New Yorker: Politics and More' will give you some smart takes on the biggest stories in politics.

Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of "The New Yorker," leads a weekly discussion with some of her writers about the week's top stories, from the 2020 presidential race to US border policy.

Each episode only lasts about 16 minutes, but you'll gain some valuable insight and hear smart debate without the inflammatory rhetoric of cable news.

Start listening here.

'StartUp' chronicles the glorious challenge of founding a company.

NPR veteran Alex Blumberg wanted to make a podcast startup. So he made a podcast about it. (Which then turned into a Zach Braff sitcom.)

Since Season 1, Blumberg's company, Gimlet Media, has started two other popular shows (including "Reply All," also on this list) and continues to grow.

Season 2 follows the dating site Dating Ring through all of its trials and tribulations as a young company, setting the template for each new season of "Start Up" being about a new business.

Start listening here.

'Reply All' immerses you in the weird world of the internet.

You probably use the internet every day, but Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt will give you more insight into its effects on our culture than you were ever aware of.

They've covered great stories like the ways ISIS uses social media and how an Orthodox Jew ultimately left his family behind because of the world he discovered online.

And Goldman and Vogt's goofy rapport will keep you hooked from episode to episode.

Start listening here.

'99% Invisible' will give you the lowdown on design.

"99% Invisible" is probably the coolest design podcast on earth.

Roman Mars' show uses design as a lens to look at the thought behind the many structures in our lives, from prehistoric hand axes to airport layouts. After listening you'll have an appreciation for the minds and tastes that these objects sprang from.

Not only that, but the podcasts are snack-sized, clocking in at about 15 minutes.

Start listening here.

'Hardcore History' teaches you the most fascinating stories in history that you never learned in school.

Dan Carlin always mentions that he's not a historian. Think of him more as an aggregator of history, weaving together various accounts into one engaging story.

If you listen, you'll probably find yourself amazed that you spent over four hours listening to a guy talk about the Mongol khans or World War I, but Carlin has a gift for illuminating some of the most interesting yet least talked about moments in history.

Start listening here.

'Behind the Bastards' investigates the absolute worst people in history.

Much like "Hardcore History,""Behind the Bastards" peers deeper into oft-overlooked history.

Most of us know the basics of why Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin were some of the worst human beings ever, but what about Leopold II, the Belgian king who led a genocide in the Congo for rubber?

Start listening here.

'ArtHoles' is art history in all its paint-splattered glory, with the listener learning along with the host.

If you ever thought art history was boring, you're not the only one.

The host of "ArtHoles," former comedian Michael Anthony, thought so, until he began researching the lives of geniuses like Picasso, Pollock, and Caravaggio. As it turns out, their lives were more interesting than he ever thought possible.

Start listening here.

Similarly, 'Unspooled' follows a comedian's journey into the greatest movies ever made.

Comedian Paul Scheer and film critic Amy Nicholson team up for this greatest-hits-of-film analysis.

Scheer, who was poorly versed in film history when the podcast began, stands (or sits) in for the listener, learning as he goes, from Nicholson's film knowledge and from interviews with the experts. Together, they work their way through the American Film Institute's top 100, including Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, and Vertigo.

Start listening here.

And finally, 'Philosophize This!' thinks a lot about thinkers.

Join Stephen West as he investigates the greatest personalities and ideas in philosophy, school by school.

This podcast sheds light on classic philosophical ideas and principles, featuring interviews with today's brightest philosophers. Ever wondered what Socrates was all about? "Philosophize this!" makes complex ideas digestible and entertaining.

Start listening here.

• Every job has its ups and downs. But there can be a serious issue if your job is constantly downs, according to Amy Morin, the author of "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do."
• If your job is dominating your every thought — particularly all of the things that have gone wrong, or all of the reasons you don't want to go — it can negatively impact your time away from work.
• If something good happens at work, but you can still only see the negatives, your job may be taking an outsized toll on you.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Everybody has bad days at work. But if you dread waking up every Monday through Friday, or you regularly find yourself sitting at your desk on the verge of tears, you probably have a more serious problem on your hands.

