Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 116840 articles
Browse latest View live

World-famous chef Anthony Bourdain won't eat restaurant fish on Mondays, and there's a good reason why

$
0
0

cedar plank salmon

After more than 30 years of experience in the cooking industry, world-famous chef and best-selling author Anthony Bourdain has learned the ins and outs of how food gets from the kitchen to your plate.

And on certain days, some restaurant foods are better than others. For example, if Bourdain is eating out:

"I never order fish on Monday," he wrote in his book, "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly."

He's talking about restaurants in New York City that don't necessarily specialize in fish, where the "main thrust of their business" isn't seafood, Bourdain wrote in his more recent book, "Medium Raw."

The reason has nothing to do with religion, superstition, or the like. Instead, he says, it has everything to do with quality. Unless you're dining at a restaurant on the coast or an upscale place known for seafood, there's a chance that you're Monday fish special at the dive bar down the road could include fillets that are four days old.

Disturbingly, fresh fish lasts only about three days, and that's only if you refrigerate it properly, according to New York city expert fishmongers interviewed by The Huffington Post.

It all starts at the fish market

FultonfishmarketBourdain spent most of his cooking career at different restaurants in New York City, where most restaurant seafood is bought at the Fulton Street fish market in the Bronx — the second-largest seafood market in the world.

During each weekday, buyers and sellers handle millions of pounds of seafood, which equates to over $1 billion in daily sales.

But the market is closed on the weekend, and it's open only from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Friday mornings. Chefs usually order the bulk of their fish on Thursdays in preparation for the busy weekend.

By the time Monday comes around, if the fish doesn't smell too fishy, then it might end up on your plate — depending on whether your chef actually cares about what he's doing — an attitude that is increasingly common in the cooking business nowadays, Bourdain wrote in "Medium Raw."

Come Tuesday, the fish is likely too spoiled to sell, and as the old fish is thrown out, a new order comes in.

Your best days for ordering fish in New York City at a restaurant, then? Tuesdays and Thursdays, wrote Bourdain.

SEE ALSO: 15 healthy eating habits that work, according to scientists

DON'T MISS: Here's what staying up all night does to the brain

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why you should stop using most antibacterial soaps


This stock is flatlining but don't pronounce it dead yet

$
0
0

flatliners joe death

Fitbit's stock chart is starting to circle the drain, but all is not lost.

The consumer electronics company, which specializes in wearables that let users track their health, sleep quality, calories burned, and more, released its fourth-quarter earnings Monday. And while profits and revenue handily beat estimates, weak guidance for the first quarter 2016 sent the stock spiraling downward.

Fitbit announced it expects first-quarter revenue in the range of $420 million to $440 million, well below the consensus expectation of $484.6 million, according to Bloomberg.

The company tied the weak guidance to greater manufacturing costs and the launch of new products worldwide, including the Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Alta.

Fitbit reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents on revenue of $711.6 million, which beat expectations of 25 cents a share on revenue of $648 million, according to Bloomberg.

Fitbit's stock has fallen 55% since its IPO in June. Shares debuted at $30.40, or 52% above the IPO price of $20 a share, and peaked at $51.90 in August.

While Fitbit's stock price is suffering, the age of wearables is clearly upon us. The company is not slowing down in rolling out new products, and peer companies such as Jawbone and traditional players such as Nike are still very much in the wearables market.

But where will that market go?

The health sector is the most promising area for wearables adoption. Several emerging consumer and professional healthcare trends, which dovetail with advances in health technology over the past five years, are driving interest in wearables. And where wearables are most commonly used for fitness-tracking purposes at the moment, they show great potential for widespread adoption in the healthcare sector.

Will McKitterick of Business Insider Intelligence has compiled a detailed report entitled The Wearables in the Healthcare Sector Report that examines the use cases for wearables in health, ranging from consumers collecting fitness data to healthcare providers and insurers using wearables to improve health outcomes.

