• Warren Buffett socked away $321 billion while waiting for stocks to crash like they did Thursday.
• The legendary investor specializes in buying cut-price assets during periods of market panic.
• Buffett gurus told BI the billionaire may wait for lower prices or a clearer outlook before buying.

Warren Buffett famously says to "be greedy when others are fearful" and "when it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble." The legendary bargain hunter has been waiting years for stocks to crash like they did on Thursday — but he might not be buying yet.

President Donald Trump's declaration of a near-universal 10% tariff on foreign goods, and even steeper import taxes for the "worst offenders" such as China, vaporized $2.4 trillion or nearly a Nvidia's worth of market value from the S&P 500 on Thursday. The benchmark stock index tumbled further on Friday.

Some of Buffett's favorite stocks got spanked with Apple, American Express, Bank of America, and Occidental Petroleum all tumbling more than 9%.

Buffett didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The downturn is likely to hearten the Berkshire Hathaway CEO, given he's a value investor who seeks to buy businesses at a discount to their worth. He's also known to capitalize on crises, for example when he deployed a full $26 billion across five deals between 2008 and 2009.

Buffett wrote in his 2017 shareholder letter that sharp sell-offs can create "extraordinary opportunities" for investors who heed poet Rudyard Kipling's words to "keep your head when all about you are losing theirs."

However, surging valuations have priced him out of buying stocks, acquiring businesses, and even repurchasing his own company's stock in recent years.

Buffett, 94, has also offloaded a net $158 billion of stocks over the past two calendar years. Berkshire's cash pile has roughly tripled from under $110 billion in September 2022 to $321 billion at the end of 2024 — that's bigger than Coca-Cola's market value.

Armed with an overflowing war chest, Buffett appears well-placed to wade into the market rout and scoop up stocks on the cheap. The internet certainly agrees — social media is rife with comments and memes about Buffett sitting pretty while markets are in chaos.

Wall Street has also rewarded Buffett's cash hoarding: Berkshire's stock price is up about 15% this year, trouncing the S&P's near-11% decline.

The share surge has added $23 billion to Buffett's personal fortune and vaulted him past the likes of LVMH's Bernard Arnault and Oracle's Larry Ellison into fourth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Yet the famously patient and disciplined investor might wait longer before pouncing.

"When prices fall, it certainly encourages Buffett to buy unless he views new permanent damage greater than the price discount," Steven Check told Business Insider. He oversees $2 billion of assets as the CEO of Check Capital Management and has attended every in-person Berkshire annual meeting since 1996.

Stocks may be cheaper than before, but Check said Buffett will likely "require a much larger drop to do significant buying."

Waiting game

Buffett's followers will likely have to wait until Berkshire's meeting in May or its second-quarter portfolio update in August to learn whether the investor topped up his holdings this week.

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University who's been teaching Buffett-style valuation to students for decades, told BI he's "watching his next move with the most careful and anxious attention" as it will "tell us a great deal about where he thinks the economy is going."

"If he plunges into the market and starts buying, it will signal that he believes the Trump tariffs were nothing more than a minor economic annoyance that created wonderful buying opportunities," he said. Hanke is a former economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan and was the president of Toronto Trust Argentina when it was the world's best-performing mutual fund in 1995.

If Buffett holds off, Hanke said it would suggest he's keeping in mind the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of March 1930, which "broke the back of the stock market, and helped to plunge the world into the Great Depression."

Hanke's "tentative guess" is that Buffett's knowledge of economic history will lead him to "remain on the sidelines, at least for a while" until the scope of what he's dealing with grows clearer.

If the frantic selling in markets continues, Buffett's moment might come sooner rather than later.

• Hedge funds are seeking out data to understand the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies.
• Data exchanges say requests for import-export info and Canada-specific data have skyrocketed.
• Funds, typically focused on a specific sector or stock, are looking for country-level data to forecast fallout.

The smart money is dumbfounded.

The most sophisticated investors in the world, members of the $4.5 trillion hedge fund industry, constantly scour the globe for new data to better inform their trading decisions and improve their models. But President Donald Trump's tariff policies, which sent global markets reeling Thursday, have them scrambling to find relevant info to help them understand just how devastating the policies might be to the global economy.

Data exchanges and consultancies told Business Insider that interest in country-level data has skyrocketed. Typically, firms are interested in datasets that can tell a story about a specific stock or sector, such as credit-card data on Amazon or e-commerce, but because of the widespread impact of the tariffs, hedge funds that specialize in various strategies — macro gamblers, fundamental stockpickers, quant traders, and more — are all on the hunt for this elusive data.

Matt Ober, a former data buyer for hedge funds such as Dan Loeb's Third Point and WorldQuant, who runs data marketplace Initial Data Offering, said interest in such datasets has "doubled or tripled" over the past few weeks.

Daryl Smith, the head of research for alternative data consultancy Neudata, said demand for Canada-specific data has skyrocketed due to the trade war between the country and the US. Because the tariffs will impact consumers worldwide, not just those in the US, Smith said funds are also seeking ways to track international buyers' habits and how they might change.

"Previously, the vast majority of consumer spending questions were about the US, but now people want that high-level data on all countries," he said.

The issue, though, is this data is not something many vendors have ever sold before, mostly because there wasn't enough interest in understanding the spending habits of the average Vietnamese or Canadian consumer. It's a callback to the GameStop saga of early 2021 when funds rushed to track the tickers being mentioned by retail investors on the Wall Street Bets subreddit who banded together and bought enough GameStop shares to put a short squeeze on Gabe Plotkin's Melvin Capital.

Sixteen months, several documentaries, and a congressional investigation later, Melvin shut down.

Compared to the meme stock mania, the tariffs pose a broader challenge for data-hungry funds. One data scientist at a large fund said firms are already reworking existing data feeds from credit-card receipts to get more country-specific perspectives. Ober mentioned vendor Dun & Bradstreet as a potential winner because of the company's supply chain and manufacturing data.

But anyone rushing to the space claiming they have the perfect product for the current volatility is likely exaggerating, another data buyer at a quant fund said. Funds need datasets with years of track record to backtest and prove their legitimacy.

The unprecedented nature of the tariffs means a legitimate track record will be hard to find.

"Unless someone has data on global trade in the 1920s, there's not going to be a silver bullet," the data buyer said, referring to the last time a US administration slapped such severe tariffs on its global trading partners.

• Hillwood Estate was the home of breakfast-cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post.
• She collected art from 18th-century France and imperial Russia for display in her 36-room mansion.
• Hillwood was her fall and spring home. She also built Mar-a-Lago and lived there during the winter.

Marjorie Merriweather Post was once known as America's richest woman, with an estimated net worth of $250 million, or around $1.8 billion today when adjusted for inflation.

Although she inherited her father's Post cereal fortune in 1914, Post also helped build the company into the General Foods Corporation by acquiring brands like Jell-O and Maxwell House. She also served on its board of directors.

With her success as a businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist, Post built homes to match her elite status.

In 1955, she purchased Hillwood Estate in Washington, DC, and renovated it into a 36-room, 26,000-square-foot mansion with a focus on entertaining and displaying her priceless art collections.

Post only lived at Hillwood during fall and spring. She spent winters at her Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, now owned by President Donald Trump, and summers at Camp Topridge in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

Access to Mar-a-Lago remains limited due to Trump's residence there, but Hillwood is a museum open to the public.

I visited Post's opulent home and its surrounding gardens in September 2024. Take a look inside.

Hillwood is a 36-room Georgian-style mansion located on a 25-acre estate in Washington, DC.

Hillwood's interiors and gardens first opened to the public in 1977, then reopened in 2000 after extensive renovations.

One adult ticket can be purchased with a $17 suggested donation on weekdays and $20 on weekends through Hillwood's official website.

Hillwood offers self-guided tours through its Hillwood app, as well as guided tours throughout the day.

Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune and known as America's richest woman, purchased Hillwood in 1955.

Post's father, CW Post, founded the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. When he died in 1914, Post, at 27, took ownership of the $20 million company. She helped grow the cereal company into the General Foods Corporation and served on its board for over 20 years, becoming one of the first women in America to serve on a corporate board of directors.

