• I've been driving for Lyft and Uber for almost one year.
• People always want to know how much money I make driving for the two companies, so I decided to track every penny I made for one week.
• The final tally was about $257 for less than 14 hours of work — or about $19 an hour.
• Read on for a detailed breakdown of how much I made driving for Uber and Lyft, including some of the most unusual passengers and some mishaps I had along the way.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

About a year ago, when I first thought about signing up to become an Uber and Lyft driver, it seemed like the job was just too good to be true — a flexible job where you can make money and work whenever you want, with no minimum hours, no required uniform, and no angry boss?

After many months of being a driver, I can tell you it is not too good to be true. Being an Uber or Lyft driver is a great side hustle to have in this rapidly growing gig economy.

When I tell people I drive for Uber and Lyft part time, they usually ask me the same question: "Is it worth it?"

Related:I'm a driver for both Uber and Lyft — here are 7 reasons Uber is the clear winner for me

I believe that yes, it is worth it.

Take one week in September, for example: For seven days last month, I kept track of every penny I made driving for both companies and wound up making $257 for less than 14 hours of work — that's about $19 an hour.

I also kept track of every interesting moment along the way, from a questionable passenger who wanted me to break the law to a blown tire that prevented me from making over $100 on one of the busiest days of the week.

Read on to see the full breakdown of how much I made driving for Uber and Lyft for one week, and some of the most memorable experiences I had doing it.

SEE ALSO: I'm a driver for both Uber and Lyft — here are 7 reasons Uber is the clear winner for me

DON'T MISS: 10 things I wish I knew before I started driving for Uber and Lyft

Thanks to some generous tippers, I kicked off the week making $41 in just two hours.

My first day of the week was a short but absolutely great day. "Tipping day," I called this.

I got home from work, walked the dog, grabbed a bottle of water, and hopped in the Prius at 3:38 p.m.

Before I even backed out of the driveway, I received a ride request on Lyft. It was a couple of guys coming back from working on a boat. I drove them less than two miles, dropped them off, and was pleasantly surprised on the app when they tipped me $5. A six-minute ride, and I had already made $7.98.

From there, the rides came in nonstop, and so did the tips: a $1 tip here, a $3 cash tip there. People were in a great tipping mood. I usually get a few tips each day, but not every ride. I'm not complaining — I will always take tips. But they were especially welcome today because traffic was very heavy and I wasn't covering many miles.

The last trip came in: a guy I pick up at his house. He said he was picking up his motorcycle that he left the night before at a bar, where he drank too much watching Sunday football games. It was a short trip, but he was very nice, made me laugh, and gave me a $5 tip and a five-star rating before he got out of the car.

Monday nights are usually slow, and since I had already made more than usual, I called it a night at 5:36 p.m. and signed off the apps.

Two trips on Uber for $19.27 and three trips on Lyft for $21.68 gave me a grand total of $40.95. I worked for one hour and 58 minutes, making $20.82 an hour. I drove just 37 miles.

And I was home in time for dinner and "Monday Night Football."

Following my big Monday night, I skipped driving on Tuesday to enjoy dinner with my fiancée.

On Tuesday, my fiancée had dinner plans, so I took the night off and didn't drive.

This is the beauty of the job: If you don't want to work, you simply don't work.

No boss telling me I had to come in because it was busy. No coworker texting me every 10 minutes asking if I could cover his shift. No annoying phone calls from customers or vendors. Tonight it was just my fiancée, a cold beer, and a plate of delicious chicken nachos.

Wednesday was full of frustration — thanks in part to one passenger who wanted me to break the law — and I wound up making about $15.60 an hour.

Wednesday was a very frustrating day.

I was stuck at work late this day, and by the time I got home and was ready to drive it was already after 4 p.m. I officially started working at 4:31 p.m.

I got a Lyft ride request from a woman, but when I pulled up, she was nowhere to be seen — but there was a man waving at me with the Lyft app open on his phone.

"This can't be the right person," I thought. I verified who he was supposed to be riding with, and he indeed had the right information.

This happens somewhat frequently, where someone will order a ride for someone else. I personally don't like it, because I don't know exactly who is getting in my car. Why don't they have their own account? Were they barred from the app? Are they hiding something? What is the reason?

Related:I'm a driver for Uber and Lyft — here are 10 things I wish I knew before starting the job

This guy seemed nice enough. He sat in the back and popped his headphones in, and I started the ride. "This ride has two stops,'' the voice on the app said.

Nine miles and 30 minutes later, I pulled up to the first stop; it's a daycare. He hopped out and said he'd be right back. Maybe the woman who ordered the Lyft ride works at this daycare and he's picking her up.

I have too much faith in humanity.

A few minutes later, he walked back to my car along with a very small child and no car seat.

He tried pulling on my door, but I had already locked it. He started pounding aggressively on my window. I rolled down the passenger window and kindly asked him, "Where is your car seat?"

"I don't have one," he said. "Let me in. It's fine. It's really fine."

No. It's not fine. It is really, really, not fine. Not only is it illegal to drive with a young child who's not in a car seat, but each year hundreds of children die in Florida because they ride without one. I'm not going to jail, nor am I going to be in one of those statistics, all for five bucks.

"I'm sorry. If you don't have a car seat, then I can't take you," I said.

"No, it's fine," he said. "The other Ubers do it all the time."

This is where it gets tricky for drivers. The law says children 5 and under must be in a car seat, but how do you know who is 5 years old? Are you going to ask a child for their ID? What if there is a really big 5-year-old, or a very small 6-year-old? How do you tell the age? And are you supposed to believe the parent? How do you know they're not lying?

Uber and Lyft aren't exactly helpful here either and almost try to remain neutral. Uber says that it expects everyone to follow local laws but that it's up to a driver whether they want to accept a ride. Lyft also says children may require a car seat if local laws require it. In some cities, Ubers and Lyfts can come equipped with car seats, but not in my city.

Luckily for me, this child was clearly 3 or 4 years old and 100% needed some type of car seat.

"Let me in or else!" the man said.

Or else you'll walk home? OK, I'm done here. The ride is done. I'm not going to deal with this. Now I know why this guy doesn't have his own Lyft account.

I pulled away and ended the ride, with the guy chasing my car waving his arms in the rearview mirror. I immediately called Lyft support to tell them what happened before this guy, who apparently doesn't care about the safety of his child, reports me in a false claim of some kind. I told Lyft the story and was assured everything would be taken care of.

I got another request nearby, this time on Uber. It was a nice lady who works at a DMV who, ironically, told me she hates driving. This ride also has two stops. She's very nice, and we're having a good talk.

I pull up to the first stop. It's another daycare.

Oh no.

Let me give her the benefit of the doubt.

A few minutes later, she walks back out of the daycare with a baby, except this child is in a proper rear-facing car seat. She got in, strapped the baby in, and thanked me for waiting. Off we go. I dropped her off at her apartment a short while later.

She told me I was super nice and that she would tip me in the app once she got upstairs and got her hands free. There's an inside joke among drivers that when people say "I'll tip you in the app," they never actually do. But this lady was not one of the liars, and she actually did tip me $5.

I did a few more short rides after this before I ended up close to my house and called it quits.

Two trips on Uber for $22.95 and three trips on Lyft for $24.84, for a grand total of $47.79. I worked for three hours and four minutes, making a not-so-great $15.58 per hour. I drove 50.1 miles.

I worked for a little over an hour on Thursday and pulled in $30.

The thing I love about this side job is the flexibility that I have with it. I'm not required to be anywhere. There is hardly any other part-time job in the world where you can work or not work, literally whenever you want.

The plan was to start working as soon as I got out of my main job, but my hair was getting a little bit long, so I scratched that plan and decided to get a last-minute haircut instead.

With the great feeling you get after a fresh haircut — and with the hope that I wouldn't run into any more car-seat issues — I started working at 4:59 p.m. and immediately received an Uber ride request. I picked up a nice guy who talked about what it was like to be a plumber. I dropped him off a few minutes later. He thanked me for the nice conversation and the cold A/C, and the screen flashed that I received a $3 tip. Sweet.

Immediately I received another request, this time for a woman going to a bowling alley who told me she loves Uber and Lyft because "I can drink as much as I want!" That eight-minute ride was good for a few bucks and a $2 tip.

Another request. This time it was a very nice older man at the mall who was going a very short distance. He told me that he doesn't drive anymore because of his health. He asked how the Prius works, so I showed him some of the features.

This led to him talking about how it seemed like the world and its technologies were passing him by. He talked about how I should never take anything for granted, how I should try to live each day to the fullest, and how I should always strive to be a good person above all else. I was moved.

I arrived at his drop-off location, and he told me to keep doing a great job. But before he got out, he made me show him how he could tip me in the app, because, he said, I deserved it. I showed him where to tap, and I received a $3 tip.

I got another request, this time on Lyft. I sat outside a house for five minutes, and no one came out. I gave them another 20 seconds, just in case they were somehow busy. Nope. No one came, and no one called. Why do people request a ride if they're not ready?

Sorry, but time is money. I marked them as a no-show, and Lyft gave me a $5 cancellation fee.

I did one more short ride, and since it was close to dinnertime and I had made a lot extra in tips, I decided to head home.

Two trips on Uber for $12.60 and two trips on Lyft for $17.69, for a grand total of $30.19 — which more than covered the price of my haircut. I worked for one hour and 19 minutes, making $22.93 per hour and driving 24 miles.

More importantly, I was home in time for dinner and "Thursday Night Football."

I made over $100 on Friday night, for $19 an hour — but not without some controversy.

This was an interesting night.

After giving hundreds of rides, I can definitively say that Uber is more popular than Lyft in my area. Uber accounts for about 60% to 70% of all the rides I have ever given.

However, on this night, for hours I was questioning if my Uber app was even working, or if there was a server issue on Uber's end. I restarted my phone, twice. I even contemplated reinstalling the app, thinking there had to be a glitch. I started working at 6:06 p.m. and didn't get an Uber ride request until 9:26 p.m.

Before that, it was all Lyft. I had seen a stretch where it was only Lyft requests for maybe an hour or so, but never over three hours.

It started out as a decent night, with mostly short rides from hotels and dropping people off at bars and restaurants. I love this crowd because nobody is too tipsy yet, but they are tipsy with their spending habits and usually throw a couple extra bucks my way.

There was a stretch where it was very slow, so I signed off and took a long break, since it was probably going to be a long night.

My third Uber request of the night came while I was still on a ride — Liz, an estimated eight-minute drive — with a pickup spot right near where my current drop-off was. It was getting very busy downtown, and Uber was surging because of it. It was a short ride, but I'll take a short, easy drive any day.

However, as it turned out, Liz's pickup was anything but easy. It's busy, there's tons of traffic, I'm sitting at the intended pickup spot, and there's no Liz in sight. A car is honking at me. The cop directing pedestrian traffic is glaring menacingly at me to move, as I'm blocking part of a lane.

Liz, where are you? I have now been waiting for almost five minutes, and there is no passenger.

Five minutes came and went. I waited another 10 seconds for good measure, and, sorry, Liz, but I'm not waiting anymore. Time for me to cancel the ride, mark you as a no-show, and charge you a cancellation fee. Sorry, but you have literally cost me money by not being ready.

Making matters worse, I was never granted my $5 cancellation fee from the company, even after a lengthy back-and-forth with its support team — the representatives I spoke with claimed I didn't wait the full five minutes. But I didn't have time to argue, because I suddenly got a ride request for a 56-minute trip, with surge pricing to boot.

The long drive was nice. It was a woman and her dad, who told me he was a retired emergency-room surgeon, going up north, 41 miles away. It started raining so hard that I slowed down to 30 mph on the highway, and we could barely see out of the windshield. But the dad's stories kept everyone calm, laughing, and entertained.

He told us some crazy stories, some sad stories, and even some hilarious stories, one of which involved a man with unexplainable lower abdominal pain and an X-ray of a pickle jar — with two kosher pickles still in the jar — shoved somewhere a pickle jar should never be shoved. I was laughing so hard I was nearly in tears.

I completed the ride, and he handed me $15 cash and thanked me for driving so well in the monsoon-like rainstorm. A one-hour ride for $43 and a $15 tip, for basically $58 in an hour — sweet!

At this point, it's nearly 11 p.m., I'm 50 miles from my house in the middle of nowhere, and I was getting tired, so I set the destination modes on both Uber and Lyft. That's the setting drivers activate when they're on their way home, ensuring they'll get matched up only with passengers going the same way.

Lyft drivers used to be able to use destination mode six times a day. But after a recent change, drivers are now allowed only two uses, a significant downgrade. It counts as a "use" as soon as you activate the mode.

Thirty minutes later on the highway, with no rides, I get a text notification from Lyft: "Sorry! We couldn't find you a match along your route, so we've signed you out of driver mode." Excuse me, what? So I set the destination mode again at a red light as I drove near a known busy area.

Thirty minutes later, I get the same notification, and I'm signed out. I have no more destination uses available.

I am still logged in on the Uber, which does not log you out if you go 30 minutes without receiving a request — it will keep you logged in until you reach your destination.

I arrived home shortly later, with only one short ride on the entire way back.

Two trips on Uber for $68.28 and eight trips on Lyft for $40.66, for a grand total of $108.94. I worked for five hours and 44 minutes, making $19 per hour and driving 140 miles.

I made about $29.50 for one hour and 40 minutes of work on a laid-back Saturday morning.

I slept in a little on Saturday, tired from the busy night before.

I started working at 8:05 a.m. and immediately got a nice Uber ride down to the airport. I made great time, with little traffic. Early Saturday mornings are best for the highway. It was a nice lady who worked in insurance, and she talked informatively about the effects of hurricanes on the insurance industry and how Florida got very lucky with Hurricane Dorian missing us. 

She tipped me $5 shortly after I dropped her off.

It was a long time after that until I got another ride, and it was approaching my personal 10 a.m. cutoff, so I set the destination modes for home and got a ride shortly after along my way.

I was home by 9:45 a.m.

Two trips on Uber for $29.47 and zero trips on Lyft. I worked for one hour and 40 minutes, making $17.68 per hour and driving 40 miles.

And Sunday was a disaster — because of car troubles, I ended up spending $430 and not driving a single passenger.

My week of tracking my driving profits ended with a complete dud.

I woke up ready to start the day. I showered and put on my best polo and a positive attitude to be extra happy for the day's potential football passengers: The Patriots were in town to play the Dolphins that day.

I was very excited. I knew today was going to be a big money day, as evidenced by all the Patriots fans I saw walking around downtown and hotel areas.

But first my fiancée and I had plans to go to church and then drive to a bakery for a meeting about our wedding cake.

The phrase "make plans and God laughs" couldn't be more true, because right as we were about to pull into the church's parking lot, I heard a flap flap flap coming from the rear of the Prius. Oh no. "Please be a stuck bag on the bumper," I said as I got out to look.

Spoiler alert: It was not a stuck bag, but the world's longest nail stuck into what is now the world's flattest, unpatchable tire.

Great.

My fiancée went in the church to say a couple of prayers to the big man, and I went deep into the crevices of the trunk to retrieve the flat. It took a while to change that flat tire with the kit that came with the car, but I got it done, drenched in sweat from Florida's early-morning heat.

Then we went home. I changed out of my super sweaty polo and switched to the other car, and off we went to the cake meeting.

Afterward, I had to then find who was open on a Sunday to replace the flat tire. While I was on the phone calling places, I figured I might as well get four new tires altogether, and an oil change too, since my car was almost due for those. Safety first.

My fiancée picked me up from the tire store, and I hoped I wouldn't be waiting too long until the car was fixed. Maybe I could catch some of the afternoon surge.

I waited, and waited, and waited. The hotel requests surged and then stopped. Demand on the heat map spiked everywhere, then disappeared.

Deep into the fourth quarter of the football game, the store finally called to tell me the car was ready for pickup. But at that time, the football stadium was too far away to catch the football demand. And it was nearing 5 p.m., which was when I wanted to stop driving anyway.

