By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a>



Between running a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/#4d22de8f6ff5" class="">multi-billion dollar empire</a>, attempting to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/13/richard-branson-hopes-to-be-in-space-next-year-with-virgin-galactic.html" class="">head to space</a>&nbsp;and updating his blog multiple times per day, Virgin Group founder, Richard Branson, gets a lot done.



His top productivity trick is a simple habit that has nothing to do with making to-do lists, checking email or turning off notifications: “The only reason I’m able to do all the things I do and to keep on top of a busy schedule without getting too stressed is because I stay fit,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/importance-being-healthy" class="">the billionaire entrepreneur writes on his blog</a>.



Making time for exercise, he says, <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/10/richard-branson-says-this-daily-habit-doubles-his-productivity.html">doubles his productivity</a>.



“If people are feeling their best, they will be their most productive selves at work,” writes Branson. Plus, there are other benefits: “I find exercise the most natural and effective mood booster there is.”



Science backs him up: Studies show that exercise can help you out professionally by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/regular-exercise-releases-brain-chemicals-key-for-memory-concentration-and-mental-sharpness" class="">improving memory and mental sharpness</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.princeton.edu/news/2013/07/03/exercise-reorganizes-brain-be-more-resilient-stress?section=topstories" class="">reducing stress</a>&nbsp;and even&nbsp;<a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/" class="">promoting creativity</a>.



Branson, who prefers playing tennis, kite-surfing and lifting weights, dedicates at least an hour a day to working out. “Many people say they don’t have the time for exercise, and you’re right, you don’t have the time unless you make the time,” he says. Make it a priority, he encourages, because “there is nothing more important than looking after yourself.”



He’s not the only <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/29/7-habits-of-highly-successful-people-from-a-man-who-spent-5-years-studying-them.html">highly successful individual who makes time for exercise</a>.



“Staying in shape is very important,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a&nbsp;<a href="http://time.com/3942073/mark-zuckerberg-arnold-schwarzenegger/" class="">Q&amp;A</a>&nbsp;on his social media site. “Doing anything well requires energy, and you just have a lot more energy when you’re fit.”



Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban and Alexa von Tobel are among other top business leaders who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/preview/104202389" class="">prioritize fitness</a>.



To make it a consistent habit, find easy ways to fold exercise into your routine, says Branson: “Go for a walk around the park with a friend instead of going to the pub, find the health club closest to your house, join a team sport. &#8230; There are so many options — try a few and see what sticks.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/richard-bransons-top-productivity-trick.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/richard-bransons-top-productivity-trick.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Billionaire Richard Branson’s top productivity trick is a simple habit that has nothing to do with email or to-do lists

By<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jade-scipioni/"> Jade Scipioni</a> 



In 1975, at the age of 19,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/bill-gates-says-his-biggest-mistake-was-not-beating-google-on-android.html?forYou=true" class="">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;dropped out of his sophomore year at Harvard to launch Microsoft with his buddy Paul Allen.



Gates worked weekends and never took vacation in his 20s to get the company off the ground. And it worked. Today, Microsoft is valued at more than&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/" class="">$1 trillion</a>&nbsp;and Gates is the second richest man in the world with a net worth of around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/william-h-gates/" class="">$107 billion</a>&nbsp;(just $12 billion shy of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ fortune of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/jeffrey-p-bezos/" class="">$119 billion</a>).



“It really is true that I didn’t believe in weekends; I didn’t believe in vacations,” Gates told Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Julia Hartz&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&amp;amp;amp=&amp;amp;v=W5g4sPi1wd4" class="">Thursday</a>&nbsp;at a Village Global event.



Gates was at the office so much that he knew the license plates of everyone who worked for him, and he would see what time they would come and go and therefore how many hours his employees were putting in.&nbsp;



“Microsoft was a high-stress environment because Bill drove others as hard as he drove himself,” Gates’ co-founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/paul-allen/" class="">Allen</a>&nbsp;wrote in a 2011 article for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/paul-allen-201105" class="">Vanity Fair</a>. “He was growing into the taskmaster who would prowl the parking lot on weekends to see who’d made it in.”



Gates’ spy tactics and often intense office demeanor during the company’s prime years in the late ’80s and ’90s famously earned him the reputation as an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/17/advice-microsoft-billionaire-bill-gates-would-give-his-younger-self.html" class="">office bully</a>, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/young-bill-gates-was-an-angry-office-bully" class="">GQ.</a>



However, once he got into his 30s — and started dating his now-wife&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/06/14/melinda-gates-the-best-advice-warren-buffett-gave-me.html" class="">Melinda</a>&nbsp;— he said he began to relax a bit and started taking time off, which helped him tone it down.



“Now I take lots of vacation. My 20-year-old self is so disgusted with my current self. You know, I was sure I would never fly anything but coach and you know, now I have a plane,” Gates said.



He refers to the change of heart as a “counter revelation” and he said he can’t imagine working to those extremes today.



“I don’t recommend it and I don’t think most people would enjoy it,” he said.



However, he said he still believes that hard work is essential during the early years of building a business, especially if you want it to become something great.



“You’ll have individuals who have, you know, health or relatives or things that [distract them]. But yes, I have a fairly hardcore view that there should be a very large sacrifice made during those early years&#8230;.” he said.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/25/why-bill-gates-younger-self-would-be-disgusted-with-him-today.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/25/why-bill-gates-younger-self-would-be-disgusted-with-him-today.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Why Bill Gates says his 20-year-old self would be ‘so disgusted’ with him today

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/misheck-mutize-331377">Misheck Mutize</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>

International credit rating agencies have had their fair share of <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/credit-rating-controversy">controversies</a> over the years. They have been at the centre of the major financial crises from the financial markets collapse of <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/40208/Reagan_washington_0250E_17396.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">New York City in the mid-1970s</a>, the <a href="https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/36469/2/MPRA_paper_36469.pdf">Asian financial crisis</a> of 1997 – 1998, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/business/enron-s-collapse-rating-agencies-debt-rankings-finally-fizzle-but-deal-fizzled.html">Enron scandal</a> of 2001, to the <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-indisputable-role-of-credit-ratings-agencies-in-the-2008-collapse-and-why-nothing-has-changed/">global financial crisis of 2008</a>. All of these cost investors globally billions. 

Rating agencies are meant to give comfort about an issuer’s ability to repay debt. Ratings are essential in determining the level of interest rate that a borrower must pay. Inaccurate ratings therefore distort both the prices of debt instruments and the interest rates payable on them. As history has shown, this creates asset bubbles that eventually burst, disrupting the functioning of financial markets.

The three dominant international credit rating agencies – Standard &amp; Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch – have been accused of many faults including:

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.rt.com/business/421033-sp-credit-agency-lawsuit/">false ratings</a>; </li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-08-28-moodys-to-pay-16-mn-over-flawed-credit-ratings/">flawed methodology</a>; </li>
<li>encroaching on <a href="https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/54340/2016_Luten_PA_IEG.pdf?sequence=1">government policy</a>; </li>
<li>political <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0010414017710263">bias</a>, </li>
<li><a href="https://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Abdullah-Yalta.pdf">selective aggression</a>;</li>
<li>and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/852a0672-3904-11e4-9cce-00144feabdc0">rating shopping</a>. </li>
</ul>

These shortcomings originate from their ‘issuer-pay’ business model. The institution being rated pays for the rating which is used by investors. This means that the model has an inherent conflict of interest. 

Although this has been evident through various crises – most notably the financial meltdown in 2008 – regulatory mechanisms are yet to address this problem. And, despite these known weaknesses, rating agencies are still being referenced in key financial market decisions.

<h2>Why current regulations aren’t working</h2>

A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228203856_The_Issuer-Pays_Rating_Model_and_Ratings_Inflation_Evidence_from_Corporate_Credit_Ratings">number of studies</a> have identified the issuer-pay revenue model as a key driver of conflict of interest. Here are four reasons why I think the current attempts to regulate ratings agencies will not address conflict of interest.

The first big problem is the relationship between the rating agencies and the issuers. This relationship naturally creates pressure for both the lead rating analyst – around which the whole <a href="https://www.moodys.com/sites/products/ProductAttachments/mis_ratings_process.pdf">rating process</a> is centred – and the ratings committee to give favourable ratings over time. 

This is how the process works: after an issuer contracts a rating agency, the ratings agency assigns an analytical team (lead and support analysts) to gather information about the entity from different sources they deem credible. The analytical team makes recommendations to a ratings committee, convened by the lead analyst. The lead analyst also <a href="https://www.moodys.com/sites/products/ProductAttachments/mis_ratings_process.pdf">determines</a> the size and composition of the ratings committee based on the size and the complexity of the credit analysis. 

