Jodie Kluver has built a career around education, public service, nonprofit leadership, and writing. For decades, she has been interested in how people and organizations respond to change, strengthen their communities, and find their voices.

Kluver has worked across higher education, government, and the nonprofit sector. She has taught at Bridgewater State University since 2006, covering subjects such as public and nonprofit management, American government, state and local government, and civic engagement. She also spent ten years directing the Massachusetts Certified Public Manager Program. Earlier roles included teaching at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and College of Saint Mary, managing grants for the City of Omaha, and working with nonprofit and community organizations.

Her nonprofit career has been equally varied. She served as Director of Development for the Chorus of Westerly and later as Executive Director of Opening Doors for Westerly’s Children. Across those roles, she worked with fundraising, organizational development, programming, strategic planning, and community engagement.

Research and writing have remained constant threads throughout her career. Her academic interests include nonprofit resilience, sustainability, citizen engagement, organizational behavior, and voice. Her work has appeared in publications including Public Administration Review, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Public Manager, The Bridgewater Review, and PA Times.

In 2024, Kluver started The Black Crow Publishing, expanding her work into independent publishing and creative writing. A year later, she published A Woman Remembers (everything) under the pen name J. Byrd. The move reflects a theme that has followed her throughout her career: growth often comes from being willing to change direction while carrying what you have learned with you.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My days tend to move between teaching, writing, reading, research, and publishing work. I have learned not to expect every day to look the same. Some days are focused heavily on students and course preparation, while others give me more room to write or work on projects connected to The Black Crow Publishing. I make the day productive by deciding what truly needs my attention rather than trying to finish everything at once. I usually keep a short list of priorities and leave space for the unexpected.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I write them down before I judge them. I have spent years teaching, researching, developing programs, and working with organizations, and I have learned that ideas rarely arrive fully formed. I give them time. Sometimes that means researching an idea, sometimes discussing it with someone, and sometimes simply letting it sit in a notebook until I understand what it is trying to become. The Black Crow Publishing grew in much the same way. It came from wanting to create a place for independent work and voices that deserved room to develop.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am interested in the growing willingness to cross boundaries between disciplines and forms of writing. For a long time, academic writing, professional writing, and creative writing were treated as very separate worlds. I think people are becoming more comfortable learning from all three. A researcher can be a storyteller. A creative writer can ask serious questions about organizations, communities, or human behavior.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Reading. I read across disciplines rather than staying in one narrow area. My interests have always included public administration, nonprofit management, organizational theory, education, creativity, and human development. Reading widely helps me make connections between ideas that may not seem related at first.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Stop expecting certainty before you move forward. There are very few periods in life when everything feels settled. Careers change, organizations change, relationships change, and your own interests change. I would tell my younger self to become comfortable with that much sooner.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I think change gets an unfairly bad reputation. We tend to treat stability as the goal and change as the problem. I see it differently. Nothing is static, and trying to make life completely predictable can become its own limitation. Change can be uncomfortable, but it is also where a great deal of discovery happens. That idea has become increasingly important in both my writing and my life.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Pay attention. We are surrounded by useful information every day, but we are often too busy to notice it. Listen to how people explain their experiences. Notice what makes you curious. Pay attention to what keeps returning to your mind. Some of the best ideas begin as something very small that you almost dismiss.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I step away from the screen. Gardening, yoga, kayaking, or simply being outside helps me reset. I spend so much of my professional life working with words and ideas that sometimes the best thing I can do is stop adding more information. Physical space can create mental space.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

I have allowed different parts of my career to inform one another. Teaching made me a better communicator. Nonprofit work taught me about people, resources, and resilience. Research taught me to ask better questions. Editing taught me to pay attention to detail. None of those experiences existed in isolation, and I think my career advanced because I was willing to carry lessons from one setting into another.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

There have been projects and ideas that I spent too much time trying to make work simply because I had already invested time in them. Eventually, I learned that persistence and stubbornness are not the same thing. Sometimes stopping, revising, or changing direction is the more responsible choice. The lesson was to evaluate an idea based on where it can go, not only on how much work has already gone into it.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Create a small publishing or storytelling service specifically for nonprofit organizations that want to preserve their institutional history. Many organizations have decades of photographs, volunteer stories, newsletters, and community memories sitting in boxes or old files. Turning those materials into short books or digital histories could preserve valuable stories while giving organizations something meaningful to share with future staff, donors, and communities.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I rely heavily on basic word-processing tools. That may not sound exciting, but I prefer tools that disappear into the background and let me concentrate on the ideas. I use documents to draft, reorganize sections, leave myself notes, and keep different versions of projects as they develop.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

I do not have one permanent favorite because what I need from a book changes depending on where I am in my life or work. I tend to value books that make me reconsider something I thought I already understood. I read across political thought, nonprofit management, organizational theory, education, creativity, and human development because ideas become more interesting when disciplines begin speaking to one another.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I recently enjoyed a character-driven series where the story unfolded slowly rather than explaining everything immediately. I tend to like stories that trust the audience to notice small details and understand people gradually. That is probably connected to why I enjoy writing as well. People are complicated, and the most interesting stories usually leave room for that complexity.

Key learnings

• Treat ideas as works in progress. Writing them down before judging them creates room for stronger ideas to develop.
• Skills gained in one field can strengthen work in another. Teaching, research, nonprofit leadership, and writing can all inform one another.
• Change does not always need to be resisted. Learning to adapt can create opportunities that rigid plans may miss.
• Reading outside your own field helps uncover connections and perspectives that are easy to overlook.
• Stepping away from work can be productive. Activities such as gardening, movement, or time outdoors can restore focus.

Christopher Backus grew up in Olympia, Washington, where sports became one of his earliest teachers. Baseball and football gave him a feel for repetition, preparation, teamwork, and the difference between wanting to improve and actually putting in the work to do it. He still plays softball today, partly because he enjoys the competition and partly because he has never lost the habit of staying active.

After graduating from Capital High School, Backus attended South Puget Sound Community College, where he made the Honor Roll and earned his associate degree. He then continued to Saint Martin’s University, completing a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology while receiving partial academic scholarships.

His career did not follow one simple path. Backus worked for the Washington Department of Corrections, served as a reserve police officer in Shelton, worked inside the Mason County Jail, and later served as a police officer with departments including Tukwila, Tenino, and Grand Coulee.

That variety gave him a view of law enforcement from several angles. It also reinforced his belief that training should never become a box to check. He sees it as a career-long habit that keeps people sharper, more adaptable, and more willing to question their own assumptions.

Backus is equally interested in community engagement, especially with juveniles. He believes the most useful contact between police and young people often happens before there is a problem to solve.

Outside work, he enjoys lifting, softball, hiking, camping, fly fishing in Montana, and time with family. He tries to keep one rule consistent across everything he does: give full effort, but do not forget what deserves your time.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

A typical day depends a lot on whether I am working, training, or off, but I try to keep a few things consistent. I like to work out because it gives me a clear starting point and helps me get focused before the rest of the day gets busy. From there, I try to deal with what actually needs my attention instead of building a huge list and feeling like everything is equally urgent.

Police work teaches you pretty quickly that plans change. You can have an idea of how your day is going to go, and then one call changes everything, so I have learned not to measure productivity by whether everything went according to plan. For me, it is more about staying adaptable, handling what is in front of me well, and not letting one unexpected thing throw off the rest of the day.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I usually start by asking whether an idea solves a real problem or whether it just sounds good on paper. If it is related to training, I think about how it would work in a real setting, especially when someone is tired, distracted, or dealing with incomplete information.

I also like getting input from people with different backgrounds because they often notice things I would not. Someone with corrections experience may look at something differently than someone who has spent most of their career on patrol, and that kind of feedback can make an idea better. Once I think it has value, I would rather test it on a small scale, see what works, and make changes than spend too much time trying to make it perfect before anyone uses it.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I like seeing more attention placed on realistic and ongoing training instead of treating training as something that only happens when it is required. Classroom instruction has value, but people also need opportunities to practise communication, decision-making, and adapting when a situation does not unfold exactly the way they expected.

