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Fall signals a change in the weather and for many workers, the beginning of open enrollment -- the annual benefits sign-up period for the coming year.

Open enrollment periods usually run for a few weeks between September and November in most workplaces. This yearly event, usually administered by the human resources department at most employers, allows you and your fellow employees to review past benefits choices, ask questions and make selections on health and related insurance products, retirement plans and other elective perks and discounts including transportation credits and tuition reimbursement.

The reality is that many employees make decisions too quickly or forget to address key personal needs in their selections. In fact, a recent survey by insurer Aflac says that 90 percent of Americans choose the same benefits year after year and that 42 percent forego up to $750 annually by making choices that don't fit their needs.

However, rushed or poor choices in insurance, retirement or other workplace-based benefits are part of a bigger story. Open enrollment is the smaller companion to self-directed savings and investment choices you should be making outside the workplace. Many employers are looking to shrink or discontinue the retirement and health benefits they offer, making it necessary for employees to focus on personal planning more than ever.

As open enrollment approaches at your workplace, here are some mistakes you might want to avoid:

Thinking open enrollment is the only financial planning you need to do. Your company may offer excellent retirement, healthcare, education and insurance benefits now. But given that the average worker tenure at U.S. companies is only 4.6 years, the biggest open enrollment mistake might be a lack of independent financial planning and personal savings and investment. Whether or not you work with a qualified financial advisor, most Americans need to save and invest independently from employer-sponsored plans. Qualified advisors can evaluate individual financial, lifestyle and tax circumstances and help clients select employer-based investments and benefits to complement what they're doing on their own.

Failing to read and prepare for open enrollment. Open enrollment dates can creep up on you. If your open enrollment period occurs at the same time every year, mark your calendar a few weeks ahead so you can start thinking and getting advice on benefits for the coming year. Choosing benefits is an important financial decision; make the right amount of time to review options.

Forgetting to coordinate benefits with your spouse or partner. Two-income families -- particularly those with kids -- might schedule a bit more time to compare benefits they're entitled to separately or together. While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) lets parents keep children on their health plans until age 26, more employers are instituting "spousal surcharges" or excluding spousal coverage altogether if spouses already have access to employer health insurance. According to Towers Watson, by 2017, 63 percent of employer plans will block spouses who have their own employer coverage or add surcharges that can range from $500 to $3,000 a year.

Ignoring your state's Health Insurance Marketplace. Circumstances change, so if you lose a job or find it too expensive to stay on your spouse or partner's health plan, familiarize yourself with your state's ACA-mandated health insurance marketplace as one of your potential health coverage options.

Forgetting to evaluate how big life events might affect your benefits. Major life events can become financial events very quickly. Pay raises or cuts, a spouse/partner getting or losing a job, marriage, divorce, serious illness or starting a family require a benefits checkup, preferably well in advance of open enrollment. Think through every potential situation you and your family might face and ask questions about how those changes might affect your benefit selections.

Ignoring flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs). FSAs are workplace-based accounts that allow you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to help you pay for healthcare and dependent care expenses during the calendar year. HSAs, if you qualify, also allow you to set aside pre-tax dollars in a qualified investment or savings account for long-and-short term medical expenses not covered by insurance. HSAs don't require you to spend out those funds every year. Your workplace benefits counselor, qualified financial advisor and Internal Revenue Service Publication 969 can outline eligibility, types of accounts, contribution limits and tax issues associated with these choices.

Leaving retirement selections unchanged. As the Aflac data indicates, many people don't change their investment choices in self-directed retirement plans for years. Many also make uninformed choices that are too aggressive or conservative for their needs. Reviewing employer-based retirement options annually against personal savings and investments is essential.

Brushing off wellness options. Many employers pay for exercise, cholesterol screenings, weight loss, smoking cessation, immunizations or related benefits that can make you healthier and possibly lower your healthcare premiums.

Bypassing transportation breaks. If you drive or take public or company-sponsored transportation to and from work, you may qualify for specific discounts or tax deductions. Check IRS Publication 15-B for the latest information on such programs and how to use them most efficiently.

Forgetting education benefits. If an employer is willing to train you to advance in your career, don't ignore the opportunity, but keep an eye on any potential tax liability for those benefits. Also, don't forget employer-sponsored grant or scholarship awards for you or your kids -- that can be free money.

Bottom line: Open enrollment is much more than a rush to fill out insurance forms every year. Do your homework or consult a professional before making these important choices for health, retirement and other key employee benefits that impact your overall budget.

Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa's financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney

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The millennium has provided fertile ground for tech entrepreneurship. There are plenty of opportunities these days to make your ideas see the light of day. But as your company gains momentum and gets its fair share on the market, the question on the agenda is how to not exhaust your thirst for innovation and uphold the entrepreneurial spirit; how to keep team collaboration personal as that of a start-up as your company advances the growth curve. Chris Howard - CEO of Softeq software development company and an eternal tech entrepreneur at heart - kindly shares his way to succeed in doing all of the above.

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I founded my first company when I was 24, and I was definitely puzzled. Apart from business or technology problems posed by the market, I was constantly challenged by my staff and partners. How do I inspire them, and how do I keep them motivated and responsible for their obligations? With my most successful business, the same challenges are aggravated by the hyper growth curve we're on. And guess what? My family experience helped a lot, and here is what I learned.

1. Keep an Open Door
My goal from the early days has always been to maintain a very open-minded and friendly atmosphere within our teams. Anyone can stop by and say "Hey Chris, I have an idea" or an issue. I have five kids and ultimately an understanding of how crucial and effective it is to listen.

2. Trust and Empower
Selecting a C-level team can feel like navigating your way through a mine field. You don't want to mess with the wires and the wrong combination may blow up in your face. Once the choices are made, I'm often asked how to ensure your senior executive management team is as efficient as it can be. The answer is simple: trust the people you hire. Given the agile and innovative nature of the high-tech industry, we're constantly evaluating our performance and needs, and bring in new talent to fill in any gaps. Our senior executive management team brings a wealth of experience to the table, and for me the key is to make sure they are all empowered to drive the company forward using each of their unique talents. This trust and empowerment inherently leads to highly motivated employees.

3. RTFM
As a student co-op at IBM, I quickly became the "expert" on the department's new PC because I was one of the few who took the time to "Read The Fine Manual." If innovation is your business strength, it's essential to invest a lot in R&D. But it's just as important to hire and promote people who understand the industry and love the challenge of constantly educating themselves. Ask a potential hire about his hobbies and what they do on their off time for some clues. Knowing the technology before your clients emerge with related projects is one guarantee they will recognize you as an expert.

4. Be a Role Model
Another thing I learned from parenting is to do what you said you were going to do and when you said you were going to do it. If you can stick to this rule yourself, your team will follow. It's persistence, belief in your own ability, and attention to detail that cements any relationship -- be it inside or outside your company, or among family and friends. Do what you said you were going to do. It seems so simple, but ironically many people just can't do it. Practice this and you'll stand out above the crowd.

5. Stay Ahead of the Curve
We work a lot for clients from the Electronics, Technology, and Manufacturing industries and they are really humming now. Technology is changing every aspect of people's daily life and business operations and these three fields are traditionally the early adopters. Listen to visionaries, predict trends, be a step ahead, and you'll be able to inspire your associates, impress your clients, and drive their innovative initiatives.

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Playing the Lottery Without a Chance to Lose

Who needs scratch-off lottery tickets and Powerball? Some credit unions are offering a program that allows you to win prizes as you save your money, at no risk to you. Not surprisingly, the program is called Save to Win.

The program was developed in Michigan in 2009 as an innovative way to encourage lower- and middle-income residents to participate in savings programs and develop better savings habits. So far, Save to Win is available in six states: a multi-state pool in Michigan, Nebraska, and Connecticut, with individual pools in North Carolina, Washington, and an initial entry into Virginia.

To enter, join a participating credit union and open an account known as a Save to Win share certificate. A searchable list of credit unions is available through a drop-down menu on the Save to Win home page. You must be 18 years of age or older to open an account and must meet the credit union's eligibility requirements.

You can open a Save to Win account for as little as $25. The first $25 earns an entry into the prize drawing, as does every $25 increment deposited afterward. While the funds in the certificate earn interest, you continue to rack up chances to win drawings with each $25 deposited. (See individual credit unions for the interest rate paid on the certificate.)

You can deposit as much as you want into the certificate, but the entries are limited to ten per month. Withdrawals are limited to one per twelve-month certificate term with a fee of $25 (it is, after all, SAVE to Win). Penalties may apply for withdrawing all your money and closing your account prior to the end of the twelve-month term; see individual credit unions for details.

To be eligible for any particular drawing, your account has to be kept open throughout the period for that drawing (monthly, quarterly, or annually). Save to Win is limited to personal accounts only (no businesses) and to one account per person. There are no monthly fees associated with Save to Win, and as long as you keep at least $25 in the account, the account will remain open.

At the end of the twelve-month period, your certificate will automatically roll over into a new one, allowing you to keep entering for more potential prizes. You can, of course, choose to cash in your certificate at the end of the term, but with continued chances to win prizes, why would you?

Prizes and drawing times vary between credit unions. However, prizes generally range from $25-$100 for monthly drawings and can be as large as $10,000 for the annual grand prize drawing. A complete list of the prizes and drawing periods may be found on the Save to Win website. Individual credit unions may also hold their own drawings and prizes off of the account, and it is possible to win both a credit union prize and a Save to Win prize in one drawing period. There is no hassle in claiming prize winnings; they are simply deposited in your account.

If you are struggling to save and have difficulty establishing a savings mindset, consider the Save to Win program. It's a nice incentive to establish savings while having fun and potentially winning prizes. Save to Win certainly is not Powerball or even a scratch-off ticket, but with Save to Win, you are not paying money for the privilege of playing -- and you will not be getting any interest benefits from a lottery ticket.

