Inspiration

Isn’t it nuts that we live in an age where having a Smartphone and an Internet connection are two of the only things you need to actually make a little money? While no one really knows what the future of the shared economy will hold, for the moment it’s a win-win for everyone: the culture of startups not only creates ...

You might think we’re nuts, but we think the word “failure” gets a pretty bad rap. For most of us, even just the idea of overcoming fear of failure comes with a negative connotation, like a nagging sense of something unrequited or unresolved; or worse, the notion of our own incompetence.

But what would happen if you recast the word failure ...

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “invest”? You probably associate it with the stock market or some other financial venture, right? Great! Those are positive things to ruminate on, no doubt (and certainly as part of the SELF MADE discussion). But for starters, we’re referring to a whole other kind of investment. We’re talking ...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been guilty of putting your diet off until Monday…until the holidays are over, until after your vacation, until you stop breastfeeding, until after your birthday party, until that pint of artisanal cookie dough ice cream is long gone from your fridge, and on and on the list can go. The problem with this paradigm, ...

You wouldn’t show up to the poker table without a proper stack of chips, right? Without them, you’d be rendered pretty much worthless as a player of value. Your chips are essentially your currency. In fact, it’s said that in the 19th century and prior, players would use any small ...

No matter how advanced we consider ourselves as a society, or how much the chatter of tolerance and equality seems to fill the pages of our news feeds, let’s be honest: discrimination is still a thing. It’s a thing for women—and it’s especially a thing for multicultural women. The double whammy of being both a woman and a cultural minority ...

Here at SELF MADE we talk a lot about flexing your entrepreneurial muscle. But that said, we also like to keep it real—which means we’re clear on the fact that everyone isn’t always at a point in their lives where they can drop everything and launch a business. So while we wholeheartedly advocate a message of getting out there and ...

When’s the last time you or one of your girlfriends casually threw around the term “retail therapy?” We’re all guilty of it. We lean on material things to make us feel better—the new “it” handbag, a pair of expensive jeans that you must have because they flatter your shape like no other, a fresh stash of cosmetics because no one ...

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change,” writes three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, in his 2011 book, That Used to Be Us. In it, he encourages Americans ...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever fantasized about that moment when a hunky, effortlessly witty, super-catch Harvard grad walks into your life and sweeps you off your feet while the words happily ever after sparkle in your trail. Come on, admit it. We’ve all entertained some version of that pipedream, in some way or another. As women—many of whom grew ...