Post was married and divorced four times and had three children: Dina Merrill, Eleanor Post Hutton, and Adelaide Breevort Close. She bought Hillwood after divorcing her third husband, Joseph Edward Davies.

My tour of Hillwood began in the entry hall full of art from 18th-century France and imperial Russia, Post's two main areas of interest as a collector.

Portraits of the Romanovs, the Russian dynasty that ruled from 1613 to 1917, hung above the grand staircase, and a marble bust depicted the Duchesse de Châteauroux, one of King Louis XV's mistresses.

Post devoted entire rooms to her collection of French and Russian porcelain.

Post intended for Hillwood to become a museum open to the public, and had display cases built in almost every room on the first floor.

The French Drawing Room would not have looked out of place in the Gilded Age.

The room's gilded wood paneling and fireplace mantle came from King Louis XVI-era homes in Paris.

Post used the French Drawing Room as a reception area to greet guests as they arrived for her dinners and garden parties.

A hallway led into the Pavilion, Post's primary entertaining space where she hosted film screenings and square dances.

The Pavilion was equipped with a projector and sound system for movie screenings, and the walls were covered in velvet for better acoustics.

Post had trays added to the lilac sofas so that guests could enjoy drinks and snacks while watching movies such as "The Jungle Book."

Staff members served drinks in a wet bar located just outside the Pavilion.

The Pavilion also featured priceless works of art such as "A Boyar Wedding Feast" by Konstantin Makovsky.

Painted in 1883, "A Boyar Wedding Feast" is one of the most famous Russian paintings in existence. It depicts a wedding between two noble Russian families as it would have looked in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Icon Room displayed around 400 pieces of art connected to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Post called the Icon Room her "treasury."

The centerpieces of the Icon Room were two gold and diamond-encrusted eggs made by Fabergé, a jeweler catering to Russian imperial rulers.

Both eggs were gifts from Tsar Nicholas II to his mother, Maria Feodorovna.

Another notable piece was a Fabergé music box commissioned by Prince Feliks and Prince Nikolai Yusupov in 1907.

The Yusupov princes gifted the music box to their parents for their 25th anniversary. The building shown on the front is Moika Palace, best known as the site where Gregori Rasputin was killed in 1916.

The Library on the first floor evoked 18th-century England with pine paneling and a marble mantle.

Post used the Library as a smaller gathering space with friends or to read and relax on her own. A portrait of her father, CW Post, hung above the fireplace.

In the Dining Room, waiters would serve multiple courses at elaborate dinner parties.

The oak paneling on the walls in the Dining Room came from an 18th-century home in Paris, and the walls featured Dutch paintings of hunting scenes.

The dining room table, handcrafted in Italy with 11 semiprecious stones, was originally designed for Mar-a-Lago.

The table could seat over 30 people. A leaf from the table was displayed separately to allow visitors to get a closer look.

The table was set with Post's rare collection of 18th-century French porcelain.

The porcelain dishware was originally made in France for European aristocrats in the 1740s and later collected by wealthy art enthusiasts such as Post and the Rothschilds.

In a nook off the Dining Room, Post took meetings and business lunches as the majority shareholder of the General Foods Corporation.

While the enclave is called the Breakfast Room, Post usually ate lunch and dinner there.

The rest of the house was furnished with period decor, but the kitchen was state-of-the-art for the 1950s.

The kitchen didn't have a dishwasher because all of Post's dishes had to be washed by hand.

The butler's pantry was always stocked with General Foods brands such as Maxwell House coffee and Birds Eye frozen food.

The butler's pantry also featured a dumbwaiter for transporting Post's porcelain and glass dishware to and from storage in the basement.

Menus on display in the kitchen revealed what Post served for dinner.

Jell-O, a General Foods brand, made appearances at Post's dinner parties in the form of aspic rings and gelatinous salads, a popular food trend in the 1950s.

On my way upstairs, I noticed that the railing was covered in velvet, a luxurious feature I also saw when I toured a Vanderbilt mansion in New York.

The Vanderbilt family's 54-room mansion in Hyde Park, New York, also featured a grand staircase with a velvet-covered railing.

The first room at the top of the stairs was known as the Snooze Room.

True to its name, the Snooze Room included a daybed for midday naps.

The Snooze Room connected to the English Bedroom Suite through a doorway.

The English Bedroom, named for its 19th-century English furniture set, served as a guest room when Post's daughters visited Hillwood.

The Adam Bedroom Suite was named for its Adam style of decor featuring pastel colors and medallion designs.

The Adam style, popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was coined by Robert and James Adam, who were architects and designers from Scotland.

The Adam Bedroom Suite also functioned as a guest bedroom.

The second floor featured a library smaller than the one on the first floor, but decorated in a similar style with wood paneling and portraits.

The second-floor library housed a television, a touch of modernity amid the English country house aesthetic.

Post's bedroom was full of French furnishings and paintings of her children.

A display case held around 50 items made from bloodstone, Post's birthstone.

In the adjoining dressing room, Post would often attend to paperwork related to her role on the General Foods board or philanthropy.

"She took her various board duties seriously, and she planned her schedule, whenever possible, around those duties," Post's financial secretary, Betty Canella, said of her boss according to the audio tour.

Her bathroom was decorated with "Mamie pink," a color popularized by first lady Mamie Eisenhower in the 1950s.

Call buttons by the bathtub allowed Post to summon a maid, social secretary, or seamstress.

The hallway leading to Post's closet displayed pieces of her jewelry.

This platinum and diamond necklace was designed by jeweler Harry Winston.

The display also featured a diamond from an engagement ring given to her by Herbert May, her fourth husband, in 1958.

Diamond engagement rings were a relatively new phenomenon at the time — the De Beers advertising campaign that popularized diamonds in connection with engagements and weddings ran in the 1940s.

Post and May were married for six years, divorcing in 1964.

My final stop inside Hillwood was the Second Floor Gallery displaying particularly notable and valuable works from Post's art collection.

Among the gallery's many artifacts was the Buch Chalice commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1790. The gold goblet, used in religious rituals, featured 5,492 diamonds totaling 152.11 carats, according to Hillwood's official website.

There was much more to see outside the home with the estate's 25 acres of gardens.

The Hillwood app featured a separate self-guided tour just for the gardens.

The side of the house featured a French parterre, a formal garden design dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

The French Drawing Room inside led out into this garden, with the English ivy walls making it feel like another room. Paths of water called rills divided the space and led to a statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, on the other side.

The top of the Washington Monument was just visible through the trees on the Lunar Lawn in the back of the house.

The Lunar Lawn, named for its half-moon shape, was dotted with elms, false cypresses, and various flowers.

The Japanese-style garden was designed by landscape architect Shogo Myaida in 1957.

Visitors could step across the pool of water on a path of millstones.

The Greenhouse still housed Post's collection of tropical plants, including over 2,000 orchids.

The Greenhouse allowed Post to enjoy fresh flowers at Hillwood year-round. She even had fresh flowers shipped from Hillwood to Mar-a-Lago and Camp Topridge.

I noticed numerous butterflies as I walked around the grounds, likely attracted by the sweet floral smell of the property's many blossoms.

In addition to the Greenhouse, Hillwood also had a cutting garden that supplied seasonal floral arrangements.

My final stop was the Rose Garden, where Post's ashes were spread after her death in 1973.

Every year, on her birthday and death anniversary, Hillwood puts a bouquet of fresh flowers on the memorial in the Rose Garden. I visited on September 13, which happened to be the day after her death anniversary, so the flowers on the monument still appeared fresh.

Located just 5 miles from the heart of Washington, DC, Hillwood is an art museum and botanical garden wrapped up in one historic home.

It's not often that one gets to look inside the home of a modern businesswoman who was one America's wealthiest figures, but Post always intended for Hillwood to welcome members of the public.

She often hosted school groups and educational events during her lifetime to allow people to view her art collections, and her legacy continues today through the museum and gardens at Hillwood Estate.

• As a Costco employee of 19 years, I'm always looking for great new products at the store.
• This month, Costco is carrying delicious food items like the Kirkland Signature extra-crispy fries.
• I also think the Sunvilla outdoor chair is perfect for relaxing in the warmer weather.