The second problem is that rating agencies are bound to be concerned about the sustainability of their revenue sources because they’re profit driven businesses. They will fight to protect their income at the expense of aggressive or objective ratings that could compromise revenues, although in the long-run will damage their businesses. 

The third problem is that the individual employees of a rating agency face no <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23074028?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">criminal liability</a>. Conflict of interest usually manifests itself through members of the analytical team.

Lastly, the credit ratings industry is highly concentrated. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard &amp; Poor’s together control 80% of the global rating market. Fitch Ratings accounts for a further 15%. The ‘big three’ credit rating firms seek to maintain dominance in the industry through discouraging any <a href="https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/opinion-rotation-of-credit-rating-agencies-must-be-avoided-1556058549186.html">activities</a> that may lead to a loss in their market share. They are unwilling to <a href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-competition-may-not-improve-credit-rating-agencies">allow competition</a>, suggesting that it could instead lead to poor ratings. 

<h2>Responses</h2>

Following the 2008 Global Financial crisis the <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-238">US</a>, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/credit-rating-agencies-regulation-ec-no-1060-2009_en">European Union</a>, <a href="http://www.csrc.gov.cn/pub/csrc_en/about/">China</a> and <a href="https://www.fsca.co.za/Regulated%20Entities/Pages/LR-Credit-Ratings.aspx">South Africa</a> introduced legislation to address the flaws in rating agencies’ operations.

Although strict civil laws are necessary to deter misconduct and encourage compliance, enforcing civil regulations only is both an ineffective and expensive way of <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7408&amp;context=jclc">curbing conflict of interest</a>. Tighter scrutiny of credit rating agencies by investors, regulators and media is also not effective.

Despite these regulatory responses, rating agencies are still being caught on the wrong side of the law. Recent cases are proof of this. But there’s still the possibility that a great deal of wrongdoings go undetected.

Earlier this year the European Securities and Markets Authority <a href="https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-fines-fitch-%E2%82%AC5132500-breaches-conflict-interest-requirements">fined</a> the Fitch group of companies in France, Spain and United Kingdom a total of €5 132 000 for failing to maintain independence and avoiding conflict of interest. Fitch UK, Fitch France and Fitch Spain issued ratings on Casino Guichard-Perrachon, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, and Renault. This was despite the fact that they knew one of their shareholders – which indirectly owned 20% shares in each of the Fitch group companies – was also a board member of the rated companies.

In 2018, China <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/chinese-rating-company-dagong-issues-apology-after-one-year-ban">suspended licences</a> held by Dagong Global Credit Rating, one of China’s biggest agencies. Dagong was found guilty of submitting false information to regulators and charging borrowers very high fees, actions that regulators said compromised the rating agency’s independence.

In South Africa, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority recently found the <a href="https://gcrratings.com/regulatory-environment/">Global Credit Rating Agency</a> guilty of failure to avoid a conflict of interest. The agency was <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Companies/Financial-Services/hefty-fine-for-credit-rating-agency-over-conflict-of-interest-breach-20190430">fined</a> an administrative penalty of R487 000. The CEO of the GCR undertook to an issuer, whose credit rating had expired, that the GCR would issue a credit rating. This was contrary to the rules that required the CEO to act separately from the agency’s rating analysis team. 

At the time of undertaking, the issuer was the process of procuring the services of a rating agency, a process in which global agency was one of the bidders.

<h2>Shortfall in regulatory mechanism</h2>

The continuing infringement by credit rating firms on rules and analysts’ actions that compromise the independence of their opinions shows there is a major shortfall in the current regulatory mechanism.

Although problematic, abandoning the ‘issuer-pay’ business model is not the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3270894">solution</a> and will push some rating agencies out of business. 

The only solution is to criminalise rating misconduct such as breaching conflict of interest. The strict monitoring, scrutiny and penalising of credit rating firms alone will not be enough to deter bad behaviour. Individuals responsible for breach of conflict of interest rules should face criminal prosecution. If this does not happen, analysts will not hesitate to take chances.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117549/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/misheck-mutize-331377">Misheck Mutize</a>, Lecturer of Finance, Graduate School of Business (GSB), <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-credit-rating-agencies-are-still-getting-away-with-bad-behaviour-117549">original article</a>.

Credit rating agencies continue to get away with bad behaviour, here’s why

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jade-scipioni/">Jade Scipioni</a>



You might assume that as the second richest person in world with a net worth of <a class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">$107 billion</a>, Bill Gates doesn’t have a lot of <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/bill-gates-this-is-a-great-way-to-use-your-tech-skills.html">regrets</a>. But there is a big one that still eats away at him, he says.



Gates admitted his “greatest mistake ever” was allowing Google to develop Android — one of Apple’s biggest smartphone competitors — before Microsoft could develop a competing mobile operating system, he told Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Julia Hartz&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&amp;amp;v=W5g4sPi1wd4" class="">Thursday</a>&nbsp;at a Village Global event.



“That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win,” he said.



Gates said he blames his own poor “mismanagement,” since he didn’t guide his team to jump on the opportunity. He also partially blames Microsoft’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/technology/antitrust-tech-microsoft-lessons.html" class="">antitrust problems</a>&nbsp;in the early 2000′s for allowing Google to get ahead.



Google moved on mobile shortly after Apple did, when it acquired Android in 2005. Google later released it first Android device in September 2008, a little more than a year after Apple released its first iPhone on June 29,&nbsp;<a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/14/04/14/exclusive-android-docs-reveal-before-iphone-googles-plan-was-a-java-button-phone" class="">2007</a>.



“These are winner-takes-all markets. So the greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is,” he said.



Gates added that there is now only room for one “non-Apple” operating system, and that market is worth $400 billion, he said.



He added that if Microsoft would have “got that one right,” Microsoft would be the top technology company in the game right now.



“We would be&nbsp;the&nbsp;company. But oh well, ” he said.



Despite Gates’ blunder, Microsoft still currently has the highest market cap of the contenders at&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT?p=MSFT&amp;amp;.tsrc=fin-srch" class="">$1 trillion</a>; Apple currently has a market cap of&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL?p=AAPL&amp;amp;.tsrc=fin-srch" class="">$918 billion</a>, with Alphabet Inc. (the conglomerate which owns Google since 2015) coming in at&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/" class="">$776 billion</a>.



“It’s amazing to me, having made one of the greatest mistakes of all time&#8230;our other assets — Windows, Office — are still very strong. So we are a leading company,” he said.



Correction: This story has been revised to correct that Google acquired Android in 2005.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/bill-gates-says-his-biggest-mistake-was-not-beating-google-on-android.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/bill-gates-says-his-biggest-mistake-was-not-beating-google-on-android.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Bill Gates reveals his ‘greatest mistake’ that potentially cost Microsoft $400 billion

LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Orange, France’s number one telecoms operator, sees the planned liberalisation of Ethiopia’s telecoms market taking shape in 2020, Chief Financial Officer Ramon Fernandez said on Friday. 



Ethiopia is one of the last countries whose telecoms industry remains in the hands of the government. Orange is one of the leading contenders seeking to benefit from the end of state-controlled Ethio Telecom’s monopoly, pushed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.



Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the government aimed to award telecom licenses by the end of 2019, with the new operators expected to launch services next year. However some industry executives have expressed scepticism over the timetable. [nL8N23J39U]



“The most likely scenario as of today seems to be the opening of the incumbent’s capital to a minority shareholder who could play a significant role within the company,” Fernandez told Reuters in an interview in London.



“And, in parallel, the opening of the market through the sale of at least one license to an operator,” Fernandez added.



The Orange executive also said a split of Ethio Telecom between an infrastructure provider and telecom services provider was unlikely, contradicting earlier reports. [nL8N23O56V]



“I’m not certain this is the main scenario as of today. It’s up to the Ethiopian authorities to decide, but we’re convinced that a split between telecoms operators and infrastructure operators is not the best option,” Fernandez said.



Africa and the Middle East is Orange’s fastest-growing region for the telecoms group, which controls 17 operators on the continent.



The group, which competes with other major players such as Vodafone-controlled Vodacom, Airtel Africa and South Africa’s MTN in the region, generated 5.2 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in the area last year, up 5% from a year earlier.



“This a pace we can keep on the long run, with a profitability performance at the same level, or even above,” Fernandez said.



The group is betting that its financial services provider Orange Money, which offers money transfers and payment services, will help it in the race to get into Ethiopia’s market, he added.