I am also interested in departments putting more effort into community engagement with younger people. I think there is real value in officers having normal conversations with teenagers and kids before there is ever a problem to solve. Those everyday interactions can make people more comfortable asking questions and can help officers understand the communities they are working in.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Working out is probably the most consistent habit I have because it gives me structure even when the rest of the day is unpredictable. I do not always feel motivated to train, but I have learned not to depend on motivation because it comes and goes.

That same idea applies to professional training too. If I make learning, reviewing, or practising something part of my routine, I am much more likely to stay consistent with it. I think routine carries you a lot further than waiting until you feel inspired to do something.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell myself not to be in such a hurry to have everything figured out and to pay closer attention to the people around me. Some of the most useful things I have learned came from people who had been doing the job for years and had enough experience to notice details that are easy to overlook when you are new.

I would also tell myself that moving through different roles is not wasted time. Corrections, jail work, reserve policing, and patrol all gave me something different, and I probably appreciate that more now than I did while I was going through it. A career does not have to look perfectly linear to be useful.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I think some of the best training can be pretty boring, and I do not mean that as a criticism. People often want training to be exciting, fast-paced, or constantly different, but there is a lot of value in doing the same thing correctly over and over until it becomes natural.

Sports taught me that early. Nobody gets excited about every basic drill, but repetition is usually what shows up when pressure hits and you do not have time to overthink what comes next. I think people sometimes chase novelty when they would get more value from improving the basics.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

I keep coming back to the basics whenever something starts feeling more complicated than it needs to be. I ask myself what the actual problem is, what information I really have, what I am assuming, and what I can control right now.

That works in training, work, fitness, and personal life. It is easy to create extra stress by trying to solve everything at once, and usually there is one thing that actually needs your attention first. Once that is handled, the rest often becomes easier to sort out.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I usually do something physical because moving helps me clear my head better than sitting around thinking about the same problem. That might mean working out, taking a walk, hiking, or just getting outside for a while.

I also like writing down what is actually on my mind. When everything stays in your head, it can all feel equally important, but once it is written down, you can usually see what needs attention now and what can wait. That makes it easier for me to reset and focus on one thing at a time.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

One thing that has helped me is not getting too comfortable in one environment or assuming one way of doing things is the only way. Working in corrections, a jail, reserve policing, and different police departments exposed me to different people, expectations, and approaches.

That variety forced me to adapt and pay attention to what actually worked in each setting. I learned useful things from every role, including lessons about what I would do differently. I think being willing to learn from different environments has helped me more than trying to follow one perfectly planned career path.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Earlier in my career, I sometimes thought being confident meant having an answer right away. Over time, I realised there were situations where I would have been better off slowing down, asking another question, or listening longer before deciding what I thought.
I started noticing that some of the people I respected most were comfortable saying they needed more information. That changed the way I think about good judgment because I stopped seeing a pause as hesitation and started seeing it as part of making a better decision. It also made me more willing to ask for another perspective when I think I might be missing something.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I think there is room for more community programs where police officers and teenagers do something together that has nothing to do with enforcement. It could be softball, hiking, fishing, fitness, or some kind of practical outdoor activity that gives people something to focus on besides having a formal conversation.

The point would not be to give a speech about policing. It would be to create normal interaction, because people tend to talk more naturally when they are doing something together. Building familiarity before there is a problem can make future conversations a lot easier.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I am pretty basic when it comes to software, so the notes and calendar apps on my phone probably help me the most. I use them for training dates, family plans, appointments, reminders, and things I want to look up later.

I also keep short notes when an idea comes to me because I know I will forget it if I tell myself I will remember later. I prefer simple tools that I will actually use every day over complicated systems that take more time to maintain than they save.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

I do not really have one book or podcast that I treat like a blueprint. I tend to get more value from long-form interviews, training discussions, and conversations where experienced people break down something specific that happened.

What interests me most is hearing what someone missed, what they would change, and what they learned afterward. General advice can be useful, but I usually remember detailed examples more because they give you something practical to think about. I like hearing how people reached a decision, not just being told what the right answer was.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I tend to like documentaries or series built around sports, competition, or outdoor challenges because I am interested in how people respond when things stop going according to plan. You can learn a lot about someone when they are tired, frustrated, under pressure, or forced to adjust quickly.

I also like seeing the preparation behind performance. The final competition might be the exciting part, but I usually find the training, repetition, and teamwork behind it just as interesting. That probably comes from spending so much of my life around sports and training.

Key learnings

• Repetition and consistent training can be more useful than constantly chasing new techniques.
• Experience across different roles can reveal perspectives that are easy to miss when someone stays in one environment.
• Community engagement can be more effective when it is built around normal shared activities rather than formal conversations.
• Good judgment sometimes means slowing down, asking another question, and being willing to gather more information.
• Exercise, time outdoors, and simple routines can help create stability when work itself is unpredictable.

Marc Evan Rovner is a title insurance attorney and the General Counsel and Director of Business Development at Beta Abstract LLC, a multi-state title company operating across New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Connecticut. Over more than 38 years in real estate law, he’s guided nearly 18,000 closings and built a practice almost entirely on referrals, including clients whose closings he’s now handled across three generations of the same family. One of his partners nicknamed him “the fixer,” a nod to Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction, for his role in solving problems that come up at the closing table. A lifelong sports fan, Marc is about to join his 25-year-old son’s baseball team this January, where he’ll be the oldest player on the roster by roughly two decades, a fitting extension of the team-first mentality he brings to running Beta Abstract.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

I start each weekday with stretching, fitness, shower and then on to the office in Garden City. The first step at work is to review the closing calendar across our 4 states. This prepares me for the immediacy of each upcoming transaction. I am usually the 1st one in the office. The workday presents new exciting challenges and I make it productive with a calm approach to each transaction, making sure every client feels their closing is the most important because it is. I am counted on to be the last line of defense making sure every transaction is clear to close. There is a final review I perform followed by a post closing review. I pride myself on replying to every email, message and call received by the end of day. I use the car ride home to unwind, listening to music. My typical work day is about 8am-6pm. Plenty of business development meetings interspersed throughout the day as well. Try to eat a healthy dinner, spend time with family sans phones, and go for a walk or run after to complete a full typical day.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Lots of reading, thought and communication. In the office Adam Kitzen Esq. and I like to brainstorm ideas together behind closed doors and engage in what we call “Friendly Fire”. This is a calm back and forth to keep things fresh, current and making sure the clients are at the forefront of all our suggestions. I pride myself on staying ahead of the curve, taking calculated steps to advance the best interests of the firm and the clients with a comprehensive knowledge of my niche speciality in the practice of law.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The shift back towards in person transactions. Zoom closings, virtual meetings and docusign had been the trend since COVID but the lack of interpersonal contact was a detriment in my opinion. There has been a seismic shift back to the closings being in person as opposed to virtual and that has been excellent.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Making sure no matter what, I get 10000 steps a day minimum.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Quiet is better. Keep your personal life and business affairs private.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

Society should do away with working from home as much as possible.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

No cell phones at the dinner table anywhere, home or out at a restaurant.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

Music is always a key. Use relaxation strategies that have helped me when feeling overwhelmed. Deep breathing, noise cancelling headphones with calm music I enjoy in mellow genres and talking to my most trusted loved ones. When feeling unfocused, noise cancelling headphones and go to motivating music ranging from Rocky theme song to The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Responding the same day to every inquiry, call, text and email. Communication with full transparency and honesty is the key. Clients need to know the absolute truth and will appreciate it even if it isn’t the answer they are looking for.

What is one failure in your career,  how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

I lost a client over an issue that had nothing to do with law, insurance or business. I was overzealous and should have realized that I was overstepping by giving my opinion unnecessarily. I overcame it by learning from my mistake and making sure I kept business and personal separate. Keep sensitive issues out of the realm of discussion at work.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Start up business focusing on helping/educating 1st -time homebuyers. Most are lost, don’t understand what is going on, have no idea about mortgage rates, the documents they are signing and are too reliant on their realtor who actually works for the seller!

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

The BETA Abstract cloud. I use it everyday to log into all our systems, organize all pertinent information from title reports, recorded documents, spreadsheets and transactions in real time on our calendar.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Signing up to play in a baseball tournament with my son in a 25 year old and up division. I believe experiences with loved ones are the greatest joys in life and thinking about being his teammate at age 63 is beyond exciting to me.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

Book: Ice Capades by Sean Avery. He wore my number 16 for my favorite team the New York Rangers and he is so honest and transparent throughout the book. I loved it.