So my driving plans started with a tire blowout and finished with me watching the Patriots blow out the Dolphins.

It was $430.22 to fix my car. Zero trips on Uber and zero trips on Lyft. I drove 8.4 miles round-trip to the tire store, where the attendant did give me a big tip: Check your spare tire regularly to ensure it has enough air.

When all was said and done, I ended the week making $257.34 in a little less than 14 hours on the job.

So there you have it. That is how one week of being a part-time Uber and Lyft driver went.

In total, I drove 11 trips on Uber and 16 trips on Lyft, for a total of 27 trips. I worked 13.75 hours in total.

I made $152.57 on Uber and $104.77 on Lyft for $257.34 in gross pay, which gave me an average of $18.72 per hour before expenses.

I put 291.1 miles on my Prius, using about 5.75 gallons of gas, which is about $13.22 in gas expenses for my area.

I could have worked a lot more hours and made a lot more money, and I probably missed out on at least $120 because of my Sunday car troubles. But the important thing is that I fit time for this job when it fit for me. I wasn't forced to work any number of hours as I might be at another part-time job. If I was tired, I could go home. If I wanted a break, I could take a break. The flexibility you get with a job like this is incredible.

Fourteen flexible hours is not a lot of work, and $257.34 in gross pay is a fair amount of extra money for simply driving around, listening to music, and making jokes and conversation with mostly nice strangers I'll likely never seen again.

It's easy and sometimes fun.

Just watch out for those pesky nails.

• Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer for Facebook, and is worth an estimated $1.7 billion.
• Sandberg has made headlines in her nearly 10 years at Facebook, from pioneering a controversial feminist movement with her book "Lean In," to responding to criticism over the social media giant's handing of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
• Here's everything you need to know about Sandberg, who is one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

With a reported net worth of $1.7 billion, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is one of the wealthiest women in the world.

In nearly 10 years at Facebook, Sandberg has grown to be one of the most recognizable faces in Silicon Valley. She's been with the company since it was a small startup, and has led it through the 2016 presidential election and Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Meanwhile, she's had a stunningly eventful life of her own, finding the time to write two popular memoirs and deal with the sudden death of her husband in 2015.

Here's everything you need to know about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who grew up in Florida and is now an executive at one of the most influential companies in tech:

Madeline Stone contributed to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: Google cofounder Sergey Brin has secretly been married to a law tech founder since 2018. Here are 14 other power couples who rule the tech world.

Sheryl Sandberg was born Aug. 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C. She has two younger siblings: a brother named David and a sister named Michelle. The family moved to North Miami Beach when Sheryl was 2 years old.

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg's father was an ophthalmologist, and her mother taught French at a local college. The couple founded the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry through their local synagogue, and their home soon became a safe haven for Soviet Jews looking to escape anti-Semitism.

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg always shone in school, and was in the National Honor Society. "In public schools, for a girl to be smart was not good for your social life," her mother Adele told The New Yorker. She also taught aerobics while in high school.

Source: The New Yorker, Bloomberg

She went on to attend Harvard University, where both of her siblings also went. She majored in economics, and started an organization at college called Women in Economics and Government. She graduated with her undergraduate degree in 1991.

Source: Miami Herald, CNN Money

At college, Sandberg researched with future treasury secretary Larry Summers, who would serve as an important mentor for Sandberg in the beginning phases of her career. Summers served as her thesis advisor in college, then hired her to work for him at the World Bank after she graduated.

Source: The New Yorker, CNN Money

Sandberg stayed at the World Bank for a year, during which she traveled to India to help curb the spread of leprosy. She then returned to Harvard to get an MBA, and worked for a year at the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Source: CNN Money, Guardian

Sandberg said her parents instilled in her that the time to find a man was in college, because "the good ones go young." At age 24, Sandberg married a businessman named Brian Kraff, but they got divorced after only a year. Sandberg told Cosmopolitan she was nervous her divorce would prevent her from ever meeting someone else.

Source: Cosmo, The New Yorker

Not long after Sandberg finished up her MBA in 1995, her mentor Summers joined President Bill Clinton's administration. Sandberg followed Summers to D.C. to work for him, and eventually became his chief of staff when he was named the Treasury Secretary in 1999.

Source: CNN Money

But after the Democrats lost the 2000 election, she decided to move to Silicon Valley to join the booming tech industry. At the time, Google was a small company with less than 300 people that wasn't making a profit. However, she found the company's "higher mission" attractive: "to make the world’s information freely available."

Source: The New Yorker, CNN Money 

When courting her, Eric Schmidt — Google's CEO at the time — reportedly called her every week, and told her, "Don’t be an idiot ... This is a rocket ship. Get on it." Sandberg joined Google as the business-unit general manager in 2001 and took over the company's ad program, which had four people working on it at the time.

Source: The New Yorker

In 2004, Sandberg married her longtime best friend Dave Goldberg, who she had met a decade before and dated for five years. They had a son in 2005, and a daughter born two years later. "The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry," Sandberg said at Business Insider's Ignition conference in 2011. Goldberg became the CEO of SurveyMonkey in 2009.

Source: Guardian, Business Insider

Sandberg and her family have lived in a 9,200-square foot mansion in Menlo Park since 2013. The home has six bedrooms, a wine room, gym, movie theater, basketball court, and a giant waterfall. It's only a 20-minute drive from Facebook's headquarters.

Source: Business Insider

Google grew immensely during Sandberg's time there, and she was instrumental in landing a deal with AOL to make Google its search engine. She was eventually promoted to Google's vice president for global online sales and operations.

Source: The New Yorker

But after nearly seven years at Google, Sandberg was ready for a new challenge. Schmidt, Google's CEO at the time, proposed she become chief financial officer, but she turned it down for more responsibility. She asked about becoming chief operating officer, but Google executives reportedly didn't want to rock the boat and mess with the three men already in charge of decision-making: Schmidt and Google's two cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Source: The New Yorker

Fortunately, someone else was pursuing her: Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old whose company, Facebook, was still relatively new. He introduced himself to Sandberg at a Christmas party in 2007, and started to court her to come work at Facebook.

Source: New Yorker

She began to meet with Zuckerberg for dinner once or twice a week, first at a cafe in Menlo Park and then at Sandberg's home in Atherton. Sandberg returned to that restaurant, Flea Street Cafe, for an interview with Oprah in 2013. After six weeks of dinner meetings, Zuckerberg eventually offered her the position as Facebook's chief operating officer.

Source: Fortune, The New Yorker

Zuckerberg told the New Yorker that Sandberg "handles things I don't want to.""There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization," Zuckerberg said in 2011. "And then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person."

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg is known by many as an advocate for women's rights in the workplace. Sandberg has campaigned against using the word "bossy," arguing that it damages women's confidence and desire to pursue leadership roles. She has also partnered with Getty Images to take stock photos that are meant to change the perception of women in the workforce.

Source: Business Insider

In March 2013, Sandberg published "Lean In," a best-selling book that recounts some of her own personal work experience as well as advice for women to pursue top positions in their field. "A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes," Sandberg wrote in the book.

But not everyone has been so crazy about Sandberg's advice to lean in. Some critics have said that it's not enough to tell women to have confidence if they're not being given the opportunity to succeed. Others say it's unfair to use Sandberg as a model for all women, as she is able to afford a nanny and a staff at work.

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg announced in 2014 she and her husband would sign onto the Giving Pledge, a commitment by billionaires to donate at least half of their fortune during their lifetime or upon their death. The Giving Pledge was launched by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Source: Forbes

Tragedy stuck in 2015 when Goldberg, Sandberg's husband, died suddenly after he collapsed while on vacation with his family in Mexico. Reports first indicated he died from head trauma after falling while on the treadmill, but Sandberg later revealed his death was due to a cardiac arrhythmia.

Source: Business Insider

"[Dave] showed me the internet for the first time, planned fun outings, took me to temple for the Jewish holidays, introduced me to much cooler music than I had ever heard," Sandberg wrote on Facebook a day after Goldberg's death. "He gave me the experience of being deeply understood, truly supported and completely and utterly loved — and I will carry that with me always."

Source: Business Insider

Following Goldberg's death, Sandberg penned an essay about dealing with grief and "kick(ing) the s--t" out of option B in life when plan A is no longer available. Two years later, Sandberg turned that lesson into a book in 2017 about her personal experience dealing with death and other stories of adversity.

Source: Business Insider

Sandberg also joined the board of directors of SurveyMonkey — the company her late husband served as CEO for — two months after his death. When SurveyMonkey went public in 2018, the company said Sandberg would donate her 10% stake to the charity she founded in her husband's honor: The Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation.

Source: Business Insider

While tech companies like Facebook have been adamant about not taking political stances, the same can't be said for Sandberg. The Facebook COO was one of the tech executives to publicly back Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. In return, Sandberg was reportedly on Clinton's shortlist for one of two cabinet positions: treasury secretary and commerce secretary.

Source: Business Insider

Sandberg has also spoken out against President Donald Trump's policies on abortion and immigration. A day after Trump reinstated the global gag rule that banned federally funded groups from discussing abortion, Sandberg donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood.

Source: Business Insider

Sandberg, and Facebook, drew more scrutiny in the wake of the 2016 election. Facebook revealed that Russia paid for thousands of ads on the platform to interfere with and manipulate political sentiment. The New York Times later reported that Sandberg tried to downplay implicating Russia in spreading misinformation on Facebook.

Source: New York Times

Then in March 2018, details about the Cambridge Analytics scandal surfaced. The data analytics company had harvested data from 87 million Facebook users, and used it to target voters during the 2016 election after being hired by the Trump campaign. Sandberg admitted that Facebook knew about the improper data use back in 2015, but didn't make it public.

Source: Business Insider

Zuckerberg reportedly blamed Sandberg for the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and told her she should have been more aggressive in dealing with the "troublesome content." After meeting with Zuckerberg, Sandberg had told friends she worried whether she'd keep her job at Facebook.

Source: Wall Street Journal

A bombshell New York Times report later revealed that Facebook directed a PR firm called Definers Public Affairs in summer 2018 to conduct an "aggressive lobbying campaign" to blame billionaire George Soros — a Facebook critic — for spreading anti-Facebook sentiment. Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg denied knowing about Definers' activities, and communications head Elliot Schrage instead took the fall. However, Sandberg later admitted she had received a "small number of emails where Definers was referenced."

Source: Business Insider

The New York Times report put mounting scrutiny on Sandberg's role at Facebook. Although Facebook staffers threw their support behind Sandberg, investors reportedly questioned whether they should be worried Sandberg would leave the company.

Source: Business Insider

Despite the talk, Sandberg has remained at Facebook in 2019. Sandberg is currently worth an estimated $1.7 billion, and is one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

• David Pike lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, and he works in Brooklyn, New York. His morning commute across state lines takes him only 15 minutes. He travels by Jet Ski.
• Pike started Jet Skiing to work in April, and he plans to do it from April to November every year moving forward.
• Every workday morning, Pike gets a picture-perfect view of the lower Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty on his way to work for his own company in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
• I shadowed Pike on a sunny September day to see what his commute is like. Here's a look inside the life of a Jet Ski commuter. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SEE ALSO: Stunning photos and detailed maps show all the places to stop on the perfect American road trip across the Southwest

DON'T: MISS I've spent a month of my life visiting my family on Guam, and I think it's one of the most underrated tourist destinations in the US. These photos will show you why.

The morning I went to meet David Pike, I understood why he does what he does. I live in Brooklyn, and in order to get to his apartment, I had to take a subway to a PATH train to New Jersey's light rail line ...

... to a Lyft from the Danforth Avenue Station. It wasn't cheap, and it took awhile — almost two hours.

When I got to David's I couldn't help but notice that his building looked like a hotel. When we spoke on the phone, he said I could shadow his workday from around 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.. These two thoughts made me wonder if David's whole life was like a vacation.

So, what kind of guy jet skis to work anyway? As you might've guessed, David seems like an incredibly chill person. He even tried on his wetsuit for me to take his picture since he won't have to wear it in the water for another month or so.

For now, he just wears this wetsuit-like jacket over his clothes when it's chilly out.

I knew David had his own company — New York Trolley Company — but I had no idea what his day-to-day was like. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked when I asked him to lay out all the items that he would take with him, and there was no laptop, no chargers, and no documents of any kind — just a little fan and some tools.

Most people check the weather before leaving their home each morning, but David also checks wind speeds and directions for his morning commute using an app called IKitesurf.

David's apartment building is less than a five-minute walk from the dock where he parks his jet ski.

As we approached the dock, David said his jet ski was the one on the end.

I assumed David would have a waterproof phone case, but he doesn't need one. The front compartment of his jet ski keeps all of his things dry.

It was big enough to fit my backpack and David's backpack.

This is everything David and I brought with us to Brooklyn — two backpacks, two life vests, two fenders, and some rope.

Fenders keep his jet ski from getting dinged up on the dock.

The jet ski can hold three people safely, and the seat is comfortable.

David spent about $1,000 on his jet ski, and it costs him $60 a gas fill-up every two weeks. Before jet skiing, David spent $18 a day on his commute.

David started jet skiing to work in April and he plans to do so until November.

If he keeps this up, he'll be saving money on transportation by next year.

After I suited up, David offered to take my picture before we got out on the water.

First, David had to pull the jet ski off of the ramp and reel it in with an attached rope.

David got on first ...

... and took the jet ski out for a quick spin around the harbor.

Then, it was my turn to get on. I was a tiny bit nervous, but I'm pretty sure I didn't show it.

It wasn't scary, though. I thought I would feel like I was about to fall off the whole time, but I didn't ...

... and even when we started to go faster, I was relaxed and having the time of my life.

It was pretty cool to see the New York City skyline start out appearing so small ...

... and appear bigger and bigger as we drove toward it.

See also: Apply here to attend IGNITION: Transportation, an event focused on the future of transportation, in San Francisco on October 22.

At one point during the trip, David turned to me and said: "Wanna swing by the statue?"

He was referring to the Statue of Liberty, and as you can tell by this photo, I said yes. This made me think about how even though I live in New York, I don't go out of my way to experience it the way David does.

We slowed back down as we got closer to the dock in Brooklyn.

When we arrived, David held onto the dock as I disembarked the jet ski first.

Then, he began to tie his jet ski to the dock.

David removed our belongings from the dry compartment ...

... and we put our life jackets in the same compartment before leaving the dock.

David works in Red Hook — a Brooklyn neighborhood known for its industrial seaside vibe.

When I saw David's office, it all started to come together.

As previously mentioned, David owns the New York Trolley Company, and his offices are his trolleys.

David deals with paperwork at home and commutes to Red Hook about three times a week to clean and maintain his vehicles.

After about three hours of work, David heads home for the day.

David docks his jet ski where his trolleys are parked, so it's not a far walk.

Back at his parking spot, David unties his jet ski from the dock ...

... and puts his things back in the dry compartment.

The ride back started out slow because the waves were bigger than they were on the way there ...

... but we sped-up about halfway through the ride and I swear I felt like I was flying ...

... until we arrived back at the harbor in Jersey City. I asked David how long he plans to continue this jet-ski commute. "Forever," he says.

I told David his lifestyle was pretty tempting, especially considering the square footage of his apartment compared to my Brooklyn apartment.

David jokingly replied with something about there being openings in his building. I chuckled a bit — that's something you'd never hear in Brooklyn.

When we got back to Jersey City, David secured his vehicle ...

... and put his life vest in a chest on the dock.

He then covered his jet ski to protect it from UV rays.

On my way home, I decided that having wet feet was a small price to pay for the day I'd had. And when I was on the light rail headed back to the PATH train to the subway, there's one thought I could not shake ...

... I'd rather be jet skiing.