($1 = 0.8835 euros)



Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Additional reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and David Holmes

Here’s why Orange sees Ethiopia’s telco liberalisation taking shape in 2020

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-gravier/">Elizabeth Gravier</a>



Apple CEO Tim Cook&nbsp;<a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2019/06/16/remarks-tim-cook-2019-stanford-commencement/" class="">addressed the graduates</a>&nbsp;of the 128th&nbsp;class of Stanford University on Sunday, and borrowed a few words from his mentor&nbsp;<a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/" class="">Steve Jobs</a>.



“Fourteen years ago,” Cook said, “Steve <a class="" href="https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/">stood on this stage</a> and told your predecessors: ‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.’ Here’s my corollary: ‘Your mentors may leave you prepared, but they can’t leave you ready.’” 



Cook described the time after Jobs’ death as “the loneliest” he’d ever felt in his life, and said he could “sense” the expectations others had for him.



“All I knew,” he said, “was that I was going to have to be the best version of myself that I could be.&nbsp;I knew that if you got out of bed every morning and set your watch by what other people expect or demand, it’ll drive you crazy.”&nbsp;



He urged grads to focus on authenticity and forging something new, rather than imitating others.&nbsp;



“Don’t try to emulate the people who came before you to the exclusion of everything else, contorting into a shape that doesn’t fit,” Cook said. “It takes too much mental effort – effort that should be dedicated to creating and building. You’ll waste precious time trying to rewire your every thought, and, in the meantime, you won’t be fooling anybody.”



Cook had already built an impressive resume in tech prior to joining Apple in 1998, with roles at IBM, Intelligent Electronics and Compaq. But he felt that Jobs had a new and exciting outlook on the tech industry, one he thought he could add value to.



He told graduates that Jobs’ illness and death, and his own takeover as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2011/08/24Steve-Jobs-Resigns-as-CEO-of-Apple/" class="">Apple CEO</a>&nbsp;in 2011, taught him the critical distinction between being “prepared” and being “ready,” and warned grads that when the time came for them to lead, in whatever capacity, they wouldn’t be ready&nbsp;— and that’s OK.



“You’re not supposed to be,” Cook said. “Find the hope in the unexpected. Find the courage in the challenge. Find your vision on the solitary road.”



Cook also addressed the need for tech companies to take responsibility for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/16/apple-ceo-tim-cook-stanford-commencement-speech.html" class="">“chaos”</a>&nbsp;they create, hinting at (though never mentioning specifically) tech giants Google and Facebook. He warned that in the case that continued data breaches and privacy violations are accepted as inevitable, “we lose so much more than data. We lose the freedom to be human.”



In closing, Cook urged grads to remain focused on their goals and how they want to contribute to society.&nbsp;



“Don’t get distracted,” Cook said. “There are too many people who want credit without responsibility. Too many who show up for the ribbon cutting without building anything worth a damn. Be different. Leave something worthy.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/tim-cook-and-steve-jobs-time-is-limited-so-dont-waste-it-on-this.html?forYou=true">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/tim-cook-and-steve-jobs-time-is-limited-so-dont-waste-it-on-this.html?forYou=true</a> and is republished with its permission.

Apple’s Tim Cook and Steve Jobs agree: ‘Time is limited, so don’t waste it’ on this

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">Courtney Connley</a>



Not every job you hold will be your dream job, but according to bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch, treating any job as a simple means to an end is a mistake.



Not only is it a mistake, Welch tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>, but your intentions will be clear to prospective employers — and that could kill your chances in a job interview.



“Would you marry someone who said, ‘You’re OK, but only until someone better comes along?’” she asks. “Obviously no — but that’s exactly what prospective employers hear when you utter the phrase of death in any job interview.”



That phrase? “Stepping stone.”



The first time Welch heard these two words in an interview was when she was a hiring manager looking to add editors to the business magazine she was running. She was hoping to hire a particularly talented candidate, who seemed interested in the job. The interview went well, and Welch says she ended it by asking&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/31/how-to-answer-the-interview-question-where-do-you-see-yourself-in-5-years.html" class="">a classic question</a>, “Where do you see yourself in three years?”



“Probably in communications for a bank,” the candidate replied. “I’d love to transition to that industry, which makes this job such an excellent stepping stone.”



Welch knew immediately that was the end of the road with that candidate, no matter how impressive her talent.



“Don’t get me wrong — I actually admire people who think strategically about their careers,” she says. “After seven years as a crime reporter, I knew I needed an MBA and a few years of consulting before I could legitimately cover business, and I’ve even advised my own kids to work at certain companies just to gain skills.”



But though every job you hold won’t be a lifetime commitment, you can’t move throughout your career “using employers for your own needs.” Doing this, Welch says, will inevitably backfire — even if you don’t use the dreaded phrase “stepping stone,” your strategy will become clear to employers.



And treating your job “as a means to an end” isn’t a particularly satisfying way to live. “It’s beyond strategic. It’s beyond ambition. It’s just kind of mercenary.”



“I’m not only saying, ‘Don’t utter the words ‘stepping stone’ in an interview,’” Welch emphasizes. “I’m saying don’t even think them. Even if you know a job isn’t forever, it’s your professional home while they’re paying you.”



Instead, approach every job opportunity as though it could actually turn out to be your dream job, regardless of how long you plan to be there.



“That’s the only way to make true friends with your colleagues, earn a reputation as a team player and hopefully do something every day that’s bigger than you,” she says. “Maybe you’ll leave someday. Maybe you won’t. But if you do, in time, it will be with integrity — and that’s a step worth taking.”



Suzy Welch is the co-founder of the <a class="" href="http://jwmi.com/?mcv=jdg469">Jack Welch Management Institute</a>and a noted business journalist, TV commentator and public speaker. Think you need Suzy to fix your career? Email her at gettowork@cnbc.com.



This article first appeared on CNBC<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html"> </a><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/suzy-welch-2-words-you-should-never-say-in-a-job-interview.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/suzy-welch-2-words-you-should-never-say-in-a-job-interview.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Suzy Welch: 2 words you should never say in a job interview

LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. energy firm Anadarko Petroleum Corp on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for the construction of a $20 billion gas liquefaction and export terminal in Mozambique, the largest single LNG project approved in Africa. 



The announcement, which occurred at an event in Mozambique, was widely expected after Anadarko last month flagged the decision date.



&#8220;As the world increasingly seeks cleaner forms of energy, the Anadarko-led Area 1 Mozambique LNG project is ideally located to meet growing demand, particularly in expanding Asian and European markets,&#8221; Chief Executive Officer Al Walker said in a statement&nbsp;<a href="http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&amp;u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190618:nPn4scVtza.">here</a>



Anadarko has agreed to be taken over by Occidental Petroleum Corp. Once that deal goes ahead, Occidental has agreed to sell assets including the Mozambique LNG project to French oil major and large LNG trader Total SA. Officials at Total were not immediately available for comment.



Natural gas use is growing rapidly around the world as countries seek to meet rising energy demand and wean their industrial and power sectors off dirtier coal.



The project, which has committed long-term supplies to utilities, major LNG portfolio holders and state companies around the world, underscores the industry’s conviction that LNG demand will soar in years to come despite a slump in prices this year.



Low prices for the gas that is super-cooled for transportation prompted fears final investment decisions (FIDs) such as Anadarko’s would be delayed or scrapped. But the U.S. company gathered enough long-term buyers to underpin the financing of the project.



“Flexible commercial arrangements, including an innovative co-purchase agreement with Tokyo Gas and Centrica, have been instrumental in securing the project a roster of high-quality customers in a crowded LNG market,” said Frank Harris, head of LNG Consulting at Wood Mackenzie.



LNG prices slumped this year as a jump in supply from new terminals in the United States, Australia and Russia were not totally met by higher demand in Asia.



The trade is also nowhere near as developed as the market for crude oil, causing erratic price movements.



“At $20 billion, today’s FID is the largest sanction ever in sub-Saharan Africa oil and gas,” added Jon Lawrence, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie’s sub-Saharan Africa upstream team.



The project is also expected to be transformational for Mozambique, one of the poorest nations on earth beset by economic crisis, conflict stemming from a civil war and serious governance malaise, whose annual gross domestic product is just $13 billion.



The government of Mozambique said the project is expected to create more than 5,000 direct jobs and 45,000 indirect jobs.



With a 12.88 million tonne per year (mtpa) capacity, Mozambique LNG is one of the largest greenfield LNG facilities to have ever been approved. It involves building infrastructure to extract gas from a field offshore northern Mozambique, pump it onshore and liquefy it, ready for further export by LNG tankers.



On the African east coast, the liquefaction plant will be able to sell LNG to both the lucrative Asian market, home to 75%of global LNG demand, and to the flexible European market, which helps balance global LNG trade by soaking up excess supply.



