Life of purpose

Image credit: Guru Khalsa @gurufoto “My undergraduate experience was one of real isolation,” says Pooja Sankar, founder and CEO of Piazza, the online platform where students can anonymously ask and answer questions on assignments and gain feedback from fellow students as well as professors. “I was surrounded by brilliant students but didn’t have access to them,” Sankar says of her time at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. “I was so shy, struggled to speak to boys and was in a male-dominated major. Every night I’d stay in the lab until 6 a.m., watching boys finish their projects and go home, while I was left to fight through [the assignments].” Years later, in 2008, Sankar was one of few women engineers at Facebook when  Sheryl Sandberg  joined the company as COO. The future  Lean In  author gathered her female employees in a room to discuss challenges they’d faced in their education and careers. “I thought my experience was unique t...

How to Change Your Career (And the Course of Your Life) in 6 Months Shorten Your Path to Success After winning the Mr. Universe title, Arnold Schwarzenegger first made millions in masonry and real-estate before turning to acting, and eventually politics. Jessica Alba’s net worth increased more than tenfold after she started The Honest Company and shifted her focus on her business instead of entertainment. Before becoming a bestselling author, John Grisham was a criminal lawyer and served in the House of Representatives. Why changing careers can be the best thing to ever happen to you There are countless examples of notable people who changed their careers multiple times in their lives. This is often fueled by one simple desire — to do what you love. From an early age, we’re conditioned to think that we should to strive towards a single career path, a convenient label that can encompass all of our interests, expertise, and goals. It’s no wonder many people feel stuck in jobs t...

Today, tens of thousands of people are considering starting a  home based business , and for good reasons. On average, people can expect to have two and three careers during their work life. Those leaving one career often think about their second or third career move being to their own home. People who have been part of the traditional nine-to-five work force and are on the verge of retiring from that life are thinking of what to do next. The good news: Starting a homebased business is within the reach of almost anyone who wants to take a risk and work hard. $1,500 or less to start up 1. ACCOUNTANT Experience, training or licensing may be needed Create a flier outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know what those services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a small business? A more involved level of accounting would be do actually work up balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and...