• Worried that you might be a subpar boss?
• Check out these signs that you're in fact doing a terrific job managing your team.
• Those signs include: You're able to try new things, you challenge your employees, and you have a sense of humor.

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's not always easy being in charge.

Overseeing others comes with a ton of pressure. And when you're in a management position, it can be difficult to evaluate how you're doing.

Are you striking the right balance between commanding respect and appearing accessible? Are your employees responding well to your style of leadership? Are any of your actions breeding resentment in the office?

Being a good boss is crucial for your organization — a third of employees in one survey revealed that they'd quit a job because of a bad manager, as Business Insider previously reported.

But you can't exactly go wandering around the office begging people to tell you how you're doing. You're better off organizing employee satisfaction surveys and soliciting feedback from your direct reports.

You can also take a look at these other, more subtle signs that you're killing it as a boss:

SEE ALSO: 8 questions to ask at meetings that will show the CEO you're a born leader

You don't have obvious favorites

Playing favorites is a great way to torpedo office morale. If you make it clear that a certain person is the apple of your eye no matter what, then that'll just encourage your other employees to give up on trying to impress you.

You treat your employees like human beings

Unfortunately, some bosses seem to feel that hurling insults and abuse at people is an effective motivational technique. In most cases, this simply isn't true. If you value your employees as human beings, then you're already a huge step above many managers.

You're willing to try new things

Good bosses adopt certain methods because they're the best way of doing things — not because they've just fallen into certain habits. The best managers give their employees a little room to experiment and innovate.

In fact, according to a study conducted by leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman, young people tend to make better managers partly because they're open to change.

You hold everyone accountable ...

Maintaining accountability is a big part of office morale, and it encourages workers to act with integrity, leading to an excellent workplace culture.

... including yourself

Good bosses don't pick a scapegoat or explain away mistakes. In fact, experienced managers admit it when they fail in order to create a workplace that's a safe environment for experimentation.

As former US Marine Angie Morgan told Business Insider, the best leaders have a narrow gap between what they say they'll do and what they actually accomplish. It's about "making sure you're the person who can follow through on your commitments," she said, and setting an example for the rest of your team.

You ask politely

Insecure bosses bark out orders and behave like divas in order to establish their dominance. If you always say the magic word and are generally polite, then that's definitely a good sign.

You give support

Bosses should build trust with their employees by providing a reasonable amount of support and guidance. Obviously, you don't need to hold anyone's hand, but throwing people into the deep end isn't ideal, either.

You remove obstacles

Bad bosses throw up roadblocks that make it harder for people to succeed and do their jobs. Great managers should actively work to make the lives of their employees easier.

You're a good coach

Coaches don't just sit back on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. But they don't run onto the field and start playing, either — unless they're that one scary dad who takes the youth recreational soccer league way too seriously.

Good bosses are like good coaches: They command respect and provide the right blend of praise and constructive criticism to bring out the best in their employees.

You're able to manage expectations

Bad bosses often disappoint or confuse their teams by presenting inaccurate pictures about how things are at the office — e.g., talking up how well the company's doing and then springing news of layoffs on everyone. Good managers are honest and open.

You give feedback

Good employees crave feedback to learn how they can improve and grow. Great bosses are happy to oblige.

Recently, experts have noted that the feedback process at many companies is broken because it's too subjective. As leadership experts Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall write in the Harvard Business Review, it's better to share your personal reaction to an employee's behavior than an overall assessment of their performance. For example: "This is how that came across for me," or "This is what that made me think."

You keep the environment open and transparent

Transparency makes for a happy office culture.

You ask for insight

Employees want to feel heard.

Obviously, at the end of the day, you're responsible for making the final judgment. But once in a while, if the situation calls for it, good bosses reach out to their workers to get their insights and opinions.

You explain yourself

Good managers don't expect anyone to read their minds. They outline a clear vision and provide their team with the knowledge and tools to achieve it.

You care about solutions

When the going gets tough, the weak bosses find someone to blame. Good managers focus on finding a solution to the problem, rather than throwing people under the bus.

You care about challenging your employees

Bored workers are unhappy workers. The best bosses check in with their workers to ensure that they're being challenged.

You don't micromanage, but you're not too hands-off

Carefully examine the capabilities of your workers in order to achieve a good balance. Could you give any of them more responsibilities? Is there anything you can start delegating?

You check in with your employees

You don't pop in to nag people like Bill Lumbergh in "Office Space." You genuinely check in to talk to — not at — your employees in order to find out their goals and worries.

You have a sense of humor

It's important to never take the joking too far in the office. That being said, good bosses take their work seriously — not themselves. It's good to have a laugh with your employees.

You care about the dreams and goals of your employees

The best bosses are invested in their employees. That means that they're actively concerned with the professional goals and aspirations of their workers.

You're not nice just for the sake of being nice

Being too nice of a boss can actually be rather cruel, as Betty Liu points out in a LinkedIn article. Artificially sweet managers heap on undeserved praise, then yank the rug out from under their employees later on.

So don't play nice because you don't like conflict. Be authentic and real with your workers. You'll be doing them a big favor.

You're a good listener

This is the main reason why introverts make quite good bosses.

Many people have had a manager who loved to talk. Rarer — and infinitely more appreciated — are those bosses who are quality listeners. Good listening skills shows your employees that you're seriously considering their opinions and needs.

You take an interest in your employees' lives

Good bosses don't cross the line into nosiness. Still, they care enough to ask about peoples' summer plans, kids, and elderly parents. This interest will demonstrate to employees that their boss actually cares about them, making both parties more invested in their working relationship.

You tailor your approach

Different employees have different needs. "One size fits all" just isn't going to cut it in the workplace. The best bosses are flexible. This allows them to fulfill all sorts of roles in order to better cater to the needs of their workers.

According to Sally Boyle, international head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, every manager should get to know the people on their team. Specifically, "what makes them tick, what opportunities they might want, what they need to get better at, what feedback they need to have." 

You demand effort, not perfection

Great leaders demand — and inspire — employees to work hard. They lead by example and give workers the tools they need to succeed through hard work.

Bosses who are too rigid are simply unrealistic. People make mistakes. It happens. If you punish small failures, you'll just stifle innovation, experimentation and proactivity in your office.

You suspect you're an awful leader sometimes

When Business Insider previously spoke with author Simon Sinek about leadership, he explained that individuals who believe themselves to be excellent leaders are often, in fact, terrible leaders.

Great bosses recognize that authority and rank do not equal leadership abilities. As a result, they are constantly working to improve themselves. These quality bosses might even feel inadequate at times.

However, just the fact that they recognize their own flaws renders them superior to many managers that totally lack self-awareness.

Jacquelyn Smith contributed to a previous version of this article.

• Backstage Capital founder and venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton's productivity trick is to forgive other people for their wrongdoings.
• Forgiveness will keep you from dwelling on what other people say about you or their unfair treatment toward you, Hamilton told Business Insider. That way you can focus more on your job.

• We named Hamilton one of our 100 People Transforming Business earlier this year for shaking up the VC world by investing only in underrepresented founders.
• The Productivity Project collects the techniques some of our "transformers" use to be efficient and successful.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Arlan Hamilton's trick to getting stuff done isn't jotting things down on a planner or drinking more water: it's forgiving others. 

Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital and one of the few queer black women in venture capital, found that agonizing over the unfair ways she had been treated in the past kept her from doing her job. 

Earlier this year, for example, Hamilton said she spent days thinking about an instance where she had been "unfairly portrayed" online. She soon realized she was spending more time thinking about other peoples' actions than getting her job done.

Hamilton made a decision to forgive the people who she felt wronged her — that way, she took control of the situation and wasn't as impacted by other peoples' actions.

Read more:INTRODUCING: The 10 people transforming how the world interacts with technology

"Once I did what was in my power to do and forgave them, I was back in control," Hamilton told Business Insider. "I got a lot of work done, and we're stronger for it as an organization."

Hamilton created Backstage Capital in part to counter the impacts of unconscious bias in venture capital. Founders who are women, people of color, or LGBTQ are less likely to get VC funding, according to a 2019 study. Hamilton herself recalled being told she must work twice as hard to be taken seriously in venture capital, she told Fast Company.

Hamilton's experience isn't uncommon. Women and queer people face greater sexual harassment in the workplace, and research finds racial minorities tend to get passed up for promotions or big projects due to unconscious bias. The New York Times' Alan Henry recently said productivity advice is meaningless for people dealing with injustice at work.

"That's the real factor determining whether you can take productivity advice at face value: privilege," Henry wrote. "Ultimately, if your boss or co-workers believe that women shouldn't be in the workplace, or that African-Americans are unmotivated, no 'productivity hack' will force them to objectively look at your accomplishments and decisions the way they would employees they view without biases."

Hamilton says forgiveness can help overcome other peoples' unfair treatment. Forgiveness helps you stop dwelling on the wrongdoings of the past and take control to move forward at work, she said.

"It's really important to understand that a part of valuing yourself is knowing when and if you're being treated poorly, but that you can also repurpose that by internally forgiving people of certain things," Hamilton said. "This allows you to let go of that time that you would have spent letting it consume you and you can now use it for more productive things."

SEE ALSO: 19 of the most powerful women in global finance

Join the conversation about this story »

• The signs that your boss likes you aren't always immediately obvious.
• Managers may try to avoid appearing like they have staff favorites.
• You can keep an eye out for subtle clues that your boss thinks you're great.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The signs that your boss likes you can be quite subtle.

But it's crucial to definitively establish that your manager is on your side. Getting along with your boss is a pretty important part of succeeding at work, as they likely control whether or not you get promoted, demoted, or fired.

Read more:13 things that should never surprise a boss

Some bosses make their appreciation clear by heaping on the praise — but not all managers are so open.

Here are a number of signs that your boss probably is pretty impressed with your work even if they don't show it:

SEE ALSO: 22 signs your boss secretly hates you

DON'T MISS: 11 signs your boss is passive aggressive

SEE ALSO: 8 signs your boss is undermining you

If your boss gives you "tough love," it could mean they think you can handle the responsibility.

Suzanne Bates, CEO of Bates Communications and author of "All the Leader You Can Be," told Business Insider that it can be difficult to figure out whether or not your boss likes you.

"A boss who sees you as promising may give you a lot of feedback, not all of it positive — some of it might be 'tough love' because he or she sees you as someone who can handle it and is ready for more responsibility," she said.

Your boss challenges you because they think you are prepared for tough assignments.

If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed at times, then that might not be a terrible thing.

"The boss will probably give you more than you feel you can handle at times, not because he or she is trying to punish you, but because they want to test you on tough assignments," said Bates.

Your boss shares your priorities for wanting to succeed.

"Ask your boss what his or her top priorities are and put up your hand for challenging assignments," said Bates. "Give the boss a chance to see you in action, especially on a project important to him or her, so that they can see what you're made of."

Your boss might not seem like they "like" you, but they respect you.

At the end of the day, likability is overrated.

"Stop worrying so much about whether the boss 'likes you' because what really matters most is whether they respect you, include you, and engage you in important conversations," Bates said. "Likability is not as important as making a contribution, being a thought partner, and helping the team and the organization thrive."

Your boss asks for your input because they value you.

Bruce Tulgan, the founder and CEO of RainmakerThinking and author of "It's Okay to Manage Your Boss," said that bosses confer more with the employees whom they like and trust.

"If the boss often asks your input in one-on-ones and team meetings and leaves plenty of time for you to talk and then responds favorably to what you say — these are good signs," he said.

It's not always a bad thing if your boss isn't forthcoming with the compliments.

You might think that managers shower the employees whom they value with praise, but Bates notes that this isn't always the case.

"They either think you already know you're in good standing, they don't want to seem to be favoring you, or they simply just forget because you do so many things well," she said.

Bates recommended that you ask for feedback and make it clear that you want your manager to tell it like it is.

Tulgan agreed, saying that workers shouldn't always expect unprompted feedback.

"You should always make sure you are getting expectations spelled out in vivid detail and you should be tracking your performance every step of the way," he said. "Keep score for yourself! Then you won't have to guess."

If your boss turns to you when they need something done ASAP, take that as a positive.

Tulgan said that it's promising if your boss seems to use you as a "go to" person. They hit you up first when something needs to be done, whether it's a regular assignment or a special one.

Don't fret when your boss gives you more responsibility.

Managers often deputize their most talented employees. You probably won't get a gold-star badge, but you will get put in charge of important projects and even your fellow coworkers.

When other employees are struggling, your manager sends them to you.

When other employees are struggling, your manager sends them to you.

"If your boss tells others to go to you for guidance or instruction or examples of good work, this is a good sign," Tulgan said.

Rejoice when your boss gives you important tasks.

Tulgan said that one major sign of trust is your boss specifically asking you to deal with important customers.

Don't worry if your boss is asking questions about how you are doing.

Tulgan said that bosses will go out of their way to check on the workers they like. They'll ask about your happiness, whether or not you're planning to leave, and how the company can keep you on.

Your boss isn't interrogating you — they're proactively figuring out what steps they'll need to take to retain you.

Your manager asks you to teach others because they're impressed by you.

If your manager is constantly asking you to show the office newbie the ropes or explain how things work to your colleagues, it may feel like they're just pawning off extra tasks on you.

And that might be the case, in some instances.

But your boss also might also so impressed with your skills that they want to spread them around to others. Instead of looking at these requests as extra busy work, use them as opportunities to hone your own leadership abilities and showcase your expertise in the office.

A manager assigns side projects not to overwork employees, but because she wants the best for them.

Ultra Mobile CEO David Glickman said the no. 1 way to tell if your boss is impressed with you is if they assign you to side projects or extra work. 

No one enjoys working more, and getting handed more assignments may suggest your boss doesn't understand your work load. 

But Glickman says that on the contrary, a manager assigns challenges to his best employees so that they can shine.

"While your manager may see your competency and smarts firsthand, they can't promote you without buy-in and support from others,"Glickman told Business Insider's Áine Cain. "By putting you on projects that involve other teams, they are helping you build your own support for future promotion."

If your boss uses the phrase "you did a good job" it might not feel like a lot, but it's one of the best compliments a manager can provide.

Appreciation separates good managers from the duds, writes Brian de Haaff, cofounder and CEO of the software company Aha!

In particular, the phrase "you did a good job" is the most important praise you can receive from your manager for three reasons: 

1. You feel special after specific accomplishments are celebrated.
2. It signals you contributed to making the team stronger, which can motivate other colleagues.
3. The praise doesn't coddle you or bring up unnecessary criticism — it just signals you achieved something of value to the company.

"All bosses should pull for their employees and celebrate them when they are great," Haaff writes on LinkedIn. "Using those five magic words 'You did a good job' creates happy employees — and happy employees are committed employees who do their best work."

If your boss isn't paying enough attention to you or seems like they're more hands off, it could mean they trust you more.

"If you get more latitude than other employees — more freedom to take risks, to work your own hours, and make your own decisions — that's an excellent sign that you're in your boss' good books," Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "The Humor Advantage," previously told Business Insider.

• Joe De Sena is the founder and CEO of Spartan, the world's largest obstacle race and endurance brand. He is also the New York Times best-selling author of "Spartan Up" and "Spartan Fit," and recently released his third book, "The Spartan Way."
• As someone with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), De Sena has found it to be his greatest strength as an entrepreneur.
• He says that his ADHD helped him pursue his own dreams, and he can't imagine living any other way. For him, a challenge is a new opportunity for achieving success.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is, without a doubt, my greatest strength. It's a major reason why I bounce off the walls until I find something important to focus on. 

The kid who "can't sit still," the guy who seems distant in conversation, the entrepreneur obsessed with one idea: I'm all of these things, but I don't see them as negatives in the least. 

My most obvious symptom: hyperfocus

What is ADHD? It's more complex than just a kid who can't sit still. ADHD is a brain disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development. 

Symptoms include overlooking or missing details, an inability to listen, organizational issues, forgetfulness, and being easily distracted. My most obvious symptom? Hyperfocus.