I've been working at Costco for 19 years and am always on the hunt for exciting new products. This month, the warehouse is stocking its shelves with everything from tasty food items to chic home decor.

Here are eight products I recommend checking out at Costco this April.

Prices and product availability may vary by location.

I love making the Kirkland Signature extra-crispy fries in the air fryer.

The new Kirkland Signature extra-crispy french fries can be made in the oven, on the stovetop, or, my favorite method, in the air fryer.

At $5.70 for a 5-pound bag, I recommend grabbing a package at Costco.

The Sunvilla outdoor chair is perfect for spring.

With warmer weather approaching, I think the Sunvilla egg-style chair would make the perfect addition to any patio.

The cushions are made for outdoor use and have a special fabric that resists fading, mildew, and stains. The wicker is also made to withstand the elements.

This chic chair is available for $500 at my Costco location.

Kevin's Parmesan-basil chicken bowls are popular at my store.

When I started seeing more and more Kevin's Parmesan-basil chicken bowls in members' carts, I knew I had to try them.

The microwavable bowls contain chicken breast pieces in Parmesan sauce with broccoli and zucchini. It contains 34 grams of protein and keeps me full for a long time.

Each box comes with four single-serve bowls for $15.

Costco has Michelin wiper blades in a variety of sizes.

It's no secret that April can be rainy, so now is a great time to switch out your windshield wipers.

The Michelin wiper blades come in various sizes and are designed to last. These are available for $11 each at my store.

The Mission Hill Bistro sliced beef brisket makes dinner easy.

I love the tasty, sliced beef Brisket from Mission Hill Bistro. The best part is that it comes fully cooked and can be ready after just five minutes in the microwave.

This item is sold by the pound, so the price varies by weight.

These Bose earbuds also come with a $50 gift card.

The Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds have noise-cancellation technology and can hold a charge for up to six hours. They even come with a $50 gift card that can be used at the Apple or Google Play stores.

My Costco sells these Bose earbuds for $300.

Red's carne asada breakfast burritos are the perfect way to start the morning.

If you're looking for a good, hearty meal, you may want to try Red's carne asada breakfast burritos.

Each box contains 10 delicious burritos stuffed with carne asada, poblano peppers, and eggs. These can be found in the freezer section at Costco for $18.

Treat your furry friends with the Catry cat tree.

I recommend checking out the 5-foot Catry cat tree if you have cats at home. It has a cozy hammock, a washable bed, and toys to keep your cats happy. This item is available at my Costco for $90.

• As a lifelong New Yorker, I once judged people who left the city. Now, I happily live in Tennessee.
• We moved to a small town to save money for a bit, but our family is still happy here years later.
• I enjoy the peace and quiet of living in a small town, but I'm also not too far from Nashville.

I'm a proud third-generation New Yorker, and I never imagined leaving the city where everything seemed to be happening.

After all, where else could I survive as a multi-hyphenate playwright, performer, and chess teacher?

Whenever my friends moved out of the city, I'd secretly scoff and label their choice a failure while priding myself on being made of tougher stuff.

However, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and theaters, I couldn't pay my bills. At 38, I found myself unemployed and without a home.

Desperate, I applied to an artist residency on a donkey farm in a tiny town in rural Tennessee. I got it, and my plan was to save money, write my play, then return home to NYC in a few months.

However, I fell in love with my small town and completely upended my life to stay here with my husband and daughter. We're still happily here three years later.

I enjoy access to the outdoors but value my proximity to Nashville's thriving cultural scene

Our cost of living is far lower here than it ever was in New York City, which has been a huge perk.

My family lives in an off-grid cabin, where my husband and I caretake acres of land for our landladies in exchange for reduced rent. This helps us spend more time outside, plus tending to our garden is a fun, money-saving activity for the whole family.

I appreciate the independence and freedom that our proximity to the great outdoors gives our daughter, but as she grows older, I want to share parts of my culture that my mom did with my sister and me in New York City: visiting museums, bookstores, concerts, and theaters.

Fortunately, we live less than two hours from Nashville, and its major art scene and big-city offerings give me peace of mind and are fun to dive into when I'm missing home.

I realized I prefer living in a smaller place with fewer choices instead of a big one with too many. I don't miss the intrusive, constant bombardment of digital advertisements on everything from moving vehicles to bus stops, either.

Here, I experience less decision fatigue and stimulation, which gives me more cognitive power to be present with my family and build my artistic career.

We've made the best of the downsides of living here, too

Some parts of living in a more remote, small town have been difficult to adjust to.

We can't get a pizza delivered to our cabin in the woods. However, on the plus side, I've discovered I love cooking, and so does my daughter.

I miss living in a walkable city, but I've learned how to drive. We don't have many child-friendly activities nearby — most gymnastics, music, and art classes are a 40-minute drive from us — but we have lots of space to create fun. My husband built a giant wooden obstacle course for our daughter in our spacious front yard.

Finding good work opportunities locally has been especially difficult, but this only inspired me to create my own. A little over a year ago, I opened a grant-consulting business and began writing freelance stories.

Each day, I now "commute" to my she-shed my husband built just steps from our cabin. No trains or buses in sight.

I'm grateful we jumped outside our comfort zone to make such a big move

I often miss the easy unfettered access to live music, comedy shows, museums, theater, restaurants, and dance classes in NYC.

However, each day here is filled with its own adventures — handling rattlesnakes, felling falling trees, rescuing dogs, creating irrigation projects for excess rain.

Although I doubt I would've made this change if the pandemic hadn't forced me into a difficult position, I'm glad I embraced this new chapter.

It's allowed me to keep growing and taught me about what truly matters: spending time surrounded by people I love and creating art in a natural setting.

I'm sure some New Yorkers reading this will think I just "can't hack it" in the city — and they're right! However, I see now that the secret to living a fuller life was just outside my comfort zone.

I'm grateful for my time in the city, but I'll happily take mornings seated on our hilltop watching the sunrise over ones spent fighting for a seat on the "R" train.

• Salim Elhila is a cofounder and CEO based in Dubai.
• He and his cofounder try to optimize every minute of their day.
• They work with more than 10 professionals to help them be their best.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Salim Elhila, cofounder of Decentralized Masters. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I run a multimillion-dollar crypto business with my co-founder and best friend, Tan Gera. Last year, we generated more than $30 million in revenue worldwide. To run a company of that magnitude efficiently, Tan and I try to optimize every minute of our day.

To do that, we hire many professionals to help with both our personal and professional lives, most of whom work with both of us. On the business side, we've hired the kind of people you might expect, like personal assistants and mentors. We also have cleaners and a chef, plus a wide-ranging team that helps us look after our personal health on a spiritual, physical, and emotional level.

This is expensive. I spend $10,000 to $20,000 a month on these professionals. But doing so also allows me to generate more income through my company. The expense is worth it not only financially but also for my physical and mental health and well-being.

The Japanese concept of ikigai guided me to follow my passion

A few years ago, I learned about the Japanese concept of ikigai. The term refers to a passion that brings value and joy to a person's life. Essentially, it gives you something to live for. Following the concept of ikigai means spending the most amount of time on the tasks you love, that you're best at, that you can be paid well for, and that the world needs.

I use this idea to guide my day. I try to spend most of my time working toward my ikigai — for me, my passion is our business and also producing music. To spend more time in my ikigai, I outsource other tasks.

I'm also guided by how we gain knowledge. We can learn from our own mistakes, but that's sometimes painful and leaves you with a scar. Or, you can learn from the experience of others. That's often quicker and won't leave you hurt. That's why I hire professionals who know more than me about their areas of expertise.

We outsource home tasks and bring experts into the business

Many of the professionals Tan and I hire to optimize our lives allow us to spend more time doing what we truly love. We hire people to clean, grocery shop, and cook for us. I can cook, but it's not something I enjoy. My personal chef was one of my first hires. He prepares all my meals and snacks.

I also have a personal assistant who handles my schedules and all my personal and business obligations. On the business front, we've hired experts, mentors, and analysts with whom we meet each Friday. Tan and I are leading experts in our field, but having perspectives from other people is important.