More from MoneyTips.com
Safe Investment Alternatives to Savings Accounts
5 Top Lottery Payouts
Lottery Employee Games System To Win 14 Million

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Predictions are that we will soon be seeing the "nuclear option" -- central bank-created money injected directly into the real economy. All other options having failed, governments will be reduced to issuing money outright to cover budget deficits. So warns a September 18 article on ZeroHedge titled "It Begins: Australia's Largest Investment Bank Just Said 'Helicopter Money' Is 12-18 Months Away."

Money reformers will say it's about time. Virtually all money today is created as bank debt, but people can no longer take on more debt. The money supply has shrunk along with people's ability to borrow new money into existence. Quantitative easing (QE) attempts to re-inflate the money supply by giving money to banks to create more debt, but that policy has failed. It's time to try dropping some debt-free money on Main Street.

The Zerohedge prediction is based on a release from Macqurie, Australia's largest investment bank. It notes that GDP is contracting, deflationary pressures are accelerating, public and private sectors are not driving the velocity of money higher, and central bank injections of liquidity are losing their effectiveness. Current policies are not working. As a result:

There are several policies that could be and probably would be considered over the next 12-18 months. If private sector lacks confidence and visibility to raise velocity of money, then (arguably) public sector could. In other words, instead of acting via bond markets and banking sector, why shouldn't public sector bypass markets altogether and inject stimulus directly into the 'blood stream'? Whilst it might or might not be called QE, it would have a much stronger impact and unlike the last seven years, the recovery could actually mimic a conventional business cycle and investors would soon start discussing multiplier effects and positioning in areas of greatest investment.

Willem Buiter, chief global economist at Citigroup, is also recommending "helicopter money drops" to avoid an imminent global recession, stating:

A global recession starting in 2016 led by China is now our Global Economics team's main scenario. Uncertainty remains, but the likelihood of a timely and effective policy response seems to be diminishing. . . .

Helicopter money drops in China, the euro area, the UK, and the U.S. and debt restructuring . . . can mitigate and, if implemented immediately, prevent a recession during the next two years without raising the risk of a deeper and longer recession later.

Corbyn's PQE

In the UK, something akin to a helicopter money drop was just put on the table by Jeremy Corbyn, the newly-elected Labor leader. He proposes to give the Bank of England a new mandate to upgrade the economy to invest in new large scale housing, energy, transport and digital projects. He calls it "quantitative easing for people instead of banks" (PQE). The investments would be made through a National Investment Bank set up to invest in new infrastructure and in the hi-tech innovative industries of the future.

Australian blogger Prof. Bill Mitchell agrees that PQE is economically sound. But he says it should not be called "quantitative easing." QE is just an asset swap - cash for federal securities or mortgage-backed securities on bank balance sheets. What Corbyn is proposing is actually Overt Money Financing (OMF) - injecting money directly into the economy.

Mitchell acknowledges that OMF is a taboo concept in mainstream economics. Allegedly, this is because it would lead to hyperinflation. But the real reasons, he says, are that:

It cuts out the private sector bond traders from their dose of corporate welfare which unlike other forms of welfare like sickness and unemployment benefits etc. has made the recipients rich in the extreme. . . .

It takes away the 'debt monkey' that is used to clobber governments that seek to run larger fiscal deficits.

OMF as a Solution to the EU Crisis

Mitchell observes that OMF has actually been put on the table by the European Parliament. According to a Draft Report by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the European Central Bank Annual report for 2012, the European Parliament:

9. Considers that the monetary policy tools that the ECB has used since the beginning of the crisis . . . have revealed their limits as regards stimulating growth and improving the situation on the labour market; considers, therefore, that the ECB could investigate the possibilities of implementing new unconventional measures . . . including the use of the Emergency Liquidity Assistance facility to undertake an 'overt money financing' of government debt . . . .

These provisions were amended out of the report, says Prof. Mitchell, largely due to German hyperinflation paranoia. But he maintains that Overt Money Financing is the most effective way to solve the Eurozone crisis without tearing down the monetary union:

It amounts to the ECB telling member states that they will provide the Euros to permit sufficient deficit spending aimed at increasing employment and production.

No public debt is issued.

No taxes are raised.

Interest rates would not rise.

A Job Guarantee could be introduced immediately.

The Troika can retire - no more bailouts.

As growth returns, structural changes - better public services, better schools, better health care etc. can be implemented. Growth allows structural changes to occur more quickly because people are happy to move between jobs if there are jobs to move between.

The Bogus Inflation Objection

Tim Worstall, writing in the UK Register, objects to Corbyn's PQE (or OMF) on the ground that it cannot be "sterilized" the way QE can. When inflation hits, the process cannot be reversed. If the money is spent on infrastructure, it will be out there circulating in the economy and will not be retrievable. Worstall writes:

QE is designed to be temporary, . . . because once people's spending rates recover we need a way of taking all that extra money out of the economy. So we do it by using printed money to buy bonds, which injects the money into the economy, and then sell those bonds back once we need to withdraw the money from the economy, and simply destroy the money we've raised. . . .

If we don't have any bonds to sell, it's not clear how we can reduce [the money supply] if large-scale inflation hits.

The problem today, however, is not inflation but deflation of the money supply. Some consumer prices may be up, but this can happen although the money supply is shrinking. Food prices, for example, are up; but it's because of increased costs, including drought in California, climate change, and mergers and acquisitions by big corporations that eliminate competition.

Adding money to the economy will not drive up prices until demand is saturated and production has hit full capacity; and we're a long way from full capacity now. Before that, increasing "demand" will increase "supply." Producers will create more goods and services. Supply and demand will rise together and prices will remain stable. In the US, the output gap - the difference between actual output and potential output - is estimated at about $1 trillion annually. That means the money supply could be increased by at least $1 trillion annually without driving up prices.

No Need to Sterilize

If PQE does go beyond full productive capacity, the government does not need to rely on the central bank to pull the money back. It can do this with taxes. Just as loans increase the money supply and repaying them shrinks it again, so taxes and other payments to the government will shrink a money supply augmented with money issued by the government.

Using 2012 figures (drawing from an earlier article by this author), the velocity of M1 (the coins, dollar bills and demand deposits spent by ordinary consumers) was then 7. That means M1 changed hands seven times during 2012 - from housewife to grocer to farmer, etc. Since each recipient owed taxes on this money, increasing M1 by one dollar increased the tax base by seven dollars.

Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP in 2012 was 24.3%. Extrapolating from those figures, $1.00 changing hands seven times could increase tax revenue by $7.00 x 24.3% = $1.70. That means the government could, in theory, get more back in taxes than it paid out. Even with some leakage in those figures and deductions for costs, all or most of the new money spent into the economy might be taxed back to the government. New money could be pumped out every year and the money supply would increase little if at all.

Besides taxes, other ways to get money back into the Treasury include closing tax loopholes, taxing the $21 trillion or more hidden in offshore tax havens, and setting up a system of public banks that would return the interest on loans to the government. Net interest collected by U.S. banks in 2014 was $423 billion. At its high in 2007, it was $725 billion.

Thus there are many ways to recycle an issue of new money back to the government. The same money could be spent and collected back year after year, without creating price inflation or hyperinflating the money supply.

This not only could be done; it needs to be done. Conventional monetary policy has failed. Central banks have exhausted their existing toolboxes and need to explore some innovative alternatives.

_______________________

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What is "power"? Alina Okun of Analytic Partners captured it perfectly when she said, "Power is the ability to impact outcomes," at the recent event at New York City's Cipriani celebrating women's rising power produced by Crain's New York business journal. (Photo of Joan Michelson & Alina Okun at Crain's event, credit: DTK Resources)

Here are "power tips" from the Crain's NY 50 Most Powerful Women event:

1. "Watch what you do": Candace Beinecke, Chair of Hughes Hubbard & Reed and a prominent lawyer on many "top" lists including Crain's, said that "they might not always listen to what you say, but they always watch what you do." Therefore, be mindful that your actions are being watched and act accordingly.

2. Surround yourself with talented people and empower them: Liz Rodbell, President of Hudson's Bay & Lord & Taylor and on the Crain's list, advised that empowering others helps them grow, strengthens their support of you, and frees up your time for other priorities that only you can do.

3. "Take mentoring advice with a little grain of salt": Deputy Mayor of NYC, and #1 on the Crain's list, Alicia Glen made this important point, adding to be willing to "push back a little (such as saying)...that's great, but have you thought of this?"

4. "Be a receptive and responsive mentee": Kathryn Farley, Senior Managing Director of Tishman Speyer and Chair of Lincoln Center and Crain's honoree, encouraged mentees to "follow up with their mentors about their advice ...give them feedback...let them know how it came out, because they are interested in you." Even if you don't follow their advice, Farley added. (Photo of Kathryn Farley, credit: Tishman Speyer)

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5. "Sort through guidance yourself": Dani Ticklin Koplik, top executive coach from DTK Resources (and my table host) said this and added, "Remember that a mentor is a guide and that their experience was theirs, and no two people's brains are wired alike."

I suggest having multiple mentors, because: (a) they each come from their own experiences and values, which may not reflect yours. The different perspectives are hugely valuable, but may not resonate with yours; (b) it will keep you from blindly accepting anyone's guidance, since you'll have to sort out the differences; and (c) you can offer alternatives to your mentors based on the feedback of others, which will enrich your results.

6. Remember you represent your demographic: Kathryn Farley explained that when you are a woman or an ethnic minority serving on a board (or any committee), you are representing all women or all of your ethnic group -- "like it or not, it's the reality." She also said affirmative action is necessary to force boards to add more women.

Speaking of representing your demographic...Crain's NY's list and event dropped the ball here:

7. When preaching diversity, make your panel diverse: The Crain's event panel was all white women, which is inconsistent with an event about valuing diversity - and especially absurd in a city where over 50 percent of the population is black or Hispanic.

8. Have your "top" list reflect your locale and values: In a city whose population is 24.5 percent black and 28.6 percent Hispanic (according to the Census), less than 1 percent of Crain's 2015 "50 Most Powerful Women" are black (one is the Mayor's wife) - and there was only one Hispanic woman on the list.