Mozambique LNG joins other mega-projects approved in the past year such as Exxon Mobil Corp’s 16 mtpa U.S. Golden Pass plant and Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 14 mtpa LNG Canada facility.



Still expected this year are approvals from Exxon for a 15.2 mtpa project also in Mozambique, and from Russia’s Novatek for its 19.8 mtpa Arctic LNG-2 plant.



Anadarko’s partners in the Mozambique LNG project are Mitsui, Mozambique state energy company ENH, Thailand’s PTT and Indian energy firms ONGC, Bharat Petroleum Resources and Oil India.



Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki in London; additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Debroop Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey, Marguerita Choy and Arun Koyyur

U.S. energy firm Anadarko approves $20 bln LNG export project in this African country

<figure>
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 Belo Horizonte’s traditional food market.
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brittany-kesselman-754783">Brittany Kesselman</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>

South Africa faces a <a href="https://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/National-Strategy-for-prevention-and-Control-of-Obesity-4-August-latest.pdf">double burden</a> of hunger and malnutrition, on the one hand, and obesity with associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs), on the other. In many countries, in both the global North and South, malnutrition and obesity frequently co-exist in the same people. This is a condition known as “<a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/hidden-hunger-south-africa">hidden hunger</a>”. 

Hidden hunger is a result of various factors. These include poverty, inequality, urbanisation and industrialisation of the food system. The interplay of these factors leaves low income households with very limited access to fresh, healthy foods. Instead, many South Africans – and other people living in similar conditions – subsist on diets high in <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/1218">sugar and processed starch</a>. These diets contribute to increasing levels of obesity. But they don’t meet nutritional needs.

My <a href="https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/16310">research</a> among urban farmers and low-income residents in Johannesburg identified the complexity of factors that influence dietary choices. It also identified the obstacles to accessing healthy food. Cost is a major impediment while physical access, nutritional knowledge, concentration in the food industry and dietary norms also played a role in shaping diets. Without addressing all of these, South Africa will be unable to address the double burden of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Despite the fact that diet has been a major contributing factor to the growth of NCDs in recent years there are virtually no connections between South Africa’s agricultural and health policies. Policies to address hunger and malnutrition have tended to be housed in the Department of Agriculture. They have focused on increasing production, whether through <a href="http://www.afsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Web-Battersby-et-al-Looking-Beyond-Urban-Agriculture.pdf">urban agriculture</a> or support to small-scale farmers in rural areas. 

For its part, the Department of Health remains confined to treatment with medication and limited advice – like diet and exercise. This is despite the fact that the department recognises there needs to be a <a href="https://extranet.who.int/ncdccs/Data/ZAF_B3_NCDs_STRAT_PLAN_1_29_1_3%5B2%5D.pdf">multi-pronged approach</a> to NCDs. 

This needs to change. South African practitioners and policy makers could learn from international examples, where the public and private health sectors have begun to make the link between food and wellness. In particular, policies that were introduced a quarter of a century ago in a city in Brazil provide a useful template of what an integrated approach could look like.

<h2>Connecting the dots</h2>

Innovative policies and programmes in various countries are beginning to link food and health.

To draw a few examples from the United States, which faces high rates of <a href="https://www.who.int/nmh/countries/usa_en.pdf?ua=1">obesity and NCDs</a>, the new field of <a href="https://nutrition.org/the-art-of-cooking-for-health-culinary-medicine/">culinary medicine</a> looks at how dietary changes can restore and maintain health. A number of hospitals are creating <a href="https://www.bu.edu/today/2017/rooftop-farm-at-boston-medical-center/">food gardens</a> to serve healthy meals to patients. Doctors are writing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5496208/">scripts for fruits and vegetables</a> so that patients can afford them. 

At the same time, in the US and Canada, food banks and other organisations that combat hunger are attempting to distribute healthier foods. These organisations are also <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/214764/the-stop-by-nick-saul-and-andrea-curtis/9780307360793">engaging in advocacy</a> for a more just and equitable food system.

The link is also being made between the livelihoods of food producers and the environmental sustainability of the food system. In the US a non-governmental organisation incentivises recipients of the government’s food assistance programme, SNAP, to buy fresh produce at local farmers’ markets through a <a href="https://www.wholesomewave.org/sites/default/files/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Double-Value-Coupon-Program-Diet-Shopping-Behavior-Study.pdf">double value coupon programme</a>. The UN’s <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4291e.pdf">Purchase from Africa for Africans</a> Programme leverages public procurement for school meals to improve children’s health and education while supporting small-scale family farmers. It draws lessons from Brazil and has been implemented in five African countries. 

The city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil provides a noteworthy example of how innovative, integrated food and nutrition security policies can assist communities. It has been implementing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/152897901786732735">policies</a> designed to ensure that residents are able to enjoy the right to food for the past 25 years. The city’s programmes include:

<ul>
<li>popular restaurants serving subsidised healthy meals;</li>
<li>shops selling subsidised fresh fruit and vegetables in under-served areas;</li>
<li>a food bank. This reduces food waste by rescuing food otherwise discarded by retailers. The food is then checked and provided to social programmes (such as crèches and old age homes);</li>
<li>farm stalls and farmers’ markets. These enable small-scale farmers to sell directly to consumers, cutting out the middleman and thereby raising incomes;</li>
<li>public procurement from small-scale farmers, especially those using agroecological production methods;</li>
<li>school lunches and school gardens. These ensure that children have access to nutritious meals and that they learn about food production and nutrition.</li>
</ul>

On a <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2018/2018-12/a-healthy-meal-in-every-neighbourhood.html">research visit</a> to Belo Horizonte, I saw how these programmes improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables – a key measure in the fight against malnutrition and obesity. 

They also support decent incomes for small-scale producers through direct market access and public procurement. In addition, environmentally sustainable production is encouraged through reservation of additional public funds to purchase agroecologically-farmed foods. 

Beyond the health and economic benefits, the programmes support social cohesion through communal eating spaces, cultural events that feature local gastronomy, and local farmers’ markets where people can meet the farmers who grow their food and enjoy a sense of community.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Belo Horizonte’s food and nutrition security programme is its low cost: less than 2% of the city’s budget. Another is the degree of cooperation among government departments, as well as partnership with <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3023e.pdf">civil society organisations</a>. 

When the policies and programmes developed in Belo Horizonte were rolled out nationally, Brazil experienced a notable <a href="https://www.wfp.org/stories/brazil-shows-world-how-beat-hunger-says-wfp-head">decline in hunger</a>. 

The model provides many useful lessons that could greatly benefit South Africa. The Department of Health, along with other government departments and civil society partners, needs to take a bold move to tackle the problems of malnutrition, obesity and associated NCDs through a multi-faceted approach.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118613/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important">

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brittany-kesselman-754783">Brittany Kesselman</a>, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-should-learn-from-brazil-about-how-to-tackle-hidden-hunger-118613">original article</a>.

What South Africa can learn from Brazil on how to tackle ‘hidden hunger’

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/julia-boorstin/">Julia Boorstin</a> 



Facebook is unveiling an ambitious plan to create a new digital currency and financial system to transform the way money moves around the world, and not just on its own apps.



It’s leading a consortium to create an open-source digital currency called Libra, set to launch in the first half of next year. The goal is for developers to create services for consumers to send money around the world easily and for free — with the same convenience as sending a photo or a message.



The Libra currency will not be run by Facebook, but rather by a nonprofit association supported by a range of companies and organizations. But&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;does have a plan to profit from it with a new subsidiary, Calibra, which is building a digital wallet of the same name for storing and exchanging the currency.



The financial information from your digital wallet will not be used for ad targeting on Facebook’s platforms because the two divisions will be kept totally separate, the company said.



“We’ve seen internet change the game for everything that could be digitized, except for money,” said David Marcus, the leader of Facebook’s Calibra division.



“The numbers really speak for themselves. There’s 1.7 billion people around the world that are unbanked, the same number are underserved by financial services,” said Marcus, who before taking over Facebook’s blockchain initiatives ran its Messenger division and was previously president of PayPal. “Now, anyone with a cheap smartphone has access to all the info they want in the world for free with a basic data plan. Why doesn’t money work the same way?”



The announcement comes after Facebook has faced a slew of privacy issues, raising real questions about whether people will trust the social platform with their financial information. Marcus says that’s why it’s so important that Facebook not be in control of the currency.



“It may sound super controversial but there’s no better way to demonstrate the evolution of our thinking, what we know we should control and what we should not and can not control,” Marcus said. “A network that enables billions of people to move money around the world should not be something we can or should control.”What is Libra?