Podcast: The Rovner Report on the Mic’d Up platform. It’s my son AJ’s show on a major platform about New York sports and it gives me so much pride as a parent to listen. I also genuinely love the podcast.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

Shoresy on HULU. I love hockey and I love to laugh. The show is both hilarious and heartwarming. 5 seasons, each episode 20-30 minutes.

Key learnings

• Responsiveness and transparency build lasting relationships. I’ve built my career around responding to every call, email and message the same day and being completely honest with clients, even when the answer isn’t what they want to hear.
• I put the client at the center of every decision. I approach each transaction as if it’s the most important one because, to that client, it is. That mindset guides everything from how I review closings to how we brainstorm new ideas for the business.
• I’ve learned the importance of keeping business and personal matters separate. Losing a client after offering an opinion outside the scope of business taught me a valuable lesson about discretion, privacy and knowing when to stay quiet.
• Personal relationships still matter. I value the return to face-to-face meetings and closings because I believe personal interaction builds a level of trust and connection that’s difficult to replicate virtually.
• Consistency in my personal life helps me perform professionally. Staying active, getting at least 10,000 steps a day, spending phone-free time with family and using music to reset all help me stay focused and balanced.

International businessman, entrepreneur, and executive Assaf Tarek Salim Perozo is the founder of Salim Group Investment. Since establishing the company in 2020, he has overseen various projects in commercial space construction, housing developments, and family-oriented projects. Assaf Salim has also ventured into other niches, with over 35 years dedicated to business ventures and 15 years in aviation.

Assaf Tarek Salim Perozo founded Regalitos in 1985 as his first commercial venture. The company, which retails assorted merchandise, operates in several locations worldwide. Other business ventures include Automarcas De Occidente, Disa Import & Export, ND Import & Export Corp, LLC, and the Air Alas De America.

Mr. Salim holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Rafael Urdaneta University in Venezuela and a master’s in international finance from the same university. He leverages his educational background, zeal for personal and business transformation, and finance and operational management experience to ensure his companies build and maintain a robust international presence.

In his free time, Mr. Salim enjoys music, golf, tennis, and mountain biking. He often attributes his success and passion to his love of cars and aviation.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My day begins early with prayer, gratitude, and reflection. I believe the best decisions come from a peaceful mind and a clear sense of purpose. Before reviewing emails, attending meetings, or analyzing business metrics, I follow a lesson passed down by my father, Amin Salim: Every day should begin by thanking God. For that reason, I dedicate time to strengthening my spiritual foundation and defining the most important priorities of the day.

Today, I lead businesses across diverse industries, including aviation, international trade, and real estate development. As Founder and CEO of Air Alas de América, Founder of ND Import & Export Corp, and CEO of Salim Group Investment, my schedule combines strategy, innovation, operational oversight, and the pursuit of new opportunities.

I have learned that productivity is not about doing more things; it is about focusing on the things that create the greatest impact. Time is our most valuable resource, and managing it intentionally is a way of honoring both our dreams and our responsibilities.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Every great company begins with a vision, but it becomes reality through discipline.

When I identify an opportunity, I first evaluate whether it truly creates value for people. Then I build a clear plan, establish measurable goals, and surround myself with talented individuals who share the same vision.

That is how Air Alas de América, ND Import & Export Corp, and Salim Group Investment were created. In each case, the process was the same: Identify a need, design a solution, and work persistently until the idea becomes reality.

Ideas inspire, but execution transforms.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The convergence of artificial intelligence, automation, and data analytics.

We are living through a historic transformation that will enable businesses to become more efficient, accurate, and competitive. What excites me most, however, is how these tools can amplify human talent.

Technology alone does not change the world; people do. The future will belong to those who successfully balance technological innovation with strong human values.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

The convergence of artificial intelligence, automation, and data analytics.

We are living through a historic transformation that will enable businesses to become more efficient, accurate, and competitive. What excites me most, however, is how these tools can amplify human talent.

Technology alone does not change the world; people do. The future will belong to those who successfully balance technological innovation with strong human values.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell him to be patient, persistent, and consistent, and to trust the process more.

When we are young, we often believe success should come quickly. Life teaches us that the things truly worth having require time, sacrifice, and maturity.

I would also tell him to trust God more, not to fear mistakes, and to understand that many obstacles are simply preparation for greater challenges ahead.

Difficulties do not come to stop us; they come to strengthen us.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I believe adversity is a blessing in disguise.

Most people try to avoid problems, but the most difficult moments of my life have also been the most transformative. Adversity develops character, humility, resilience, wisdom, and gratitude for the journey we go through.

Comfort may create temporary peace, but difficulty is what truly builds leaders.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Invest in personal growth.

Reading, learning, listening to mentors, traveling, and exposing yourself to new experiences expands your perspective and allows you to evolve continuously.

The most valuable asset a person can develop is not a company or financial wealth. It is the ability to think better, learn faster, and adapt to change.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I pause, pray, and regain perspective.

When we face too many responsibilities, it is easy to lose clarity. In those moments, I reconnect with my purpose and focus only on what I can control.

I have learned that peace does not come when problems disappear; it comes when we develop the ability to face them with faith and balance.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Building trust before pursuing profits.

Over more than three decades in business, I have learned that the strongest and most sustainable businesses are built on credibility, reputation, and honoring one’s word. To me, keeping your word is one of the highest expressions of personal integrity.

I have worked in industries as diverse as aviation, international trade, and real estate development, and in every sector I have discovered the same truth: People do business with those they trust.

Profits may open doors, but trust keeps them open.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

One of the greatest lessons of my career was realizing that not every opportunity should be pursued.

At certain stages, I made decisions driven by the speed of growth when I should have exercised greater patience. Over time, I learned that growth does not always mean progress.

I overcame those challenges by becoming more analytical, listening more carefully, and prioritizing sustainability over immediate results.

Today, I understand that failure is not the opposite of success; very often, it is the path that leads us to it.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

An integrated services platform for independent senior citizens.

The global population is aging rapidly, and millions of people will require support with transportation, healthcare coordination, shopping, technology assistance, and companionship.

A company that combines these services through a user-friendly application and a highly trained human support network could create tremendous social impact while also becoming a significant business opportunity.

The best businesses solve real problems in a human and efficient way.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I regularly use ChatGPT, Manus, and Claude.

I use them to organize ideas, analyze scenarios, develop strategies, draft communications, and accelerate critical thinking processes.

I believe artificial intelligence is an extraordinary tool for enhancing creativity and improving decision-making when used with purpose and good judgment. However, what remains most important is your attitude, the knowledge you acquire through education, and the experience you gain throughout life.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Books and educational programs focused on leadership and personal development.

Knowledge is one of the few assets that appreciates over time. A single idea can create meaningful change in a business or in a person’s life.

Investing in education always generates dividends that no crisis can take away.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

One of the books that has influenced me the most is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Its message goes far beyond business because it focuses on universal principles such as responsibility, integrity, leadership, and personal growth.

I also follow authors and speakers such as Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, and Deepak Chopra, whose teachings combine success, well-being, and human development.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I particularly enjoy documentaries and productions based on true stories of leadership, innovation, and perseverance.

I am fascinated by observing how people navigate uncertainty, make difficult decisions, and transform challenges into opportunities.

Great stories remind us that human potential is far greater than we often believe.

Key learnings

• Sustainable success is built through discipline, vision, and consistency—not through immediate results.
• Trust, credibility, and keeping your word are irreplaceable competitive advantages.
• Adversity can become the greatest source of personal and professional growth.
• Technological innovation creates the most value when combined with leadership, purpose, and human values.
• The true legacy of an entrepreneur is not measured solely by the companies they build, but by the opportunities they create, the impact they generate, and the lives they help transform.

Matthew Sabo, DPM, is a board-certified foot and ankle surgeon serving Western Pennsylvania through The Foot and Ankle Wellness Center of Western Pennsylvania. Matthew Sabo, DPM, founded the practice in 2007 and leads its care for patients across Butler, Mercer, and Armstrong Counties.