In addition, only three women on the list are from healthcare/biomedical, despite the fact that it's the second largest employer in New York City. New York City is nicknamed "Silicon Alley" for its flourishing information technology industry of about $9.2 billion, yet few women on the list were from IT. The most represented industry? Fashion, with eight of the 50 women honored.

Furthermore, few women on the list are in non-traditionally female industries - and none were from energy, clean tech or sustainability (values women hold high) - which would be important to feature in celebrating high-achieving women.

9. Describe the criteria used for your list: When I asked the Crain's event moderator about their criteria, she said, "It's the secret sauce." How are we supposed to think the list is credible if we don't know how it was developed?

10. Give a gift bag that reflects your values: How about giving books on leadership, or computer accessories, or a business card case? The gift bag at the Crain's 50 Most Powerful Women event had almost nothing to do with power or leadership, but instead was depressingly, stereotypically "female." It was all skin care, exercise, jewelry, clothing, food service, and... a baby swaddle! The notable exception: a 20 percent discount to General Assembly business and tech services (and the requisite copy of Crain's NY Business journal about the list). The free ticket to a Lincoln Center film series was cool. (Get gift bag only sponsors.)

Many honored leaders did not attend - such as famed Vogue Editor Anna Wintour (who would have enjoyed the fashionista's bonanza of fabulous power outfits), Huffington Post Founder and CEO Arianna Huffington, or Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbart - which makes one wonder why.

For tips on increasing your influence, check out my Huffington Post blog on "Having Influence."

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This week, Modi returns to the U.S. -- almost exactly a year since his nearly 20,000-strong crowd at Madison Square Garden generated media madness in India and abroad. Modi's diaspora audiences have continued to throng to hear him: 16,000 in Australia and some 50,000 in Dubai. So, is this "Madison Square Garden Part 2?" Not really.

The prime minister's two-day segment in San Jose following a speech at the United Nations in New York reflects Modi's definitive push of his "Digital India" and "Startup India" initiatives, messaging that appeals to multiple constituencies beyond just the players in the digital economy to include young educated Indian diaspora folks for whom many of Modi's announced initiatives trigger a diasporic "pride India," even if their everyday lives remain broadly unaffected by the status of U.S.-India relations.

In 2014, the hook for Modi's visit was his address at the UN General Assembly -- his first as Indian prime minister. New York and Washington were his only stops. This time, the two-day segment in California is significant for several reasons. First, in stretching the spatial frame to the West Coast, Modi becomes the first Indian prime minister to visit California in more than three decades. California is home to the largest segment of the 3-million strong Indian diaspora in the U.S.. Historically, Indian Punjabis, mostly agriculturalists were the earliest immigrants to the U.S.. Their descendants continue to own sprawling businesses in Californian almonds, peaches and other produce in the Central Valley. The oldest existing Sikh gurdwara in America in Stockton -- dating back to 1912 -- bears testimony to those roots. Interestingly, two of the very few Indian-American congressmen in history, Dalip Singh Saund and Ami Bera, are both Californians!

Modi's initiatives trigger a "pride India" for many young educated Indian diaspora folks, even if their everyday lives remain broadly unaffected by the status of U.S.-India relations.

However, this visit by the Indian prime minister has a different messaging. After all, unlike New York, New Jersey and Chicago, San Jose was not always a traditional Indian diaspora hub. It has become one since the IT boom that has attracted many Indian tech professionals. Today, San Jose is a buzzing space for innovation and fast-paced shifts in the digital space.

When I visited the capital of Silicon Valley in August, two things struck me. San Jose is a non-glitzy city. Equally, while walking around South Market St. and Park Ave., I was struck by a large presence of university students hanging out at the local eateries and bars. I spoke to a few and learned from Mark (from MIT) and Megan (from Ann Arbor) that summer internships around San Jose draw from among the best young tech minds. Adobe headquarters are in the heart of San Jose; Facebook's Menlo Park campus is about a 30 minute drive and Google's facilities are scattered within a similar radius. Palo Alto (Stanford) is in the vicinity, as is Apple's Cupertino campus. So, this is the happening incubation space for startups, where young techies create hundreds of apps each week!

Modi's programs at San Jose then, mesh well with his "Startup India, Stand Up India" message pushing India towards a digital economy while pursuing clean energy. In San Jose, Modi will launch "India-U.S. Startup Konnect," an extension of "10,000 Startups," an ambitious India-based project which aims to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10 times. In San Jose, Konnect will showcase India's strengths in the startup space across sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, energy and biotech to generate synergies between Indian and U.S. startups. But how does that messaging gel with the diaspora? Interviews with several U.S.-born Indian-American professionals and business owners in the Bay Area revealed that many are Modi-watchers, even if infrequent visitors to India.

Rohit, 31, a graduate from Irvine and a Fremont-based business owner, expressed it best:

As kids we did annual India visits to Delhi and Chandigarh, mostly meeting extended family and grandparents. Over time, family visits tapered off. . . India receded from our active consciousness. But this last decade, India is back in the conversations of my generation of 'desis'. . . Strong India-U.S. relations, visits by Indian PM and the Obama's India visits have brought us some great press in the U.S..

Neha, 30, an educator, nuanced Rohit's remarks, saying:

Of course we don't follow Indian events daily. . . So, media coverage that reaches us ranges from Indian success in tech to the disturbing statistics about women's basic safety in India's cities.

Shruti, 28, a tech professional, remarked:

Modi's election stirred us all up. His 'Clean India' campaign is phenomenal and 'Digital India' initiatives sound great to my generation.

I asked Harry, 32, a Berkeley graduate, now working with his engineer father in a defense equipment business whether U.S.-India relations mattered to him:

Of course! It's about pride. . . In the early '70s, when my father came from India all that the LA Times reported was about the underbelly of India. That is still there, but there is so much more now. The Obama-Modi meetings and strong U.S.-India ties are a win-win.

Evidently, for many diaspora Indians, the messaging from the Indian prime minister is important. Their awareness of domestic Indian politics is limited and current issues in India like the Patel agitation or the GST bill may not appear on their radars. But, if "Clean India" and "Digital India" carry such appeal, then San Jose seems an appropriate choice for Modi this time. The Google visit and the Modi-Zuckerberg townhall should have a similar impact considering that when Zuckerberg invited questions from Facebook users, over 22,000 comments popped up in less than 12 hours. Of course, for Facebook and Google, this is good optics, too. Their Indian constituency runs into the millions. Facebook users from India are slated to top user amounts globally by 2017. And, numbers matter.

For many diaspora Indians, the messaging from the Indian prime minister is important.

But what about the big-splash community event on Sept. 27 at the SAP Center? Well, the first 24 hours saw over 10,000 online registrations. Requests are still pouring in with thousands waitlisted. This, of course, does not include the CEOs, venture capitalists or the political luminaries who will fly into San Jose to attend various exclusive events alongside American senators, congressmen and other movers and shakers.

Hundreds of Indian-American networks have committed time and effort over months for the free community event. Many like Vijay and Swati are excited: "We missed New York, but we won't miss San Jose!' It is unlikely that San Jose will surpass Madison Square Garden in the numbers game, but in the digital game, it just may well.

Earlier on WorldPost:

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It's been a great day so far and it's just 10AM. I had the pleasure of reading to my daughter's 3K Pre-School class and received an overwhelming applause from the cutest group of kids imaginable. All of them displayed mastery of social emotional skills along with phenomenal language development. They haven't been formally assessed yet but leveraging my knowledge of assessments and early childhood development, I can ballpark that at least 80% of the class would be considered "Advanced Proficient" if they were to take a standardized assessment.

Hence, the dilemma. As the Managing Partner of Yardstick Learning, I've had firsthand experience working with high needs urban schools, parochial schools, as well as extremely affluent public and private school systems. The achievement gap across these socioeconomic groups is well documented, but no one ever seems to focus on the "expectations gap". The education reform community is more influential and powerful than ever before and the national lens has been focused on low income communities and getting all kids to proficient. However, in affluent communities, setting the bar to all children getting to proficient would result in the termination of everyone in the district including the board. The expectations in affluent communities are far greater than getting to proficient and instead focus on AP exam scores, Tier 1 college admissions, and "Advanced Proficient" percentages.

Few people outside of education actually know what "proficient" means as it relates to the recently implemented common core standards. I'll pull out a few Kindergarten standards and challenge any readers of this Op-ed to believe that they wouldn't pull their own kids out of a class if this is where their child is at at the END of their Kindergarten year. For example, according to Common Core Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.D, 6 year olds at the end of their Kindergarten year should understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how). I mentioned that my daughter just began 3K Pre-K this year and before she completed her 2 year old pre-school program, she and her classmates were proficient at understanding and using question words. The same holds true for any affluent community in the nation. Why then should "proficient" be the target for impoverished kids when kids from higher income communities mastered what's considered proficient 2-4 years before the standard is even assessed?

Let's look at another Kindergarten standard to help prove my point even further. According to Common Core Standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.5, 6 year olds should be able to "count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1-20, count out that many objects." Again, my 3 year old isn't a genius nor are her classmates but they can all do this at least moderately well. This standard is saying that she will be "proficient" if she can do this in 2 1/2 more YEARS. Is that not ridiculous?

The basic point of my argument is that "proficient" is such a low standard that not a single child who scores "proficient" in all areas according to the standards will actually be college or career ready upon matriculation from high school. The expectations are too low for any of these kids to rely on "proficiency" to help them get admitted into a competitive college and there's nothing about any of these standards that are actually preparing these kids to be career ready for any type of position deemed to be on a "career track" by any American standard. These standards aren't good enough for White students so why should schools be allowed to tout them as success for low-income Black and Brown students? How many times have you seen schools say that they've transformed or turned around a school by getting up to 70% proficient? Or what about the schools that brag that 100% of their kids are proficient? I implore you to peel back the onion to find out what percent of those kids are advanced proficient. And trust me, if that number is less than 10% and they're touting 100% proficiency then you should know that the school is nothing more than a testing mill preparing kids for standardized assessments.