We have a whole team looking after our health

We also invest a lot in our health. For 10 years, I worked out on my own. My ego told me I knew everything I needed. Then, three years ago, I hired a fitness coach. I made more progress in those three years than I had in the previous decade. I realized I don't know what I don't know. Now, Tan and I each work out separately with our personal trainer 5-6 days a week.

In addition to a fitness coach, I have a stretching coach who comes to my apartment two times a week in the morning. Waking up with a guided stretching routine is one of the moments I feel most grateful for the life I've created.

My most recent hire is a breath work coach. He's a somatic healer, and he's been life-changing. He uses a combination of massage and breath work to help process trauma and let go of stress and ego. I see him once a week.

We also have a physiotherapist, massage therapist, chiropractor, and osteopath on call. I have a boxing coach who I see occasionally, though not too much at the moment.

My system is unusual, but I love it

I think about not only optimizing my time, but also my energy. I start my day with the tasks that are most important. Most mornings that means stretching on the beach near my home, then doing 4-5 hours of deep focus work with Tan in my apartment. We both wear noise-canceling headphones playing binaural beats to help us focus.

The chef brings us lunch, and then Tan and I each have a workout session. In the afternoon, we have meetings and try to finish work by 7 or 8 p.m. Then we have downtime, dinner, and hit the spa or sauna.

Tan and I know we're not living a typical life. It's very structured and optimized, not to mention costly. But we love this system, and it allows us to be at our best to operate a global company. We want to make sure every moment is used the right way, and spending on that is a good investment.

• Regina Lawless met her husband at 18 and was with him for 21 years.
• He died from a heart attack when Regina was 40 and their son was 15.
• Regina found love again later that year and is now engaged.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Regina Lawless, author of "Do You." It has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband Al and I were pioneers in online dating. We met in a Yahoo chat room back in 1999. My username included the word "heaven," and Al sent me a chat saying, "Is there any room in heaven for me?"

I was only 18, so I liked Al's cheesy pickup line. Soon, I realized we had a lot in common. I had recently graduated from high school and enlisted in the Army Reserve. Al was five years older than me and had just returned from four years of active duty with the Navy. He gave me tips on how to survive boot camp.

I was attracted to Al's worldliness and his humor. Once we met in person, there was a magnetic pull between us. We got married five years after we met, and our son, Morgan, was born the year after that.

At first, Al was the breadwinner, but my salary soon eclipsed his

Al worked in manufacturing. At the beginning of our relationship, I was still putting myself through college. He helped support me financially and emotionally.

Over our marriage, our financial dynamic changed. I got my master's degree and began working in corporate jobs, eventually becoming the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Lead at Instagram. My income jumped, while he stayed pretty much the same.

That never bothered Al. He didn't feel less fortunate because he wasn't the breadwinner. Although, the more I made the more he spent. The man loved sneakers and eating out.

Al was having a heart attack, but we didn't realize

In May 2021, Al and I went on a date. When we got home, he wasn't feeling well. That wasn't too unusual. He was diabetic and had experienced pretty severe indigestion in the past.

The next day, he looked really bad. I called urgent care, and they told me to hang up and call 911. I followed the ambulance to the ER, where the doctor said, "Did you know your husband was having a heart attack?" That completely floored me.

The doctors told me to call my family because Al might not make it through the night. I went to see him in the operating room. As I walked out, I collapsed. My parents had to pick me up off the floor. Shortly after, Al died.

I was in a daze until I went away for 3 days to grieve

The next few weeks were a daze. I held Al's funeral on what would have been his 46th birthday. I was surrounded by family, but I didn't feel like I could grieve with everyone else around. I was also struggling with panic attacks.

About a month after Al passed, my sister moved in. She provided some normality to our house. We celebrated Morgan's 16th birthday and tried to make it feel as normal as possible. Once I got through that, I knew I needed time for myself. I spent three days in a hotel, finally taking the time to process my loss.

I'm getting married later this year

I was with Al for 21 years, more than half my life at that point. I thought I'd meet someone else eventually, but probably not until I was in a nursing home.

Yet, that December, about seven months after Al died, I went out with friends. Something told me to take off my wedding ring. That night, I met Jeffrey, who is now my fiancé. When he first touched my hand, I felt a jolt. He was so compassionate about me being a widow but didn't treat me like I needed to be tip-toed around.

Still, I felt guilty. I worried about what people would think and that I was betraying Al's memory. Then, my therapist said, "What would Al want?" I knew he would want me to be happy because we'd had those conversations.

Jeffrey proposed to me in 2024, and we're getting married this October. I know I can honor my love for Al while allowing new things to flower. With time, therapy, and a lot of self-work, I've been able to open myself up to the universe. I've continually chosen to stay open, even when it feels scary. That has allowed me to love again.

• Andrew Ng said that "lazy prompting" can be an efficient way to use AI — in some scenarios.
• Lazy prompting entails giving minimal context to large language models.
• It's the latest in a line of AI techniques, like vibe coding, that's transforming software development.

Sometimes, it's OK to be lazy with your AI prompts thanks to models becoming smarter, the Stanford professor and former Google Brain scientist Andrew Ng has said.

Standard prompting advice is to give large language models, or LLMs, a lot of context and specific instructions for a query.

But Ng said in an X post that "lazy prompting" — when users put information into a model with little context or without explicit instructions — could, in some cases, be a better strategy.

"We add details to the prompt only when they are needed," he said Thursday.

He pointed to developers using LLMs to debug code as an example.

"When debugging code, many developers copy-paste error messages — sometimes pages of them — into an LLM without further instructions," Ng wrote. "Most LLMs are smart enough to figure out that you want them to help understand and propose fixes, so you don't need to explicitly tell them."

The idea is that the LLM can then detect a buggy implementation and quickly provide a good solution without much context.

Developers of foundational models are scrambling to make LLMs more inferential, which means the models go beyond producing output and begin to "reason" and gauge the intent of the prompt.

Ng said that lazy prompting is an "advanced" technique that works best when the LLM has enough preexisting context — and an ability to infer intent. It would only work when users can "iterate quickly using an LLM's web or app interface," he added.

It's not useful if the LLM needs a lot of context to provide a detailed response or if the model is unable to detect hidden bugs or errors, he said.

AI is fast transforming how people code and interact with software. Vibe coding — when people give natural language instructions to AI to write code — has recently swept Silicon Valley and beyond.

Last week, Ng launched a "Vibe Coding 101" short course for newbies who want to learn how to use generative AI tools to write and manage code.

• The US economy added 228,000 jobs in March, exceeding the forecast.
• The unemployment rate surprisingly increased to 4.2%.
• Confidence in the job market and the economy has fallen.

The US economy added 228,000 jobs in March, far surpassing the forecast, and unemployment unexpectedly jumped.

Job growth was expected to be 137,000, and the unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 4.1%. Unemployment instead rose to 4.2%, and has consistently been at least 4% for almost a year.

February's job growth was revised from 151,000 to 117,000, and January's job growth was revised from 125,000 to 111,000. Together, that's a revision of 48,000 fewer jobs.

Federal government employment fell by 4,000 in March. DOGE and its unofficial leader Elon Musk have pushed for large-scale federal employment cuts, with a wave of terminations for probationary workers, who were in their roles for only a short period of time, coming in February and early March.

However, a court ruling put a hold on many of those cuts, and the bulk of those workers remain in legal limbo.

Agencies have begun developing more extensive plans to reduce the size of their workforces. Thousands of workers at agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services are expected to see their jobs cut; terminations started Tuesday.

Workers at other agencies are bracing for what's next. Federal government cuts will likely affect the overall job counts in future releases.

The new jobs report also showed wage growth cooled based on year-over-year changes. Average hourly earnings increased from $34.67 in March 2024 to $36 this past month. That 3.8% rise is a slower increase than the 4% year-over-year rise in February.

Amid the rise in unemployment, labor force participation, which includes people working or actively looking for work, increased from 62.4% in February to 62.5% in March.

Americans have been losing confidence in the US economy, adding to an emerging vibecession amid a cooling but still fairly strong labor market.

University of Michigan data shows consumer sentiment has declined for the year's first three months. The Conference Board's Present Situation Index, which is based on what people think about business and job market conditions, took a hit, data up to March shows. Consumers aren't feeling great about what's to come, either.