Honestly, I view this "symptom" as a home-run trait. Sure, my mind has trouble sticking to one thing, but that means I don't ruminate on irrelevant ideas or spend more than a minute feeling negative. My hyperfocus allows me to actually keep my attention on the things that move the needle each day. ADHD — and my hyperfocus — helped me leave my job on Wall Street to pursue my dream of ripping 1 million people off the couch. As it turns out, evolution helped me do this.

How the hyperfocus trait evolved

Take it from Thom Hartmann, author of "The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child."

Hartmann claims that, in hunter-gatherer cultures, hunters needed hyperfocus more than gatherers. He implies that the ADHD hyperfocus trait provided a selective advantage in the past.

This might not make sense to you, because ADHD and a "lack of focus" are generally perceived as negatives. But think about it for a second. The hunter scanned the environment, looking and waiting for something to focus on. Are you a hunter or a gatherer? Which would you rather be?

I know I'm a hunter, and this gene intensifies my inclination to act on ideas that I'm scanning. My supposed "disorder" led me to create Spartan, the Spartan Up Podcast, and the SpartanX Leadership Forum. 

When I'm hyperfocused on one idea, I make it great. I only ruminate on what truly matters, leaving all the irrelevant noise behind. So why would I see ADHD as a "weakness?" I can't imagine living any other way.

Why my ADHD is a blessing

Without the hyperfocus trait, I'd lack creativity, spontaneity, and a fast-paced lifestyle essential for entrepreneurship. It's the reason I'm successful, and it's why ADHD is my greatest strength.

I'm a firm believer that we should all admire the things about our challenges that make us who we are. No, I can't sit for too long, but that's why I'm fit. No, I don't always think before I act, but that's why I'm direct and honest with everyone I meet. No, I didn't learn as well as others in the traditional classroom setting, but that's why I have gritty determination to succeed.

My advice to you: Tell yourself that every challenge is an opportunity to achieve success. Turn your struggle into triumph. Transform your "disorder" into an advantage.   

Now stop reading, log onto LinkedIn, and tell me which "weakness" you're grateful for.

SEE ALSO: Executives should only have two jobs, and neither is setting strategy

Join the conversation about this story »

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• LinkedIn executive Dan Shapero switched from sales to product using three key strategies that any professional can apply.
• He found support at work and at home, developed a backup plan, and set a timeline for the career transition.
• Now Shapero is leveraging that experience as VP of global sales at LinkedIn.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Dan Shapero had worked on LinkedIn's executive team for six years when the CEO asked him: "What are your career ambitions?"

It was 2014, and Shapero was vice president of global sales for LinkedIn's recruiting business, Talent Solutions, managing about 1,200 people around the world. He was walking outside in San Francisco with CEO Jeff Weiner, and he answered Weiner's question honestly.

"I expressed this excitement for one day being able to be a great technology company leader," Shapero told Business Insider at LinkedIn's Talent Connect conference, which took place in September 2019, in Dallas.

Weiner was equally candid in his response. Shapero remembers him saying, "You're doing a fantastic job, but you may not be learning the skills you need to do what you ultimately want to do someday."

That is to say, unless Shapero made some meaningful job changes, he probably wouldn't achieve his career goals. "That was a hard message to hear in the moment," Shapero said. But he knew it was true. "I couldn't be the best version of myself in that [professional] capacity without having this experience."

Shapero took a month to mull over the conversation, after which he returned to Weiner and told him: "Let's do it." He was going to leave his current position in sales and develop the skills necessary to be a leader on LinkedIn's product team.

From there, Shapero embarked on what he called a "tour of duty," in which he was an individual contributor (not a manager) working on different LinkedIn products.

Looking back on the process of redesigning his career trajectory, Shapero sees it as a three-pronged approach that any professional can use to retool their career.

Read more: How to make a drastic career change, from an executive coach who's helped countless people unhappy at work

1. Find sponsorship.

Shapero said he had buy-in from both Weiner and his direct manager (Mike Gamson, who was then senior vice president of global solutions at LinkedIn).

It helped that Shapero had excelled in his current role, significantly increasing the number of clients registered with LinkedIn's recruiting business. So his managers were open to facilitating his next move, where he would continue to grow the organization.

"When you're used to doing a job with a certain level of mastery and you're moving into a job where you don't have that level of mastery," Shapero said, "having support around you is really important."

2. Develop a plan B.

Before making any big decisions, Shapero talked to his wife about what they would do if the career transition didn't pan out.

By this point, Shapero had found a successor to be VP of global sales for Talent Solutions, so he couldn't simply go back to that role. Instead, he knew he'd have to find a similar job at a different company (or at LinkedIn, if a position was available).

The job search might be difficult, Shapero said, "but I'd at least thought it through." And that psychological preparation "was helpful in allowing me to relax," Shapero said. When he made mistakes in the process, he was less inclined to throw his hands up and call the whole transition a waste of time.

3. Set a timeline.

Shapero gave himself two years to make the pivot from sales to product.

For two years, he'd invest in developing the skills and experience necessary for a product role at LinkedIn. If after two years, he still didn't feel comfortable with or ready for the change, he'd call it quits.

This timeline was key, if only because it freed him somewhat from rumination. When you're planning your next career move, Shapero said, "it's important not to spend every minute asking yourself whether you've made the right decision."

As it turned out, it took roughly six months for Shapero and his colleagues to prepare for the transition. For the two years after that, Shapero served as director of product management for LinkedIn's Careers products (products for job-seekers).

Ultimately, Shapero was able to leverage his experience on both the sales and product teams in taking on new, hybrid roles.

Months after Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016, Shapero became head of product for multiple departments, including LinkedIn Learning Solutions (an education platform for employees) and Talent Solutions. And in 2018, he became head of global sales for the entire company.

Many organizations are open to employees making career changes

Shapero's experience reflects the recent shift away from the proverbial career ladder to something less linear, and potentially more fulfilling. It's less about steady upward progression (say, from analyst to VP to senior VP in one department at one company) and more about making lateral moves between teams or even between industries.

Read more: A former Google exec reveals the 3 questions you should ask yourself before making a career change

For example, former Googler and Facebook exec Libby Leffler started out at Facebook as a client partner, then became a business lead to the chief operating officer and a strategic partnerships manager.

As Leffler previously told Business Insider, "I wasn't only focused on the next level up. I was really always drawn to things that intrigued me, gave me the chance to learn as much as I could, and gave me the opportunity to learn something new, with plenty of room for experimentation."

A growing number of companies, especially in the tech industry, support this type of career path through "internal mobility," or letting employees try out roles on different teams. For employees, internal mobility keeps things novel and interesting; for employers, it's a way to retain top talent who might otherwise seek challenges at another organization.

As for Shapero, he suspects it was more practical for him to change roles within LinkedIn than to join another organization. He already knew how the business worked and he'd built relationships throughout the company, both of which helped him in his new job.

"Even if some of the core product skills were new to me," Shapero said, "I can only imagine that doing that at a completely new organization would have been that much harder."

SEE ALSO: You're not 'too old' to make a career change — in fact, you've probably already done half the work

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• Successful people and unsuccessful people often differ in key ways, says author and businessman Dave Kerpen.
• People who listen to others, ask questions, compliment others, and have a positive mindset tend to succeed.
• Unsuccessful people, meanwhile, blame others for their failure and talk too much.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

In 2014, Dave Kerpen, the New York Times best-selling author of "The Art of People," received a postcard that illustrated the traits and behaviors of successful and unsuccessful people.

The card came from fellow Entrepreneurs' Organization member Andy Bailey, the chief executive of Petra Coach, a business-coaching service. Although the two CEOs have never met, Kerpen said in a 2014 LinkedIn post that the postcard had a profound effect on him, "reinforcing values I believe in and reminding me on a daily basis of the attitudes and habits that I know I need to embrace in order to become successful."

Read more:Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens left behind an incredible letter about the best life lessons he learned, and every line is a must-read

The postcard points out 16 big differences between successful and unsuccessful people. Below we highlight nine of our favorites, plus seven others Kerpen shared with us in a recent interview.

Read on to find out what distinguishes superstars from everyone else:

SEE ALSO: 12 science-backed tricks that will make you more attractive and help you make a good first impression

Successful people embrace change; unsuccessful people fear it.

"Embracing change is one of the hardest things a person can do,"Kerpen says in his 2014 LinkedIn post.

With the world moving fast and technology accelerating at a rapid speed, it's imperative that we embrace these changes and adapt, rather than fear, deny, or hide from them, he says. Successful people are able to do just that.

Successful people talk about ideas; unsuccessful people talk about people.

Instead of gossiping about people, which gets you nowhere, successful people discuss ideas.

"Sharing ideas with others will only make them better," Kerpen says.

Successful people accept responsibility for their failures; unsuccessful people blame others.

Truly successful leaders and business people experience ups and downs in their lives and careers, but they always accept responsibility for their failures.

He says blaming others solves nothing: "It just puts other people down and absolutely no good comes from it."

Successful people give others all the credit for their victories; unsuccessful people take all the credit from others.

Letting people have their moments to shine motivates them to work harder and, consequently, makes you look better as a leader or teammate.

Successful people want others to succeed; unsuccessful people secretly hope others fail.

"When you're in an organization with a group of people, in order to be successful, you all have to be successful," Kerpen says.

That's why the most successful people don't wish for their demise — they want to see their coworkers succeed and grow.

Successful people continuously learn; unsuccessful people fly by the seat of their pants.

The only way to grow as a person, professional, and leader is never to stop learning.

"You can be a step above your competition and become more flexible because you know more," he writes. "If you just fly by the seat of your pants, you could be passing up opportunities that prevent you from learning (and growing!)."

Successful people ask how they can help others; unsuccessful people ask how they can help themselves.

Kerpen told Business Insider that the best question you can ask when you first meet an influential person isn't "How can you help me?" but "How can I help you?"

Of course, you should be willing and able to help the person if they take you up on your offer.

But regardless of whether they accept or decline, he says simply offering your assistance makes people feel warmer toward you, and makes them more inclined to help you when you need it.

Successful people take a chance and ask for what they want; unsuccessful people are afraid of failure.

"Rejection and failure are two of the most paralyzing fears," he says, and they often prevent people from asking for what they really want.

"If we don't ask for what we want we think on some level that we can't fail; we can't get rejected," Kerpen says. "But in reality we're almost guaranteed that we're going to fail because we're not going to get what we want."

In "The Art of People," he gives the example of a salesperson who was failing to win any customers, simply because she wasn't asking directly for their business at the end of her pitch. Once she started being more forthright, her sales increased.

If you want to be successful, your mantra should be something like "Embrace the fear of no; then ask for the yes."

Successful people are always looking to better understand themselves; unsuccessful people don't care about introspection.

"The first step in learning how to better influence others to get what you want in your career and in life, is to understand yourself," Kerpen writes in the book.

Specifically, he says you should understand your unconscious motivations, what shifts your mood, and how you best interact with others.

If you're looking to learn more about yourself, Kerpen recommends the Enneagram assessment, cowritten by Mario Sikora. The assessment divides people into nine categories, including those who strive to be connected and those who strive to be detached.

You can find the Enneagram in Sikora's book, "Awareness to Action," or in "The Art of People."

Successful people listen first and never stop listening; unsuccessful people talk too much.

Kerpen says that the single most important and underrated skill in business, social media, and life in general is listening.

It's hard to do, he said, because when we get excited about our ideas, all we want to do is talk about them. But the less we talk, the easier it is to persuade other people to like those ideas — and to like us.

Kerpen writes: "Listening and letting people talk is key to winning them over in life, in business, and in all human relationships."

Successful people are vulnerable and transparent; unsuccessful people are protected and secretive.

In the book, Kerpen writes that we learn from an early age that crying, and showing emotion in general, is a sign of weakness.

Yet he experienced firsthand the power that comes from letting yourself be vulnerable. At a management retreat for Likeable Media's executive team, Kerpen asked everyone to share the most difficult experiences they'd ever had and what they learned from them.

Several people, including Kerpen himself, ended up crying, and as a result they felt "super-connected as a group."

Kerpen writes:

As it turns out, sincerely powerful emotions — especially those powerful enough to cause tears — are quite influential in connecting with other people. If you can get yourself to experience a level of vulnerability with someone to the point where you're moved to tears, you will be able to relate to that person — and he or she can relate to you — on a much deeper level.

Successful people keep a positive attitude; unsuccessful people get negative too often.

Kerpen writes in the book that a positive attitude is contagious, especially when it comes from a leader.

At a conference he attended more than a decade ago, one of the speakers recommended that people answer "Fantastic!" instead of something lukewarm like "fine" when someone asks, "How are you?"

Kerpen writes that the speaker "claimed that by using this word, you'll attract whoever you're talking to and make that person want to be around you, because no matter how anyone else is feeling, fantastic is probably better, and who wouldn't want to feel fantastic?"

Successful people are committed to gratitude and acts of kindness; unsuccessful people put themselves first.

Kerpen concludes "The Art of People" by revealing the ultimate paradox, as explained by his wife: "The secret to getting everything you want at work and in life is treating people well, not trying to get everything you want."

In other words, nice guys finish first, he says.

Here's an example of how being nice may have helped Kerpen's career. After meeting with a venture capitalist named Rich, Kerpen sent him a bonsai tree as a way of thanking him for his time.

Unfortunately, before he even received the bonsai, Rich decided not to invest in Kerpen's business. Once the bonsai arrived, however, Rich moved to introduce Kerpen to another VC who might be a better fit, and that second VC ended up investing in Kerpen's business.

Successful people compliment others; unsuccessful people criticize people.

"A compliment gives a natural boost of energy to someone, and is an act of kindness that makes you feel better as well," Kerpen wrote on LinkedIn.

"Criticizing produces negativity and leads to nothing good," he added.

But beware sneaky sentences that sound like compliments but really put you down— things like "you look good for your age" or "you're not like other men/women."

Successful people have gratitude; unsuccessful people don't appreciate others and the world around them.

No one succeeds by themself, Kerpen writes. Often, other people helped you along the way. 

That's why it's important to thank those who helped you reach your goals.

"Thank everyone you come in contact with and walk with a spirit of gratitude and appreciation and even wonder, about the world around you," he adds. "Gratitude is the ultimate key to being successful in business and in life."

Successful people forgive others; unsuccessful people hold a grudge.

"Everybody makes mistakes; it's human," Kerpen writes. "The only way to get past the mistake is to forgive and move on. Dwelling on anger only makes things worse — for you."

If someone wronged you, psychologists recommend not trying to rush the forgiveness process. Instead, take time to work through your emotions and put yourself in the other person's shoes.

• Business Insider is recognizing the leaders who are helping shape the careers of YouTube influencers in 2019.
• We are highlighting 14 power players of talent management, based on who is successfully assisting creators in their digital businesses.
• These talent managers help their clients diversify their online brands, build lasting partnerships with companies through influencer marketing campaigns, and even develop consumer products.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

YouTube creators are dominating the influencer space, with millions of followers and brand deals that earn them strong incomes.

Each year, new creators are breaking into the industry, and the demand for managers to help them sustain their success and growth has increased.

Business Insider is recognizing the power players who are helping shape the careers of these stars in 2019. In this inaugural list, we are highlighting the top 14 YouTube talent managers who are assisting creators with their digital brands and businesses.

These talent managers help their clients diversify their online brands and build lasting partnerships with companies through influencer marketing campaigns. They also often assist their clients in developing consumer products and merchandise, which has been popular among influencers in 2019.

The landscape has changed over the past few years as YouTube has evolved as a platform.

The once popular multichannel networks (or MCNs) that dominated the online-talent space — signing up hundreds, and even thousands, of clients — have experienced a decline, with some major players shutting down.

As this shift has happened, firms with smaller rosters of top clients have risen to the forefront. These new power players have developed expertise in the many facets of the influencer world in 2019.