Affluent communities try to build critical thinkers who are exposed to a vast array of opportunities and curriculum that explores all of the core content areas with a critical eye. They're not teaching rote memorization of a standard so that kids can do well on an assessment. They're teaching kids to actually "get it". Many of them may even have fewer students that score proficient but nearly all of the students who are proficient actually score "advanced proficient" on an assessment because they have a firm understanding of the material.

We must choose our children's education "eyes wide open" and understand when the wool is being pulled over our eyes. The institutional racism that is "proficient" only continues to keep Black and Brown children from ever experiencing the real American dream. We need to understand the standards in order to challenge the standards. This is our responsibility as this determines our future!

This blogger graduated from Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses program. Goldman Sachs is a partner of the What Is Working: Small Businesses section.

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A mentor of mine once said: "You can't be an outlier unless you want to actually turn the tables upside down." It's time the business world turns the tables upside down.

We have to shift our focus from the bottom line to the heart of the business, the folks who give us their time and dedication to deliver for our clients and deliver those bottom line results. We have to stand for more than titles, power and money.

Look, I'm not suggesting that making money is bad, but how do you generate profit - sustainable profit that is? Let's put it this way: who comes first, happy employees, happy customers or happy shareholders? Here's an outstanding answer I received when I tweeted this question a few months ago: "Turn employee passion into customer magic into shareholder cash."

Passion. Magic. Cash. This is the new order.

There is a better way to do business, one that puts humanity at the forefront of success. We need to build business cultures in which individuals--people--have the means to fuel their passion and truly thrive. To succeed, be happy in their work and to feel fulfilled and growing. A culture that gives voice to all team members, no matter who they are or what they do.

Why, you might ask?Because being good to your own people is good business. A place where when "Me" thrives, "We" benefit. This is what I call Weology - how everybody wins when "we" comes before "me" - a concept that creates win-win scenarios. Weology is transparency without asterisks. It is a way of putting people first in the short term so that a company can thrive in the long term.

This is not a feel good sound bite or inspirational 140 characters to tweet. This is about creating sustainable performance. It's about survival.

Organizations with the most engaged employees are the ones performing best over the long run. They are the ones navigating through the social age - not by populating all social media platforms but by fundamentally understanding the value of transparency and trust in a fast moving hyper-connected world.

"We" requires a structure that allows "Me" to shine. A machine that appreciates the way a person thinks and feels, that is equipped with an operating system that helps the collective, all because it was designed to change and adapt to human nature, to the individual, to personal whims and goals. Like a computer that feels its way forward. Or an artificial structure that processes emotion. We must design a machine for human nature. I'll admit, it's difficult, but it's not impossible. Running a business in this chaotic world is a great leadership challenge, particularly as the world is changing around us faster than ever.

When you step back and take a good look at these changes, you understand why and how new generations are looking to support and work with businesses that give back, with leaders who take a bit less, or better yet do both, the ones who embrace listening and collaboration rather than power.

Everything that matters in a business is connected to the management of its people. Unfortunately, learning to manage and lead people is something managers learn on the job. They don't teach these competencies in business school. It's trial by fire. But trust, loyalty and co-operation are not actions you can impose on people. The only thing leaders can do is to create an environment that allows and encourages these kinds of emotions. A culture that nurtures feeling and lets it grow to the forefront of the business. It's that machine I referenced earlier.

For years, the business world has pushed emotions to the background, even though they are a key to success. In many ways, they are the key to happiness. Yet so many leaders struggle to even acknowledge the emotional elements of work and life and therefore fail to create an environment where people can thrive.

Why? Because we've been made to believe that emotion is a synonym for "too soft, too nice, too weak." That emotion has no ROI. But maybe it does...

So here's what I propose: The next time you think of measuring success, consider counting a different number. That is, the number of great lives that your leadership affected and inspired.

It's time we transform the way business is led.www.tangerine.ca/weology

Peter Aceto's proceeds from the sale of Weology and related speaking engagements will be donated to charitable organizations supported through Tangerine's #BrightWayForward program.

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While riding home from the airport in a Chicago taxicab recently, I got into an interesting discussion with the driver, who also drives for Uber. He explained that he "rents" his cab from the taxi company because he sold his two medallions a year ago, when he realized the value of the medallion (an exclusive license to drive) would go down as UberX started allowing individuals to drive their own cars.

It seems there had been a thriving market in the limited number of medallions, but the entrance of UBER broke the monopoly power of these licenses, crushing their value. In April 2014, thirteen medallions were sold in Chicago, for an average price of $342,150. In July 2015, only one medallion sold -- for a price of $150,000. And when I contacted the largest medallion broker in the city, he said he currently has 11 medallions for sale at an offering price of $150,000 -- but no one is willing to bid for them, and he hasn't even received a lowball bid!

The price of taxi medallions has crashed. But that's not the only problem.

My driver explained that many of the smaller taxi companies had "pledged" their medallions as collateral for loans to acquire additional cars and attract more drivers. Now the collateral for those loans is underwater, and owners (and their banks) have the same problem the mortgage companies had eight years ago: falling prices.

Medallion owners have started defaulting on their loans. Drivers won't rent from them at high daily prices when they can drive UberX on their own. So the owners' income has fallen, along with medallion prices. They can't keep up with their loan payments.

I was still musing about this free market impact, when I received an email report from economist Brian Wesbury of First Trust Advisors (www.FTPortfolios.com) in Wheaton, Ill. It seems that the economics of taxi medallions in Chicago is just a microcosm of a problem that is emerging nationally, and especially in New York -- with serious consequences for the banking industry.

Wesbury's commentary centers on the takeover late last week of New York's Montauk Credit Union by the state department of financial services. This credit union had a sudden, and quickly rising, percentage of loan defaults. These weren't loans to real estate speculators or risky businesses. The credit union specialized in loans to taxi medallion owners!

Similar to the situation in Chicago, but on a larger scale, New York taxi medallions have plummeted in value as their state's highest court recently affirmed the legality of ride-sharing services, overruling an attempt to ban them in New York City. Wesbury explains that Montauk and three other credit unions have an estimated $2.5 billion in loans outstanding to the owners of 5,331 taxi medallions. That means many other financial institutions may be similarly impacted by medallion loan defaults.

Further investigation may reveal that some financial institutions, worried about the value of their loan portfolios, may have actually financed some medallion sales at above-market prices -- in order to be able to value their current holdings at higher prices (shades of the mortgage banking fiasco)! Investment manager James Hickman, of HVM Capital, has written extensively on the subject. If his allegations are substantiated, there could be criminal charges for those involved.

But the economic issues surrounding the sudden demise of the taxi cartel are actually very simple ones.

The first is a lesson learned early in Econ 101. Monopolies, especially state-sponsored monopolies, create artificial barriers to entry -- and keep prices artificially high.

Artificially high prices hurt consumers, distort market incentives and create profits for those protected from competition. But when the barriers to competition break down, commerce flows more freely and prices more accurately reflect supply and demand. The bubble bursts, and prices come down to reflect reality.

If you then add to that the ability to use leverage -- loans against that high value -- you get a situation that is sustainable only as long as the monopoly lasts. And the leverage makes the downside more intense.

Of course, the city of Chicago regulates the prices taxis can charge their riders. There is a place for regulation in the public interest. Otherwise drivers might concentrate in the most lucrative areas of the city, denying service to outlying neighborhoods. And the city has the right to keep competition out of the venues it owns, including airports and convention centers.

But the demand for the less expensive services is putting pressure on the city to allow the ride-share companies to serve these venues. So the city is trying to exact a price -- a $5 fee for each ride-share passenger picked up at those venues, along with higher meter prices for taxis and traditional Uber rides. That upsets the cabbies who rent their cabs on a daily basis; they know that the cab companies will simply charge higher rents.

So the second Econ 101 lesson is also apparent. Taxes impact behavior. But it's not the "incidence" of the tax but the "burden" of the tax that counts.

That is, the city might get the benefit of the higher taxes. But it's not the cab companies that will pay. The money will come from the cab drivers, and the true burden will fall on the passengers. Even worse, if the impact of higher prices is to discourage taxi riders, then no one will be better off. And that's The Savage Truth.

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If -- as so many Republicans, reactionaries and Chamber of Commerce minions would have us believe -- the American labor movement is more or less dead in the water, then there would be no reason to spend hundreds of million of dollars seeking to further cripple or destroy it.

If organized labor is as moribund as they claim (with barely 11-percent of the workforce, totaling 14.6 million members nationwide) then why do they remain scared shitless of it? After all, if your "enemy" has been rendered frail and ineffective, why continue to marshal valuable resources in opposition to it?

Here are three arguments for why the labor movement is far stronger than it appears.

THE FEAR. The moneyed Establishment (Wall Street, academe, the stock market, the mainstream media) continues to be terrified of unions. And the reason they continue to be terrified is because they know the truth.

Despite organized labor's declining membership, the Establishment realizes that given the opportunity to compare the benefits of a union shop to those of a non-union shop, employees are going to opt for the union. That's why businesses resort to obfuscation and time-stalling tactics to prevent certification votes.

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics findings (January 2015), the average, across-the-board weekly wages for union and non-union workers in similar industries is $970 vs. $763. Not even factoring in fringe benefits and superior safety conditions, union members earn more than $200 a week more than their non-union counterparts. That's why corporations fear the dissemination of pro-union information.

THE GAP. As the gap between the rich and the middle-class, to say nothing of the "working poor," continues to grow, attention is going to continue to be focused on this alarming phenomenon. And as the focus grows more intense, the realization will begin to occur to people that Congress, philanthropists, and the Church are ill-equipped or unwilling to address it.

Yes, the Congress can increase the federal minimum wage, but that pitiful pro forma gesture has virtually nothing to do with providing a "living" wage, decent benefits, and adequate working conditions.

One look at the history of the U.S. and Europe tells a different story. It tells us that labor unions -- and only labor unions -- are capable of addressing that discrepancy. Again, as the gap continues to widen, the American worker can be expected to turn to the one institution that can offer resistance.