His clinical experience includes comprehensive foot and ankle care, advanced wound care, diabetic limb preservation, sprots medicine, surgical reconstruction, and emerging technologies in podiatric medicine. He helps patients with diabetic foot care, wound care, heel pain, fractures, sports injuries, and chronic foot conditions. He emphasizes patient education, individualized treatment plans, and helping patients return to activity and improve quality of life.

Dr. Matthew Sabo has 26 years of podiatry experience and has participated in 18 clinical research trials. His research background includes studies connected to wound care, advanced imaging, regenerative medicine, and emerging podiatric technologies. He has also contributed to professional publications and presentations on foot, ankle, and wound-related topics.

Dr. Sabo completed his podiatric medical education at the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine. Previously, he earned a bachelor’s degree from East Stroudsburg University through an accelerated pre-medicine program. He is also a fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

Medicine has taught me that every patient has a story, and no two stories are ever the same. That’s one of the things I’ve loved most throughout my career. Every day brings a new opportunity to solve problems, continue learning, and help someone regain the freedom to move with less pain and greater confidence.

Whether I’m caring for patients, researching emerging medical technologies, developing educational content, or planning the future of my practice, I try to make each day meaningful. I have learned that productivity is not measured by how busy you are, but by the progress you make. Small, consistent improvements eventually lead to extraordinary results.

How do you bring ideas to life?

The best ideas don’t begin with technology or business plans—they begin with listening. Throughout my career, I’ve found that the most meaningful improvements come from understanding the challenges patients face and asking how we can help them more effectively.

Once I identify a problem worth solving, I research it thoroughly, evaluate the available evidence, and seek solutions that are supported by sound clinical science. I believe innovation has the greatest value when it’s guided by evidence and ultimately improves patient care.

I don’t believe every idea has to be perfect before you begin. Progress comes from staying curious, learning continuously, and being willing to improve along the way.

What’s one trend that excites you?

One of the most exciting trends in healthcare is the continued advancement of regenerative medicine and minimally invasive treatment options. Patients today are looking for treatments that not only relieve pain but also promote healing and restore function.

I’m particularly encouraged by technologies that are supported by growing clinical evidence and offer patients additional evidence-based treatment options before considering more invasive procedures, when appropriate. I believe the future of medicine will continue to combine scientific innovation with personalized care, allowing physicians to deliver better outcomes while helping patients make informed decisions about their health.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Curiosity.

If I had to identify one habit that has shaped both my career and my life, it would be a commitment to staying curious. Medicine is constantly evolving, and I’ve never believed that learning ends with residency or board certification. Every patient, every challenge, and every new experience offers an opportunity to learn something valuable.

That same curiosity extends beyond medicine into research, technology, leadership, and business. Exploring ideas across different fields often leads to fresh perspectives that ultimately make me a better physician for my patients. I believe one of the greatest responsibilities of any healthcare professional is to remain a lifelong student.

What advice would you give your younger self?

If I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be this: Be patient, remain curious, and never stop learning. A meaningful career isn’t defined by one moment or one achievement—it’s built through thousands of small decisions, consistent effort, and the willingness to keep growing.

I’ve learned that challenges are often our greatest teachers. They encourage humility, strengthen resilience, and provide perspective that success alone rarely can. Looking back, I appreciate every experience because each one has helped shape not only the physician I’ve become, but also the person I continue to strive to be.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I believe medicine and leadership have more in common than many people realize. While clinical knowledge is essential, delivering exceptional patient care also requires communication, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Some people view leadership and business skills as separate from medicine, but I’ve found they can complement one another. When a medical practice is well organized, embraces innovation thoughtfully, and remains focused on the patient, it creates an environment where both patients and healthcare professionals can thrive.

For me, leadership has never been about managing people—it’s about creating a culture where doing what’s right for the patient remains the guiding principle behind every decision.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Invest in yourself through lifelong learning.

The greatest investment I’ve ever made hasn’t been in technology, real estate, or business—it’s been in education. Every book, every conversation, every patient encounter, and every new experience has taught me something that has helped me become a better physician and a better person.

Knowledge has a unique way of compounding over time. The knowledge you gain today influences the decisions you make tomorrow, and those decisions ultimately shape the care you provide and the lives you touch. That’s why I believe one of the best investments anyone can make is a commitment to continuous learning.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

When I begin to feel overwhelmed, I remind myself that progress is made one step at a time. Rather than focusing on everything that needs to be accomplished, I identify the one task that will make the greatest difference and give it my full attention. Completing that first step creates momentum, and momentum has a way of bringing clarity.

I’ve also learned that some of my best thinking happens when I step away for a while. Whether it’s spending time with my family, taking a walk, or simply giving myself a chance to reflect, creating space often leads to better decisions than rushing toward an answer.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

One strategy that has guided my career is a commitment to continuous improvement. Medicine is constantly evolving, and I believe the best physicians are those who remain open to learning, adapting, and refining how they care for their patients.

Rather than chasing every new idea, I thoughtfully evaluate new technologies, treatment approaches, and practice improvements through the lens of evidence, clinical experience, and patient outcomes. Small improvements, applied consistently over time, often have the greatest long-term impact.

I’ve found that meaningful progress doesn’t usually come from one breakthrough—it comes from making better decisions, one patient and one day at a time.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Every meaningful career includes moments that challenge your confidence, test your resilience, and force you to grow. I’ve learned that those seasons, while difficult, often become the experiences that shape your character the most.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that setbacks don’t define you—your response to them does. They have taught me the importance of humility, perseverance, and maintaining perspective, even when the path forward isn’t immediately clear.

Looking back, I wouldn’t choose to avoid every obstacle. Many of the lessons that have shaped both my professional and personal life came from navigating challenges with integrity, continuing to learn, and never losing sight of the people I serve.

“Setbacks don’t define you—your response to them does.”

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

One business idea I think remains underappreciated is premium residential garbage bin cleaning. It may not sound glamorous, but successful businesses often solve everyday problems that people don’t have the time, equipment, or desire to solve themselves.

What makes the concept attractive is that it can be built around recurring service, exceptional customer experience, and opportunities to expand into complementary services such as pressure washing, holiday lighting, or other exterior home maintenance.

Whether in medicine or business, I’ve found that the most sustainable ideas are usually the ones that consistently improve someone’s daily life.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

One of the most valuable professional tools I use is ChatGPT—not because it replaces thinking, but because it challenges me to think more deeply. I use it as a collaborative tool to organize ideas, explore different perspectives, summarize complex information, and help me communicate more effectively.

Whether I’m developing patient education materials, evaluating new business ideas, researching emerging medical technologies, or preparing professional content, it helps me ask better questions and refine my thinking. The better the questions, the better the conversations—and often, the better the decisions that follow.

Like any technology, its value depends on how it’s used. I see artificial intelligence as a tool that complements human judgment, curiosity, and experience—not one that replaces them.

“The better the questions, the better the conversations—and often, the better the decisions that follow.”

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

The best money I spend is almost always on learning. Whether it’s a book, a course, professional education, or a resource that helps me better understand medicine, leadership, technology, or communication, those investments continue to pay dividends long after the purchase.

Knowledge is one of the few investments that grows every time you apply it. The more you learn, the better decisions you make, and better decisions ultimately benefit the people you serve. That’s a return on investment that never loses its value.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

I enjoy books and podcasts that challenge me to think differently. Whether they’re created by physicians, entrepreneurs, historians, or leaders from completely different fields, I’m drawn to people who are willing to share not only their successes but also the lessons they learned from failure.

I’ve found that some of the best ideas come from connecting knowledge across different disciplines. Staying curious has been one of the most valuable habits of my career, and I hope it always will be.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

One series I’ve continued to enjoy is Game of Thrones. While it’s known for its drama and complex characters, what I find most interesting are the themes of leadership, resilience, loyalty, and the consequences of the choices people make.

Some of the strongest leaders in the series succeed not because they’re the most powerful, but because they listen, adapt, and remain committed to something greater than themselves. I think those lessons extend well beyond television.

Key learnings

• Every patient has a story, and listening is the foundation of exceptional care.
• Innovation has its greatest value when it is guided by evidence and improves patient outcomes.
• Lifelong learning is one of the greatest investments a physician can make.
• Setbacks don’t define us—our response to them does.
• Restoring mobility is about more than relieving pain; it’s about restoring independence, confidence, and quality of life.