They advise clients against promoting products that could damage their careers and help in operating companies and selling direct-to-consumer products. Some even own product lines under venture arms.

Reed Duchscher, who managers creators like MrBeast (24 million YouTube subscribers), told Business Insider that he focuses on helping clients create and structure new businesses and build out their internal teams.

"One core reason I think YouTube talent managers are important is due to the fact that most successful channels are run by young people," he said. "We're seeing 15- and 16-year-old kids garner hundreds of millions of views each month, before they even graduate high school. We help them avoid the pitfalls of working through this industry."

Managers earn revenue by receiving a cut of the influencer's earnings, which typically ranges from 10 to 20%, depending on how much the manager does for the client, according to industry insiders.

To form this list, Business Insider relied on a mix of our own reporting, nominations from readers, and industry experts to narrow down the finalists. We chose them based on their experience in the YouTube influencer space, their responsibilities, and their influences on the business of being a creator. 

The power players are listed in alphabetical order:

Amron Lopez – talent manager, Authentic Talent and Literary Management

Amron Lopez, a talent manager at Authentic Talent and Literary Management, assists clients in the digital and international department of Authentic Talent. 

He began his career at Creative Artists Agency in 2011 and previously worked at Big Frame as a talent manager, with a background focusing on building the careers and brands of talent spanning Hollywood and Asia.

Lopez has helped clients like Olivia Rouyre and Amanda Pavillard in brand partnerships and in extending their careers past YouTube. The lifestyle vloggers are also known for occasionally being featured in the top YouTube star Emma Chamberlain's videos and social-media pages (8 million subscribers).

Lopez has built relationships with brands like Acuvue, Maybelline, and Coach — and established deals with companies like Facebook, YouTube, Nestle, and Smart Telecommunications. 

Talent includes:Ranz and Niana (9 million and 8 million subscribers, respectively), Luke Korns (2 million subscribers), Olivia Rouyre (678,000 subscribers), Amanda Pavillard (182,000 subscribers). He has worked with Kian and JC (3.6 million subscribers). 

Ashley Rachel Villa – CEO, Rare Global

Ashley Rachel Villa leads the female-focused and female-run management company Rare Global. She is both a manager and a lawyer, and she consults for brands and entertainment entities within the digital-media space.

She manages top YouTube influencers like the YouTube personality Wengie, who has 13.9 million subscribers on her main channel under the same name. Wengie is best known for her DIY and craft videos, like "DIY Edible School Supplies" with 48 million views, or "How to Sneak Candy in Class" with 44 million views. 

Rare Global recently started a division of "midtier" influencers, providing clients between 200,000 and 800,000 followers with strategy and mentorship resources. 

Before founding Rare in 2015, Villa was a legal counsel at StyleHaul, the YouTube multichannel network. There, she worked on agreements in digital media, fashion, and beauty.

Villa gained experience as a lawyer in film and entertainment at Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.

Talent includes:Jenn Im (2 million subscribers), Jackie Aina (3 million subscribers), Merrell Twins (4 million subscribers), Wengie (13.9 million subscribers). 

Courtney Carter – founder, Carter Media Group

Courtney Carter is the founder of Carter Media Group, a management and media company that represents and partners with creators. 

She serves as manager and production partner to the YouTube star Liza Koshy, who has 17.6 million subscribers. 

Carter is an executive producer for all seasons of Koshy's YouTube Original show, "Liza on Demand," which is now on its second season. 

Previously, Carter served as an agent in digital-talent packaging and brand partnerships at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). There, she worked to package and sell multiple shows across television and digital. Before CAA, Carter served as director of sports management and branded content at ESPN.

Carter began her career in ad and partnership sales working for Madison Square Garden and Major League Soccer.

Talent includes: Liza Koshy (17.6 million subscribers).

Dan Levitt – CEO and founder, Long Haul Management

Dan Levitt is the CEO and founder of Long Haul Management, a digital-first management firm that manages a client whose channels have over 20 million subscribers, as well as several of YouTube's top gaming, sports, and pop-culture stars.

Levitt also serves as an executive producer on the Streamy-winning YouTube Red series "MatPat's Game Lab" and has previous experience working for companies like Big Frame, Disney, and Columbia Records. 

He's conducted branded integrations with major media brands, including Google, Netflix, Nike, Adidas, and Nintendo. And he has assisted his clients in recurring partnerships with companies like SeatGeek, Hulu, Dollar Shave Club, and Audible.

Talent includes: MatPat (Game Theorists/Film Theorists/GT Live, totaling 20 million subscribers), Kristopher London (1.9 million subscribers), Jesser the Lazer (2 million subscribers), CashNastyGaming (3 million subscribers), Qias Omar (1 million subscribers). 

Digital Brand Architects – Christina Jones and Hilary Williams Dunlap

Digital Brand Architects is a talent-management firm representing creators and publishers. DBA has a products division, Digital Brand Products; a podcasting studio, Dear Media; and is partners with the conference series and platform Create and Cultivate. 

DBA was acquired by United Talent Agency, an agency representing artists and other entertainment professionals, this year. 

Christina Jones, the vice president of talent at DBA, and Hilary Williams Dunlap, the senior vice president of talent at DBA, assist clients across the travel, family, fashion, food, home, and beauty verticals.

Jones' clients have scored partnerships with companies like MAC and Johnson & Johnson, and her clients include influencers like Patrick Starrr (4 million subscribers). Starrr is known as one of the top YouTube beauty influencers online and as one of the first "men in makeup."

Dunlap identified a brand and retail partner for her client Marianna Hewitt, a lifestyle and beauty influencer. The denim collaboration with DL1961 sold at Nordstrom and other retailers. She also helped her client Camila Coelho attend the Met Gala with Diane von Furstenberg. 

Talent includes:Camila Coelho (1.2 million subscribers), Marianna Hewitt (297,000 subscribers), Patrick Starrr (4 million subscribers), Nyma Tang (1 million subscribers), and Bretman Rock (6.6 million subscribers). 

Evegail Andal – CEO and founder, Matter Media Group

Evegail Andal is the CEO and founder of Matter Media Group, a boutique management firm in the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle spaces.

Her lifestyle and beauty YouTube clients, like influencer Alisha Marie, who has 8 million subscribers, have experience working on brand campaigns with companies like BMW and Starbucks. 

Andal focuses on talent support, like assistance with search-engine optimization, platform guidance, and event coordination.

She began her career in entertainment marketing, working for Sony, E!, and Flaunt Magazine. Her entertainment experience placed her in charge of public relations and social media on platforms like NYX Cosmetics, Sketchers, Pixi, and Pop Beauty.

As a talent manager, her roster of talent has established long-term partnerships with brands such as Teen Vogue, L'Oréal, Pantene, and Macy's.

Talent includes: Alisha Marie (8 million subscribers), Adelaine Morin (2.6 million subscribers), Azlia Williams (499,000 subscribers), and Katy Bellotte (470,000 subscribers). 

Fullscreen Media – Mahzad Babayan and Michael Gordon

Fullscreen Media, which was acquired by AT&T's Otter Media in 2014, is a sprawling digital-media company that has been involved in many businesses connected to the influencer space (to varying degrees of success).

Fullscreen's talent-management business, however, has remained a central part of the brand, and today, it assists its influencer clients in scaling engagement and various monetization opportunities.

Michael Gordon, the director of talent, has signed and managed clients including the gaming YouTuber Tfue (11 million subscribers) and the scuba diver Dallmyd (9 million). Jake Koehler, who goes by Dallmyd online, is a successful underwater-treasure hunter who earns money by filming himself search waterways for "lost treasure."

Mahzad Babayan, the director of talent at Fullscreen, has nearly 10 years of experience in both production and management and is responsible for helping top YouTube clients like Cody Ko and Noel Miller in brand expansion.

Ko and Miller are known for their YouTube series "That's Cringe," with videos that have over 14.8 million views, and their podcast "Tiny Meat Gang," which they've expanded into a tour. They have also partnered with brands like the ticket-selling service SeatGeek and the coupon browser-extension Honey.

Clients include: Tfue (11 million subscribers), Dallmyd (9 million subscribers), Cody Ko (3.8 million subscribers), Noel Miller (1.5 million subscribers), Miles McKenna (1 million subscribers), and Alyx Weiss (1.7 million subscribers). 

Gleam Futures – Maddie Chester and Briony Gaffer

Gleam Futures is a talent-management firm behind popular UK vloggers like the beauty and lifestyle influencer Zoe Sugg, known as Zoella online (11.6 million subscribers), and the lifestyle mommy vlogger Louise Pentland (2 million subscribers). 

Maddie Chester has managed Sugg and the Zoella brand since 2013. This involves generating and negotiating deals and opportunities, including publishing and product licensing, brand-product collaborations, app development, and brand partnerships, as well as advising on PR and charity strategies.

Briony Gaffer is a talent manager with experience in influencer campaigns like the YouTube star Niomi Smart's campaign with L'Oréal Botanicals. She has also helped clients in negotiating multiple ambassador roles with brands such as Dior Beauty, L'Oréal Paris, and Armani Beauty. 

Talent includes:Zoella (11 million subscribers), Victoria Magrath (628,000 subscribers), Niomi Smart (1.6 million subscribers), Lewys Ball (395,000 subscribers), Sean Elliott O'Connor (459,000 subscribers).

Jack Reed – CEO and cofounder, Millennial Entertainment

Jack Reed is the CEO and cofounder of Millennial Entertainment, a YouTube-focused management firm.

He works with top content creators and social-media influencers, like David Dobrik, who has 14 million subscribers, and various members of his Vlog Squad.

Dobrik has expanded his digital brand with recent TV experiences, like hosting Nickelodeon's 2019 Teen Choice Awards and appearing as a judge in the upcoming show "America's Most Musical Family." A recent survey by the investment-banking firm Piper Jaffray found that Dobrik was US teens' favorite person to follow on social media.

Reed has assisted clients like Dobrik in building partnerships with SeatGeek, Honey, Electronic Arts, and Chipotle. 

Reed got his start in digital talent after reaching out to Dobrik once the star began to gain popularity online from his short-form videos on the defunct social platform Vine.

Talent includes: David Dobrik (14 million subscribers), Jason Nash (2 million subscribers), Jeff Wittek (1.5 million subscribers), and Trey Kennedy (426,000 subscribers). 

Jordan Worona – CEO, We Are Verified

Jordan Worona is the CEO of We are Verified, a digital-talent-management group with clients like the popular YouTube vlogger Tana Mongeau (4.9 million subscribers). 

Worona specializes in working with online influencers and has previous experience working with digital talent at both Studio 71 and Fullscreen.

Worona is known online for managing Mongeau and her wildly popular YouTube channel and career. Mongeau, who recently had a viral wedding with her fellow YouTube star Jake Paul, has featured Worona across her social platforms and on videos like "My Manager Teaches Me How to Drive (I Almost Killed Us)," which has 1.6 million views.

Worona also assists Hunter Moreno on his merchandise line Make Sure Your Friends Are Okay, and he helps the influencer Trisha Paytas (4.9 million subscribers) with her monthly subscription box Glitter Bitch Box. 

Clients include: Tana Mongeau (4.9 million subscribers).

Naomi Lennon – president, Lennon Management

Naomi Lennon is the president of the social-media-influencer talent-management firm Lennon Management.

Since 2009, Lennon has managed some of YouTube's biggest influencers, including the beauty influencer Rachel Levin, who goes by RCLBeauty101 online and has 14 million subscribers. 

Lennon has negotiated and overseen campaigns for clients with top brands like Ford, Covergirl, Clinique, Pepsi, and Target. 

Lennon Management has expanded to include influencer product lines, investments in digital startups, and a musical-artist department. 

Lennon is also an executive producer for the digital-entertainment studio New Form Digital's "The Fourth Door," starring the actress Monique Coleman and the YouTube star Joey Graceffa.

Talent includes: RCLBeauty101 (14 million subscribers), Alphacat (784,000 subscribers), RackaRacka (5.8 million subscribers), and Markian Benhamou (257,000 subscribers). 

Petar Mandich – chief talent officer and cofounder, Addition Management

Petar Mandich is the chief talent officer and cofounder of Addition Management, which focuses on the distribution of content and the creation of original programming across platforms, as well as assisting clients in expanding to product merchandise to enhance their digital brands. 

Mandich works with leading digital talent like Joey Graceffa (9 million subscribers on YouTube), who is a New York Times bestselling author and the driving force behind the YouTube Originals show "Escape the Night."

Mandich is the executive producer on all four seasons of Graceffa's series, and he got his start in artist and music management at The Collective (now Studio 71).

Talent includes: Joey Graceffa (9 million subscribers), iJustine (6 million subscribers), Erin Robinson (190,000 subscribers), Evelina (1 million subscribers) and Jennifer Zhang: JENerationDIY (2 million subscribers).

Reed Duchscher – president and CEO, Night Media

Reed Duchscher is the president and CEO of Night Media, a digital-talent-management firm behind top creators like Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast online, who has 24 million subscribers and videos that can be consistently found on YouTube's trending page. 

Donaldson met Duchscher when he had 1.9 million subscribers and two employees. After working with Duchscher, Donaldson now has over 20 million subscribers and 18 full-time employees.

Duchscher is actively working with 10 influencers with over 1 billion views per month, including creators in the vlogger-gaming space, like Preston, Unspeakable, and Ssundee.

Duchscher left a career in NFL management to pursue working with digital creators. Starting in 2015 with the now popular YouTube group Dude Perfect, Duchscher has built long-term deals for clients with companies like Elmer's glue, Hot Wheels, Disney, Sonic, Hot Pockets, and OnePlus. 

Talent includes:MrBeast (24 million subscribers), Preston (10 million subscribers), Unspeakable (4 million subscribers), Ssundee (12 million subscribers), Leah Ashe (2 million subscribers), Brianna (1.76 million subscribers), and Typical Gamer (8.5 million subscribers).

Select Management Group – Charley Button, Lisa Filipelli, Scott Fischer, Mike Jezusko, Fred Johnson, Caroline Nardilla, Amy Neben, Alex Rocca, and Adam Wescott

Select Management Group is a digital-first talent-management firm that assists clients in endorsement opportunities, licensing deals, and acting opportunities. It's affiliate venture Third Act Entertainment produces original film, television, and digital content.

In 2018, founding partners Scott Fisher, Adam Wescott, and Lisa Filipelli merged groups Flip Management and Select Management Group into one management firm, later promoting Amy Neben as a partner. 

Select assists clients in expanding their online businesses, from launching consumer products to building brand partnerships, with top YouTube clients, including the lifestyle vlogger MyLifeAsEva and the beauty vlogger LaurDIY.

The company also developed, produced, and sold "This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous," and "Me and My Grandma," which are available on YouTube Premium.

Talent includes: Andrea Russett (3 million subscribers), Aspyn Ovard (3 million subscribers), MyLifeAsEva (10 million subscribers), Gigi Gorgeous (2.9 million subscribers), LaurDIY (9 million subscribers), and Tess Christine (2 million subscribers). 

• Jim Fowler joined Nationwide as its chief information officer after the insurer had overhauled its IT department and upgraded its tech platforms. He was charged with figuring out how those new systems could add value to the organization. 
• Fowler spent the first 90 days talking to associates and customers, developing a strategy, and encouraging team members to pursue innovation. One way he did that was by sitting tech and operational teams together in the office. 
• Fowler also created a culture where it is OK to fail. To mitigate any massive disruption, he urged teams to test out new offerings in a single market. 
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

Nationwide was in the "fourth quarter" of a digital modernization effort when Jim Fowler took the job of chief information officer at the insurer. 

The company had already gone through the laborious tasks of modernizing many of its tech platforms and overhauling its IT team. So Fowler had the task of figuring out how the upgraded systems could begin to add value to the organization.

"We knew we needed to be able to disrupt ourselves," he told Business Insider. "Our success is going to be in our ability to give the tools and technologies to the independent agents to meet members' needs more readily."