THE TACTICS. The AFL-CIO has finally come to the realization that organized labor's future lies not only in the hands of the young, but in the hands of women and minorities, and has modified its organizing campaigns accordingly. That move was a long-time coming.

Those white males who were part of the Baby Boom generation -- anyone born between 1946 and 1964 -- and who managed to land a good union job (I'm one of them), are no longer a driving force in the labor movement. Far from it.

Indeed, those grumpy, white, male Boomers (I'm one of them) are about as relevant to the movement as manual typewriters are to the publishing industry. The future of organized labor lies elsewhere, and the leadership of the AFL-CIO has finally recognized it.

Speaking specifically of women, they are now aware that despite all the pretty words, all the seminars, and all the feminist activism, the only place in America where they are absolutely guaranteed (not just promised, but guaranteed) "equal pay for equal work" is in a union shop. America's unions may be wounded, but they ain't dead.

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I was recently talking to a newly minted entrepreneur. He was listing the things that scared him and admitted that one of his biggest fears is that he will be tripped up by the things he's not good at. Some things come easy to him, and others (e.g., admin and marketing)... not so much. So a huge question mark was whether he would be successful in business knowing that he would be challenged in particular ways.

The fear in his voice was palpable, and I could feel the juicy internal conflict that comes with being at a crossroads. Should he move forward knowing that he would be walking straight into situations that would challenge him? Or should he stay put? I empathized with him because I remember being in the same situation. I could pinpoint specific areas where I would be challenged, and was unsure whether these challenges would cause me to fail miserably.

In making the decision to walk the road between employment and entrepreneurship, it's important to approach things with a clear and open perspective. If you find yourself shutting down around the areas where you know you'll be challenged, I encourage you to think through the questions below. They can help you remain open so that you arrive at the best decision for you.

Are you willing to work through your challenges?

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough." ~ Randy Pausch from The Last Lecture

My first business coach told me that entrepreneurship is a deep dive into personal development, and I've experienced the truth of her words many times. Facing challenges in business is inevitable, and it's what you do with these challenges that determine how successful you'll be. It's easy to view difficulties as roadblocks that keep you from getting what you want. A better perspective is to view them as opportunities. A few questions that can give you some perspective when you're in a challenging situation:

How have I created the situation that I'm currently in?

Moving forward, what can I do to keep this from happening again?

How can this challenge work for me? (Instead of asking "Why is this happening to me?")

Are you willing to ask for help?

"There is no quick and easy solution except to start reaching out. As you work, look for answers wherever you can. Continually build your network: your team members, business acquaintances, online forums..." ~ Richard Branson

As an entrepreneur you are going to be challenged in many different ways. You will think you've worked through all of your kinks and have fallen into a rhythm, only to have something come at you out of left field. You'll constantly have to think on your feet and adapt as you find yourself in new situations.

You'll be doing yourself an incredible disservice if you try to go at it alone.

From the outset, you should work on cultivating relationships with individuals who can provide well-crafted advice. This will be your secret weapon that will help you manage even the stickiest of situations.

In finding individuals to whom you can go to for counsel, consider the following questions:

How can this individual best advise me? What is his or her expertise?

Am I willing and able to be vulnerable in front of this person and share the intimate details of what I am going through?

Do I respect this person enough to follow his or her advice?

Are you also focusing on the benefits of entrepreneurship?

"[F]or the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." ~ Steve Jobs

It's easy to become so focused on the challenges that you forget why you considered becoming an entrepreneur in the first place. What got you thinking about leaving employment to become an entrepreneur? How would starting your own business allow you to experience life the way you want to be living it?

Focusing on the benefits you expect to receive from becoming an entrepreneur can serve as a beacon that guides you through the challenging moments. (Just as important: celebrating successes, no matter how small, as you achieve them).

A few questions to help you maintain a balanced perspective:

How do you want to be showing up in the world?

What kind of impact do you want to make?

If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?

I suggest taking some time to think through these questions as you decide whether you want to transition from employment to entrepreneurship. If you're open to sharing, feel free to write me at thebusinessalchemist@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!

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It is tempting to use public relations, marketing and ethics to limit free speech. In business, the goals are to serve customers and maximize profits for investors, and free expression may be seen as an obstacle.

The growth of social marketing and PR on U.S. university campuses faced with more competition should not be an excuse, though, to restrict academic freedom and open inquiry. Yet, a desire for campuses to speak with "one voice" inevitably leads to social media policies gone wrong.

Google "university social media policy" and watch 574 million results return. At the top of my search was the University of Houston Social Media Policy.

The front line in the assault on freedom of expression comes in the form of law. Although we are blessed with the First Amendment, the 21st Century legal terrain introduces FERPA, HIPPA and NCAA regulation designed to protect student privacy. The Houston policy follows most across the country in its fear of disrupting the world of big time, big money college athletics:

The world of social media has changed the face of communication and recruiting in collegiate sports and all UH employees are asked to abide by NCAA regulations when interacting and communicating on social media platforms. In addition, we ask that all employees refrain from contacting (Tweeting and friending on Facebook) prospective student-athletes on social media until after they have signed a National Letter of Intent with the school.

Presumably the policy means university employees should not tweet at a specific recruit, and not that they should be blocked as followers on Twitter. The open social media spaces, of course, encourage rather than discourage open communication within a particular context.

Houston, however, is not alone. The University of Wisconsin-Madison also has an explicit social media policy. It draws a bold line between personal and professional use:

It's appropriate to post at work if your comments are directly related to accomplishing work goals, such as seeking sources for information or working with others to resolve a problem. You should participate in personal social media conversations on your own time.

Personal ethics and responsibility is introduced in this reaching statement: "Let your Internet social networking do no harm to the UW-Madison other individuals or to yourself whether you're navigating those networks on the job or off."

Many social media policies provide valuable advice about accuracy, authenticity and respect for others. The Social Media Handbook at Vanderbilt University, for example, has a clear focus on professional social media use best practices: "Limit your personal use of these sites while at work as directed by your department's guidelines."

Many social media policies default to broader university workplace rules in dealing with violations, but the potential suspension or dismissal of faculty under University of Kansas policy led the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in 2014 to respond with a presidential statement:

It is not difficult to imagine the chilling effect the new policy will have on freedom of expression in general and academic freedom in particular on university and college campuses in Kansas. Furthermore, social media, and Twitter specifically, have become essential tools in gathering and disseminating news. If Kansas' journalism professors are afraid to teach students how to use these reporting tools because they may violate a vague social media policy, the future journalists they train will be unprepared for the real world of journalism in the digital age.

At the University of Chicago, where my daughter attends, President Robert Zimmer reiterated Monday at Opening Convocation the campus support for freedom of expression and open inquiry.

A 2014 committee report on that campus importantly acknowledged legal and privacy concerns, but added:

...the University may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt the ordinary activities of the University. But these are narrow exceptions to the general principle of freedom of expression, and it is vitally important that these exceptions never be used in a manner that is inconsistent with the University's commitment to a completely free and open discussion of ideas.

By emphasizing a "fundamental commitment" to debating through open inquiry, the U. of C. does what many campuses do not do. It places responsibility in the hands of the campus community (rather than administrators) to "openly and vigorously" contest opposing views within the mission to educate. Still, even at Chicago, one finds a social media policy within the Employee Handbook that requires communication to "be consistent with the University's policies, standards, and principles and should not denigrate or insult others."

At the University of Nebraska at Omaha, my campus, the emphasis seems to be on branding and online style guides. Employees also must follow NU Regents' bylaws, policies and campus computer use rules.

If universities have trouble guarding free expression, no wonder businesses struggle with social media policies. It is important to remember, though, creating innovative business cultures requires a free flow of ideas online and in the workplace. While protecting business interests, free expression must be a fundamental right that is not suffocated by overly bureaucratic attempts to craft social media policies.

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Young & Entrepreneurial is a series of articles where I've decided to interview and write about young individuals disrupting the world. By sharing the stories of these individuals, I hope to inspire youth from all over the world to follow their passions, to take the road less traveled and to disrupt the status quo. To read previous features and to stay up to date with future features, like our Facebook page here.

JJ Fliegelman was a senior at the University of Pennsylvania when he wrote his first-line of code in PennApps. Fast-forward four years later and JJ is the CTO of WayUp, a platform that connects college students with part-time, summer and entry-level job and internship opportunities. WayUp was previously named CampusJobs before the team decided to broaden their services and make the name-change. This past April, WayUp raised a $7.8 million Series A round led by General Catalyst.

JJ giving a talk at the recent PennApps

JJ decided to drop by PennApps XII to share his story with the student hackers of how PennApps helped him get started, how it led to CampusJobs, why they changed their name to WayUp, the challenges they've faced, lessons he has learned and more.

JJ recalled how he ended up building two applications during his first PennApps, a histograph and a 'that's what she said' app. The former ended up winning an award at PennApps.

Jj shared, "I went to Penn but I didn't study programming or Computer Science at all. I was in the Huntsman program (Business at the Wharton School + International Studies). I got started at PennApps because I was pretty good friends with one of the organizers."

*I will be referring to WayUp as CampusJobs until the time in the story where they make the name-change

The Serendipity of PennApps

Joining PennApps however would lead to JJ meeting his eventual cofounder Liz Wessel. The funny thing was that Liz actually didn't attend PennApps but she decided to go through the list of participants searching for potential people to work with, and she ended up coming across JJ's profile.

JJ recalled, "She sent me this funny email, 'hey my friends told me you're the best hacker in Penn, we should totally meetup.' We met up and we decided to work on a small project at the end of the year, which was a project to help students become campus reps for companies."

It was only 3 weeks ago that JJ broke the news to Liz that he wasn't the best hacker. But 4 years ago, that didn't really matter.