The report also explores barriers to widespread adoption of wearables in healthcare and how tech giants, including Apple, Google, and Samsung, are developing devices and platforms that will help bridge the gap between fitness tracking and actual medical care.

vr doc

Here are some key points from the report:

  • While adoption levels are growing, the wearables market is still in the early phases of expansion. We estimate global shipments will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.8% over the five years, reaching 162.9 million units in 2020.
  • Emerging consumer and professional healthcare trends are driving interest in wearables. For consumers, interest in quantifying personal health metrics is translating into demand for fitness tracking devices and smartwatches. Meanwhile, businesses in a variety of industries have been quick to sense the opportunities for harnessing health data from employees, consumer, and patients to help drive efficiencies and enhance services related to healthcare.
  • Barriers remain blocking the widespread adoption of wearables in the healthcare sector. Device accuracy and regulation are two major sticking points for device makers and technologists to address. Concerns surrounding privacy and a lack of utility must also be addressed.
  • Consumer-facing products will eventually be used for more advanced medical care. Tech giants, including Apple, Google, and Samsung, are investing significant resources into developing devices that will help bridge the gap between fitness tracking and actual medical care. Future products will serve both consumer and professional markets.

In full, the report:

  • Looks at areas of the healthcare sector where wearables may have a tangible impact in years to come.
  • Examines what broader trends in healthcare and technology are driving wearables adoption.
  • Discusses how major tech players, including Apple, Google, and Samsung plan on transforming consumer wearables into powerful healthcare devices.
  • Identifies the top hurdles to wearables adoption in the healthcare sector.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the world of wearables, choose one of these options:

  1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
  2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the wearables in the healthcare sector.

Join the conversation about this story »

This company will build a secret passageway in your house

People in Taiwan are freaking out over this ‘upside down’ house

This clock tells the time with a liquid display

$
0
0

The Rhei clock uses a magnetic liquid called Ferrofluid to tell time. At each minute, the clock's magnetic field is programmed to change, moving the liquid in its display. The animation is unique each time it changes, so the clock never looks the same twice.

Story by Jacob Shamsian and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

Follow INSIDER Design on Facebook
Follow INSIDER on YouTube

Join the conversation about this story »

A double amputee just won a state wrestling championship in Alabama

$
0
0

Hasaan Hawthorne went into the final wrestling match of his high school career undefeated, having already beaten the odds by making it that far as a double amputee. According to AL.com, Hawthorne's legs were amputated when he was four months old because he was born without bones connecting his knees to his ankles.

Hawthorne won his final match to become the Alabama state champion in his weight class.

Story and editing by A.C. Fowler

Follow INSIDERon Facebook
Follow INSIDERon YouTube

Join the conversation about this story »

Bill Gates offered the best advice on how to not feel overwhelmed when taking on huge projects

$
0
0

Bill Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates released their annual foundation letter on Tuesday in which they revealed the superpowers they wished they had: more time, more energy.

Yes, even the richest people in the world desire things they can't have. Bill and Melinda were thinking about superpowers after being asked a bunch of stuff by some high school students in Kentucky, they explained in the letter.

To talk about the letter, and the upcoming goals they have for their foundation, the couple did a live Q&A on YouTube with author and YouTube star, John Green.

Green had an even bigger question for the Gates: who were their favorite superheroes? 

Melinda's superhero is Wonder Woman. "I loved that she had those big, huge, bracelets. And she had this lasso of truth. Any man that she lassoed with her lasso of truth who was a bad guy, he had to tell the truth. I thought that was pretty great."

As for Bill, he's all in for Superman because "he had a lot of powers. He wasn't one that could do just one little thing and tried to fit that in. He could fly, he could see through walls, he was very strong guy."

But there's a bigger moral to the story.

Later, an audience member asked the Gates how they don't get overwhelmed by all the people in need and the difficult problems their foundation takes on — for example, how do the Gates cope with not having enough time or energy.

Gates had a great answer: think about what you can and are doing, not about what you can't do. 

He said:

"If you only think of it in the negative sense of 'oh, you should feel bad about this, and why do you have so much when people don't have these other things,' that kind of puts people off. And yet if you say, 'hey this is improving and you can accelerate that change,' then they get a sense of, 'I want to be part of that.'"

Gates says the foundation also has focus, mostly on health, and it does a lot of measurement of its programs.

Equally importantly, Gates makes many trips to visit the people they are helping, and the ones he couldn't help.

For instance, he "met the last kid in India that was paralyzed from polio. It's a very sad story, because that kid growing up will have a lot of limits. But this was the last kid in India who got polio. Now, we're down to the last countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and hopefully, either this year or next, the last cases in the world," he said.