Lisa Jonas spent eight years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Her time as an SDNY lawyer included serving as a member of the team that prosecuted a public corruption and racketeering case, United States v. Mason Tenders. She received the U.S. Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance. Following her time as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Lisa Jonas moved into a career as a senior compliance and governance executive, supporting senior executives, regulators, and governing bodies at major global financial institutions.

Throughout her private-sector career, Ms. Jonas has gained extensive experience advising on financial crime, cross-border regulatory risk, and related issues. While serving as Executive Director, Head of Americas Anti-Bribery and Corruption and Head of Americas Government Relations Compliance at UBS, she helped senior business leaders navigate anti-bribery, corruption, and a range of related political activities matters across multiple business divisions in the Americas. She also represented UBS at the Europol Financial Institutions Innovation Lab on Human Trafficking. She has addressed trafficking and related crimes in her philanthropic work with groups such as Rights4Girls, the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, and Sanctuary for Families.

Ms. Jonas previously served in governance and compliance leadership roles at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. In addition to a degree in law, Ms. Jonas also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, in addition to advanced professional studies at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. She is in the midst of completing the Wharton School’s AI for Business program.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

I tend to be most productive when I give my day some structure, but leave room for the unexpected. I start by identifying the two or three things that genuinely need my attention rather than allowing email and other people’s priorities to dictate the day. I’ve spent much of my career in environments where something urgent can suddenly change the agenda, so I’ve learned to distinguish between what is truly important and what is simply demanding attention.

I also make time to move: a walk, a workout, whatever fits. Exercise clears my head and often helps me solve problems that seemed much more complicated when I was sitting at a desk. And I make time to read. Staying curious—about business, technology, world events, books, or something completely outside my professional life—is part of being productive for me.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I usually begin by asking what problem I am actually trying to solve. In law, public service and financial services, I’ve seen very sophisticated solutions developed for problems that were never clearly defined in the first place.

Once I understand the problem, I talk to the people who experience it from different perspectives. Then I try to turn the idea into something concrete enough to test. I’m a great believer in iteration. An idea rarely emerges fully formed. You make it better by exposing it to smart people, challenging your own assumptions, and being willing to change direction when the facts tell you to.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The thoughtful use of artificial intelligence to improve human decision-making. I’m particularly interested in what AI can do in risk management and compliance—not to replace human judgment, but to make that judgment better informed.

Financial institutions possess enormous amounts of information, but historically much of it has existed in disconnected systems. AI creates the possibility of identifying patterns across that information much earlier and turning risk assessment from a largely retrospective exercise into something increasingly dynamic and predictive. The challenge, and what makes the subject especially interesting to me, is building the governance around AI so that innovation and accountability develop together.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Writing things down. When I have a complicated problem, I find that the act of writing forces me to clarify what I actually think. Something that seems impossibly complicated in my head often becomes manageable once I reduce it to its essential components on paper.

I also keep a running list of what needs to be accomplished and continually reprioritize it. I like the satisfaction of crossing things off, but the real value is that it prevents the urgent from automatically crowding out the important.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Trust your instincts sooner, and don’t confuse someone else’s certainty with wisdom. Some of the most consequential decisions in my career involved situations in which there wasn’t an obvious answer. Over time, I learned that judgment is partly the accumulation of experience, but it is also the willingness to listen to the voice telling you that something doesn’t quite make sense.

I would also tell my younger self that careers do not have to follow a straight line. Some of the most interesting opportunities in my life came from leaving an established path and entering a world I knew very little about. Reinvention can be uncomfortable, but it can also be enormously rewarding.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

More information does not necessarily lead to better decisions. We have become extraordinarily good at producing data, presentations, dashboards, and metrics, but sometimes all of that information obscures rather than illuminates the question that actually needs to be answered.

I would rather have five meaningful pieces of information and someone with excellent judgment than 100 metrics and no one willing to make a decision. Technology can make us smarter, but it cannot relieve us of the responsibility to think.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Read outside your own field. Some of the most useful ideas I have encountered professionally did not come from compliance manuals or legal opinions. They came from history, psychology, technology, literature, and conversations with people whose lives were completely different from mine.

Reading broadly makes you more curious, and curiosity makes you better at asking questions. In my experience, the person who asks the right question often contributes more than the person who believes they already know the answer.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I move. I go for a walk, work out, hike when I can, or simply get away from screens. Physical movement quiets my mind and gives me enough distance from a problem to see it differently.

Then I come back and break whatever is overwhelming me into smaller pieces: What actually has to happen today? What can wait? What am I worrying about that I cannot control? Usually, the problem becomes much less intimidating once I separate those things.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Being willing to become a beginner again. My career has crossed very different worlds—law, public service, human rights, and global financial institutions. Each transition required me to walk into rooms where other people knew things I didn’t know yet.

Instead of pretending otherwise, I asked questions and learned from people at every level of an organization. That willingness to learn has allowed me to move into new areas and eventually contribute something different: the ability to connect legal analysis, regulatory expectations, business realities, and human behavior. Intellectual curiosity has probably advanced my career more than any deliberate career strategy.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

One lesson I learned relatively late is that doing excellent work is not always enough. Earlier in my career, I believed that if you worked hard, exercised good judgment, and produced strong results, the work would largely speak for itself. Organizations are more complicated than that.

I learned the importance of communicating what you are trying to accomplish, building relationships before you need them, understanding the perspectives of the people affected by your decisions, and making sure that good ideas have advocates. I don’t think of that as office politics. I think of it as part of leadership. An idea that never gains support cannot create change, regardless of how good it is.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I would build a technology platform that gives senior executives a real-time view of an organization’s ethical and financial-crime risk—not simply a dashboard showing historical compliance statistics.

It would integrate information that often sits in separate systems: transactions, investigations, employee concerns, third-party relationships, regulatory developments, geographic exposure, and other indicators. AI could identify emerging patterns and anomalies, while experienced professionals would provide the judgment and context. The objective would be to identify where risk may be developing before it becomes an investigation, enforcement action, or front-page story. Many companies possess the necessary information already. What they lack is a meaningful way to connect it.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

My calendar. I use it as more than a scheduling tool—it’s how I protect time for what actually matters rather than letting the day get taken over by whatever is loudest. If something important isn’t on my calendar, in my experience it tends to get crowded out.

What matters most is treating calendar time as a commitment rather than a suggestion. I block time before a big meeting or decision rather than assuming I’ll find it in the moment, and I try to protect a small amount of unstructured time every day, because some of my best thinking happens when nothing is scheduled at all.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

A stack of books. I still love physical books, and buying them is one expenditure I almost never regret—even when my ambition to read them exceeds the available hours in a day.
A book can entertain you, teach you something completely unexpected, or alter the way you think about a subject you believed that you understood. That is an extraordinary return on a relatively small investment.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

I have never been very good at naming a single favorite book because different books matter at different moments in your life. What I value most is fiction that allows me to inhabit a consciousness very different from my own.
I also read widely outside of fiction—history, biography and current affairs. The common thread is curiosity. Some of my favorite books include Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, and Theodore White’s In Search of History. I’m drawn to books that transport me to another world or make me reconsider something I thought I understood rather than simply confirming what I already believe.

On podcasts, I’m drawn to serious narrative journalism—1619, Tortoise Investigates’ We Call Her Emma, and Serial Productions’ The Retrievals have all stayed with me long after I finished listening. And for something completely different, I’m a regular listener of Popcast and The Athletic.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I tend to love intelligent thrillers and mysteries—stories that require you to pay attention and gradually reveal that what you thought was happening isn’t quite what is happening. What keeps me interested is usually less the crime itself than the psychology: why people make the choices they make, what they conceal, and how seemingly small decisions can have enormous consequences.

I recently enjoyed Furious, the Hulu thriller with Emmy Rossum—and I still come back to The Godfather, which holds up every time.

I also enjoy British crime series like Slow Horses because they often trust the audience and allow characters to be complicated rather than dividing everyone neatly into heroes and villains.