"Consumers' expectations were especially gloomy, with pessimism about future business conditions deepening and confidence about future employment prospects falling to a 12-year low," Stephanie Guichard, senior economist for global indicators at The Conference Board, said.

The Federal Reserve uses labor market data as a key input for its interest rate decisions. Fed chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference on March 19 after the Federal Open Market Committee decided to hold interest rates steady that unemployment "remains low and has held in a narrow range for the past year," and wage growth is surpassing inflation.

The next scheduled interest rate decision is in May, meaning plenty more data about economic activity will be available before the Committee makes its next call.

CME FedWatch, which estimates the likelihood of future Fed moves based on market trades, shows the chance of rates holding steady or being cut in May is roughly a coin toss. Chances of the Fed holding rose slightly after the report, from about 56% to about 61%.

Powell said in the March press conference after the interest rate decision that the administration is making big changes to trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation and is uncertain about what this will mean for the economy. Trump announced on April 2 his latest tariff plans, which could mean consumers could soon face higher prices.

"We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance, and we are well-positioned to wait for greater clarity," Powell said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• At the end of 2023, I decided to travel around Europe to find a new place to call home.
• I visited cities in Spain, Greece, and the UK before settling in the perfect spot.
• I've now been living in London for a few months, and couldn't be happier with my move.

By the time I turned 18, I'd lived in four different countries — England, Kuwait, China, and the United Arab Emirates.

Sparked by my desire to live in one place — and the draw of reasonable university fees — I moved to my "home country" of the Netherlands, where my parents were from but I'd never lived before.

For almost 10 years, I lived there and ignored the growing sense of restlessness within me. However, I couldn't say I was truly happy.

Knowing it was time for a change, I decided to start thinking about moving somewhere else.

So, at the end of 2023, I gave up my apartment, stored my belongings in my mom's basement, and decided to travel the world to find my new home.

I started my journey in Spain

My first stop was Xàbia, Spain, a coastal town where I spent five weeks petsitting a red lab in a stunning house overlooking the ocean.

Here, I saw what it would be like to live somewhere I could spend my weekends at the beach or hiking.

I loved being in a place with an abundance of sunshine, but ultimately, it didn't feel like home. So, I decided to move on to my next destination.

Next, I spent two weeks in Belfast

I had never visited Northern Ireland before, and I immediately fell in love with the country's dynamic energy. I loved the comedy clubs, cozy pubs, and history lining the streets.

However, I felt like something was missing, and didn't find enough variety in the restaurant scene to satisfy my cravings. So, I continued my search.

I headed to Kythira, an island in Greece

Every year, my friends and I take a two-week vacation to a different Greek island.

So, when we traveled to Kythira, I was curious to see if it was a place I'd want to call home.

I pictured spending a year on the sandy beaches with the sun shining down on me. After a long day of work, I could even take a dip in the ocean.

However, after talking to locals, I learned the island was pretty empty outside the summer season. So, I realized I'd always be chasing that summer holiday feeling.

After struggling to find a place that felt like home, I decided to return to the country I was born in

After several misses, I decided to try England, the place where I was born and lived until I was three. However, I'd only visited a few times in the years since.

I spent three weeks dogsitting in a small village in Bedfordshire, which is north of London. The idyllic countryside beckoned me, with long walks in the forest, Sunday roasts in the same pub, and evenings spent reading in the garden.

I yearned for this tranquil existence, but recognized it wasn't time for me to live this type of lifestyle yet. With my isolating work and single status, finding my people in such a small village would be hard.

So, I decided to try two weeks in Cambridge, a city I'd heard so much about. I loved working in various cafes, visiting museums on weekends, and meeting people my age.

However, Cambridge is a student city at its core, which didn't feel right for where I was at during this part of my life.

I finally ended up settling in the perfect city

Finally, I spent a month in London when my sister asked me to watch her pomsky.

I assumed the expensive, busy, and overwhelmingly gray city wasn't for me based on previous short visits. However, during this trip I got to see another side of London.

I loved the large parks that made me forget I was in a city, the dazzling theater scene, and the cozy cafés where I could type away without feeling lonely.

I grabbed coffee with fellow journalists I met online and recognized a potential community. Because London is a highly populated city, I felt like I had the best chance of finding my tribe — something I'd been missing for the past few years.

After a few months in London, I couldn't be happier

I've been in London for a few months now, and still feel like I'm trying to find my feet. However, I'm slowly building a community and even reached out to high school friends who ended up in London after university.

I always visit the same local café, where I sit with my laptop and a dirty chai at least twice a week. I avoid crowded areas like Soho and Liverpool Street and push myself to visit a large park every weekend.

Sometimes, I feel like Carrie from "Sex and the City," and other times, I feel far less glamorous and far more cold.

I didn't think I could be happy in such a busy and urban setting, but I've loved carving out my piece of the city, and I plan to keep doing so.

• A Virgin Atlantic flight diverted halfway through its journey from London to Mumbai.
• The Airbus A350 landed at an airport in Turkey and didn't take off for another 40 hours.
• Passengers spent the first night in the departure lounge before hotels could be arranged.

Airline passengers have been delayed nearly two days after a medical emergency forced an unexpected stopover.

Virgin Atlantic Flight 358 took off from London Heathrow Airport at midday Wednesday and was scheduled to land in Mumbai around nine hours later.

However, data from Flightradar24 shows the Airbus A350 turned around over Turkey four hours into the journey.

It diverted to Diyarbakır Airport, which is also used as a military base and doesn't usually accommodate large, wide-body planes like the A350.

The airport is around 2,300 miles as the crow flies from Mumbai and 2,100 miles from London.

An airline spokesperson told Business Insider that one of the passengers was severely unwell and was helped by local medical teams after leaving the plane.

The A350 also required technical inspections, which appear to have exacerbated the delay.

Some passengers took to X to complain about the ordeal, sharing a video of the disgruntled crowd.

One user said that 12 hours after landing, passengers were yet to receive "proper food or accommodation."

In an X post, the airline said customers had to stay in the departure lounge overnight because it was outside the airport's operating hours — while refreshments, including water, were provided.

There were also difficulties with immigration requirements before airport authorities "made an exception to allow passengers to leave the airport temporarily," another post from the airline said.

"The majority of our customers were provided with overnight hotel accommodation ahead of their onward journey today," the Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told BI Friday. "We'd like to sincerely apologize for the delay and any inconvenience caused."

They added that, after receiving the necessary technical approvals, the flight was set to continue at noon local time on Friday — almost 41 hours after landing in Diyarbakır.

The Airbus A350 is scheduled to land in Mumbai at 8:30 p.m. local time Friday.

• Beast Industries generated $473 million in revenue in 2024 and expects to about double that in 2025.
• MrBeast said of his net worth that he's a billionaire on paper but has under $1 million in the bank.
• Jimmy Donaldson's company is eyeing expansions in media, CPGs, and software, per a pitch deck.

MrBeast has shaped the creator economy more than any other YouTuber, with mind-bending competitions and gargantuan cash giveaways that have yielded a multifaceted business known as Beast Industries.

MrBeast — whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson — solidified his status as YouTube's most-subscribed creator with videos like "$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!" He is now looking to expand his business across three overarching categories: media, consumer product goods, and software.

Business Insider gained insight into Beast Industries' portfolio and future aspirations through a February 2025 pitch deck sent to prospective investors.

A representative for MrBeast did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Beast Industries' media segment refers to the 26-year-old's YouTube presence and his hit Amazon Prime show, "Beast Games." His CPG business includes chocolate company Feastables, the packaged food brand Lunchly, and a collectible action figure line dubbed MrBeast Lab. On the software front, Donaldson operates Viewstats, a social media analytics platform for fellow creators.

In 2024, Beast Industries "generated $473 million in revenue" — marking 114% year-over-year growth compared to revenue of $221 million in 2023, according to the deck. The company is forecasting revenue of $899 million in 2025.

Donaldson tends to reinvest his earnings in his businesses. MrBeast's net worth is unknown, but he said in a February 2025 interview on the "Diary Of A CEO" podcast that while he's a billionaire on paper, he has less than $1 million in his bank account. That implies that MrBeast's stake in Beast Industries comprises much of his net worth.