So having "bold goals" with a sense of "progress and optimism. That helps you not despair at knowing there's so much to get done."

Gates is using this combo (optimism, measurement, a focus on progress and reality checks with the people impacted) to cure the world of polio. But the same advice can be applied to any area in our lives where the goal is big and hard and it's easy to get discouraged.

SEE ALSO: Malcolm Gladwell explains how to get someone to make the right decision when they don't want to

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A double amputee just won a state wrestling championship in Alabama

Director of Oscar-nominated 'Cartel Land' on the blurring of good and evil among Mexican and American vigilantes

$
0
0

A decision could come as early as this week as to whether Mexican drug kingpin, Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, will be extradited to the United States for trial.

Since 2007, Mexico's drug war has resulted in the murder of more than 100,000 of Mexico's citizens and brought an influx of violence and drugs into the United States.

"Cartel Land," nominated for a 2016 Academy Award for best documentary, sheds light on a less well-known part of the story: the existence of vigilante groups on both sides of the border to combat the cartels. 

The film, directed by Matthew Heinemen, focuses on the leaders of both vigilante groups, including a Mexican doctor who has lost faith in his government's ability to fight the drug lords.

As Heinemen explains, and the documentary reveals, initial assumptions about right and wrong and good and evil prove far too simplistic for this complex war.

Produced & Edited by: Josh Wolff

Cinematography by: David Fang 

Follow BI Video: On Twitter

Join the conversation about this story »


This company cares more about your underwear than you do

$
0
0

Mack Weldon

If there's one piece of clothing most guys don't like thinking about, it's their underwear.

Does anyone really want to research new underwear styles, fabrics, fit, and price? Wouldn't you rather find great underwear you like so you can buy it over and over again without thinking about it?

Mack Weldon, a men's apparel company that sells "smart underwear for smart guys," seems to think so.

Over the past few years the company has been trying not just to advance the comfort and performance of men's underwear but also to simplify buying it, says Brian Berger, founder and CEO.

Berger's main contention is that, when guys find a new style of underwear they like, it's often replaced or changed. That's because most underwear is sold through third-party retailers, like department stores, that want to keep merchandise fresh. To make sure retailers are happy, according to Berger, "brands have to constantly introduce new products into that channel."

But that's counterintuitive to how people actually shop for underwear. "What customers want," says Berger, "is to know you're getting what you got last time — what you're comfortable with, what worked."

Creating a better fit

Mack Weldon believes in perfecting the product and giving consumers an easy way to keep buying it. With that goal in mind, Berger recruited a top team from apparel brands, such as Adidas, Nike, and Under Armour. His designers looked at some common flaws in men's underwear and attempted to solve for them.

So Mack Weldon boxer briefs, for example, have waistbands inspired by cycling shorts, so they won't curl over. Undershirts have longer tails and higher armholes, so they won't untuck when the wearer bends over. And dress socks can also go with casual shoes, for guys who fall somewhere between business and casual outside the office. Mack Weldon even integrated silver filaments into the fabric to reduce microbial activity.

"We're the first lifestyle brand to blend silver with cotton," says Berger. "It keeps you cool and dry, and you can blend it with something like cotton and have something that feels very natural, and not synthetic, but still has great performance action."

Berger says that, more and more, consumers want to know the story behind the product. "If you're just someone trying to find a better mousetrap," says Berger, "it stops for you at 'this is more comfortable.' But a lot of guys want to know about the details. They want to read the back stories and know about fit, fabric, and functionality."

Perfecting the customer experience

Because Mack Weldon is trying to achieve perfection, the products go through rigorous testing and design iterations before they hit the market.

Once the products are ready, Mack Weldon sells direct to consumers through a customer experience that was created from scratch. It's based on three things:

  • A pricing model that never offers sales but gives discounts based on volume.
  • Direct-to-consumer sales that eliminate having to please retailers.
  • A high-functioning product that offers consistency and innovation.

This strategy is working. Mack Weldon's data shows customers are returning after their first purchases and buying more. And while about half of the company's sales come from underwear, t-shirts, and socks,  a newer line of sweats are growing as customers learn that they can get a better product more easily — each and every season.