JJ shared, "You don't really need to know anything to get started. Liz just started getting companies on board. We build the website in 4 weeks with Python and it was awesome. It was built like shit, looked like shit, got errors all the time, did almost nothing but at the end of the day, all it had to do was have students sign up and fill out a profile and get businesses to sign up and fill out a profile, and let students search for the businesses."

The team back when they were still named CampusJobs

Travelling the World + Coding + McKinsey

Liz and JJ launched the site in December before JJ graduated and decided to travel the world while taking on freelance projects to help him build his coding skills.

He shared, "I would take on different projects, each more difficult than the previous one. I wanted to learn Node so I took on a project that required Node. I wanted to learn Twilio so I took on a project that required using Twilio through oDesk."

During this time, Liz was still at Penn and she would call companies, asking them if they needed campus reps. She would then enter CampusJobs in the Pennvention competition, where they would win the second prize of $1000. However, Liz and JJ would decide to leave the site on the side and do their own things.

After travelling the world and building his technical skills, JJ decided to join the business and technology department of McKinsey while Liz went on to work in Google.

The Next Steps

JJ shared, "Two years sitting there and not doing a lot but CampusJob kept growing and growing. We had thousands of students signing up and we had big businesses signing up. While Liz was in India, I was taking all the class."

Since JJ was still in Mckinsey at that time, he would have to leave his team meetings every now and then to go to the bathroom and answers calls with potential companies for CampusJobs. He shared, "I would be in the bathroom for an hour talking to big companies like Amazon on how to run a campus rep program."

This is when he realized that CampusJobs might just have more potential then they initially thought. He shared, "We had these really big companies calling us just because we had this tiny website that barely worked." It made JJ think about the possibilities if they decided to do it fulltime.

At the same time, Liz's experience working in Google India taught her how to think big.

JJ shared, "So if we were going to quit our jobs, we had to do something big so we brainstormed and realized that the campus red job was only one part of the problem, and we thought that there's no way for students to find part-time jobs in schools."

Liz and JJ believed that with the Internet, there must be a better way for students to find part-time jobs aside from the usual career fair, friend referral and Craiglist. JJ quit Mckinsey and Liz quit Google and the adventure started. Two weeks later and they had their prototype, and they managed to raise $1M in seed funding, with Box Group leading the investment.

The WayUp Team has grown quite a bit since they started

Fake It Till You Make It

JJ recalls how in those two weeks, Liz would meet with VCs and get feedback like 'Your site is really cool but you should also have a profile for students and a search button'. Liz would then reply, "Awesome. We totally have that. It just hasn't been pushed yet."

This would be followed by Liz calling JJ and saying, "JJ, you have to build this right now." JJ shared, "I didn't sleep in the weekend and I would basically have my own hackathon and three days later we had the student profiles and search button."

Liz and JJ would then recruit their friend Nikki Schlecker who would become the Head of Student Marketing at WayUp. They then got to work.

JJ shared, "I was programming. Liz was putting up fliers and cold-calling businesses to get them on the website and Nicky was creepily messaging every student and telling them to become campus reps to the point that we were in every single class Facebook group."

He added, "I remember the day it was really working was when we didn't need to message students anymore. One day, all of the sudden, we were hiring every single of our campus reps through CampusJobs. We hired a sales manager through Craiglist and we were off and running."

The Y Combinator Experience

CampusJobs would then be invited to join Y Combinator (YC) but the team felt like they were too far along from the early stage process and that they had revenue already from Day 1. The application deadline would pass but Y Combinator would reach out to CampusJobs and ask them to consider applying.

JJ shared, "We didn't know what to do so we met with our biggest mentors David and Adam from Tech Stars. And they told us, 'You guys should do it. At the very least, you will have over 600 customers from their previous startup companies. When the founders of TechStars tell you do to Y Combinator, you listen so that's what we did."

At this point, CampusJobs had a team of four and they needed to hire more people to accelerate their growth as they entered Y Combinator.

JJ shared, "We went to YC for 3 months and the whole team was just seated, building the website, talking to users and onboarding campus reps. By the end, we were in every singe school in the country and we finished YC raising our Series A which was $8M."

The team has now grown to 20 people and they are headquartered in New York. They also recently renamed themselves as WayUp after realizing that they don't just help students get campus jobs anymore, they help students with the whole career search process.

Just another day in the office

Hustle, Hustle, Hustle

JJ shared to us the importance of hustling for your startup to survive and grow. He shared how they didn't spend any money on marketing and advertising during the early days of WayUp.

JJ added, "I pay zero dollars for infrastructure thanks to YC. Investors like to give money to startups that don't need the money because if you don't need the money, you're probably on your way up."

Most of the money WayUP has raised has been spent on salary and office space. Why not just bootstrap the business then?

JJ shared, "I think its very much dependent on your business and the scale. I look at raising money based on mentorship. We were lucky that we had a lot of people offering us money. The number one thing that helped us was the mentorship because we had investors who were willing to help us in every step of the way."

The Startup Life

Admittedly, JJ and the rest of the WayUp team have faced their own fair share of challenges and sorrow moments but they've overcome all of these roadblocks so far by having a great attitude and just working harder.

JJ shared the reality of starting a startup, "You get very very tired. You have to be a bit crazy. We're lucky things are going well. You have to be prepared for failure and be prepared to put your whole life to it. You have to be really really excited about it that you're willing to give up your whole life for it and if you're willing to give up anything, you'll be tired but you won't be burnout."

JJ and the rest of the WayUp team hope to own everything student employment related in the US. JJ hopes that WayUp can onboard a million students on their platform by the end of this year, with a goal of really filling every part of the employment gap for students in the US.

Check out this music video that the WayUp team filmed a few months back:

---About the Author---

David Ongchoco is a student entrepreneur and avid storyteller from the Philippines studying at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in what he likes to call, LIFE. He is currently working on expanding his for-purpose organization YouthHack. It's David's goal to make an impact in the lives of as many people possible while constantly learning new things every single day. If you have any interesting startup stories, David can be reached via Twitter @DOitChoco. You can also email startupinsider.official@gmail.com.

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After my yoga class this morning, I looked around and noticed how relaxed everyone looked. The chatter and buzzing from before class were gone and calmness had set in. So, I jokingly commented that the key is to take this feeling off the yoga mat and into everyday life. I only go to yoga once a week, but I sure love the impact it has on my well-being. I came to yoga as a way to manage my stress and business anxiety. However, it wasn't only my yoga practice that helped me de-stress. Outside of my yoga class, I follow three simple steps on a consistent basis. I can't say that this was always the case. I would often take on a ton of to-do's and commitments, hold in feelings, push myself to the limit and then totally crash. I would end up making myself sick -- physically and emotionally. You know the days when potato chips or some other junk food are your dinner and you're ready to be sick afterward. Can you relate? So, what three simple steps do I follow that have helped me de-stress and thrive both at work and in my personal life? Here they are:

Plan daily quiet time. This recharges both your body and mind. I usually sit out in nature all by myself, without any technology, for at least 15 minutes, pray and embrace stillness. If meditation works for you, then practice this as part of your quiet time. (I'm personally not a "meditator".) Or I also use this time to let out heavy feelings. You might find me in my backyard, hula hooping and hurling out some choice words about a person or situation. The physical releasing of these emotions is truly phenomenal and is totally underrated in our society. Especially in the "positive thinking movement". You have to get real with what's going on and let things out. I let my body guide me and tell me if I need stillness or physical releasing. What's the clue? If I feel tension in my neck -- it's stillness that I need. If I have tension in my gut, it's physical releasing that I need. This daily quiet time also helps you build intuitiveness about what your needs are.

Eat lots of fruits and veggies. I can't emphasize this enough, but healthy body = healthy mind. You are what you eat. Remember my example about eating potato chips for dinner during high stress times? Well, I typically got sick from all the fat and processed crap. And guess what? I totally didn't have any energy to tackle anything. Plus, this led me to feeling even more stress and overwhelm. I now eat a plant-based diet. I'm not saying that this is for everyone, but you'll be amazed at how much more energy you have when you're eating fresh fruits and veggies. You sleep better and have fewer cravings for sugary, fat-laden processed foods. Another benefit for me has been that I feel like I have a real mental clarity that helps me focus and be proactive. I don't respond to drama like I used to either. This one alone is worth eating all your fruits and veggies for, isn't it?

Organize yourself. No, this doesn't mean another to-do list. It means: de-clutter your mind and environment. Running around in the morning, looking for your keys, hunting through your closet and remembering that you have a big presentation, but nothing ironed? The gremlins didn't steal your keys and the magic fairy won't take care of your laundry. For me, I noticed that when I just started jotting down things that I need to take care of and doing a morning brain dump, I felt amazingly calm and ready to take on the world. I then organize the brain dump into various trackers: I keep an on-going "taking action list" for my business activities; a shopping list for items we're out of; and a normal list of things I need to get done around the house. Sounds like work to you? Well, it's the answer to the question I get on a regular basis: "How do you juggle everything?" I organize myself. Another thing that helped me get out of stress and overwhelm was to say no to clutter. I no longer feel like I have to hold onto things that I don't need or want. I purge frequently, put things away right after I use them and say no to family members who try to "gift me" with items that aren't my taste or what I need.

Remember the goal is to strike stress and overwhelm from your life and career, but don't do it by tackling all three steps above at once. Take on one step and then move on to another. I promise you -- you won't hear yourself saying: "I'm stressed. I'm overwhelmed." You'll say: "I'm having fun and getting things done!"

Are you a career woman looking to see how you can take your purpose-driven career to the next level by creating your own personal brand? Access my free personal branding workbook here to help you make your mark on the world.

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What's the Wall Street lesson for Volkswagen executives? Too big to fail companies can rip-off the American public, executives can earn millions in additional compensation, and no one is held accountable for "corporate" decisions.

There is a glimmer that this travesty may not happen this time. The Justice Department is considering criminal indictments against the VW executives who made the decisions to sell cars that violated U.S. pollution laws. But, don't hold your breath. There is a good chance no VW executives will actually go to jail. It will get down to political connections and a Justice Department that would rather fine corporations than prosecute politically connected executives.