Key learnings

• Curiosity is a professional advantage. Reading broadly, asking questions, and remaining willing to learn can be as important to a career as subject-matter expertise.
• Technology is most powerful when it improves rather than replaces human judgment. AI has enormous potential to transform risk management, provided that innovation is accompanied by thoughtful governance.
• Good judgment requires distinguishing meaningful information from noise. More data does not automatically produce better decisions.
• Reinvention can strengthen a career. Moving between disciplines can create a perspective that would be difficult to develop by following a single professional path.
• Ideas require both substance and support. Creating change means understanding the problem, listening to different perspectives. and building the relationships necessary to turn an idea into action.

Cormac McNamara is a finance student at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, where he is pursuing a bachelor of science in finance with a focus on the financial markets, credit analysis, and applied modeling. His coursework includes security analysis and portfolio management, financial markets and institutions, and financial cases and modeling, which have shaped his interest in capital markets and risk management.

Cormac McNamara also completed international coursework through CIEE’s Global Institute in Rome, where he studied global business strategy and international financial markets. That experience deepened his understanding of European Union trade, cross border finance, and how global macroeconomic forces influence investment decisions.

Professionally, Cormac McNamara has gained hands-on experience through both academic research and corporate finance roles. In Rome, he worked as an intern under professor Antonio Della Malva, where he built and validated a comprehensive dataset of NYSE and NASDAQ IPOs from 2022 through 2024 using SEC EDGAR, Bloomberg, and exchange filings. He analyzed financial statements, standardized key metrics, conducted time series analysis, and presented insights in an executive level report.

Previously, Mr. McNamara interned on the Treasury Credit Team at Freeport-McMoRan in Phoenix, Arizona. In that role, he supported credit risk decisions through financial statement analysis, liquidity and leverage assessment, and valuation modeling using Capital IQ. He also worked extensively in Excel and Power BI to clean data and build dashboards that improved visibility into credit exposure and treasury performance.

Outside of his academic and professional endeavors, Cormac McNamara stays active by regularly going to the gym, hiking, skiing, and playing ice hockey and golf. Staying physically active is a core part of how he maintains focus, discipline, and balance.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

I usually start my mornings with a workout at the gym or a long walk, which helps me clear my head and set the tone for the day. I then focus on my most demanding tasks, such as coursework, research, or financial analysis. Afternoons are reserved for classes, meetings, or collaborative work. Planning my day the night before allows me to stay focused and productive.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I break ideas down into actionable steps and validate them with data. Once I define the goal, I gather the relevant information, quickly build a rough version, and refine it through iteration until it becomes something practical and measurable.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am excited by the growing use of data visualization and analytics in finance. Tools like Power BI are changing how financial information is communicated and allowing decision makers to identify risks and opportunities more efficiently.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Staying physically active. Going to the gym or taking a walk helps me reset mentally, improve my focus, and approach work with more energy and clarity.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell myself to focus on progress rather than perfection. Taking action, learning from mistakes, and adjusting along the way matters far more than waiting for the perfect plan.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I believe that early career success comes more from mastering fundamentals and being reliable than from chasing prestige. Strong technical skills and consistency compound over time.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

I regularly step away from my desk to walk or move my body. It improves my focus, reduces stress, and leads to better decision-making.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I simplify and move. I either go for a walk or head to the gym, then come back and identify the single most important task I need to complete next.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

I align my academic coursework with real-world experience. By applying concepts from class directly to internships and research projects, I reinforce my learning and build confidence more quickly.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Early in my academic career, I struggled with balancing my workload and performance. I overcame this by restructuring my schedule, improving my study habits, and prioritizing consistency. The experience taught me the importance of discipline and adaptability.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

A simplified platform that aggregates and visualizes public financial data for mid-sized companies would help students and early career professionals better understand financial performance without becoming overwhelmed.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Microsoft Excel. I use it daily for financial modeling, data cleaning, scenario analysis, and efficiently organizing large datasets.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

A gym membership. It directly improves my mental clarity, discipline, and productivity, which carries over into both my academics and professional work.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

A gym membership. It directly improves my mental clarity, discipline, and productivity, which carries over into both my academics and professional work.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

One series I recently enjoyed was Roman Empire on Netflix. I found it compelling because it combines history with strategy, leadership, and power dynamics. The series highlights how decision-making, incentives, and human behavior shape outcomes over time, which closely parallels many of the concepts studied in finance and business.

Key learnings

• Planning ahead and staying physically active can improve focus, energy and productivity.
• Breaking an idea into smaller steps, testing it with data and refining it can turn it into a practical solution.
• Data visualization helps make financial information easier to understand and supports better decision-making.
• Early career development depends on mastering fundamental skills, applying academic learning to real-world situations, and building consistent habits.
• Progress requires taking action, learning from mistakes, adapting to challenges, and maintaining personal balance.

Danis Fickewirth is an American entrepreneur and investor focused on building durable, practical businesses. Through Alafina Capital, he works at the intersection of capital, operating discipline, technology, and cross-border collaboration.

Alafina Capital’s work is rooted in a simple principle: capital is most valuable when it is paired with real operational support. The goal is not merely to invest in an idea, but to help capable people clarify a strategy, build reliable systems, solve problems, and create companies that can sustain themselves over time.

Danis has maintained long-standing ties to Moldova and sees the country as an underappreciated place to build: a market with technically capable people, entrepreneurial energy, international perspective, and room for serious long-term partnerships. He believes Moldova’s opportunity is about building credible companies, helping local talent access larger markets, and creating businesses that deliver genuine value to customers and communities.

His approach is hands-on and grounded in questions that matter: Is there real customer demand? Does the team have the discipline to execute? Are the economics sound? Can a company build systems that make it stronger with each year?

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My days are built around people, priorities, and decisions. I start by identifying the few issues that can genuinely move a business forward: a customer problem, an operational bottleneck, a hiring decision, a capital need, or a partnership that requires attention.

A large part of my work is speaking with founders, managers, specialists, and partners. I do not believe good investment work happens only in spreadsheets. Numbers matter, but you also need to understand how a business actually operates: what customers are saying, where the team is getting stuck, and which decisions are being delayed.

I try to end every meaningful conversation with a clear next step, an owner, and a timeline. Clarity is one of the most valuable things a business can have.

How do you bring ideas to life?

The first step is reducing an idea to a real problem worth solving. Many ideas sound impressive when they are broad. The hard work is defining who the customer is, what they need, why they would pay, and what must be true for the business to work.

From there, I prefer a practical operating plan: the first customer, the first market test, the first responsible person, the first budget, and the first measurable milestone. Small tests replace assumptions with information.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am excited by Moldova’s growing ability to participate in international business without losing its local character. Technology, remote collaboration, specialized services, and cross-border entrepreneurship make it possible for talented people and businesses in Moldova to work with customers and partners far beyond the country’s borders.

The opportunity is to build capable companies with strong standards, trusted relationships, and products or services that solve real problems internationally.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

Writing things down. A clear written question is often more useful than a long meeting.

When a business issue is complicated, I write down the actual problem, the facts we know, the assumptions we are making, the decision required, and the next action. This forces discipline and helps separate urgent noise from important work.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Learn how businesses really work before becoming too attached to any one idea.

I would tell my younger self to spend more time with customers, operators, accountants, and people doing the day-to-day work. Big visions matter, but execution is built through details: cash flow, hiring, service quality, communication, timing, and trust.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

I believe that many promising markets do not need more grand promises. They need more reliable execution.

It is easy to talk about transformation or innovation. It is much harder to build a company that serves customers well, pays people on time, keeps accurate records, improves its systems, and earns trust year after year. Those things are the foundation of lasting business value.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Talk directly to the people closest to the work.

Founders and investors can become too distant from customers, frontline employees, suppliers, and operational realities. I recommend regularly asking: What is working? What is not working? What do customers complain about? What problem is costing us the most time or money?

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

I reduce the situation to one question: what is the most important decision or action that cannot wait?

Then I step away from the noise, write the issue down, and identify the next concrete step. Often, overwhelm comes from trying to carry ten unresolved issues in your head at once. A written list with clear priorities restores perspective.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Building relationships before there is an immediate transaction.

The strongest opportunities often come from people who have had time to understand each other’s judgment, values, and reliability. In Moldova and in any market, trust is not a soft concept. It is a business advantage.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Earlier in my career, I was sometimes too willing to be persuaded by a compelling idea before fully testing the operating reality behind it. A strong presentation is not the same thing as a strong business.