The new digital currency is set to launch in the first half of 2020. It will be run by a nonprofit, the Libra Association, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its goal is to be broadly accessible, stable and secure.



Unlike bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which can be hugely volatile and speculative, Libra will be backed by relatively stable government-backed money.



“If you buy $50 of Libra, your $50 makes its way to the Libra Reserve,” said Marcus. “It’s designed to be stable and confer values on Libra that makes it more like a traditional currency than any of the digital currencies are now. This is the way paper money was created.”



The fact that the Libra blockchain is open-source means that anyone can build a service or app that uses the currency. The wallets that are developed to use the service will be interoperable, so you’ll be able to send money from Facebook’s Calibra wallet to any other system that accepts Libra.



Consumers will not interact with the Libra Association, but will only interact with Libra through a digital wallet or an operator. For people who don’t have the ability to digitally purchase Libra with a credit card or digitally linked account, Marcus says he expects companies in emerging markets to create locations where people can exchange Libra for cash.Who’s involved in this digital currency?



Facebook is joined by 27 other companies and organizations that are founding members. The goal is to have at least 100 companies and organizations on board for its launch next year. Each member of the association will manage one of the “nodes,” or locations where transactions involving Libra are validated.



Founding members include companies in the payments space:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>, Stripe and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=PYPL" class="">PayPal</a>, which will be able to help merchants accept Libra. Some tech companies are also on board, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=EBAY" class="">eBay</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=LYFT" class="">Lyft</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SPOT" class="">Spotify</a>, and Latin American payments platform Mercado Pago, which could drive adoption of acceptance of the currency. Two European telecom companies are also involved, Iliad and Vodafone.



Venture capital investment companies involved have experience with digital payments: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, and Union Square Ventures. Nonprofit and academic organizations on board are focused on helping people who don’t have access to banking: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking. And four blockchain companies are involved: Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase and Xapo Holdings.



“The idea is that [Libra] has mass adoption — lots of trusted companies that want to join the journey, so there’s a chance of this becoming mainstream,” Marcus said.



This list of founding members invested a minimum of $10 million to fund the operating costs of the nonprofit association as well as to launch an incentive program to jumpstart the underlying Libra blockchain and to drive adoption of the currency.Facebook’s Calibra digital wallet



Facebook’s Calibra is a digital wallet that will be accessible as a stand-alone app and integrated into Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook says it’s designed to enable anyone to securely store money for free on their phone and to allow people to securely send and receive Libra around the world, with no fees for consumers, although Facebook is considering “very low” fees for merchants.



Down the line, Marcus anticipates Facebook will offer other financial services, such as loans, from which it could profit: “If the network is successful, it will be a big opportunity for us to provide lending to all these consumers,” he said.



Facebook’s larger goal is to get people to spend more time on its platforms. This launch will enable the 2.7 billion people who use its various apps every month to more easily make purchases from the 90 million businesses on its platform. The easier it is for these businesses to drive sales on Facebook, the more likely they are to buy ads.



Although Calibra is fully owned by Facebook, it’s operating as a subsidiary kept separate from Facebook’s advertising businesses, so it can be regulated appropriately.



One key use case for Calibra is remittances. Facebook says that every year $25 billion is lost by migrants on fees from the likes of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=WU" class="">Western Union</a>. Marcus says the current process is antiquated: Immigrants send a photo of their receipt from Western Union to family members via WhatsApp so they can collect the money, minus a fee. Calibra would cut Western Union and other money-transfer services out of the equation.



A key for Calibra’s adoption is making it easy to understand exchange rate and transfer money in and out of the currency, says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/15/instagram-kevin-weil-helped-facebook-beat-snapchat.html" class="">Kevin Weil,&nbsp;</a>Calibra’s VP of Product who formerly oversaw Instagram Stories, Facebook’s successful attempt to battle Snapchat.



“The easier it is to go back and forth [from the local currency to Libra] the more confidence people will have,” he said. “If you’re banked you can imagine connecting your bank account, if you’re not banked then you can imagine a map that shows nearby money transfer experiences.”





Will this whole thing take off?



Libra is the first new cryptocurrency that has a real opportunity to bring digital currency to the mainstream, according to one of Libra’s founding partners, Anchorage, which acts as an institutional custodian for crypto assets.



It solves some of the underpinning issues that other cryptocurrencies have not been able to, to reach this promise, ” says Anchorage President and co-founder Diogo Monica.



“It’s based on a very scalable, highly efficient blockchain, that can do many thousands of transactions per second. And it’s backed by bank deposits and government securities like the U.S. dollar, so it will have low volatility,” Monica said. “The association has so many big players that already have relationships, which solves the chicken-and-egg problem of adoption.”



Monica says that Anchorage will operate one of the many nodes to handle Libra transactions and could sell its services to other members of the association for safekeeping of their Libra assets.



Marcus says if people don’t want to trust Facebook’s Calibra, there will be other apps to access the currency.



To boost its security, Calibra will have the same verification and anti-fraud processes that banks and credit cards use. To gain access users will have to have a valid government ID and use two-factor authentication, leveraging the likes of FaceID. The service will have built-in fraud production and dedicated live support. And if someone accesses a user’s account, Calibra promises to refund any lost assets.



Launching a whole new system comes with its challenges. “Every direction you look there’s stuff you have to figure out from scratch,” said Weil. “Not everyone is familiar with exchange rates, and even the folks that are, aren’t necessarily familiar with digital currency. I’ll take a lot of time to educate people.”



There’s also the question of regulatory approval. Weil says they’re talking to regulators and are in the process of getting money-transfer licenses, which they expect to have secured for a launch next year.



“People will misunderstand and think this is a Facebook thing, ” said Weil. “We incubated it, but it’s designed to be run in a decentralized way.”



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Facebook leads consortium creating Libra digital currency, launches Calibra digital wallet

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jade-scipioni/">Jade Scipioni</a> 



Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore in his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/photos-inside-seattle-house-where-jeff-bezos-started-amazon.html" class="">garage</a>&nbsp;in 1994. Today, Amazon has a more than $900 billion market cap and Bezos is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/jeff-bezos-launches-day-one-fund-charity-how-he-spends-his-billions.html" class="">richest person in the world</a>&nbsp;with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/jeffrey-p-bezos/" class="">$116 billion fortune</a>.



Along the way, Bezos has learned a thing or two about what it takes to be someone who succeeds in business. Here is some of his top advice.



Be a missionary



While there is a debate among billionaires on whether or not you should follow your passion — “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban says such advice is one of the “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/mark-cuban-follow-your-passion-is-bad-advice.html" class="">great lies of life</a>, ” for instance — Bezos believes its vital to being a successful entrepreneur. In fact, it’s the people who care who win, he says.



“You have got to have some passion for the arena that you are going to develop and work in, because otherwise you’ll be competing against those who do have passion for that, and they’re going to build better products and services,” Bezos said at Amazon’s re:Mars conference in Las Vegas on June 6.



He added that it’s essential for an entrepreneur to “be a missionary,” you “can’t be mercenary,” meaning that you have to mission-motivated, not money-motivated.



“Missionaries build better products and services — they always win,” said Bezos. “Mercenaries are just trying to make money, and paradoxically the missionaries always end up making more money.”



 Embrace risk and failure



To be successful in business, you also must be willing to take risks, and therefore to fail.



“If you come up with a business idea and there’s no risk there&#8230;it’s probably already being done&#8230;[and] being done well&#8230;. So you have to have something that might not work and you have to accept that your business in many ways is an experiment and it might fail,” Bezos said. “And that’s ok.”



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/08/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-boldest-business-moves.html" class="">Bezos is known for making bold moves</a>: For example, skeptics doubted customers would pay $79 a year for Amazon Prime when it launched in 2005; as of April 2018 the service had 100 million subscribers worldwide.



He’s also had some fails, like Amazon Restaurants, which will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/grubhub-shares-jump-amazon-shuts-down-its-restaurant-delivery-service.html" class="">shut down</a>June 24, or the recent demise of Amazon’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-closing-all-pop-up-stores-2019-3" class="">pop-up kiosks</a>.



And Bezos continues to encourage risk-taking at Amazon. In fact, the size of the risks and the failures need to grow with the company, he said.



“We need big failures if we’re going to move the needle” — “billion-dollar scale failures,” Bezos said at re:Mars. “And if we’re not, we’re not swinging hard enough.”



Change your mind



Bezos has learned from interacting with the world’s most influential minds that the people who usually get things right are those who listen the most and who change their minds often.



“What I have found that people who are right change their mind even without getting new data. They have the same data set that they had at the beginning, but they wake up and they reanalyze things all the time and they come to a new conclusion and then they change their mind.”