But maybe, and this is a definite long-shot, the decisions made by VW executives to damage the environment and the health of millions of Americans is considered more egregious than Wall Street's decisions to damage peoples' ability to retire and be financially secure for the remainder of their lives. It is health versus money. Maybe it is easier to get money back.

Wall Street executives made decisions to rip-off the American public for hundreds of billions of dollars. You have seen the headlines, the biggest companies on Wall Street paid billions of dollars of fines, but no senior executives were indicted or sent to jail. Very few even lost their jobs. One executive even received a bonus for minimizing the amount of the fine that was paid by his corporation.

So if VW decisions were a "criminal" act, as the Department of Justice said they were, why won't any Volkswagen executive go to jail?

The Supreme Court, in a little publicized 2010 "Citizens United" case, considers corporations people under the First Amendment. This is a ludicrous conclusion. Corporations aren't people. They exist on a piece of paper. Corporations don't make decisions. The executives who run the corporations make decisions.

It's a replay of the Justice Department prosecutions of big Wall Street banks that resulted in no jail time for key executives. There will be no "justice" if VW, the biggest car company in the world, has the right political connections. Even if any deal with Volkswagen violates new Department guidelines, announced earlier this month, that directed its attorneys to indict real people when they pursue criminal charges against corporations.

Big corporations, starting with Wall Street companies, will not play by the rules until there is accountability for corporate executives who make decisions that damage the public. Greedy executives should not benefit when they make decisions that damage public health or the financial security of millions of Americans. Corporations should not be able to pay fines for criminal acts without jail time for the executives who made the decisions.

Don't be deceived. Martin Winterkorn's resignation is not an adequate response from Volkswagen. He did not commit these criminal acts on his own. Hundreds of senior VW executives and managers had to be involved in the scheme to violate U.S. pollution laws.

How can you send a message to VW and other big corporations that are run by greedy executives who believe their companies are too big to fail? Vote with your wallet. Boycott VW products until the executives who made these decisions have been fired. This will send a clear message to the Boards of Directors that run these companies that there are serious, long-term financial consequences when they rip-off consumers.

There will be some unfortunate side effects. Innocent car dealers and their employees will be damaged by your boycott. This is one more reason why VW executives, who made these decisions, belong in jail.

About the Author: Jack Waymire worked in the financial services industry for 28 years. For 21 years he was the president and chief investment officer of a registered investment advisory firm with more than 50,000 clients. He left the industry in 2003 when his book (Who's Watching Your Money?) was published by John Wiley. That same year he launched an investor information website (www.PaladinRegistry.com) that was based on the principles in his book. Jack is a columnist for Worth magazine, a frequent blogger on major financial sites, and widely quoted in the media including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, and Kiplinger. Follow Jack on Twitter @PaladinRegistry.

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Photo: Susana/Flickr

Worrying about Finances Sucks.

With the improving economy, consumer confidence and spending are going up. But so are lifestyle inflation and its evil sister DEBT. At the same time, the recent stock market turmoil has quickly reminded people that investing isn't always easy. Consequently, many have left their retirement planning behind, often because it's just so confusing or investing done wrong is just so stressful. Fear not however, solutions are at hand.

Whether you are just entering the work force or entering your golden years faster than anticipated, there are a few steps you can take now to spruce up and de-stress you retirement plan. The sooner you get started, the easier the road ahead will be to reach that desired day of financial independence, the day where working becomes an option and not a necessity. A skilled financial planner can help you get your financial house in order. You've worked hard to be financially secure, let me do my job and help you enjoy your Golden Years.

I've spoken with many pre-retirees who have been losing sleep over their retirement plans, and even more who have been completely ignoring their accounts for years. I hope to offer a few tips to help reduce the stress as you get your financial plan back on track.

One of the most common requests I get from people about to retire is they "don't want to worry about all this crap anymore." They want a financial plan to help relieve some of the stress managing their finances of day to day. Many people hate dealing with anything to do with money (other than spending it), and when you hate dealing with something you may ignore it. As you can imagine, ignoring your finances may be one of the worst things you can do. A trusted financial planner can take some of this laborious work off your plate, let them worry about this stuff.

If you prefer to pull your few remaining hairs out when thinking about financial topics STOP READING NOW. But if you prefer to make the journey through your working years more financially beneficial, follow these few tips.

- Make it automatic: Whether you are making payroll deducted contributions to a 401(k) plan, or using an IRA or Roth IRA have your automatic contributions in place at least monthly. Set it up like any other bill on autopay. When it's automatic, it actually happens.

- Maximize any employer contribution: Would you turn down a raise if your boss offered it to you? "NO! DON"T GIVE ME 3 to 6% more salary tax-free!" Sounds ridiculous right? By leaving the company match on the table you are essentially turning down free money. Figure out what the company matching policy is, and at the very least contribute enough to get the full match.

- Ignore the news and don't try to time the market: The stock market values move every second. You can stare at it all day and stress yourself out, but to be honest this will in no way do anything to increase your odds of reaching a comfortable retirement. On the other hand, all that stress may make retirement planning a bit easier if a heart attack kills you at 50, just saying. Dollar cost averaging (putting in money to your account regularly) helps reduce the need to really worry about when your money is going into the account. While this doesn't eliminate risk, putting smaller chunks of money in at a time does help reduce the risk of your portfolio over time. Best of all if reduces the chances of your falling for the trap of either irrational exuberance or irrational despair and trying to time the market.

- Work with a professional: The earlier you sit down with a trustworthy financial advisor -- preferably a Certified Financial Planner -- to get your retirement road map on track, the easier may be to reach financial independence. They can help you set up a comprehensive strategy to help reach your specific goals, and help make sure you are taking full advantage of the opportunities you have available to you. Not to mention you can put all the stress of watching your retirement accounts on them. Let me spend hour pouring over financial news, and don't let reading this article keep you from your maitai on the beach.

- Be proactive: No one wants to think about getting older or cutting back on spending. But do you really want to be 80 and still have to work? Personally, I love my career and I plan to work forever, but I'm realistic and want to have the option to retire as soon as possible. Also, are you sure you will you be able to work full time at an advanced age? Who knows? At least if you get a financial plan on track you may have the choice and can choose to keep working. If you start at 35 you will have to put away a much smaller percentage of your income than if you start at 50. Now, if you start at 60 good luck. Let compound interest be your friend.

To recap: Make retirement planning a priority, make it automatic, maximize your employer's matching and other benefits and get your financial house in order NOW. Don't stress over the day-to-day movement of the stock market, it really doesn't matter what happens today when you are years away from retirement. Working with a professional who can help pick the appropriate investments for your situation and risk tolerance, and more importantly help you figure out how much you need to be putting away each month, will help you manage a good life now as well as the retirement of your dreams.

DAVID RAE, CFP®, AIF® is a Los Angeles-based Financial Planner with Trilogy Financial Services specializing in retirement planning. A regular contributor to Advocate Magazine and other news outlets focusing on financial issues in the LGBT community, he posts regularly on Huffington Post as well. Follow him on Twitter @davidraecfp Facebook.com/davidraecfp . For more information about his experience and service visit his website, www.davidraefp.com.

Image Courtesy of David Rae/ KTLA NEWS

Securities and advisory services offered through National Planning Corporation (NPC) , member FINRA and SIPC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Trilogy and NPC are separate and unrelated entities. The opinions voiced in this article are for general information only. They are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual and do not constitute an endorsement by NPC. Dollar cost averaging does not assure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Such a plan involves continuous investments in securities regardless of fluctuating price levels of such securities and the investor should consider his/her financial ability to continue purchases through periods of low levels.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Like many other areas of life and business, human resources has a unique life cycle. However, instead of focusing on the biological aspects of development, the HR life cycle involves the stages employees go through and the role HR takes on during those stages.

Each stage of the human resources life cycle has its own challenges, opportunities, and benefits. For instance, if your small business is experiencing excessive employee turnover, it's likely that the Motivation stage of the HR life cycle needs attention. If an employee's skills aren't improving, you will want to address the Evaluation stage.

When there's a breakdown at any stage of the cycle, you need to take the necessary steps to correct the problem so both your employees and your business continue to grow.

The Circle of Life For Your Small Business

The typical employee experiences five different stages during their employment with your business:

Recruitment

Education

Motivation

Evaluation

Celebration

1. Recruitment
Growing your business starts with hiring the right people. Hiring decisions play a critical role in turnover, productivity, and growth. In order to succeed in the recruitment phase of the HR life cycle, your human resources department needs to:

Create a strategic staffing plan that includes understanding positions that need to be filled, what will be expected of an employee, a strategy for attracting the best of the best, and other hiring concerns

Analyze compensation and benefits packages to see if they're competitive enough to attract the top talent

Develop an interviewing protocol, which may include written tests and multiple interview requirements, as well as a focus on active listening

2. Education
Begin the education process from the moment employees start in their new position. They should know their role in the company, your expectations, and their responsibilities. During this phase of the human resources life cycle, it's important for HR to:

Communicate your company's culture and values

Train new hires until they fully understand their job's duties and responsibilities

Assign a coworker to new employees to support their transition and help them feel more connected with your company

Introduce new employees to the rest of your staff, and make sure they have everything they need to get started (including passwords, voice mail, parking passes, etc.)

3. Motivation
Turnover is highest in the first ninety days, which is often due to a lack of motivation. Leaders who focus on building bonds with employees in the first ninety days retain employees longer than those who do not make this effort. HR can effectively motivate new hires by:

Keeping them engaged, performing at a higher level, and showing commitment to your company

Offering reasons to stay motivated, such as better compensation, benefits, and opportunities for growth

Providing recognition to employees who perform at a high level

Appreciating their contribution to help make your business more successful

4. Evaluation
In this stage of the human resources life cycle, a supervisor evaluates and measures an employee's performance. The review gives leaders and the employee specific metrics and helps determine if he or she is the right fit for the job. Focus on the following:

Challenge, support, and evaluate employees while offering constructive feedback on a regular basis (not just at evaluation time)

Conduct performance conversations based on facts, not on feelings

Spend more of your time discovering employees doing a good job rather than constantly criticizing (Click to Tweet)

Offer training and professional development to help employees reach their goals and move further ahead in your company

5. Celebration
The fifth stage of the HR life cycle gives you the opportunity to reenergize your staff, thank employees for their hard work, and recognize important milestones. Show your appreciation by offering unique benefits (such as flexible work schedules, gift cards, and extra paid time off). Great businesses find a way to motivate in such a way that employees want to follow them to achieve company goals. A smart leader makes employees feel empowered by giving them a sense of ownership.