Amy Morin, author of "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," says a hostile work environment can cause people to be miserable and may, in some rare cases, even be linked with depression. The problem is, once you fall into that trap, it can be difficult to get out.

"Feeling down about your job can set you up for a self-perpetuating cycle by taking a negative toll on the way you think and the way you behave," she explains. "The more you experience negative thoughts and unproductive behavior, the worse you'll feel."

Here are 11 signs your job is ruining your life. 

SEE ALSO: The biggest sign it's time to quit your job

DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

1. You can’t stop thinking about your job.

Your weekday evenings and weekends should be about clearing your mind and relaxing.

So if you come home and can't stop replaying a meeting that went wrong in your head or thinking about all the reasons why you don't want to wake up for work tomorrow, that can seriously impede on the quality of your home life, Morin says. 

Ruminationhas indeed been linked to depression, and Morin says it can prevent some people from enjoying the little time they have away from an unhealthy work environment. 

2. You complain about work — a lot.

If you're truly unhappy and unfulfilled with your job, you may start to spend a lot of time and energy explaining to friends, family, and anyone who will listen just how bad your job is at the moment. 

This release might feel good in the moment, but Morin says it's not healthy because it "robs you of mental strength." This, in turn, can increase your risk of distress. 

3. Social events with coworkers start to seem draining rather than fun.

Everyone needs "me" time, but you should still enjoy being social. 

If your job is sucking the life out of you, Morin says you might start to turn down any opportunity to socialize because talking with other people sounds too exhausting. 

It can be as simple as eating lunch at your desk instead of the break room or rushing home after work to avoid happy hour. 

4. Your thoughts about work are exaggeratedly negative.

When you have a bleak outlook on your office, Morin says you may start to think overly negative thoughts about work, such as "I'll never get a promotion," or "I always get scolded."

"Your inner monologue may drag you down even further," she says. 

5. You filter out anything good about work.

When you're feeling low, you tend to see the glass as half empty. 

Even if nine good things happen at work one day, you will probably focus on the one bad thing, Morin says. When you're feeling down, "it's easy to overlook anything positive," she explains. 

6. You’re experiencing some physical health issues.

Depression, a common but serious mood disorder that causes severe symptoms that persist for at least two weeks, doesn't just affect your mental health. 

For some people, physical signs of depression include stomach pain, headaches, and other complaints. In addition, your immune system may not be as strong, making you more susceptible to colds and other illnesses. 

7. You don't want to get out of bed in the morning — ever.

If your job is making you miserable, you're not going to want to get out of bed because that means you're one step closer to being at work.

"It's hard to greet the day when you dread how you're going to spend it," Morin explains. 

8. You're irritable.

Morin says you may find your patience wearing very thin if your job is making you miserable or sad. 

You might find yourself snapping at your coworkers simply for having their phone go off or for asking a simple question like, "Do you know when the report will be ready?" 

9. You call in sick — just to stay home.

If your job is the root cause of other mental and physical problems, it makes sense that you'd want to avoid it at all costs. 

10. You don't care about your work performance anymore.

"Increased procrastination, lack of participation, and sloppy work are all signs you've lost interest in your work," Morin says. 

This, in turn, could very well lead to your negative predictions about work actually coming true, she warns. If your work isn't good, you may actually be demoted or even fired. 

11. You get the Sunday-night blues.

Sunday is usually not a relaxing day if your job is making you miserable. 

Instead, Morin says a feeling of dread may start to come over you Sunday afternoon (or sooner!) as Monday morning looms closer. "You may feel anxious, overwhelmed, or just plain sad about the upcoming work week," she explains.

These anxious feelings mean you will have a mentally exhausting end to your weekend, which can make you ill-prepared to face the work week ahead, she says.

This article was originally published in March 2016.