In fact, people who win typically have worked hard to recognize what beliefs or biases they hold and “actively try to look for evidence that disconfirms” them, Bezos said.



Billionaire Ray Dalio is an example. He built Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, to function as an “idea meritocracy.”



“The greatest tragedy of mankind — or one of them — is that people needlessly hold wrong opinions in their minds,” <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/12/ray-dalio-says-greatest-tragedy-of-mankind-is-people-clinging-to-wrong-opinions.html">Dalio has said</a>.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/13/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-on-how-to-succeed-in-business.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/13/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-on-how-to-succeed-in-business.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

gettyimages-1066734506-594×594

Billionaire Jeff Bezos: This is who ‘always wins’ in business

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/emmie-martin/">Emmie Martin</a> 



“The key to your financial freedom in the future is investing when you are young,” Suze Orman, personal finance expert, best-selling author of<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Money-Revised-Updated-Orman/dp/0812987616/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;amp;psc=1&amp;amp;refRID=4DW7BVRGNY76PRRGC6Q0" class="">“Women &amp; Money”</a>&nbsp;and host of the&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/suze-ormans-women-and-money/id1439621652" class="">“Women and Money” podcast</a>, tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>.



“I would much rather see you invest a specific amount of money when you are young, a lesser amount of money, than waiting and have to invest five or six times [as much] when you are older,” she says.



That’s because with <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/how-compound-interest-works-and-how-it-can-help-you-save-money.html">compound interest</a>, any interest accrued then earns interest on itself. So the earlier you start, the more your money will grow.



Orman gives the example of a 25-year-old who invests&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/roth-ira-plan-calculator.aspx" class="">$100 a month in a Roth IRA</a>&nbsp;for 40 years and earns a 12% average annual return. When that person retires at age 65, their investment will be worth just over $1 million.



But not everyone starts putting money away in their 20s. “You think, ‘I don’t have to invest, I’m young,’” Orman says.



If you start investing $100 per month at age 35, though, you’d only have around $300,000 by the time you reach age 65. “Those 10 years just cost you $700,000,” Orman points out.



“How much would you have to be investing later on to make up for that?” she says. “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month.”



It is worth noting that all investments are risky and you’re never guaranteed to earn a 12% rate of return. The S&amp;P 500 index, for instance, has earned an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/18/the-sp-500-has-already-met-its-average-return-for-a-full-year.html" class="">annual average return of 9.8%</a>&nbsp;over the past 90 years, and&nbsp;<a href="https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/tools/benchmarkreturns" class="">other indexes average even less</a>. But even at lower rates of return, the difference between starting at 25 and 35 is significant.



Here’s about how much you’d earn with various average annual rates of return if you invest <a class="" href="https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/roth-ira-plan-calculator.aspx">$100 per month into a Roth IRA</a> and retire at 65.



 With a 6% rate of return



Starting at age 25: $196,000 Starting at age 35: $100,000



 With an 8% rate of return



Starting at age 25: $335,000 Starting at age 35: $146,000



 With a 10% rate of return



Starting at age 25: $584,000 Starting at age 35: $217,000



“The key isn’t the amount, the key is the time,” Orman says. So, even if you can only contribute $50 a month, do “whatever you can do.”



There are several easy ways to get started. The simplest choice is to contribute to an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/the-no-1-retirement-savings-mistake-is-skipping-the-401k-match.html" class="">especially if you’re offered a match</a>, which is essentially free money.



If your company doesn’t offer a 401(k), you can look into other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/09/definitive-guide-to-retirement-savings-accounts.html" class="">tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts</a>, such as a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA or a SEP IRA.



Outside of retirement accounts, many experts, including Warren Buffett, recommend <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/warren-buffett-and-tony-robbins-agree-invest-in-index-funds.html">investing in low-cost index funds</a>, which allow you to own a small piece of many different companies. You can curate a mix of funds yourself or <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/i-invested-my-first-7000-dollars-heres-where-i-decided-to-put-it.html">use a robo-advisor</a>, which does the work for you.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/suze-orman-why-you-should-start-investing-in-your-20s.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/suze-orman-why-you-should-start-investing-in-your-20s.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Suze Orman: Why you should start investing in your 20s

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/lucy-handley/">Lucy Handley</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AMZN" class="">Amazon</a>&nbsp;has overtaken&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL" class="">Google</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AAPL" class="">Apple</a>&nbsp;to become the world’s most valuable brand at $315.5 billion, according to a ranking of global companies, up 52% on last year.



Apple comes second, valued at $309.5 billion, with Google in third place, at $309 billion, according to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking 2019, compiled by WPP research agency Kantar and released Tuesday.



Google and Apple had spent a combined 12 years at the top of the list, with Google taking the top spot in 2018.



Doreen Wang, Kantar’s global head of BrandZ, said Amazon’s jump was due to it selling a variety of services. “Amazon’s phenomenal brand value growth of almost $108 billion in the last year demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions. The boundaries are blurring as technology fluency allow brands, such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba, to offer a range of services across multiple consumer touchpoints,” she said in a statement emailed to CNBC.



<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/amazon-makes-several-start-up-investments-revenue-growth-slows.html">Amazon has been increasing investments in a range of companies</a> as its core business slows, including self-driving car start-up Aurora and electric truck company Rivian, as well as expanding <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/amazon-will-compete-with-fedex-and-ups-to-become-logistics-company.html">Amazon Air</a>, its airplane business. It bought online pharmacy PillPack for $753 million in 2018 and last month led a $575 million funding round into food delivery company Deliveroo.



Four of the BrandZ top ten were made up of more traditional brands including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MCD" class="">McDonald’s</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=T" class="">AT&amp;T</a>. Microsoft comes in at fourth place, as it did in 2018.



Technology companies have always dominated the ranking, with <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT">Microsoft</a> taking the top spot when BrandZ began in 2006. This year, Alibaba (valued at $131.2 billion) overtook Tencent ($130.9 billion) to become the most valuable Chinese brand. There is a total of 15 Chinese brands in the list of 100 companies, including mobile handset company Xiaomi (valued at $19.8 billion) and Meituan ($18.8 billion), a tech platform people can use to order food deliveries, book hotel rooms and arrange bike rentals.



David Roth, chair of BrandZ, said the companies that did well were those that mastered this new model of different services. “Brands need to understand the value this type of model can create and should embrace its approach to be successful in the future,” he said in an emailed statement.



Tech, finance and retail brands dominate the overall ranking, making up more than two-thirds of its value, while&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/04/the-luxury-sector-is-growing-faster-than-many-others-and-gucci-leads.html" class="">luxury is the fastest-growing category</a>.



To qualify for the ranking, brands must be publicly traded, or publish their financial results. BrandZ’s list combines measures of brand equity based on interviews with more than 3 million consumers about thousands of brands, with analysis of each company’s business and financial performance, using data from Kantar Worldpanel.



The world’s most valuable brands 2019



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Amazon $315.5 billion</li><li>Apple $309.5 billion</li><li>Google $309 billion</li><li>Microsoft $251.2 billion</li><li>Visa $177.9 billion</li><li>Facebook $159 billion</li><li>Alibaba $131.2 billion</li><li>Tencent $130.9 billion</li><li>McDonald’s $130.4 billion</li><li>AT&amp;T $108.4 billion</li></ol>



Source: BrandZ



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/amazon-beats-apple-and-google-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-brand.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/amazon-beats-apple-and-google-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-brand.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Amazon beats Apple and Google to become the world’s most valuable brand

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a>



Warren Buffett is anything but average: The legendary investor has an approximate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/#19540ea74639" class="">net worth of $82 billion</a>, making him the third richest person in the world. At 88, he still runs Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company that owns businesses like Geico, Dairy Queen and See’s Candies.



A key to Buffett’s extraordinary success, though, is a refreshingly simple habit and “something anyone can do,” his longtime friend Bill Gates&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Grilling-and-chilling-with-Warren-Buffett?WT.mc_id=06_01_2019_00_BerkshireHathaway2019_BG-EM_&amp;amp;WT.tsrc=BGEM" class="">pointed out in a recent blog post</a>: He reads every day.



Buffett, who spends between <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/15/warren-buffett-and-mark-cuban-agree-reading-is-key-to-success.html">five and six hours a day paging through books</a> and newspapers, finds it “enjoyable to think about business and investment problems,” he says in HBO’s documentary <a class="" href="http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/becoming-warren-buffett">“Becoming Warren Buffett.”</a>



Plus, staying up to date on business news and current events is a relatively simple way to gain a competitive advantage. “Everybody can read what I read. It is a level playing field,” Buffett used to tell his late wife,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/14/6-influential-people-in-billionaire-investor-warren-buffetts-life.html" class="">Susan Buffett</a>, according to the HBO documentary.