And maybe, it could be enough to get them to really care about their underwear.

Learn more about Mack Weldon’s 18-hour jersey here.

This post is sponsored by Mack Weldon

Join the conversation about this story »

20 of the best up-and-coming photographers to follow on Instagram

$
0
0

On Thin Ice _ Ciril Jazbec

Since 1999, Photo District News (PDN) magazine has released its PDN's 30— a comprehensive list of the best up-and-coming photographers who have been working in the industry for five years or less.

Nominations are made by professional photo editors, art buyers, curators, and educators. The final selection of the top 30 is made by PDN editors. 

This week they released the 2016 list, which is comprised of fantastic editorial, commercial, and documentary photographers who, if they aren't already, are about to dominate the industry.

Below are 20 of their Instagram accounts, guaranteed to keep your feed looking gorgeous.

SEE ALSO: 17 of the most jaw-dropping images in the running for the world's largest photography contest

One of the youngest photographers to grace the list, 25-year-old Amy Lombard shoots for clients such as The New York Times Magazine, Vice, and Vanity Fair.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/_FMzyBPDd4/embed/
Width: 658px

 



Documentary photographer Natalie Keyssar was named an Emerging Talent by Getty Images two years ago, and has continued to grow her impressive portfolio.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/BBSunoaQ0YM/embed/
Width: 658px

 



Nils Ericson has photographed for sports clients such as Puma, Powerade, and Nike.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/BCIrEHmpHEi/embed/
Width: 658px

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 foods you should always refrigerate

$
0
0

peanut butter jelly sandwich

Ever wondered whether it's OK to keep butter out of the fridge, or what to do with jam after you open it?

Wonder no more.

First, when it comes to perishables, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends refrigerating or freezing them right away. And as a general rule, meat, seafood, eggs, and certain kinds of produce should never be kept at room temperature for more than two hours — or more than one hour if it's hotter than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

But what about soy milk and jam? Read on to find out what you should be keeping in the fridge for optimal enjoyment.

Note: This is not intended as a substitute for public-health recommendations.

SEE ALSO: The vast majority of expiration dates are bogus — here's how long your food is still good

DON'T MISS: Here's how long you can keep food and drinks in your fridge

Milk

It goes without saying that you should refrigerate milk to slow the growth of harmful bacteria.

The FDA recommends that you never keep milk out of the fridge for more than two hours. Pasteurization — heating milk to kill bacteria — does not mean you don't need to refrigerate it.



Fresh meat and fish

Like milk, you should always refrigerate raw or cooked meat and separate it from other food to prevent cross-contamination.

Here's how long meat is good for in the fridge:

• Raw ground meats, all poultry, seafood, and variety meats: one to two days

• Raw roasts, steaks, and chops (beef, veal, lamb, and pork): three to five days

• Cooked meat, poultry, and seafood: three to four days.

Meat will last several months or more in the freezer.



Eggs

You should always refrigerate eggs in the US to prevent the risk of infection from salmonella bacteria, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). But the UK and other European countries don't refrigerate eggs because they are processed differently.

Some people say you can keep certain organic eggs at room temperature, but when in doubt, it's probably safest to keep 'em in the fridge.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

20 tricks you can use to score a cheap flight

$
0
0

airport

There are some steps you can take to ensure that you're getting the best possible price for your flight. We spoke to Brian Kelly, the savvy traveler and founder of The Points Guy, and Jeanette Pavini, a savings expert at Coupons.com, to find 20 ways to score the best flights.

From knowing when to book a flight to search-engine tricks that can affect your price results, these tips can help you find the best deals. You'll be happy to know the tricks of the trade.

SEE ALSO: 8 things you should ask for on your next flight

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Clear your cookies.

Refreshing a window won't make your flights cheaper, but it can make them go up based on changes in demand. To help avoid this, clear your cookies.

Cookies are bits of information that store the details of your web browsing, which can be used by airlines and travel websites. Deleting them effectively deletes your recent searches.



Sign up for alerts on price drops.

Websites like Airfare Watchdog and CheapAir.com make it easy to spot the best prices by providing fare-tracker alerts that let you know when prices drop.

Put in your destinations of interest and their experts will email you when there are significant price drops, so you can act on them fast.