Among the platforms the company has rolled out since Fowler joined in 2018 is Nationwide Express, a tool that gives insurance agents a quote in less than 90 seconds. That allows the organization to compete against digital upstarts like Lemonade, which use artificial intelligence-powered platforms to quickly provider customers price estimates.

"It's about ease of use and streamlining and providing a digital experience for agents to meet members, brokers to meet participants, with a product that's more and more personalized as people go through life," Fowler said.

A former CIO at General Electric, Fowler has over two decades of experience in IT-related issues. He shared the strategy used in the first 90 days as Nationwide's information chief. 

Taking a pulse-check of the organization and its customers

When Fowler went out to talk to business partners and customers in his first 30 days — including agents who sell Nationwide products and those who own insurance plans from the company — many weren't accustomed to speaking to a chief information officer.

But instead of discussing highly technical topics that could alienate those without the proper background, Fowler talked about ways to use technology to change the processes at Nationwide. "That was probably new for them," he said.

First, he would ask how both Nationwide and the customer make money to learn more about how best to deliver value for those members. Fowler would then press individuals on what Nationwide should continue to do and what it can do better.

"You get some really interesting answers when you put it in those terms," he said.

Lastly, Fowler would ask: what can't fail in the next six months? The answer helped determine which areas were critical to the success of the company.

Figuring out how tech capabilities can match the business needs

After soliciting feedback, Fowler worked with his team to establish an overarching strategy. 

Chief among the guiding principles was the need to launch products faster, as well as address concerns among independent agents — or those who sell products from more than one insurer — who felt sidelined in the digital transformation effort. Nationwide is aiming to move entirely to an independent agent model by 2002.

Lastly, employees wanted a less structured environment. When an associate would request a change to an internal system, for example, it often went through as many as nine different people before getting to the person who would actually implement it. Now, it's a more direct system. 

"We very quickly identified ways that we could lean out our own processes to be more responsive," Fowler said. 

Read more: 'Everything is up for disruption': Why MuleSoft's founder thinks the digital revolution could lead more CIOs to become CEOs

Driving the disruption by giving team members 'permission' to innovate

Key to Fowler implementing his vision was giving the business and technology teams the "permission" to innovate. Prior to his arrival, much of the opportunity for closer collaboration was squandered by barriers between the teams. A first step was making the two sectors sit together in the office. 

In one instance, Fowler relocated those who managed life insurance policies with the corresponding technology team. At the start of that move, it took 41 days to get a life insurance application through the approval process. Now, over 40 percent of submissions are finished in less than six hours.

"We're seeing huge increases in output and reductions in the cost of delivery," he said.

Fowler also sought to give those individuals closest to the customer the ability to make decisions quickly. To make sure it went into effect in practice, he made his team agree upon a strategy and write it down as a guiding principle. That helped avoid everyone walking away "with a different idea of what that meant and how we wanted to drive that."

'We're going to make some mistakes': Why it has to be OK to fail

Perhaps most importantly, however, Fowler made it OK to fail.

"We're an insurance company at our core. We don't take risks lightly," he said. "But don't mistake expeditious for reckless. There's a way to do it."

To prevent any widespread disruption with the experimentation, Fowler would make team members take steps like segmenting a new product or service to a single market. He even made an example out of himself. Fowler, for example, decided to move the help desk for agents to a self-service model. Overnight, wait times went up tenfold and he quickly put 20 individuals back on the desk.

"Even at the leadership team, we're going to make some mistakes and we're going to correct quickly and move on," Fowler said. "It's OK to make some mistakes as long as you did it non-recklessly in a way that you can recover."

SEE ALSO: Chief data officers are the C-suite's hottest role. Here's why your company needs one, and how to find a rock star to fill the post.

DON'T MISS: The ultimate guide to becoming a better boss in 30 days https://www.businessinsider.com/ultimate-guide-how-to-become-better-boss-30-days-2019-4

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• If you're feeling the effects of burnout, your commute might have something to do with it.
• Americans spend 20 more total minutes commuting than they did a decade ago, adding to the factors that make a city hard to work in.
• According to a new study by Kempler Industries, Texas might be the hardest-working place to live: The Lone Star state is home to seven of the top 10 overworked cities.
• The hardest-working city in the country is Washington, DC, where nearly 1 in 4 workers are 65 or older.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Americans are spending more time commuting than ever — and it's driving workers to burn out.

The average American commute rose to 27 minutes one-way in 2018. Workers now spend 20 more minutes commuting now than they did a decade ago, resulting in 17 additional hours in a year, according to The Washington Post. That same report found that the average American worker spent 225 hours (or more than nine days) stuck in their commute in 2018.

Rising commutes, along with long workdays and little time for vacation, is causing Americans to hate working.

Read more:7 things you should never say to a coworker who just got laid off

A recent study by machinery dealer Kempler Industries highlighted 25 areas where Americans are most over-worked. The study rated each city based on five criteria:

1. Length of their workweek
2. Average commute time
3. Percentage of the workforce aged 16 to 64
4. Percentage of seniors (65+) in the workforce
5. Percentage of unused vacation days among workers

Here are the 25 US cities where workers are likely most at risk of burnout, in increasingly overworked order.

Ivan De Luce contributed to a previous version of this story.

SEE ALSO: The 20 best college towns in America to start your career

25. Denver, Colorado

Average commute: 25.3 minutes

Average workweek: 39.7 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.3%

Senior workforce: 19.8%

Overall score: 72.5

24. Aurora, Illinois

Average commute: 28.8 minutes

Average workweek: 38.7 hours

16-64 workforce: 66.9%

Senior workforce: 20.2%

Overall score: 72.5

23. Nashville, Tennessee

Average commute: 24.6 minutes

Average workweek: 39.1 hours

16-64 workforce: 65.9%

Senior workforce: 22.4%

Overall score: 73.7

22. Chicago, Illinois

Average commute: 34.6 minutes

Average workweek: 38.7 hours

16-64 workforce: 66%

Senior workforce: 16%

Overall score: 73.7

21. Charlotte, North Carolina

Average commute: 25.3 minutes

Average workweek: 39.8 hours

16-64 workforce: 67.4%

Senior workforce: 20.5%

Overall score: 73.7

20. Baltimore, Maryland

Average commute: 30.7 minutes

Average workweek: 38.8 hours

16-64 workforce: 65.9%

Senior workforce: 18%

Overall score: 73.7

19. Virginia Beach, Virginia

Average commute: 23.7 minutes

Average workweek: 40.2 hours

16-64 workforce: 69.3%

Senior workforce: 20.8%

Overall score: 75.0

18. Pembroke Pines, Florida

Average commute: 31.5 minutes

Average workweek: 38.8 hours

16-64 workforce: 71.1%

Senior workforce: 16%

Overall score: 75.0

17. Corona, California

Average commute: 36.7 minutes

Average workweek: 37.7 hours

16-64 workforce: 66.5%

Senior workforce: 19%

Overall score: 75.0

16. Aurora, Colorado

Average commute: 29.3 minutes

Average workweek: 39.2 hours

16-64 workforce: 66.6%

Senior workforce: 20%

Overall score: 75.0

15. Fremont, California

Average commute: 33.6 minutes

Average workweek: 38.7 hours

16-64 workforce: 73.1%

Senior workforce: 16%

Overall score: 76.2

14. Fort Worth, Texas

Average commute: 27 minutes

Average workweek: 39.8 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.7%

Senior workforce: 19.7%

Overall score: 76.2

13. Austin, Texas

Average commute: 24.1 minutes

Average workweek: 39.6 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.7%

Senior workforce: 22.8%

Overall score: 76.2

12. Santa Clarita, California

Average commute: 34.9 minutes

Average workweek: 38.4 hours

16-64 workforce: 63.9%

Senior workforce: 20.2%

Overall score: 77.5

11. Yonkers, New York

Average commute: 34.3 minutes

Average workweek: 38.3 hours

16-64 workforce: 65.7%

Senior workforce: 20.4%

Overall score: 78.7

10. New York, New York

Average commute: 40.8 minutes

Average workweek: 39.1 hours

16-64 workforce: 67.5%

Senior workforce: 17%

Overall score: 78.7

9. Arlington, Texas

Average commute: 27.2 minutes

Average workweek: 39.4 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.2%

Senior workforce: 21.8%

Overall score: 78.7

8. Irving, Texas

Average commute: 24.2 minutes

Average workweek: 39.4 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.2%

Senior workforce: 21.8%

Overall score: 78.7

7. San Francisco, California

Average commute: 32.8 minutes

Average workweek: 40.1 hours

16-64 workforce: 66.4%

Senior workforce: 18%

Overall score: 81.2

6. Garland, Texas

Average commute: 28.6 minutes

Average workweek: 39.1 hours

16-64workforce:68.2%

Seniorworkforce:23.1%

Overall score: 81.2

5. Houston, Texas

Average commute: 27 minutes

Average workweek: 40 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.6%

Senior workforce: 22%

Overall score: 82.5

4. Grand Prairie, Texas

Average commute: 28.6 minutes

Average workweek: 39.5 hours

16-64 workforce: 71.3%

Senior workforce: 22.4%

Overall score: 83.7

3. Dallas, Texas

Average commute: 26.8 minutes

Average workweek: 40.2 hours

16-64 workforce: 70.5%

Senior workforce: 22.5%

Overall score: 83.7

2. Plano, Texas

Average commute: 26.5 minutes

Average workweek: 40.1 hours

16-64 workforce: 73%

Senior workforce: 25.4%

Overall score: 88.7

1. Washington, DC

Average commute: 30 minutes

Average workweek: 40.1 hours

16-64 workforce: 68.8%

Senior workforce: 24.1%

Overall score: 90.0

• Desiree Wright, a 37-year-old single mom of three kids, plays piano for thousands of people on Microsoft's Mixer streaming service.
• For years, Wright streamed her music on Amazon-owned Twitch, but she made the jump to Mixer earlier this year. There, she's gained roughly the same number of followers in nine months that she made in four years on Twitch.
• In an interview with Business Insider, Wright explained why she made the jump — and why she recommends anyone considering a career in streaming to try Mixer first.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two years ago, I met Desiree Wright while walking the show floor at Bungie's big reveal event for "Destiny 2" in Southern California.

Wright lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her three kids. For years, Wright split her time between giving piano lessons during the day and streaming even more piano playing at night on Twitch, chatting with her community and taking song requests until the early hours of the morning. She was getting around four hours of sleep daily.

In January, though, Wright made a decision: She was going to leave Amazon-owned Twitch for a different streaming service called Mixer, which is run by Microsoft. Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, one of the most popular video-game players in the world, notably made the same decision a few months ago.

"I had planned on trying it out for a month, but I honestly liked it so much that after two weeks I went ahead and officially announced that I was going to completely move over," Wright told Business Insider in a phone interview.

Read more:Jessica Blevins, the 27-year-old manager and wife of the most popular video-game player in the world, reveals the inside story of Ninja's move to Microsoft's Mixer

Wright has no regrets about her decision. In about nine months, she has accumulated well over 9,000 followers. Wright said it took four years to get the same number of followers on Twitch.

"If you're starting out streaming right now, I don't know honestly why you would go to Twitch," she said. "If you're starting out brand-new, you should go to Mixer, I feel like that's a no-brainer."

Reasons for moving

Wright said there are two key reasons why she prefers Mixer over Twitch: Discoverability, and support.

"Twitch is oversaturated. We all know it," Wright told Business Insider.

When you visit Twitch.tv, you'll see a carousel of featured streamers, popular channels, plus games and categories you might like. But Twitch doesn't give viewers much of an incentive to explore elsewhere.

"Within the music group specifically, we had a lot of the same viewers that were staying within music, and it was really hard to get outside people to watch the music directory. So all the music streamers were kind of sharing the same people," Wright said. "I felt like I had a quality stream, quality content, and I was streaming as much as I could, but just feeling like I couldn't really get as far as I wanted to. It was really frustrating. I knew I could probably grow more, but I have to do these crazy odd hours and I couldn't do it anymore. It was not good for my health. "

Mixer.com, on the other hand, offers more opportunities to discover new streams, including curated stations like Channel One that get premium real estate on the homepage. Channel One is a station run by Mixer itself, and cycles through random Mixer partners every 15 minutes.

Channel One can have a huge impact on your channel: Wright said she's gotten thousands of viewers and hundreds of followers from being randomly featured there.

"Yesterday, I got hosted by Channel One and I got over 350 followers," she said. "I was getting maybe a follower on Twitch a day."

For streamers, venues like Channel One offer a great way to grow your audience. Channel One is reserved for Mixer partners only, but Wright says the requirements to becoming a partner were "a lot more attainable" compared to Twitch.

The Ninja effect

You may not have heard of Mixer prior to August 1 of this year. That's when Tyler "Ninja" Blevins — the most popular Twitch streamer in the world, at the time — announced he was leaving Twitch, the platform where he rose to fame, for Mixer. 

According to Wright, the impact of Ninja's decision was almost immediate: There has been a major influx of not just viewers, but content creators, too.

"Ninja just brought more awareness [to Mixer]," she said. "I don't really think that people are thinking they are going to be able to get money like him, but I think if they watch his stream and see how clear and how great it looks, they want to go check it out, you know?"

While Ninja's massive following will boost Mixer's overall viewership, Wright believes it's ultimately going to attract more streamers and content creators because there's "more potential for growth."

Mixer encourages discovery, but it also rewards participation. Simply watching or commenting on Mixer gives you Sparks, one of Mixer's in-app currencies, which you can use to interact with streamers with GIFs and other visual effects. You earn sparks for every minute you watch on Mixer, which creates a feedback loop for viewers: The more you watch, the more you can interact with your favorite streamers.

Mixer has also experimented with viewer incentives, where streamers could make a certain amount of money based on how many viewers dropped into their stream, or how many sparks they accumulated from viewers. These systems continue to change, but it highlights Mixer's willingness to create an ecosystem that works equally well for viewers and creators alike.

"On Mixer, I have a very normal schedule and I can get the same number of viewers I was getting on Twitch at odd hours, or better — much better," she said. "I'm not going to tell everybody to go switch to Mixer. I think it's a very individual decision. But when I tried it out, I just knew at that point this is the right fit. So I went with it quickly because I had felt like I had done everything that I could do on Twitch."

Desiree Wright streams on Mixer starting around 10 a.m. Eastern on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and afternoons on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

SEE ALSO: Meet 'Lady Desirée,' a single mother of three whose life changed after posting a video to YouTube

DON'T MISS: Jessica Blevins, the 27-year-old manager and wife of the most popular video-game player in the world, reveals the inside story of Ninja's move to Microsoft's Mixer

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Employer branding specialists Universum provided Business Insider with an exclusive analysis of what Hispanic and Latinx college students want from their future employers.
• Self-identified Hispanic and Latinx students were more likely than their peers to look for a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
• There were also somewhat more likely to want to work in the healthcare and arts and entertainment sectors.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15, and younger Hispanic and Latinx Americans are entering the workforce in larger numbers than ever before. Here's what they're looking for from their future employers.

Employer branding specialists Universum runs an annual survey of tens of thousands of college students, asking new entrants to the workforce what they are looking for from their future employers.

Universum provided Business Insider an exclusive analysis of which job attributes self-identified Hispanic or Latinx students said were important to them compared with the overall results among all students in the survey.

In the US, the traditional age for college students is between 18 and 22. Using the Pew Research Center's cutoffs for different generations, the post-millennial Gen Z consists of people born in 1997 or later. That means, as of 2019, the overwhelming majority of traditional college students are in Gen Z.

Universum asked students about 40 employer and job attributes, broken into four groups of 10 each: employer reputation and image, people and culture, remuneration and advancement opportunities, and job characteristics. Students are asked to list up to three attributes in each category as being most important to them in their future careers.