“And he loves that because he is competitive,” Susan said of Buffett. “He’s sitting there all by himself in his office, reading these things that everybody else can read, but he loves the idea that he is going to win.”



Tech entrepreneur and self-made billionaire Mark Cuban is also an avid reader and has used the habit to get ahead in his career. He recognized the value that reading could return early in his career, while building his first technology business, MicroSolutions.



“I remember reading the PC DOS manual (I really did), and being proud that I could figure out how to set up startup menus for my customers,” he writes&nbsp;<a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2011/04/07/shark-tank-success-motivation/" class="">on his blog.</a>&nbsp;“I read every book and magazine I could. Heck, $3 for a magazine, $20 for a book. One good idea that led to a customer or solution and it paid for itself many times over.”



“Everything I read was public,” he adds. “Anyone could buy the same books and magazines. The same information was available to anyone who wanted it. Turns out most people didn’t want it.”



For Cuban, taking the time to “get a knowledge advantage” helped him outperform competitors, he says. “A guy with little computer background could compete with far more experienced guys, just because I put in the time to learn all I could.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/bill-gates-this-is-the-key-to-warren-buffetts-success.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/bill-gates-this-is-the-key-to-warren-buffetts-success.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Bill Gates: A key to Warren Buffett’s success is ‘something anyone could do’

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/courtney-connley/">Courtney Connley</a> 



The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have brought huge attention to the challenges women face at work, but a new survey finds that 60% of male managers say they’re uncomfortable mentoring, working one-on-one or socializing with a woman.



According to the survey, released by&nbsp;<a href="https://leanin.org/mentor-her?utm_campaign=mentorher&amp;amp;utm_medium=social&amp;amp;utm_source=twitter" class="">LeanIn.org</a>&nbsp;and SurveyMonkey, that’s a 33% increase from last year.



Senior-level men also say they are 12 times more likely to be hesitant about one-on-one meetings with a junior woman than they are a junior man, nine times more likely to be hesitant to travel with a junior woman for work than a junior man, and six times more likely to be hesitant to have a work dinner with a junior woman than a junior man.



LeanIn.org founder and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg calls the results “totally unacceptable.”



She tells Julia Boorstin on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/17/facebook-sheryl-sandberg-metoo-women-in-workplace-women-leadership.html" class="">CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”</a>&nbsp;that the problem with this dynamic is that “women already weren’t getting the same mentorship men were, particularly women of color.” And in her experience, she says, “no one has ever gotten a promotion without getting a one-on-one meeting.”



Though some have argued that the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have had a negative impact on relationships between men and women at work, Sandberg disagrees. She says the movements have had an “overwhelmingly positive” impact on the workplace, especially in spotlighting the problem of sexual harassment against women.



“The thing is, it’s not enough,” she says. “It’s really important to not harass anyone, but that’s pretty basic. We also need to not be ignored.”



Rachel Thomas, president of LeanIn.org, tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>&nbsp;that “sexual harassment is a lot of things, and it’s a really complicated issue, but a big piece of it is power dynamics.”



“We need more women in positions of leadership, more people of color and more LGBTQ people,” she says. “We need to change what leadership looks like in our organizations because we know that will lead to more safer and stronger workplaces.”



Both she and Sandberg point out that sexual harassment is twice as likely to occur in organizations where men dominate the C-suite. That’s why, Thomas says, it’s imperative that men speak up and take action. “My suspicion is that a lot of good guys don’t realize that by not actively mentoring, sponsoring or creating full access, that they’re inadvertently part of the problem,” Thomas says.



As a solution, Thomas and Sandberg say any man who doesn’t want to have work dinners with a woman should also not have work dinners with a man. Instead, they should have group dinners so that everyone is included.



“That’s one way to create equal access,” says Thomas. “I don’t fully understand it, but for whatever reason if a man is also uncomfortable having a one-on-one meeting with a woman or working with a woman, then leave the door open.”



Regardless of how a man may feel about working with a woman, Thomas says there is “no excuse for not being a good manager, not being a good leader and not offering equal access to the mentorship and sponsorship that we know all employees need to succeed.”



Correction: This story was revised to correct a headline. The researchers found that 60% of male managers now say they’re uncomfortable participating in work activities with women.



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/60percent-of-male-managers-now-say-theyre-uncomfortable-mentoring-women.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/17/60percent-of-male-managers-now-say-theyre-uncomfortable-mentoring-women.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Improperly appointed boards spell disaster for organisations

60% of male managers now say they’re uncomfortable participating in work activities with women

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/grant-cardone/">Grant Cardone</a>



It’s been more than 40 years since I graduated high school — and a lot has changed since then. I’m older, wiser, wealthier and much more successful.



I’ve built a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/grant-cardone-10-tips-to-become-a-self-made-multimillionaire.html" class="">multimillion-dollar business</a>&nbsp;and am the CEO of seven privately held companies. But there’s always room for improvement — even at age 61. In order to do that, it’s important to acknowledge past failures and learn from them.



Looking back at my 20s, there was so much I didn’t know about <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/05/self-made-millionaire-grant-cardone-2-things-to-spend-on-in-2018.html">money</a>. With what little I earned, I wasted on useless things that didn’t benefit me at all. Here are the top four things I regret spending my time and money on:



1. Drugs and alcohol



If I could go back in time, I’d tell my younger self: “Your education doesn’t stop after college.”



After graduating high school, I became obsessed with all the wrong things. I spent money on drugs and alcohol — and even developed an addiction problem. I should have been spending that money on things that would help me develop new skills, gain knowledge and make powerful connections.



In the real world, your high school diploma is useless, and your college degree won’t get you very far if you don’t have the right skills to keep up with the marketplace. Investing in yourself will only make you more valuable and increase your earning potential.



I didn’t realize any of this until much later. At 25, I spent my last $3,000 on an audio program that taught me about sales and how to close deals. I can honestly say that the investment and commitment to go “all in” are the reasons for my success today.



2. Traveling



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/29/shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-on-taking-a-gap-year-are-you-kidding.html" class="">Kevin O’Leary</a>&nbsp;says that taking a gap year to travel is a bad idea — and I couldn’t agree more. I took so much time off early in my entrepreneurial career that it almost derailed me. I was also spending money I didn’t have on airfare, hotels and food.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/self-made-millionaire-heres-how-millennials-can-catch-up-to-boomers.html" class="">A lot of millennials today</a>&nbsp;find themselves in a similar position. They have the urge to travel because they have no purpose at work. They believe time off will help them find that “something” that’s missing in their careers. When you don’t know what you should be doing, it’s easy to put life on hold, go backpacking, stay in hostels and eat ramen.



I’m not saying you can’t ever take any time off. I can travel the world in my own plane today because I ultimately decided to put in the hard work. Get obsessed with your purpose, and you’ll find that your travel plans can wait. <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/04/self-made-millionaire-dont-buy-a-home.html">Comfort is the enemy of abundance</a>. Don’t let an $800 ticket to Europe get in the way of your freedom.



 3. Sleeping in



When you’re young, it’s easy to be lazy and not feel guilty about it. But guess what? The rich and successful get a good night’s rest, but they don’t sleep in.



One of my biggest regrets was not taking advantage of all the hours in a day. I allowed myself to feel content when I should have been mapping out my goals and figuring out how to achieve them. Had I realized my full potential in my 20s, I would reached my first million a lot sooner.



Let everyone else in their 20s sleep like they’re rich. You should be up at the crack of dawn. Speed is power, and when you’re young, patience is not a virtue. Today’s marketplace is changing at the speed of light, so you need to be nimble to get ahead.



4. Being too comfortable in my jobs



I wasted half of my 20s working low-paying jobs that didn’t challenge me to grow and develop valuable skills. I’m not saying low-paying jobs are bad; sometimes you have to start a lower salary. But being content and without any drive won’t make you successful in life.



I used to&nbsp;<a href="https://grantcardonetv.com/one-of-the-first-jobs-i-ever-had-was-at-mcdonalds/" class="">work at McDonald’s</a>&nbsp;making $7 an hour. For me, it was simply a way to make money. But for the guy working next to me, it was a way to learn the business and one day open 100 franchises. The “why” is important. I didn’t know my “why,” so I was essentially wasting my time. My co-worker wasn’t.



You should constantly be asking yourself,&nbsp;How can I earn more money?&nbsp;It might mean asking for a raise, switching to a new job with a higher salary or taking on a side hustle. Be a money fanatic.