Bloomberg reported in February that Beast Industries was raising money at a $5 billion valuation.

Here's a closer look at the inner workings of Donaldson's burgeoning business empire.

How MrBeast got rich

Donaldson posted his first YouTube video in 2012. He now has over 380 million YouTube subscribers and, according to the pitch deck, clocked an average of 3 billion views a month. His viewership spans the globe, with 70% hailing from outside the US, he said in a March 2025 interview on the Colin and Samir YouTube channel. Accordingly, his content is dubbed into more than 40 languages.

On YouTube, creators typically make money from the ad revenue-sharing program AdSense and through brand deals. Donaldson's videos have featured integrations from brands like Yahoo Sports, Samsung, and Shopify.

In total, Donaldson's media business — including his high-budget YouTube channel as well as his Amazon series — accounted for $226 million in revenue in 2024, per the deck.

Donaldson's 10-episode "Beast Games" deal was valued at $100 million, according to the deck. The show marked Prime's biggest unscripted series launch ever, despite the fact that the production faced criticism over its safety protocols and a spate of negative press.

And at the end of the day, the show wasn't a moneymaker for the YouTuber, who said he was out tens of millions of dollars from his own pockets due to the show's costs.

MrBeast's growing business empire

Beyond YouTube, Donaldson has had varying success in the food business. MrBeast Burger, a ghost kitchen company with which he's no longer involved, spawned a legal battle with his partner in the venture, Virtual Dining Concepts.

Elsewhere, Feastables — a chocolate company that emphasizes ethical sourcing practices — appears to be thriving. It drove $215 million in net revenue in 2024, up from $96 million in 2023, per the deck. Donaldson is exploring expansions into milk and ice cream under the Feastables moniker.

Donaldson's toy business, MrBeast Lab, drove $65 million in net sales within its six months of launching, according to the pitch deck.

And he collaborated with YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI on Lunchly. The packaged lunches generated $5 million in sales in their first 11 weeks on shelves, and the brand is set to expand into 13 additional national retailers in June 2025.

MrBeast's philanthropy, investments

Philanthropy has also been a key component of Donaldson's content ethos, though those efforts have sometimes garnered controversy for MrBeast.

A separate YouTube channel exclusively dedicated to MrBeast's charity work counts over 27 million subscribers.

Previous social media-fueled charity campaigns to plant more trees and clean the oceans — dubbed #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas — raised $22 million and $32 million, respectively, according to the deck.

MrBeast's business future

Donaldson has big ambitions for Beast Industries' future: by 2029, the company is forecasting revenue of $4.8 billion.

In media, Donaldson is exploring ways to be off-camera, according to the pitch deck, including with animation. An in-house writers' room — with backgrounds in novels, gaming, comics, TV, and film — is also developing "Beast Universe" IP for licensing across toys, gaming, comics, and merch.

In the CPG space, Donaldson is exploring new product launches in three categories: health and wellness (such as vitamins, electrolytes, and protein powder), personal care (soap, lotion, creams, and ointments), and beverages.

Donaldson is also forecasting big gains for Feastables — to the tune of $375 million in net revenue in 2025.

On the software front, the deck said Donaldson is exploring a video game platform, a loyalty program offering early video access and exclusive content to subscribers, a creator platform to help other YouTubers replicate his success, and a fintech offering dubbed Beast Financial.

• AppLovin confirmed a preliminary bid in an SEC filing to buy TikTok's business outside China.
• China's ByteDance faces a Saturday deadline to divest TikTok's US operations.
• AppLovin joins a long list of suitors who have put in last-minute bids.

Adtech company AppLovin has submitted a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok's operations outside China, joining a crowded list of suitors a day before a US TikTok ban is set to take effect.

AppLovin confirmed it submitted a preliminary "indication of interest" to President Donald Trump in a Thursday SEC filing.

The company, which helps developers market and advertise their apps, said in the filing that "there can be no assurance" that a transaction involving TikTok would proceed.

It's unclear exactly how AppLovin would finance or structure a deal, given TikTok's vast scale. TikTok's US operations are estimated to have a sale value of $40 billion to $50 billion.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has previously suggested TikTok's global valuation could exceed $100 billion, potentially reaching $200 billion if its algorithm is included in the calculation. AppLovin has a market capitalization of just over $89 billion.

The bid places AppLovin among a growing list of late-stage suitors vying for TikTok as US lawmakers push for the app's separation from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

This week, Amazon put in a last-minute bid to buy TikTok, The New York Times reported. And on Wednesday, Reuters reported that a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely had submitted an intent to bid on TikTok.

They add to a flurry of other names that have been linked to buying TikTok.

Oracle has emerged as a leading contender, according to multiple reports, with a deal reportedly involving oversight of TikTok's US user data.

The YouTuber MrBeast said in January that he was part of a group making an all-cash offer for TikTok's US operations.

Other parties linked to a TikTok deal include Microsoft, Walmart, video-sharing platform Rumble, and AI startup Perplexity.

TikTok's future in the US has been uncertain since April 2024, when Congress mandated ByteDance divest TikTok's US business or face a nationwide ban. After taking office in January, Trump extended that deadline by 75 days.

The White House has been directly involved in deal talks as national security concerns remain central to negotiations.

On Wednesday, Trump introduced an effective 54% tariff rate on Chinese imports. The president told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday it gives the US "great power" to negotiate and a potential bargaining chip in a TikTok deal. On Friday, China announced a 34% tariff on all products imported from the US.

• Trump's new tariffs give China room to play the foil to the US and bolster its hold on a region it values.
• Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar hold great strategic value for China as it seeks to expand its influence.
• On Friday, China responded to Trump's tariffs with a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the US.

President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are expected to cut deep against both friend and foe, but several of the nations that stand to suffer the most are right on China's doorstep.

Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are on track to face tariff rates of 49%, 48%, and 44%, respectively.

All three have maintained close economic and political ties with China. Only a handful of other nations have to deal with a higher or equal level of import taxes, including Lesotho (50%), Madagascar (47%), and Vietnam (46%).

China itself must contend with a total US tariff rate of 54% — the highest out of anywhere in the world. But China's response was swift: On Friday, Beijing retaliated against Trump's tariffs with a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the US.

Analysts and researchers who study the area told Business Insider the tariffs would probably push China's allies closer to Beijing, giving China's leader, Xi Jinping, an opportunity to strengthen his hold on a region that his country greatly values.

"Strategically, the US is now handing a victory to China in the US-China competition," said Vina Nadjibulla, the vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

"If the US is preoccupied with competing with China, it is ceding ground and losing influence by essentially making China the only possible alternative for many of these economies," she added.

The White House, US Treasury Department, and US State Department didn't respond to requests for comment for this story.

Is Trump punishing ties to China?

Some analysts think it's unlikely that close relationships with China had anything to do with the tariffs.

"Traditional US allies such as the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and even Australia were all subject to these tariffs," noted Baogang He, a professor of international relations at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

Trump's rates appear to be tied to US trade deficits with each country, though the president has characterized the tariffs as reciprocal to taxes imposed by those nations.

"The rates are all about trade deficits," said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security who studies the US-China relationship.

Cambodia's export surplus to the US is worth $12.34 billion, Laos' is worth $760 million, and Myanmar's is worth $580 million.

On the other hand, Ian Bremmer, the founder and president of Eurasia Group, said at the World Economic Forum in January that he foresaw Trump targeting China through third-party countries that Beijing was using to manufacture goods to be shipped to the US.

"The only way the Chinese economy is succeeding right now is through their $1 trillion export surplus," Bremmer said at the time. "And so you see Trump and his team focusing a lot on Mexico, and India, and Vietnam. The other conversations they are having bilaterally, one of the top priorities is squeeze China coming in. That's very hard for China to respond to."

Bremmer told BI on Thursday that he stood by his earlier comments.

"Absolutely. And the Chinese government has felt the same way about the United States pushing Mexico hard on getting Chinese pass-through trade out of the economy," Bremmer said.

Countries such as Mexico, Cambodia, and Vietnam have been key players in a manufacturing network known as "China+1," which emerged in response to Trump's restrictions on Chinese exports during his first administration.