The lesson was to ask more basic questions earlier: Who is the customer? What are the economics? What capability does the team already have? What must be built? What happens if the plan takes twice as long as expected?

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I would like to see more practical market-entry partnerships for international companies interested in Moldova.

A small “Moldova Market-Entry Studio” could help foreign businesses test demand, identify local partners, understand operating realities, hire initial talent, and launch a focused pilot before committing to a major expansion.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Slack is one of the most useful tools in my working life because it keeps teams connected without turning every issue into a meeting.

I use it to give each project a clear home for decisions, progress updates, and fast questions. For teams working across locations, the important part is not constant messaging; it is making information easy to find and making ownership visible. A concise update in the right channel can prevent weeks of confusion.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

I recently spent about $100 experimenting with an AI agent workflow. The value was not in handing decisions to software; it was in seeing how much faster a small, well-defined research or preparation task can begin.

Used thoughtfully, AI can help people organize information, identify questions, and create a useful first draft. The human still has to apply judgment, verify the work, and decide what matters. That combination—speed plus accountability—is where I think the real value is.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

One book I continue to find interesting is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It is entertaining, but it also asks enduring questions about technology, information, networks, language, and the systems that shape people’s lives.

I do not read it as a prediction. I read it as a reminder that technology is never just technical. It changes how people communicate, organize, make decisions, and build power. Those questions are as relevant to an entrepreneur as they are to a novelist.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I enjoyed the Moldovan film Puterea Probabilității. Beyond being an ambitious local thriller, it was memorable because it put Chișinău itself on screen in a contemporary, cinematic way.

The car-and-trolleybus sequence was especially striking. It was a large, visible production moment in the city, and it captured something I appreciate about Moldova: capable people can create work with real scale and ambition when they decide not to think small.

Key learnings:

• Danis Fickewirth focuses on building practical, durable businesses through capital, operating discipline, and long-term partnerships.
• He sees Moldova as a serious place to build internationally connected companies, not as a short-term opportunity.
• Alafina Capital’s approach emphasizes hands-on support, clear strategy, and patient execution.
• Trusted local partnerships and direct contact with customers and operators are essential to good decisions.
• Lasting business value comes from reliable execution, not just ambitious ideas.

Anton Alexander Palmer is a UK entrepreneur, investor and healthcare infrastructure executive with more than two decades of experience across regulated care, institutional real estate, financial services and complex development programmes. Based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, his work has centred on building, scaling and restructuring businesses and property platforms at the intersection of healthcare, housing, infrastructure and long-term investment.

Palmer is Managing Director and Principal Investor of the Octane Capital & Infrastructure Platform, where he oversees strategy, governance, capital allocation and the structuring of regulated care and property investments. His experience includes OpCo/PropCo models, institutional lease frameworks and buy-and-build strategies designed to create long-term value across healthcare operating businesses and associated real estate.

Earlier in his career, Palmer founded and scaled a regulated supported-living platform from a standing start to more than 20 specialist assets supporting over 100 high-acuity service users. The operating business was sold to private equity for £15 million in 2012, while the underlying property interests were retained and developed into a separate institutional healthcare property portfolio. That portfolio was later sold for £18 million, bringing the combined value realised across the two transactions to £33 million.

His current work includes the acquisition and expansion of CQC-regulated healthcare businesses and the development of long-income property strategies connected to supported living. He is directing a strategic land and development programme in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, involving planning, environmental and stakeholder considerations across Green Belt and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty settings, with a projected development pipeline exceeding £50 million in gross development value.

Before moving fully into investment and infrastructure, Palmer worked as a high-net-worth financial adviser with Lloyds Bank. He is also an incoming MSc Major Programme Management candidate at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. His qualifications include a BSc in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, postgraduate study in Strategy, Leadership and Change at the University of Bristol, and financial-planning qualifications through the Chartered Insurance Institute. He is a Chartered Manager Fellow and an MRICS candidate on the executive accelerated pathway.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My day usually moves between property, care operations, finance, advisers and the teams delivering the work. I start by identifying the few decisions that can genuinely move a project forward, rather than simply clearing an inbox. I then work through calls, site or operational issues, funding and planning matters, and the people needed to execute. I also protect time for study and reading. Productivity, for me, comes from being clear about the next decision and who owns it.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I start with the end state and ask what has to be true for the idea to work. Then I break it into finance, legal, operational, planning and people workstreams, identify the critical dependencies, and put named owners and dates against them. I prefer an imperfect first version that can be tested to a perfect concept that never leaves the page. The discipline is to turn enthusiasm into a sequence of decisions, evidence and accountable actions.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The professionalisation of supported living and social infrastructure excites me. There is a real opportunity to align better housing, long-term capital and high-quality care without losing sight of the individual receiving support. Property is too often treated as separate from care, when the home environment, maintenance standard, location and stability can materially affect outcomes. I am interested in models where the operating and real-estate sides are designed around the same long-term purpose.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I keep a written list of the three or four outcomes that matter most that day. Everything else is secondary until those are moving. It sounds simple, but it stops activity becoming a substitute for progress. I also write down assumptions when a decision is important. Once assumptions are visible, you can challenge them, allocate responsibility and return to the decision later without relying on memory or emotion

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to build the right team earlier, ask for specialist advice sooner and keep learning. You rarely have every fact, so judgement matters, but strong advisers and clear documentation make difficult decisions much easier. I would also say that education should never stop when formal education ends. Some of my most useful learning has come much later in life because I could connect theory directly to real problems.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I think delay is often riskier than speed once the important facts are known. Organisations can spend enormous amounts of time trying to remove uncertainty that cannot actually be removed. My preference is to identify the genuinely irreversible decisions, spend the time there, and move quickly on the reversible ones. Speed without thought is reckless; but disciplined speed, with clear assumptions and accountability, can reduce risk rather than increase it.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Ask, ‘What has to be true?’ It is a simple question that exposes assumptions quickly. Whether I am looking at a property, a financing structure, an acquisition or an operating problem, I write down the conditions that must hold for the plan to work. That makes it easier to distinguish facts from hopes, identify what needs verifying and decide which issue could actually kill the project.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

When I feel overwhelmed or unfocused, I reduce the problem to three decisions: what matters most, what can wait, and what needs to happen next. As a Gloucester boy, I am relatively straight-talking, and I try not to overcomplicate things! When everything feels urgent, it is usually because too many issues are being held at the same level. I separate what is genuinely important from what is simply noise and write down the next actions.

I also find that creating some physical distance from a problem helps. Walking has always been a passion of mine. I am fortunate to live in Gloucestershire and also spend a good deal of time in London, so I get the benefit of two very different environments. In Gloucestershire, I have beautiful countryside on my doorstep, and I will often go for a long walk and work through those three questions as I go. London gives me a different kind of energy, but the Gloucestershire countryside is usually where I go when I really need to clear my head.
By the time I return, I usually have a much clearer sense of what actually matters, what can wait, and where the real constraint lies.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

One strategy that has helped me is combining an operator’s view with an investor’s view. In property, it is easy to focus only on the asset; in care, it is easy to focus only on the service. Looking at both forces better questions about suitability, cash flow, maintenance, regulation, customer need and long-term value. That broader perspective has shaped the way I approach supported living and other complex property-backed businesses.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

A recurring mistake earlier in my career was trying to carry too much personally and bringing specialist advice in later than I should have. It can feel efficient in the short term, but complexity compounds. The lesson was to assemble the right legal, finance, operational and technical people earlier, be explicit about what I do not know, and make sure responsibility is clear. Good judgement includes knowing when expertise is worth paying for.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

I would build a platform that helps good care operators access professionally owned and managed homes without requiring them to become property developers. The platform would combine property sourcing, adaptation, long-term maintenance standards and transparent lease structures. The aim would be simple: let care teams concentrate on care while property specialists make sure the homes remain suitable, safe and investable over the long term.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

ChatGPT is one of the tools I use most. I use it to structure information, stress-test ideas, summarise documents, prepare questions for advisers and accelerate first drafts. The value is not that it replaces judgement; it gives me a fast second pair of eyes and helps turn a large amount of information into something I can interrogate. I treat the output as a starting point that still needs checking and decision-making.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho. I like the idea that progress is found in the journey rather than only at the destination. It is reflective without being abstract, and it reinforces the value of discipline, self-examination and being open to lessons from unexpected places.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I love The Sopranos and have been watching it with my older sons. What I find compelling is how raw it is: the characters deal with ordinary family life and everyday routines while carrying a completely different hidden world underneath. Tony’s therapy, and the way his past shapes his present, is particularly interesting. It is a reminder that we are all products of our environment and experiences, which I find quite humbling. I also watched The Equalizer 3 recently and thought it was awesome.