Follow airlines on social media.

Airlines have been using social media more to spring up last-minute deals for their customers.

They'll often tout deals on Twitter and sometimes offer special sales to Facebook fans, but you'll need to act on these fast, since they can go quickly.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

We toured a $27.3 million apartment in one of New York City’s most expensive buildings

These are the 3 most important lessons fashion entrepreneur 'The Man Repeller' has learned about business

$
0
0

leandra medine, man repeller

Leandra Medine — who calls herself the "Man Repeller" for her bold clothing choices — is not your typical entrepreneur.

For one, she's only 27. For another, she's a fashion blogger. And, before launching her namesake site in 2010, she had no business experience whatsoever.

Now, though, she's responsible for a burgeoning lifestyle brand: her site racks up 10.3 million monthly pageviews and has 2.2 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, while she also runs two podcasts and even has a popular book under her belt.

Medine heads up a team of a dozen writers, artists, and social media gurus who create and distribute their content to a plugged-in, fashion-conscious millennial audience. She's also snagged a series of lucrative brand collaborations with big names like the Sunglass Hut, Fossil, NARS, and Estée Lauder.

Here are the three biggest lessons she says she's learned in her unexpected role as a founder.

SEE ALSO: Meet the 'Man Repeller', the 27-year-old who turned her fashion hobby into a serious business

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

1. Get over yourself.

"Nobody cares about your problems, just the solutions you can provide," Medine told Business Insider. When you're a leader, it doesn't matter if you're having a bad day; it matters that you can help your team have a great day. 

For Medine, whose passion is writing, this means she's had to move her blogging to the backseat while she prioritizes being an executive. She now spends only 10-15% of her time writing, devoting the rest of her days to managerial tasks and goal-setting. As with many startups in a growth phase, recruitment is a top priority — even if it's not her favorite thing to do.

She spends about two hours "trolling on LinkedIn" daily, she says. Other tasks? Checking out office spaces, keeping the team on schedule, and managing external collaborations.



2. Fake it until you make it.

Medine, who grew up in New York City and studied journalism at the New School, did not have any prior business or management experience when she started Man Repeller. Everything she's picked up has been learned on the fly.

So what does it take to effectively "fake it?" Confidence in your own position — and in what only you can contribute.

Although Medine says her biggest challenge has been learning to become a good manager, her passion for what she's created has kept her at it.

"I don't actually think anyone else is better qualified to do this job," she says. That kind of certainty in the power of her contributions has helped fuel the company's growth while keeping her squarely at the helm.



3. Take your ego out of it.

For Medine, objectivity is key. At the end of the day, what she builds isn't all about her personally; it's about what her team is capable of producing — and about adapting to and facilitating their needs.

"I started Man Repeller because I wanted to write," she told Business Insider. "I didn't start Man Repeller because I wanted to be a founder." 

Since she started her business not as a CEO with an idea, but instead as a creative looking for an outlet for her voice, she's been able to take a different tack than the traditional founder type. The site, the content, and the approach have constantly changed as she keeps seeking new venues for her vision without settling into one specific path for her product.

Not that it's easy: writers have egos, too, of course. But the Man Repeller doesn't shy away from a challenge.

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Russia figured out how to make a game of chess even more intense


The days of restaurant tipping are dying

$
0
0

The practice of leaving gratuities at restaurants is reaching a tipping point. In October, restaurateur Danny Meyer announced he would eliminate tipping at all 13 of his New York restaurants. Instead, diners will pay slightly higher prices for their meals. 

Meyer is not the first New York restaurateur to announce a change to tipping policy in recent months. Tom Colicchio will also drop the practice at Craft during lunch service. But not everyone in the restaurant world agrees with the change.

INSIDER is on Facebook: Follow us here

Join the conversation about this story »

Google cofounder Sergey Brin says these 2 books most influenced him

$
0
0

sergey brin

In 1996, Sergey Brin and his Stanford Ph.D. classmate Larry Page started developing what would become the Google search engine.

On his personalized Stanford site from those early days, he wrote, "Research on the Web seems to be fashionable these days and I guess I'm no exception. "

Today, Google is the primary subsidiary of Alphabet, Brin and Page's monolithic tech company with a market cap of more than $480 billion. Aside from serving as president of Alphabet, Brin is also CEO of its secretive company X, which aims to develop potentially world-changing technologies like self-driving cars.