Read more: Where Americans say their ancestors came from, in 17 maps

Hispanic students were much more likely than the overall survey population to say that they wanted a commitment to diversity and inclusion from their future employers, and also ranked support for future education more highly than their peers. Here are seven attributes a greater share of Hispanic students ranked as important than the overall survey population:

Universum also asked students to select up to three industries from a list of 20 that they would like to work in. Hispanic and Latinx students were more likely to list the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry and healthcare services than the overall student survey population:

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• MOD Pizza is America's fastest-growing restaurant chain, beating out popular chains like Shake Shack and Jersey Mike's, according to Nation's Restaurant News' latest ranking.
• MOD cofounder Ally Svenson recently told Business Insider that the chain never prioritized growth, instead focusing on filling a need for its customers and employees. 
• MOD's purpose-driven business model, which utilizes the practice of "impact hiring," or hiring people with significant barriers to employment, leads to a greater degree of employee enfranchisement and, therefore, better customer service, she said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In 2019, MOD Pizza raised a whopping $160 million with plans to open 1,000 locations total.

But MOD, currently the fastest-growing restaurant chain in America according to Nation's Restaurant News, started off by tiptoeing onto the restaurant scene during the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. 

It was in 2008, as the financial crisis wsa beginning, that Ally Svenson and her husband, Scott, decided to found MOD Pizza in Seattle. They set out to create a business that would have an impact and that would meet the needs of families and diners experiencing the effects of the recession.

"It's not a logical time to open a restaurant or to launch a business. But we used it to our advantage," Ally Svenson recently told Business Insider in an interview. 

The Svensons implemented a one-price model to provide a strong value proposition for recession-era customers who had limited disposable income.

"Just building a fast-casual pizza business for the sake of building a big business was not something that justified the investment for us. But being able to build something that changed lives and had a purpose beyond its product was very interesting to us," she said. 

They envisioned their new company as making a dent in rising unemployment numbers in places where gainful employment would have the greatest impact. Impact hiring, a term that refers to MOD's practice of hiring people with significant barriers to employment, has been central to MOD since the beginning, and Svenson said it has contributed significantly to its above-average employee satisfaction and, therefore, to its customer service. 

"We didn't really know at the time how significant that was until we started to watch this type of employee," she said. "These individuals became so committed. Their work ethic was incredible, and this translated into pretty tremendous customer service."

But it would take five years of experimentation before the Svensons were ready to expand. Ally Svenson said that they wanted to fail fast in order to find out what worked and what didn't.

"When we opened the first location in Seattle, we really opened the laboratory to create the category of fast-casual pizza. We had so much to figure out, so we took years to get it right and to make sure that what we had was a sound business that was worthy of scaling. Once we knew that we had accomplished that, we then had to ask whether or not this was a growth that we wanted to pursue," she said. 

The Svensons strongly considered keeping MOD a regional brand. Staying in the Seattle area would allow for the Svensons to regularly visit each location and to keep the network of restaurants closely connected to each other. 

Read more:I ate at MOD Pizza, America's fastest-growing restaurant chain, and saw why it's miles ahead of the competition

Ultimately, it came back to the "why" of MOD: impact. For the MOD "squad," that need is food insecurity, and the opportunity is to combat it, both inside and outside of the restaurant space. MOD facilitates mealpacking events at its restaurants, often partnering with local businesses and organizations. Employees have also been eager to participate.

"Many [of our employees] have stepped forward and shared their stories around how they grew up with food insecurity, so they've been very motivated to give back. We're a for-profit business, but our purpose is to make a positive social impact," Svenson said.

The Svensons are very protective of the MOD brand: only 25% of the chain's more than 400 restaurants are franchise locations. Those restaurants are run by a total of nine franchise partners. 

Even now, while MOD is the fastest-growing chain in America, Svenson said the team remains cautious and thoughtful about growth.

"We haven't been growing for the sake of growing. We've been growing in response to a need and opportunity," she said. 

SEE ALSO: Exactly what to eat and do at the iconic Pike Place Market, according to a Seattle native

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Your boss's impression of you is important, since he or she controls the projects you work on and whether you get promoted or fired.
• Signs that your boss doesn't like you can be subtle, since you're working together in a professional capacity.
• According to experts, you should should be wary if your boss doesn't want to get to know you, talks over you in meetings, or is not concerned about your advancement at the company.

• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Your boss's impression of you is important, since he or she largely controls the projects you work on and whether you are promoted or fired. If you have a strong relationship, your boss can become your biggest advocate. If you don't, your job could be on the line.

Some bosses will be direct about their feedback and where your relationship stands, but not everyone is comfortable with confrontation. Your boss might not say what he or she really thinks, so you have to learn to read the subtle and not-so-subtle signs.

Business Insider spoke to Dr. Amy Cooper Hakim, founder of the Florida-based management consulting firm The Cooper Strategic Group and author of "Working With Difficult People," to find out the signs that your boss is just not that into you and what to do about it.

SEE ALSO: 9 real people explain how they realized they needed to quit their job

1. He or she doesn’t want to get to know you

Let's say you only hear from your boss when he or she needs something from you or there is a scheduled meeting on the calendar. You've tried to strike up a casual conversation or even just say "hello" in the morning, but he or she seems completely disinterested.

This could be a sign that your boss doesn't like you personally and only thinks of you as someone who can get the job done, according to Cooper Hakim. "Your boss may appreciate your work product and performance, but he doesn't care to get to know you or to interact beyond that point," she said.

Sure, your boss doesn't have to be your BFF, but if you notice that he or she is friendly with other people they manage, it could be a reflection of what they think of you.

2. He or she talks over you in meetings

Whenever you start to explain your ideas in meetings, your boss interrupts you and steals the metaphorical mic. Now you know all too well how Taylor Swift must have felt at the MTV Awards when Kanye West swooped in mid-speech.

"It shows that your boss doesn't respect you or your ideas, or she is more interested in promoting her own agenda than in listening to anyone else's opinions, including yours," Cooper Hakim said.

3. He or she passes you over for projects

You've expressed interest in projects that you think you're qualified for, but you are never chosen for the role. Instead, your boss takes the lead or gives it to someone else he or she manages.

Your boss either doesn't listen when you share your goals, or he or she hears them but blows you off. This is a sign that your boss doesn't care about helping you accomplish your goals, Cooper Hakim told Business Insider. It could also be a sign that he or she doesn't trust you or think you're qualified to lead the project.

4. He or she doesn’t care about your career advancement

A boss who is committed to your career growth will ask about your career goals and advocate for you at work. After all, he or she has a big say in what you work on, your responsibilities, and your advancement.

If your boss doesn't ask about your ideal career path, or asks but doesn't try to help you get there, you can assume that your boss is not interested in your long-term plans or career advancement, according to Cooper Hakim. "Your boss just thinks of you as a means to get the job that he wants done," she said.

5. They are not concerned with your wellbeing

After you are out sick, your boss jumps right into everything he or she needs you to do without taking 10 seconds to ask if you are feeling better. When you have to miss work for a personal obligation, he or she asks if you can skip it or move it to a day that's more convenient for him.

These are surefire signs that your boss doesn't care about how you feel, physically or emotionally, and only cares about things directly related to work, Cooper Hakim said. Again, it's not your boss's job to be your friend, but they should still care about your wellbeing.

If you don’t think your boss likes you, here’s what you can do

Nodding your head to any or all of these? Now that you know that your boss doesn't like you as much as you may have thought, you need to evaluate your next steps. First, consider whether or not your boss acts like that with everyone. If so, try not to take it too personally.

If you like your job and have a good relationship with the rest of your team, Cooper Hakim recommended focusing on your relationships with your teammates and being less concerned with developing a strong relationship with your boss. "Recognize that your goal is to get your work done and to please them with a solid work product. Even though it is ideal to love working with your boss, we go to work to work," Cooper Hakim said.

But if your boss treats you differently than everyone else or you are so uncomfortable at work that it has a negative impact on your physical and emotional health, it may be time to start looking for another job, Cooper Hakim said.

"If your boss is outwardly rude or inconsiderate on a regular basis, and if this is unbearable for you, then it is likely time to move on. It is reasonable and appropriate to expect to be treated with kindness and respect," she said.

• 63% of job seekers with student loan debt said they would give up PTO in exchange for help paying off student loan debt, according to a new survey by job marketplace ZipRecruiter.
• The weight of student loan debt is heavy: it's driving borrowers to file for bankruptcy and delay life milestones like buying a home and having kids.
• However, exchanging vacation time for help paying off student loan debt may not be a good idea, as it could end up losing you money in the long run.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

American workers have a record amount of student debt — and they'd rather have it gone before going on vacation.

For people with student loan debt who were looking for a job, 63% said they would give up paid time off in exchange for help paying off student loan debt, according to a new survey by job marketplace ZipRecruiter provided to Business Insider. The survey polled 10,500 active job seekers in the US on SurveyMonkey in July 2019.

The average amount of vacation time people would give up in exchange for student debt relief was 2.3 months, but nearly a quarter of surveyed workers would give up five months of paid time off for help with loans.

While only one-tenth of job postings on ZipRecruiter advertise help paying off employee student debt, the company told Business Insider this perk is increasing in popularity. Major companies like Fidelity, Aetna, and Penguin Random House now have some sort of student debt relief program for employees.

"The big picture is that student loan debt puts an enormous pressure on job seekers," Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told Business Insider.

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

Paying off student debt is one of the biggest challenges American workers face

Today, the average student debt per graduating student in 2018 who took out loans is $29,800, and the national student loan debt total now exceeds $1.5 million, according to Student Loan Hero.

Student loan debt is so crippling that it's leading some borrowers to file for bankruptcy. And as many as 40% of borrowers could default on their student loans by 2023, according to the 2018 Brookings Institution report.

It's even harder to pay off when coupled with the financial fallout from the Great Recession and rising living costs. It's one of the key drivers causing millennials to delay traditional life milestones like buying a home and having kids. 

"I feel like buying a house is a total pipe dream at this point in my life," a water-resources engineer who graduated from a public university with roughly $25,000 in debt previously told Business Insider.

The burden is so stressful that nearly half of indebted millennials think college wasn't worth the student loans, according to an Insider and Morning Consult survey. 

But while getting your boss to help pay off your student loans sounds nice, it may not be wise to give up your vacation time for it. The average monthly student loan payment for grads is $393, while the median weekly salary for full-time workers is $908— meaning giving up a week of vacation for one student loan payment loses you money.

"We would highly encourage job seekers to make sure it's a fair trade," Pollak said. "We would encourage workers to think very carefully about the numbers or do whatever they can to consolidate their loans or look into cheaper consolidation options before giving up valuable benefits."

SEE ALSO: Your vacation is stressing out your millennial coworkers, and social media is only making it worse

SEE ALSO: 8 startling facts that show just how hard the student-debt crisis is hurting black Americans

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Sankarshan Murthy is the founder of Bumblebee Spaces, a robotics startup.
• Before starting his company, Murthy worked at Apple as a product manager, then at Tesla as a staff product technologist.
• As a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the best MBA programs in the world, Murthy attributes a lot of his business mindset to his favorite class in business school.
• This course was Organizational Behavior, lead by Adam Grant, which taught students how to generate ideas, build team trust, and find flow at work.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

After Sankarshan Murthy got two master's degrees — one in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the other in technology management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (one of the leading business schools in the world) — it was on to work at Apple and then Tesla.

The native of India was a product manager for the iPhone and Apple Watch from 2012 to 2016. Then at Tesla he was a staff product technologist, working on the Model Y electric vehicle and learning the value of jumping on an idea, unfettered by company bureaucracy. 

Elon Musk "set up the organization in such a way that there are no information blockers," Murthy told Business Insider. "So, if you find something inspirational to work on, or you find a problem that needs to be fixed, you get to jump on it and take it. That gives a certain level of empowerment to the people working there." 

Read more: An engineer who spent 15 years working at Apple shares what it takes to land a role at the tech giant, where engineers are paid over $100,000 a year

That free-spirit atmosphere is something Murthy hopes to achieve with his own company, Bumblebee Spaces, which he started in 2017 and has been featured in Inc., the New York Times, and CNBC.

Bumblebee's mission is to create "a new way to live by unlocking the third dimension," according to the company's website. To do this, it uses smart robots and artificial intelligence to increase usable space and reduce a room's footprint by storing objects in the ceiling and retrieving them on demand.

The company's videosshow the possibilities of this futuristic outlook — you can put away your bed, your nightstand, or almost any other piece of furniture with the press of a button.

Murthy says one of his greatest influences when launching his company was a class that he took at Wharton with Professor Adam Grant called Organizational Behavior. Grant is the Saul P. Steinberg professor of management and professor of psychology at the business school who has been recognized as Wharton's top-rated professor for seven straight years. He's also been recognized in Fortune's 40 under 40 list and the author of three New York Times bestselling books.

Murthy shared with Business Insider the best lessons he gained from Grant's course.

The Organizational Behavior curriculum covers motivation, methods of generating ideas, team trust building, finding flow at work, human psychology, and personality traits

The Wharton course sparked inspiration for Murthy almost as soon as he sat down in the classroom for the first time. 

"It was like, oh my god, we cracked something about how the human mind works," Murthy recalled about being in Grant's class. "We didn't know exactly what to do with" the discovery, he added, "but it was a real mind bender."

Assignments involved actual idea generation, covering different methods of negotiation, and job crafting to find the best flow at work.

"The job crafting exercise really helped me craft my own role as a founder, and now I choose to find ways to craft my role to be close to product since that's what I enjoy most," Murthy said. "If for consecutive days I find myself working on things that I don't find flow in, I craft my role to make the best impact. This technique has worked very well for me in big companies as well as startups." 

Read more: Here's exactly what it takes to get into Wharton's MBA program, the No. 1 business school in the world

Murthy said he learned from Grant's class that traditional brainstorming  — people suggesting ideas in a group setting — isn't effective because quieter people are less likely to participate and others may hold back their creative ideas with "conformity norms kicking in and people nodding along." 

"So, at Bumblebee we don't brainstorm at work," he said. "We allow folks to bake their ideas on their own and present within schedule and cost constraints."

All the lessons Murthy picked up from the class have played a crucial role in how he builds his Bumblebee Spaces team, negotiates internally and externally, and understands people's psychological motivations.

"Every human interaction is influenced by various psychological factors, along with incentives. Everyone thinks they're making rational decisions, but it's so far from the truth," he said. "I realized very quickly, like in building Bumblebee, the most important thing — more than customer experience, competitors, technology — is people, and how you interact with people. It's either you're trying to convince people to invest in the company or join the company or be among the early adopters of the technology. And not every decision is made as a rational decision." 

When it comes to team building, Murthy said he learned that having an underdog mindset can be especially motivating for employees.

"We [at Bumblebee] feel like special forces, we're pirates," he explained. "You're super tight, you get a sense of camaraderie, you get a sense of kind of taking on the system, and you feel like there's something to prove. We're pirates in real estate; we really don't belong in the real estate industry. This gives us that black-sheep feeling — we don't belong, but we're going to change the world." 

Murthy also discovered that passion can be an especially powerful business tool when running a company.

"What I took away from his class was the underlying forces of how people approach decision making [and] how people approach transactions in general," Murthy said. "If they're truly in love with what they're doing — the love for the mission, the love for the company — and you're able to activate the love hormones in some way, when there's so much love, people find a way to make things happen. So, we want to build this atmosphere in the company where people are just so stoked to be there."

Milwaukee journalist Tom Kertscher was a 35-year newspaper reporter, finishing that career at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Now a freelance writer, his work includes fact-check reporting for PolitiFact and sports reporting for Associated Press. His reporting on Steven Avery was featured in Making a Murderer. Kertscher is the author of sports books on Brett Favre and Al McGuire. Follow him at TomKertscher.com and on Twitter @KertscherNews and @KertscherSports.