Key learnings

• Complex projects become more manageable when assumptions, decision rights and owners are made explicit.
• Property and care work better when the physical asset and the operating model are designed around the same long-term purpose.
• Disciplined speed can reduce risk when reversible and irreversible decisions are treated differently.
• Lifelong learning is most valuable when theory is applied directly to live problems.

Dr. Rene Salhab trained as a pediatric medical services provider in New York. Since 2010, he has served the Rancho Cucamonga, California, community as a pediatrician at Children’s Choice Pediatrics. In this position, Dr. Rene Salhab provides expert care to newborns, children, and young adults up to age 21, with an emphasis on lifestyle and preventive care practices that support long-term health.

During his time at Children’s Choice Pediatrics, Dr. Rene Salhab has provided his patients with a range of medical services, including preoperative clearance exams, treatment for acute and chronic illnesses, school physicals, wellness exams, Autism spectrum evaluations, and more. Furthermore, he maintains relationships with local facilities to provide his patients with inpatient hospital care as needed. He has experience with eczema, learning disabilities and behavioral issues, and a myriad of common injuries, among many other conditions and health issues. However, he is also capable of providing families with referrals when necessary.

Moreover, Dr. Salhab adheres to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for vaccines and immunizations, while also respecting individual parental decisions. Throughout his career, he has established a reputation for developing collaborative family partnerships that support thoughtful medical decision-making.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

My day begins early with a focus on preparation and prioritization, ensuring that urgent cases and telehealth requests are addressed before the clinic opens to the public. I maintain productivity by strictly delegating administrative tasks to my capable team, which allows me to dedicate my full attention to patient care, complex medical decisions, and mentoring my staff throughout the day. This structured approach ensures that every child receives timely, compassionate care while keeping our operations running efficiently to serve the community’s needs.
d before the clinic opens to the public. I maintain productivity by strictly delegating administrative tasks to my capable team, which allows me to dedicate my full attention to patient care, complex medical decisions, and mentoring my staff throughout the day. This structured approach ensures that every child receives timely, compassionate care while keeping our operations running eff

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring ideas to life by first identifying a genuine gap in care—such as a lack of accessible pediatric services—and then immediately mobilizing a team and resources to build a solution that prioritizes the child’s well-being above all else. Whether it is launching 24/7 telehealth or creating a practice that accepts all patients regardless of insurance, I focus on actionable steps and unwavering commitment to our mission, turning the vision of equitable healthcare into a daily reality for thousands of families.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The trend that excites me most is the rapid advancement and adoption of AI-driven diagnostic tools in pediatric care, which promise to drastically reduce misdiagnosis rates and enable earlier interventions for developmental delays and rare conditions. By integrating these technologies with our existing telehealth platforms, we can provide expert-level assessments to children in remote or underserved areas, effectively democratizing access to top-tier medical expertise regardless of a family’s location or socioeconomic status. This fusion of technology and compassion represents the future of healthcare, where no child is left behind due to geographical or financial barriers.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

I maintain a strict “patient-first” prioritization system where every morning is dedicated to reviewing urgent cases and telehealth requests before anything else, ensuring that critical needs are met immediately. This habit, combined with delegating operational tasks to my trusted team, allows me to focus entirely on medical leadership and direct patient care, which is where I can make the most significant impact. By protecting this time and structure, I ensure that our practice remains responsive to the community while maintaining the highest standards of care.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to trust the vision even when the path isn’t clear, because the obstacles you face while trying to help others are often the very things that will strengthen your resolve and define your purpose. Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo or to build something entirely new when the existing system fails the people you are called to serve. Your greatest achievements will come from staying true to your commitment to care for every child, regardless of their circumstances.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?

I believe that the traditional model of pediatric care, which requires appointments and adheres to strict office hours, is fundamentally broken and does a disservice to children and families in crisis. Almost everyone in the medical industry accepts this as the standard, but I argue that true healthcare means being available 24/7, regardless of a family’s ability to pay or their insurance status, because a child’s health emergency doesn’t wait for business hours. This belief drove me to build a practice that prioritizes immediate access and care for all over profits and convention, even when others said it was unsustainable.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

I consistently prioritize and advocate for preventive care through regular well-child visits and developmental milestone tracking because early detection and intervention are the most powerful tools we have to ensure a child’s long-term health and success. I recommend every parent establish a relationship with a pediatric provider from birth and maintain that connection through consistent check-ups, even when their child appears healthy, as this proactive approach prevents serious issues and builds a foundation for lifelong wellness. This isn’t just medical advice—it’s a commitment to giving every child the best possible start in life.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

When I feel overwhelmed, I immediately step back and reconnect with my core mission: the well-being of the children we serve. I take a moment to prioritize tasks based on urgency and impact, delegate effectively to my trusted team, and focus on one patient, one family, one solution at a time. This grounding in purpose and structured action helps me regain clarity and continue providing the care our community relies on.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

The single most impactful strategy has been building a business model centered on accessibility and trust rather than profit margins. By committing to accept all patients regardless of their insurance status and providing 24/7 telehealth, we removed the barriers that typically prevent families from seeking care, which naturally led to the growth of word-of-mouth and community trust that no marketing campaign could buy. This approach transformed our practice into a community resource rather than just a business, creating a loyal patient base that values our commitment to their children’s well-being above all else.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

We decided early on to take every patient who walked through the door, no matter their insurance situation or whether they could pay. On paper that looked like a bad idea, and honestly there were months where it felt like one. But something happened that we didn’t expect. Those patients became the most loyal people we’ve ever served. They told their families, their coworkers, their neighbors. They showed up for us because we showed up for them first.

When you take care of the people nobody else wants to take care of, you build a kind of trust that a competitor can’t just buy or copy. Ultimately, it creates a loyal community that refers others and supports your mission, making the business more sustainable. This approach works in any industry: Identify who is being underserved or excluded, and build your business around serving them exceptionally well.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I rely heavily on secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth and practice management platforms that integrate patient scheduling, electronic health records, and virtual care into a single system. By centralizing these critical functions, I can efficiently manage patient care, review medical histories, and conduct virtual visits from any location, ensuring that administrative burdens never interfere with my ability to serve children in need. This integration is essential for maintaining both productivity and the highest standards of patient privacy and care coordination.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

The best $100 I recently spent was on purchasing educational materials and toys for our clinic’s waiting area, specifically designed for children with developmental delays. This investment helps create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all of our young patients, while also providing valuable resources for parents to learn about developmental milestones. It’s a small cost that significantly enhances our ability to serve the community’s needs beyond just medical treatment.

Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?

I don’t rely on a specific book or podcast for my work, as the most valuable lessons come directly from listening to the families we serve and adapting to their real-world challenges. However, I find immense value in medical journals and public health reports that focus on pediatric disparities, as they provide the data-driven insights needed to advocate for policy changes and resource allocation for underserved communities. My “favorite” resource is the feedback from our patients and their families, which constantly guides how we improve our services to better meet their needs.

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

I don’t typically have time for movies or series, as my focus is on my practice and the well-being of my patients. However, I did recently watch a documentary on the global impact of infectious diseases, which reinforced the critical importance of public health infrastructure and vaccination programs. It was a powerful reminder of why our work in providing accessible care and education to every family is so vital to protecting our communities.

Key learnings

• Prioritizing accessibility over profit margins can create stronger community trust and support more sustainable business growth than traditional models.
• Building healthcare systems around serving the most vulnerable populations removes barriers that prevent families from seeking timely care.
• Sustainable growth in healthcare requires establishing robust support teams and operational infrastructure before expanding your services.
• Integrating technology like telehealth platforms can maintain care quality while removing geographical and financial barriers to treatment.
• Early intervention through regular well-child visits and developmental monitoring prevents more serious health issues and reduces long-term healthcare costs.