In a 2000 interview with the Academy of Achievement nonprofit, conducted when Google was still four years away from its initial public offering, Brin said there were two books that especially inspired him to dedicate his career to blending technology and creativity.

SEE ALSO: Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey says these 7 books changed his life

'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' by Richard P. Feynman

Feynman (1918-1988) won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics and remains a giant in his field. He is perhaps best known in pop culture for his entertaining autobiographical works, which Brin says all left an impact on him. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" first published in 1985, is regarded as the best introduction to these works.

"Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded," Brin told the Academy of Achievement. "I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life."

Feynman, who created a portfolio of drawings and paintings under the pseudonym "Ofey," explained in a 1981 BBC interview how art and science complement each other: "I have a friend who's an artist and ... he says, 'I as an artist can see how beautiful this [flower] is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,' and I think that he's kind of nutty. ...

"I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. ... All kinds of interesting questions, which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower."

Find it here »



'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson

Brin said he is a big sci-fi fan, and Stephenson's acclaimed 1992 novel "Snow Crash" is one of his favorites.

In 2010, Time named it one of the 100 best novels in the English language published since the magazine's founding in 1923.

It takes place in a dystopian near future where the US has been replaced by corporate microstates and a computer virus is killing programmers.

Within the complex, fun story Stephenson predicts the rise of online social networks, and what would become Google Earth in 2004.

The book "was really 10 years ahead of its time," Brin said.

"It kind of anticipated what's going to happen, and I find that really interesting."

Find it here »



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

VOTE NOW: Who serves the best fast food in America?

A CEO says this is the single most important and underrated skill in business — and in life

$
0
0

Networking

Dale Carnegie said it in 1936, in his bestselling business book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People": The trick to making people like you is simply to listen to them.

When you encourage your conversation partner to talk about themselves, Carnegie wrote, they wind up feeling more fondly toward you than they would if you'd dominated the interaction.

Nearly a century later, in an age where seemingly everyone has a digital platform for publicly broadcasting the contents of their breakfast, this idea is as relevant as ever — and people are still having trouble with it.

That's according to Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO of Likeable Local, a social media software company. Kerpen is also the author of "The Art of People," in which he offers tips and strategies for influencing people and forging positive relationships.

A common theme throughout the book is that, if you want to succeed in business and in life, you should focus less on yourself and more on other people. In other words: Be interested instead of interesting; listen actively instead of thinking about what you want to say next; and validate other people's thoughts and emotions after they've spoken.

"Listening is the single most important and underrated skill in business, in social media, and in life," Kerpen told Business Insider. "It's something we can always improve upon."

Of course, it's not as easy as it sounds.

"It's very hard," Kerpen said, "because when we have ideas that we want to communicate, our natural inclination is to talk about those ideas and to share those things."

But the less we talk, the easier it is to persuade other people to like those ideas and to like us.

Kerpen gave an example from his experience at Likeable Local. His chief technology officer, Hugh, is such a great listener that during meetings, "you sometimes don't even realize he's there because he's so quiet and he's always the last to talk."

When the team goes around the room and it's Hugh's turn to speak, he's usually silent for the first few seconds as he formulates an opinion. While everyone else was speaking, he was actively listening, instead of thinking about what he wanted to say in response.

"When he finally does speak, he'll be able to say something that synthesizes everything and makes his point in a powerful way," Kerpen said. "There's a competitive advantage to being the last to speak."

He offers another example in his book. Once, on a cross-country flight, he sat next to a lawyer and spent much of the flight asking the lawyer questions about his life, work, and family.

A year-and-a-half later, the lawyer became an investor in one of Kerpen's companies, thanks to the connection they made — due at least in part to the fact that Kerpen let him talk about himself.

"Remember that people care more about themselves than they care about you," Kerpen writes. "People want to talk about themselves. Listening and letting people talk is key to winning them over in life, in business, and in all human relationships." 

SEE ALSO: This behavior could be the No. 1 secret to likability

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Harvard psychologist says this is key to being more confident and powerful

Percussionists build the craziest hammers to perform a classic Austrian symphony

Viewing all 116840 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images