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• As tensions have mounted between Google employees and leadership, the company's cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are missing in action.
• None of the 13 current and former employees we spoke with knew exactly why Page and Brin had receded into the background, though some speculated that the billionaires simply didn't want to be bothered with the growing criticism the company faces.
• In their absence, vocal employee organizers have stepped up their efforts to overturn controversial projects like licensing artificial-intelligence technology to the Pentagon and developing a censored search engine in China.
• Those efforts have flourished, organizers say, not because of Google's culture of open debate but because of the escalating stakes at a time when trust in leadership has dwindled.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

When word spread through Google this August that the US Customs and Border Protection needed a new cloud-services provider, the company's battle-tested organizers sprang into action.

A group of about 10 employees drafted a petition calling on the company to forgo bidding on the lucrative project to move CBP's IT infrastructure to the cloud. In doing any work with CBP, the petition read, Google "would be trading its integrity for a bit of profit." Within the first day, over 1,200 employees had added their names in opposition.

The tactics reflected the culture of openness and debate instituted by Google's cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. At company all-hands meetings, called "TGIFs" (which now happen on Thursdays, but not every week), employees could question the cofounders directly and would often receive a candid response.

But confidence in Google's cofounders — who have said that the company's ethos would not be sacrificed for short-term profits — is waning. Page and Brin still weigh in on some business decisions from behind the scenes, according to recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings and conversations with board members. But they have largely been MIA — even at TGIFs, their traditional domain.

Page and Brin's absence has left employees to bear much of the burden of upholding the principle of "don't be evil," the famous phrase from the company's early code of conduct. Employees tell us that if they want to create change at Google — or at least uphold the values it once claimed to stand for — they know they will have to fight.

A loss of trust 

Once upon a time, Google had a censored search engine in China. For Brin, who grew up in the Soviet Union, this presented a moral dilemma.

"At some point you have to stand back and challenge this and say, 'This goes beyond the line of what we're comfortable with and adopt that for moral reasons,'"Brin said in a 2010 interview.

Google would rescind its search engine in China mostly for reasons of "opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent," the brazen cofounder said at the time.

Exiting China inspired the rank and file: Leadership would actually walk the walk on their principles, even if it meant forfeiting the world's biggest market. It would also help draw some of Silicon Valley's best and brightest, inspired by the commitment to ethics over profit.

But eight years later, Googlers encouraged by the exit from China would come to find out it was too good to be true. In August 2018, The Intercept reported that Google planned to return to China with a new, censored version of its search engine, a project known as Dragonfly.

"It was primarily a shock because it was both secret and it completely contradicted Google's public stance," Jack Poulson, a former senior research scientist at Google who resigned over the plan to reenter China, told us.

For Google "to be privately deciding that it was no longer concerned with human rights on this situation," he said, "it was upsetting."

And this time around, the response from Google's leadership would be quite different.

At a TGIF meeting two weeks after news of the confidential project leaked, Brin said he had learned about Dragonfly only because of the "kerfuffle" it raised inside the company. (After The Intercept broke the news, a group of engineers who had been working on Dragonfly used the company's internal Google Plus pages to describe how they had for months been raising ethical concerns about the project to management, setting off a vigorous internal debate.)

"Employees were bothered by such a serious human-rights issue being described in such an offhand, kind of demeaning way," Poulson said of Brin's reaction to the outcry over Dragonfly.

Weeks later, at an event hosted by Wired, Sundar Pichai, who was promoted to Google CEO in 2015, would double down on Dragonfly. Working in China, which accounted for 20% of the world's population, would fulfill the company's mission to "provide information to everyone," he said. Even a censored search engine would still be able to "serve well over 99% of the queries" to Chinese users, he added.

But that didn't satisfy the 740 employees who signed a petition calling on Google to cease its efforts in China.

Facing a firestorm of internal dissent, Google's leaders, including Pichai, softened their position. Google, they said publicly, has no plans "right now" to launch a search engine in China. Earlier this summer, the company finally confirmed it had terminated the project.

But there would be no victory lap for organizers — if anything, the Dragonfly incident sent a chill across the company, multiple sources said. Certain projects, like Google Wave, a communications tool with big ambitions, had been kept secret by Google. But none had "such serious ethical implications," Liz Fong-Jones, a former site-reliability engineer at Google and a longtime organizer, told us.

Trust between the rank and file and Google's leadership eroded further in October 2018, when The New York Times published a bombshell exposé detailing the company's $90 million exit package for the Android creator Andy Rubin amid an allegation of sexual misconduct, which Rubin denied. Employees organized, and one week later, over 20,000 left their desks to protest the payout and the company's handling of harassment cases.

In a letter to employees after the Times report, Pichai would admit that 48 Google employees had been fired over the previous two years in connection with sexual-harassment allegations. Thirteen had held senior positions at the company.

The no-shows for Page and Brin are piling up 

Yet even as crisis threatened to engulf their company, Page and Brin stayed quiet. They did not attend the highly anticipated TGIF held one week after the walkout. Since then, the no-shows have piled up.

The extended absence is unprecedented. Claire Stapleton, a key walkout organizer who helped coordinate TGIFs early in her career at Google, even told us that former CEO Eric Schmidt would skip the meetings altogether, knowing they were in Page and Brin's hands.

While Pichai would regularly attend the meetings, she said, he would stand off to the side of the stage, weighing in only when tapped in by one of the cofounders.

"The optics were really weird," Stapleton said. Pichai has been CEO "for multiple years now, and he's still the bit player in this whole thing."

Except for one surprise appearance at a TGIF in late May, Page and Brin seem to have gone into hiding since the walkout. In fact, neither cofounder— who together hold most of the voting power within the company — even showed up to the company's annual shareholder meeting in June.

None of the 13 current and former Google employees we spoke with knew why Page and Brin had stepped out of the public eye. But some speculated that it had to do with the incidents that sparked the walkout.

"They're not exactly the people you would go to to rethink how sexual-harassment claims are handled," Fong-Jones told us.

That's because, a lawsuit reported by Bloomberg said, Page was responsible for approving the mega stock grant to Rubin despite the pending allegation against him. Brin, meanwhile, didn't have the cleanest record when it came to extramarital relationships: In 2013, AllThingsD reported that he was splitting from his wife, Anne Wojcicki, the 23andMe cofounder, and that Brin had become romantically involved with a Google employee.

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Others speculated that as the criticism of Google's work spiked, the multibillionaire cofounders perhaps just didn't want to be bothered.

"The charitable interpretation is that they're giving Sundar a chance to step up and lead," Fong-Jones said. "The uncharitable interpretation is that they're out to lunch — like literally on their yachts or something."

But even if the cofounders are out at sea, they are at least still making some key decisions.

For instance, an SEC filing from 2018 detailed that Page, the CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet, received a weekly briefing on the company's financials; so too did Brin. Page and Brin also advise on the company's other bets, like its self-driving-car initiative, Waymo, and its "energy kite" business, Makani, the filing said.

And at the stockholder meeting in June, John Hennessy, the chairman of Alphabet's board, confirmed that despite Page's absence from that gathering, he had attended every board meeting and spoke with other board members "frequently."

Google declined Business Insider's request for more information on Page and Brin's whereabouts and responsibilities.

As the cofounders moved out of the public arena, employee organizers have tried appealing to Pichai, they said. But any hope that he will champion their voice has mostly faded. That's because, they believe, the former product boss is beholden to other leaders within the company in ways that Page and Brin, as cofounders, are not.

"My hypothesis is that Sundar is an executive that tends to lead by consensus of his engineering VPs," Fong-Jones told us. "Those VPs are very, very short-term, bottom-line-driven, because a majority of their compensation is in stock."

Page and Brin, she added, "were more willing to do the right thing long-term because they're super rich anyway."

A push to end forced arbitration

When Googlers around the world staged a walkout last November, employee organizers also served the company's leadership a set of demands aimed at fixing some of its deeper institutional issues.

Pichai sent a companywide email one week later, describing the changes Google was willing to make. But rather than addressing each of the five demands, which included a commitment to ending pay inequity and the appointment of an employee representative to the company's board, Pichai's note largely ignored them.

"We knew that they were making an effort to avoid responding to the specific demands," Stapleton told us. "The response was loose. It felt lackluster."

Pichai promised to change the company's policy around forced arbitration, a practice common in corporate America whereby employees waive their right to take employment disputes to court and instead must settle the matters privately.

By the time Pichai announced the proposed change, some tech giants had already broken from that practice. In early 2018, Microsoft and Uber eliminated their mandatory-arbitration clauses for workers who experienced harassment. The decision would give employees the power of choice: settle with their employers, or take them to court.

By November, Pichai had said Google would end forced arbitration for individual sexual-harassment and sexual-assault claims, a big win for organizers who believed that an end to the practice was the cornerstone of the employee movement.

Google has maintained that it has never required arbitration cases to remain confidential.

"We thought of it as the gateway to any other issues that we wanted to tackle," a current Google employee who helped with the campaign to end forced arbitration told us.

But for organizers, Pichai's policy change — which didn't apply to cases of discrimination — didn't go far enough. The changes also did not protect Google's contract workers, a group known internally as TVCs, who reportedly outnumber full-time employees at the company. Nor did it cover employees at Alphabet's other bets, like Waymo or its life-sciences outfit, Verily.

In the following months, a group formed within Google with the aim of ending forced arbitration across Alphabet and sparking change across the tech industry. The group launched a social-media campaign and passed out stickers and pins across multiple US Google campuses. They also brought a panel of experts to the New York City office and livestreamed the discussion companywide for employees to better understand the downsides to forced arbitration.

"Our thinking was 'We will continue to be vocal until you address this,'" the current employee said.

By March, Google's leadership would follow organizers' demands and cut mandatory arbitration for all internal matters — a change that went further than most in the industry, but still fell short of covering TVCs and employees at Alphabet's other bets.

Meanwhile, during the campaign, some organizers would find their managers questioning their commitment to their day jobs, they said. One current employee said they would receive "side-eyed" looks from certain colleagues when passing them in the halls.

"I don't think anyone ... expected to not face any kind of repercussions, whether explicit or implicit," the current employee told us. "We just all chose to deal with them differently."

Google, for its part, has repeatedly said it prohibits retaliation.

In response to these claims, a Google representative told Business Insider: "We prohibit retaliation in the workplace and publicly share our very clear policy. To make sure that no complaint raised goes unheard at Google, we give employees multiple channels to report concerns, including anonymously, and investigate all allegations of retaliation."

'For some people, they're reevaluating what Google leadership is capable of'

As organizing efforts have galvanized a growing share of Google's workforce, so too have claims of retaliation by some employees who spoke out.

Stapleton and Meredith Whittaker, another walkout organizer, were the first to publicly call attention to their allegations of retaliation. Stapleton said she was demoted, while Whittaker said she was told that her role would be "changed dramatically."

Retaliation claims like Whittaker's "took a toll on the organizers," one current employee who also helped with the campaign to end forced arbitration told us.

"That took the wind out of a lot of people's sails," the organizer said. "For some people, they're reevaluating what Google leadership is capable of."

Both Stapleton and Whittaker left the company months later, citing retaliation as a main reason for leaving. Since then, other veteran organizers have followed them to the exits.

The company "thinks it can just get rid of a few key organizers and lock down communication, and they're hoping that will be a way forward," Irene Knapp, a former Google organizer who recently left after alleging retaliation, told us.

Meanwhile, top government agencies are coveting Google's growing cloud-computing infrastructure and the company is doubling down on investments in artificial intelligence. How it will govern those projects remains to be seen. Google says it remains one of the most open workplaces in world, giving employees multiple forums to raise concerns and receive feedback.

Still, with Page and Brin missing in action, the task of directing the company's moral compass seems likely to fall on the shoulders of the rank and file.

"Structural change is going to require them to move slowly. It's going to require them to miss market opportunities. It's going to require them to put metrics of well-being and ethics above revenue generation and infinite growth," Whittaker told us.

"Ultimately, we are asking for a corporation in 2019 to choose a vision of more common good and a service mission over a vision of profits and revenue, and that is anathema to the way corporations operate."

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• Successful entrepreneurship is about knowing the best way to fund your business.
• Raising venture capital isn't always the answer.
• Venture capitalists say the most important factor to consider is market size: How big could your company get?
• Ultimately, venture capitalists want a big return on their initial investment.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

If you're thinking about raising venture money for your startup, you should start by asking yourself one question: Is this business appropriate for a venture capitalist's investment?

Too many founders answer "yes" (if they bother questioning the wisdom of raising venture capital at all). It's part of how high-profile companies like Amazon and Google achieved success, the thinking goes, so it must be advisable for every startup.

And yet, in blindly pursuing venture capital, these entrepreneurs are setting themselves up for a series of rejections (or a difficult partnership with an investor down the road).

That's because venture capitalists look first and foremost at a company's potential market size. If yours isn't large enough, they won't want to work with you.

The economics have to make sense for a VC to invest in your company

David Rose, who runs Gust, a digital platform for early-stage entrepreneurs and investors, previously told Business Insider that a venture capitalist's decision comes down to numbers.

If, say, you're bringing in a maximum of $1 million a year in revenue, "it may be a great, wonderful, much-needed business," Rose said. "You may be doing the world a favor, or you may enjoy it and support your family. You may be able to make a fortune yourself and take vacations."

But, Rose emphasized, the economics of a business that brings in $1 million a year in revenue "are just such that there is no way that you can get an investment from me at any reasonable number for that to make economic sense."

Rose's approach to investing is hardly unique: Investors expect outsize returns on their money. Sometimes it's even a large multiple of what they put in. If your startup is generating revenue in the low millions, or if the likely exit price is in the low millions, a venture capitalist has minimal incentive to support you.

That's especially true because venture capitalists are well aware that most of the companies they back will fail. In fact, they generally make money only from the sliver of portfolio companies that are wildly successful.

Market size is the most important factor in a VC's decision to invest

Take it from Scott Kupor, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the venture-capital turned financial-services firm that invested in Facebook, Airbnb, and Lyft. Kupor previously told Business Insider, "For a venture capitalist who knows that they're going to be wrong a lot of the time, they have to figure out what's the likelihood this company could be in that upper-right tail of returns," the small number of companies with the highest return on investment.

Kupor went on: "When we're doing an early-stage investment, what we're trying to imagine is the 'what-if' question. 'What if this company worked? What could it look like? How big could it be? How much revenue could it generate? Ultimately, what could the equity value be?'" Then Kupor considers, based on what he knows about the company, "What do I think the likelihood is of that happening?"

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For entrepreneurs, that translates to one all-important consideration. In his 2019 book, "Secrets of Sand Hill Road," Kupor said anyone raising venture capital should be able to convince themselves and their potential investors that their business is able to bring in several hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue over the next seven to 10 years.

That means you could reasonably take your company public at a market capitalization of several billions of dollars, Kupor wrote. Which, in turn, means "the returns to the VC on this investment should be meaningful enough to move the needle on the fund's overall economics."

A business doesn't have to be a 'unicorn' to be successful

To reiterate what Rose said, if you aren't positioned to become the next Google or Facebook, that doesn't necessarily mean you're not building a successful business. It means your company may be a "lifestyle startup," which doesn't require venture capital and probably won't ever be a "unicorn" worth $1 billion.

Read more: The founder of a billion-dollar startup says you need to nail 'message-market fit' if you want to raise millions from investors

In the book, Kupor mentions smaller venture capital funds and debt financing from banks as two paths to raising capital without traditional venture-capital money. (You can also bootstrap your business, using personal funds and money from friends and family.)

Perhaps the most important takeaway here is to clarify your personal definition of success. You don't have to build a unicorn to get there.

Angela Lee, the founder of the venture-capital firm 37Angels and chief innovation officer at Columbia Business School, previously told Business Insider that a lifestyle startup could easily bring in $10 million a year. And, Lee said, "since when did making $10 million a year become a failure?"

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