To circumvent those measures, Chinese firms diversified their supply chains by sending raw materials to friendly countries and having the host nations manufacture products instead. The goods could then be exported to the US at lower costs.

China+1 at risk

Trump's tariffs will most likely stifle China+1 among Beijing's close allies.

Cambodia, for example, relies largely on China+1 for its exports of clothing, sporting goods, luggage, and other products.

"Cambodia has no raw materials. All the raw materials, the supplies have to come from mainly China, even buttons or threads," said Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian minister who works in exile because of her criticism of the incumbent government.

"In a week from now, if Cambodia cannot negotiate to have the tariffs go down significantly, there will be an immediate economic crisis," she added. She added that if factories there shut down or paused production, more than a million factory workers could lose their livelihoods.

Vietnam, a major base for making Chinese-partnered goods, is likely to try negotiating its 46% tariff with the US. Hanoi has asked Washington to pause the taxes and come to the table, and Trump has said he's open to discussion on his tariffs.

Beijing's opportunity

Vietnam balances its ties more evenly with the US and China, and its relationship with Beijing suffers from disputes over the South China Sea.

Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are far deeper in China's camp.

China works closely with Myanmar's ruling junta and opposing rebel factions to maintain access to vast rare earth mineral reserves in the country's north. Myanmar is also a geographical barrier between southern China and the Indian Ocean.

The Trump administration has shown little interest in extending influence over Myanmar. The US was absent from the list of parties sending aid to the country after a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar on March 28.

Meanwhile, Cambodia's southern coast hosts a naval base built by China — an important facility that would extend Beijing's reach into Southeast Asia and on Taiwan's flank.

Hun Sen, Cambodia's long-ruling and iron-fisted former prime minister, also enjoys close personal ties with Beijing. The country's foreign ministry didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

Kilcrease of CNAS said the incentives for China's allies to look to Beijing were already shaping up on paper.

"We did some back-of-the-envelope math, and it appears that most countries in the world now face a higher tariff rate from the US than from China," she said. "So, yes, there is a significant risk that these countries move closer to China."

Beijing is also generally well-received in Southeast Asia, said Kristina Fong, a lead researcher on the region's economic affairs at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

She cited a study of attitudes among more than 2,000 Southeast Asians conducted by her institute in early 2025.

"56.4% of Southeast Asian respondents cited China as Southeast Asia's most influential economic power. China was the choice for all ASEAN countries," Fong said.

The ball is in China's court

In the interim, the ball is in Beijing's court, said Austin Strange, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of politics and public administration.

"China's government, at least in the short term, can make public relations gains — just as in other areas of foreign policy, such as international development — by presenting itself as a stable, reliable partner amid US foreign policy upheaval," he said.

Beijing's state media reported last weekend that its authorities agreed with South Korea and Japan to issue a joint response to any US tariffs. Buy Tokyo has said its leaders simply met to share views. Seoul said reports of a team-up were "somewhat exaggerated."

"But I expect China and other economies to continue to find workarounds," Strange added. "They have, after all, had months if not longer to prepare, as Trump has consistently pledged to levy sweeping tariffs."

Correction: April 4, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the tariff rate given to Myanmar. It was 44%, not 45%.

• For my family's first trip to Disney World, we splurged on all-inclusive packages and extras.
• We thought doing this would prevent us from having more arguments about spending.
• Instead, my husband and I acted like monsters, obsessed with getting our money's worth on the trip.

Money has always been a minefield in my marriage.

My husband compares prices on toothpaste and won't toss a tube until every last drop has been squeezed from its lifeless body. I, on the other hand, operate on, ahem, vibes.

This difference in spending styles is especially pronounced when we travel. On vacation, I don't want to agonize over whether a $17 cocktail is worth it — I just want a lychee martini in my bloodstream as soon as possible.

And, more often than not, instead of having honest discussions about vacation spending, my husband and I just avoid them.

So when we planned our first-ever Disney World trip over February break, we thought we had cracked the code: Go all-inclusive.

We booked a room at Disney's Contemporary Resort and opted for the Disney Dining Plan. The idea was that if everything was prepaid, there'd be no decisions left to argue about.

Going all-inclusive quickly turned us into theme-park economists

At first, our plan totally worked! We tapped our MagicBands without a second thought to bickering over $12 Mickey-shaped pretzels.

When our 3-year-old had a full-scale meltdown at Chef Mickey's character dinner, we didn't feel the sting of wasted money — we just laughed and accepted that oversized cartoon heads on human bodies are, objectively, the stuff of nightmares.

But while the all-inclusive plan helped us avoid fights, it also unleashed something unexpected: the unrelenting need to maximize.

Suddenly, we weren't just skipping the money bickering — we were fully committed to extracting every ounce of value from our prepaid adventure.

This is how we found ourselves at 7 p.m., dragging two very sleepy children back into Magic Kingdom because, dammit, we paid for those full-day passes.

That's also how we ended up on The Little Mermaid ride, each adult cradling a completely unconscious child, whispering to ourselves, "This is the magic."

By day two, our warped logic had fully taken over. Did we need to be there for rope-drop at Epcot after staying out late for the Magic Kindom fireworks? No. But we could, and it was included, so we must.

Ironically, the very thing meant to reduce stress drove us into full-blown vacation optimization mode.

Fortunately, there are ways to find the sweet spot for sanity

By the time we left, my husband and I were both relieved and deeply aware of our own absurdity.

Yes, the all-inclusive plan helped us avoid our usual debates over spending, but it also made us act like we were strategizing for a corporate retreat rather than enjoying a vacation.

If you and your partner approach spending differently, especially on vacations, here are a few things I've learned:

Agree to a budget ahead of time — but allow some flexibility

Before you book anything, have the hard conversations upfront and decide on a spending plan together.

If one person needs a clear budget to feel comfortable, set that one in advance. If the other (hi, it's me) wants some spontaneity, build in a little wiggle room for guilt-free indulgence.

For example, next time, we'll establish some "no-questions-asked" splurge zones so our family can chug every mug of LeFou's Brew at Gaston's Pub without thinking too much about how it's basically just apple juice with a lot of ice.

Give kids their own spending budget

Walking the parks, it's easy to go overboard every time your kid begs for yet another $35 light-up fairy wand (especially knowing you could get almost the same thing back home at the dollar store).

For our younger kids, we told them they could each pick one souvenir under $40. My friend with older children actually gives them cash to buy whatever they want within that amount. Anything they don't spend is theirs to keep.

This is a sensible way to curb impulse buys on things you know are overpriced without having to argue.

Consider prepurchasing souvenirs

Another friend takes this a step further — she buys Disney-related toys on sale before they leave, hides them in her luggage, and surprises the kids with them throughout the trip.

It's a genius compromise between splurging and budgeting.

Remember not every expense needs to be optimized and that time itself is a valuable asset

An all-inclusive package can be great if it prevents constant cost calculations, but don't let it force your schedule.

Sometimes the best use of your vacation budget is simply resting — lounging in the shade with a Frozen ice cream shaped like Olaf's head.

Time is its own kind of currency, and spending it well is just as important as spending money wisely.

Balance efficiency with actual enjoyment

Yes, Disney is expensive, and yes, you'll want to make the most of yor trip — but the goal is still to have fun, not to create a perfectly executed itinerary.

Your kids won't remember if you got your money's worth on lunch. However, they will remember if you were relaxed enough on the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger ride to enjoy shooting that infrared laser cannon at Buzz's arch-nemesis. (And hopefully, they'll forget the expletives you uttered every time you missed).

Next time, we'll shoot for a balanced trip

On our next Disney trip — note that we need at least two to four years to recoverfrom this one — we'll aim for a middle ground.

Maybe we'll book a resort for the perks but pay for meals à la carte. Perhaps we'll accept that not conquering every ride is OK if it means we're actually soaking up moments instead of sprinting between them.

Because, in the end, the best vacation strategy isn't about spending more or less. It's about making room for the magic to happen without turning "magic" into another item on your to-do list.

… and it's about triple-checking that your "all-inclusive" includes babysitting for at least one night, so you can focus on what's really important: ditching your kids to ride Space Mountain.