The End of the Cycle

All cycles must come to an end--including HR life cycles. Sometimes it ends with retirement, leaving to return to school, leaving for more pay or better benefits, to tend to family responsibilities, or involuntary downsizing for economic or strategic reasons.

Investing the time to do termination right is just as important a part of the employee lifecycle as recruiting, training, or development.

Get Assistance

While going through these critical stages of the human resources life cycle may seem overwhelming to a small business owner or an "Accidental HR Manager," it doesn't have to be.

Margaret Jacoby, SPHR, is the founder and president of MJ Management Solutions, a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive. This article first appeared on the MJ Management Solutions blog.

Let's connect: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

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Note: This post originally appeared on www.INGUARD.com.

There are now 10.1 million millionaires in the U.S., up from 9.6 million in 2013. At the current rate, nearly 500,000 people will become millionaires this year, ushering them into what is often considered the threshold for high net worth individuals (HNWI).

Whether you are a HNWI or simply in a high tax bracket, wealth management brings its share of challenges and risks. Risk management is essential to protect and grow your personal wealth.

A proactive risk management strategy is built on a two-pronged approach of wealth creation and wealth preservation. Wealth creation is focused on strategically building assets to meet your financial goals. While wealth preservation protects your ability create wealth by accounting for unforeseen circumstances, so you can avoid having to dip into what you've worked so hard to create.

When you develop a risk management strategy, you should consider every angle of your current lifestyle, including your financial health, physical assets, insurance and other programs in place to maintain it. Here are three steps to consider when creating a proactive risk management strategy:

1. Generate passive income. Wealth creation is based on the establishment of passive income through investment in real estate, stocks, mutual funds and more. Developing a diversified and appropriate portfolio for your income, age and lifestyle is essential to long-term passive income.

2. Create tax-efficient wealth. It is important to build a portfolio that provides the most favorable returns combined with low tax rates. Municipal bonds, growth stocks, Roth Individual Retirement Arrangements (Roth IRAs), and tax-exempt mutual funds are typically advantageous for higher tax brackets. Also, if you invest in private company stock, consider an 83(b) election (this will help you save a lot of money on taxes when it comes time to cash out).

Do your research on tax-free investing, or partner with a consultant who can help you navigate tax law.

3. Cover your unique personal risks. Protect your long-term ability to generate wealth through appropriate life and disability insurance policies. You may also want to consider an income protection policy to help provide for yourself and your loved ones.

Having the "deepest pockets" can also be a disadvantage when it comes down to accidents and instances of liability. You may wish to work with a risk management consultant to identify any personal or professional liabilities, and create a custom risk management plan for your life.

As you develop your own risk management strategy, it is important to keep your financial circumstances and goals in mind, as well as your dependents, and your age. To ensure your plan maintains an adequate level of protection, schedule a review to reassess your strategy regularly as your needs change.

For additional risk management tips for high net worth individuals, download our free ebook: "Risk Management for the Rich & Famous."

Image Credit: OTA Photos via Flickr

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Every September, the U.S. Census Bureau releases its update on income and poverty in the United States. I -- along with many other economists, policy wonks, data geeks, and others -- impatiently refresh the Census.gov website to learn whether there has been any improvement in men's and women's earnings, the wage gap, or the poverty rate. In recent years, the significance of each release has been characterized by its insignificance: since 2007, there has not been a statistically significant narrowing of the gender wage gap, and between 2013 and 2014, there was not a statistically significant difference in the poverty rate. Moreover, adjusted for inflation, the last ten years have seen virtually no increase in women's earnings, so women are now experiencing what men have experienced for more than three decades -- the failure of real wages to grow.

According to the new Census data, women now earn 79 cents for every dollar a man earns for full-time, year-round work; actually that's 78.6 cents compared with a new estimate for the prior year of 78.3 cents, a small gain indeed. The gap is even wider for most women of color, with Black women earning only 59.8 cents on the white man's dollar, and Hispanic women only 54.6 cents on the white man's dollar. By projecting the rate of progress from 1960 forward, the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) has found that women will not see equal pay until 2059, one year longer than IWPR's previous projection. As a clever segment on The Daily Show noted, wage equality for women will take longer to achieve than flying cars or 3D-printed human organs. For an economy that left the Great Recession behind six years ago, this stagnation is beyond frustrating.

Such a wide gap has compound effects over a woman's lifetime: the typical woman will lose $530,000 over the course of her lifetime due to the wage gap; a college educated woman will lose $800,000. For an individual woman, this is an incredible, undeserved reduction in her lifetime earnings, compromising her ability to save for assets like a house or retirement fund or simply to make ends meet.

For families, the gender wage gap can make the difference between living below or above the poverty line, having funds for recreation and vacations or having none, having access to high-quality child care, schools, and colleges, or only being able to afford poorer quality alternatives or no pre-kindergarten or post-secondary education at all.

For the economy overall, unequal pay is holding back economic growth. IWPR estimates that nearly 60 percent of women would gain pay if they were paid the same as men with similar qualifications and hours of work. Added across the U.S. economy, these gains amount to 2.9 percent of GDP, a growth rate equivalent to adding another state the size of Virginia. (This type of estimate assumes, of course, that, because of discrimination and other factors, women are currently paid below the level of their productivity; it also assumes no change in women's education or work hours, which would surely increase if women could expect to earn equal pay.) Each woman, including those who would gain nothing, would earn $6,251 more annually on average, reducing poverty by halffor all families with a working woman as well as working women who live alone.

But ensuring that women receive equal pay is not as easy as just paying women more for their work (though that would be a good start!). Businesses and policymakers both have a role to play to achieve the benefits of equal pay well before 2059. You can read my recommendations for how private and public policies can narrow, and eventually eliminate, the gender wage gap over at Fortune. (Hint: we need to address wage inequality by bringing up the bottom of the pay scale, and we also need to close the gender care gap.) It's time we start taking achieving equal pay seriously.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

A strong, vibrant organizational culture is the ultimate engine for accelerating change and adapting to new opportunities. It can also be an anchor that holds you back and contributes to your downfall.

Which is it for you?

History is littered with once great organizations that allowed their culture to act as an anchor to the past and prevent change. Bethlehem Steel, Borders, Eastman Kodak, and Firestone Tire & Rubber are just a few of the former household names that ceased to exist because their culture couldn't make change work.

The failures share a number of traits. They:

Allowed an appreciation for how things were done in the past to become rigid protection of the status quo. The past has a place, and the principles that form your values should never change. But, adhering to your values must never prevent adapting what you do to remain relevant to customers.

Assumed that a glorious past ensured the future. Success breeds comfort, and comfort breeds complacency. Complacency, over time, causes people to stop moving forward. It is Newton's Law of Inertia applied to organizations with one important distinction -- when you stop running in business, you get run over.

Believed their own press. Television and music producer Simon Cowell said, "Create the hype, but don't ever believe it." Unfortunately, companies that fail to heed Cowell's advice stop innovating and changing.

Became stuck in bureaucracy. The entrepreneurial energy and enthusiasm of a start-up gives way to people and processes more concerned about not being wrong than fostering an environment where new ideas flourish.

Adopted a "we can wait this out" approach to change. This can be open defiance but is more likely to be passive aggression. The public support for change doesn't translate to actually doing anything different.

Making Your Culture an Accelerator for Change

Artists and athletic teams know that remaining on top is much more challenging than getting there. Individuals achieve their fitness goals only to return to their previous state of health. Expertise--being great at what you do today--is in a constant battle with finding new ways of being great tomorrow.

The answer is to create a culture that lives in a state of conscious and continual transition. Organizations are forced into revolutionary transformation when they fail to evolve. Here are three strategies to help you build a culture that helps you accelerate change.

Be perpetually curious and paranoid. Herb Kelleher famously predicted recessions that never occurred. Reid Hastings said that his greatest fear was that Netflix wouldn't successfully make the leap from its DVD based video to streaming. Everything comes to an end. Your job is to scout the horizon for what's new and what's next that could derail your success or provide the next great opportunity.

Be externally focused and internally driven. The stars in every industry are externally focused on delivering results that matter to their customers. That relentless focus keeps them moving forward. And, they are internally driven to be better tomorrow than they were today without losing touch with their values and principles.

Be ruthless about protecting the future. The first approach to solving a problem is usually the last thing that worked. That's a fine for most daily challenges. But, an over-reliance on the past perpetuates the status quo and potentially ignores changes to the environment. You can't predict the future with absolute certainty, but you can anticipate it. This simple question will help you protect the future when making decisions today: Would the organization to which we aspire to become be proud of this decision if it looked back on it five years later?

There are companies that have successfully reinvented themselves. F.W. Woolworth evolved from its five and dime business to become Foot Locker. Xerox returned to profitability from near bankruptcy. IBM changed its insular culture to become relevant in its marketplace. At the heart of every success is a culture that learned to anticipate, adapt, and accelerate change.

Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on helping organizations deliver positive results in a world of accelerating change. His keynote seminars and workshops are informative, engaging, and memorable. To learn more or to hire Randy for your next meeting, visit www.penningtongroup.com, email info@penningtongroup.com, or call 972-980-9857.

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The End of the Cycle

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How to Grow Wealth Faster Through Proactive Risk Management

Equal Pay for Women Can Cut Poverty in Half, Boost Wages Significantly, AND Grow the Economy. Can Any Other Policy Lever Do That?

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