The acceptance of the idea that eight hours invested in your job is enough regardless of your financial position is a misunderstanding of epic proportions.



<a class="" href="https://grantcardone.com/">Grant Cardone</a> is the best-selling author of <a class="" href="https://www.amazon.com/10X-Rule-Difference-Between-Success/dp/0470627603">“The 10X Rule”</a> and CEO of seven privately held companies. He also travels the world consulting Fortune 500 companies, small business owners, startups and governments on business expansion. In 2017, he was included in Forbes’ list of 25 Marketing Influencers to Watch. Follow him on LinkedIn <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantcardone/">here</a>. 



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/waking-up-super-early-wont-make-you-more-successful-but-science-says-these-5-things-will.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/waking-up-super-early-wont-make-you-more-successful-but-science-says-these-5-things-will.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

South Africa's Quantum Foods warns of 38% drop in first-half profit

South Africa’s Quantum Foods warns of 38% drop in first-half profit. budget_shutterstock_249974521

61-year-old self-made millionaire: 4 things I regret wasting money and time on in my 20s

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/gary-burnison/">Gary Burnison</a>



Years ago, I came across&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-4-a-m-is-the-most-productive-hour-1471971861" class="">an article</a>&nbsp;about why 4 a.m. is the most productive hour. According to psychologist Josh Davis, who was interviewed in the piece, it allows you to dodge distractions like email, text notifications and phone calls.



That’s not surprising. Who would even be awake at that obscene hour to bother you? A few people were courageous enough to give it a try, but the results were mostly negative.



It was “miserable,” one person&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/10/i-tried-waking-up-at-4-am-for-2-weeks-to-boost-my-productivity-and-it-was-miserable.html" class="">wrote</a>. Another&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3067784/what-happened-when-i-forced-myself-to-wake-up-at-5-am-every-day-for-a-month" class="">said</a>&nbsp;they “fell asleep in their chair” that day. And my&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/i-tried-getting-up-at-4-am-to-be-more-successful-this-is-what-happened.html" class="">favorite</a>: “I felt like my head had an unhappy sheep inside it.”



No thanks. Not doing it, I thought to myself.





Let’s not kid ourselves



Fast forward to 2019, and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaLhhWim41s" class="">Internet</a>&nbsp;is still trying to convince me that waking up super early will make me more productive and successful.



In the modern world of entrepreneurship and high achievers, the cult of early risers only seems to be getting bigger. Ellevest co-founder Sallie Krawcheck and former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi&nbsp; both&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/29/why-tim-cook-sallie-krawcheck-and-other-successful-people-wake-up-at-4-am.html" class="">wake up at 4 a.m</a>. Apple CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/04/steve-jobs-was-legendary-and-tim-cook-is-a-genius-says-author.html" class="">Tim Cook</a>&nbsp;is up a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/29/why-tim-cook-sallie-krawcheck-and-other-successful-people-wake-up-at-4-am.html" class="">bit earlier</a>, at around 3:45 a.m.



I get the hype: Early risers have the benefit of more hours in the day. But waking up the same time as Cook won’t make you successful any more than wearing black turtlenecks like Steve Jobs will make you a disruptive genius.



What most people fail to realize is that waking up at 4 a.m. only works if you’re naturally an early riser. Keep in mind that this only applies to a very, very small population and, for the most part, is <a class="" href="https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/the-human-genetics-of-night-owls-and-early-birds-65414">dependent on genomes</a>.





It’s not about how early you get up



If 4 a.m. sounds shockingly early to you, then attempting to adjust your schedule doesn’t make sense because you’ll probably just end up losing sleep and, as a result, be&nbsp;less&nbsp;productive.



Science has made it clear that&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2006/10/sleep-deficit-the-performance-killer" class="">sleep deficiency</a>&nbsp;is one of the biggest productivity killers. Not getting enough sleep interferes with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sleep-newzzz/201811/why-you-can-t-think-straight-when-you-re-sleep-deprived" class="">cognitive performance</a>, increases the risk of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/sleep-deprivation-increases-alzheimers-protein" class="">Alzheimer’s disease</a>&nbsp;and can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/24/why-lack-of-sleep-health-worst-enemy-matthew-walker-why-we-sleep" class="">even shave years off</a>&nbsp;your life.



Instead, here are five ways to sleep for success:



1. Get at least eight and a half hours of sleep



Sleep scientist Daniel Gartenberg&nbsp;<a href="https://qz.com/1301123/why-eight-hours-a-night-isnt-enough-according-to-a-leading-sleep-scientist/" class="">suggests</a>&nbsp;getting eight and a half hours of sleep in order to maximize your productivity throughout the day.



So if you plan on setting your alarm clock to a few hours earlier, you’d need to be fast asleep by 7:30 p.m. Maybe that’s doable for you, but it’s unrealistic for any parent with a nine-to-five job. And even if you don’t have kids, you can kiss your social life goodbye.



Simply put, if you focus more on being well-rested, you’ll wake up with a clear brain and have a better advantage than the person who stayed at the office until 9 p.m., went to bed at 11 p.m. and woke up at 4 a.m.



2. Listen to your body



I was raised in Kansas where people follow the rhythms of an agricultural economy. It was normal to wake up with the sun (usually around 5:45 a.m.) and have “supper,” not “dinner,” at sunset.



My wake-up time still hasn’t changed much, and I rarely need an alarm clock. I spend the first two hours of my morning reading the news and contemplating my day.



That’s just what works for me. There is no one-size-fits-all. If you’re naturally a night owl, then do the math and adjust your sleep schedule accordingly.



3. Keep your hours consistent



Once you find a sleep schedule that works for you, commit to it. (That’s why testing out this whole “4 a.m. hour” is kind of ludicrous. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?)



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-03171-4" class="">2017 Harvard study</a>&nbsp;found that it doesn’t matter whether you sleep early and wake up early or vice versa. The most important thing is that you’re consistent about your schedule.



Researchers traced the sleeping habits of 61 students for about a month and correlated those habits with their academic performance. Students who had irregular hours ended up with worse grades compared to those who went to bed and woke up at the same time every day.



If your sleep schedule doesn’t align with your work hours, consider having a chat with your boss, as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/well/mind/work-schedule-hours-sleep-productivity-chronotype-night-owls.html" class="">growing number of businesses</a>&nbsp;are adjusting office hours to match their employees’ internal clocks.



4. Don’t press the snooze button



Hit it once, you’re catching up on lost sleep. Hit it twice, this isn’t going anywhere good — and it’s probably a hint that you have a job, not a career. Hit it three times, and it’s game over: You hate your job, you hate your boss and it’s time to get the heck out of there. Might as well go back to sleep!



“By dozing off for those extra minutes, we’re preparing our bodies for another sleep cycle, which is then quickly interrupted — causing us to feel fatigued for the rest of the day that lies ahead,” sleep expert Neil Robinson said in an interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/sleep-snooze-button-wake-morning-inertia-body-brain-experts-a8492376.html" class="">The Independent</a>.



Can you imagine any successful CEO pressing the snooze button several times before getting out of bed? Any high achiever will tell you that those 10 extra minutes aren’t worth it.



5. If you need to wake up super early, make sure you still get enough sleep



Back when I worked at an investment banking company, there were a few days when I&nbsp;did&nbsp;have to be in the office by 4:30 a.m. But I never sacrificed my sleep; I’d have lunch at 7:30 a.m., and when my co-workers were eating dinner, I was already fast asleep.



People who work for global companies often end up working odd hours. If that’s the case for you, it’s still important to prioritize those eight and a half hours of sleep.Put your health first, and success will come



The proven formula for success is simple: Put your health first. And if you need a billionaire endorsement, just remember that Warren Buffett, a man worth&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/#7ebb1dc84639" class="">$82 billion</a>, is in favor of getting a lot of sleep. “I will usually sleep eight hours a night,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/warren-buffett-says-gop-health-reform-bills-relief-rich" class="">told PBS</a>. “I have no desire to get to work at 4 in the morning.”



Gary Burnison is the CEO of <a class="" href="https://www.kornferry.com/">Korn Ferry</a>, a global consulting firm that helps companies select and hire the best talent. His latest book, a New York Times best-seller, <a class="" href="https://www.amazon.com/Lose-Resume-Land-Gary-Burnison/dp/1119475201">“Lose the Resume, Land the Job,”</a> shares the kind of straight talk that no one will tell you. Follow him on LinkedIn <a class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-burnison-9144957a/">here</a>. 



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/waking-up-super-early-wont-make-you-more-successful-but-science-says-these-5-things-will.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/04/waking-up-super-early-wont-make-you-more-successful-but-science-says-these-5-things-will.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

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