• There are so many drones over Ukraine that soldiers can be unsure which ones belong to each side.
• But a Ukrainian operator said Russia is innovating less, making some of its drones easier to beat.
• Ukraine has hundreds of companies working on drones, while Russia has a more centralized approach.

Russia is flying fewer types of drones than Ukraine, which is making them easier to recognize and defeat, a Ukrainian drone operator told Business Insider.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone operator with Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, told BI that when it comes to some Russian drone types, "it's very easy to identify them. They rarely make any changes to the design."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has become a war of drone-filled skies.

Yet Ukraine is presenting a bigger variety of drone types to counter, aided by a huge domestic drone industry with hundreds of companies producing a vast range of different models and technologies.

Russia, in contrast, has focused on making bigger numbers of just a few models. While this has helped it produce them at scale, it also aids Ukrainian drone operators in identifying them and developing a sense of how to defeat them.

Hard to surprise

Zhluktenko said that Ukraine's more dispersed way of making drones means that "it is very hard for them to surprise us and it's very easy for us to surprise them."

He said Russia doesn't upgrade its drone designs very often, so it can be "very easy to identify friend/foe."

Russia's defense procurement is highly centralized, with soldiers getting material through state weapons manufacturers and Russian allies like Iran and North Korea.

Ukraine, in contrast, has hundreds of homegrown defense companies that work directly with soldiers to develop, test, and roll out gear, as well as volunteer networks that buy, alter, and develop new equipment for soldiers.

James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute, told BI that Russia's more centralized process means that "if there's an error with a component part, then it will be an error that spreads across systems. If there's a loophole that allows you to hack, then it spreads across all systems and makes them vulnerable."

The different varieties of drones give Ukraine some advantages, but it still has a huge challenge.

An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NPR last month that Russia is a few months behind Ukraine when it comes to drone innovation, but has a far larger production capacity.

The production gap means Ukraine's soldiers are still using some drones bought from Western and Chinese companies. Those can be bought by the soldiers themselves, or by crowdfunding groups.

Zhluktenko said they are needed, but typically don't perform as well as Ukrainian-made drones designed specifically for this fight.

A booming drone industry

Ukraine is making most of its drones itself. Its military said more than 96% of the 1.5 million drones it bought last year were of Ukrainian origin, and that number is set to increase in 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would make 1.4 million drones in 2024, but it's not clear if that goal was met.

Most of the drones that Russia has fired at Ukraine have been Shaheds, a type of drone given to Russia by Iran and that Russia has started making itself.

Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher in military technology at ETH Zurich, told BI that Russia "does not have the type of production, both scale and diversity, that Ukraine has."

He also said that Ukraine has been the first in the world to develop some drone tech. Ukraine's pioneering drone types have included different naval drones, and drones that can fly over 1,800 miles.

A drone war

Drones remain key to Ukraine's fightback against Russia, especially given its smaller military and population.

Zhluktenko said that in his unit's area of the front, up to 80% of hits on Russian infantry and mechanized targets are being made by drones. Ukraine also uses them to identify and launch attacks, hit Russian ships and oil refineries, and in place of weaponry like artillery.

But while Russia's approach to different drone models makes it easier, defeating them is still a struggle.

Zhluktenko said it can still be "a big problem" to recognize whose drones are whose, because there are so many flying at any given time.

Another drone operator, who spoke to BI on the condition of anonymity, said there can be so many drones in the sky that infantry can be ordered to shoot down every one they see.

Even so, they said that Ukraine's overall tactics and equipment were constantly changing toward unmanned systems, and that drones were proving "decisive."

Ukraine will be hoping it can keep this advantage.

• I thought hard work would earn me a promotion.
• However, I was continuously skipped over for promotions and larger projects at my design firm.
• A colleague told me to move my desk to be more visible in the office, and I instantly got more work.

Growing up, I was always taught that hard work pays off, so I assumed that was how the real world worked.

I worked hard in high school, earning all A's and just one B in my last semester. I got into my first choice school for college and landed every job interview up to that point. My hard work paid off.

One of my college professors then recommended me to the hiring manager for a paid internship at a design firm in Chicago while I was still in school. She had noticed my excellent work and active participation in her class.

Upon graduation, I was hired full-time at that architecture and design firm to work in the resource library. I planned to climb the ladder and land a role on the design team with the hard-work mentality that had served me well thus far.

I figured if I kept exceeding expectations, I'd be noticed and promoted. But it wasn't that easy, and one piece of career advice changed everything for me.

I kept getting passed over for a promotion

I gave my all to the role and the firm. However, I was continually passed over for larger projects and for promotions.

I kept going above and beyond, working 12- to 14-hour days to complete my duties and assisting the design teams on their projects. Yet, I still wasn't selected for a promotion outside the library.

When I asked around why I hadn't been picked for an associate position, several people thought I already was one because of all my work and accomplishments, so no one thought to nominate me. Designers I had spoken to said I hadn't done anything wrong; I just simply wasn't there in the team area when assignments were made.

Finally, an architectural principal saw me working late one evening and asked what my goal with the firm was. I told him I wanted to move out of the resource library and onto design projects full-time.

He shrugged and said three words that changed the trajectory of my career: "Move your desk."

He finally explained that people assign projects to people that are top of mind. Since I was tucked away in a remote corner of the office, I was rarely considered. I needed to move my desk to the exact area where I'd like to work so they could literally see my face.

At the time, I was an avid rule follower, so I was afraid to move my work desk without being invited, but I did it anyway.

I took my colleague's advice, and everything changed

I moved my desk to the office's main area — where I had wanted to work — and did my library work from there. Being physically present in the new workspace, I was assigned to projects I wanted to be on almost overnight.

I worked on hotels local to Michigan Ave and overseas. I was also handed a multimillion-dollar military project, for which I even got to travel.

I was getting assignments time and time again — both in the hospitality and military sectors.

Finally, I was promoted to junior designer — just a few weeks after moving my desk.

Hard work isn't always the answer

After my experience at the design firm, I learned one crucial lesson: Hard work alone isn't what gets you places. It's how you play the game; it's proactively putting yourself in places and positions you want to be in — before you're actually "there."

Unfortunately, I spent many late nights in the wrong place in the office, where no one could see my accomplishments.

My performance and results are always stellar, but I've learned I can be great without running myself into the ground.

As long as I put myself in front of people with power, I can take my career to the next level.

• I tried all the wraps and sandwiches I could find at Trader Joe's in the prepared foods section.
• I thought the tuna salad wrap was slightly lacking in flavor.
• The turkey apple cheddar sandwich would be perfect for an office lunch.

Trader Joe's is known for its varied and affordable prepared foods section.

From soups and salads to sandwiches, the grocery chain offers many choices for a quick lunch on the go.

To see which wraps and sandwiches are worth the money, I tried nine different kinds from my local Trader Joe's in Brooklyn, New York.

Some, like the chain's tarragon chicken wrap and turkey apple cheddar sandwich, would be perfect for a cheap office lunch or beach picnic. Others, like the tuna wrap, were decent, but I wouldn't reach for them again.

Here's every Trader Joe's wrap and sandwich, ranked from worst to best.

My least favorite sandwich was the tuna salad wrap.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

It came in a wheat tortilla with tuna salad and lettuce.

The tuna salad was moist and packed with chopped tomatoes, but it tasted flavorless, underseasoned, and bland overall.

The wrap could have benefited from other vegetables, like celery or red onion, to add more of a crunch.

Next up was the Italian-style wrap.

It cost $4.99, excluding tax.

The wrap had uncured smoked ham, provolone cheese, genoa salami, and sopressata tucked into a wheat tortilla.

The wrap came with a creamy mustard spread, which I wasn't sure how to use. I ended up dipping the sandwich into the spread as I ate, which added a sharp spiciness to the sandwich.

The meat tasted fresh. However, other than the mustard sauce, it didn't pack much flavor.

I thought the creamy hummus and vegetable wrap was a good vegetarian option.

It cost $4.99, excluding tax. I thought this was a little pricey for a meatless wrap that didn't come with a dipping sauce.

The wrap was fresh and flavorful but not very filling.

The wrap was simple, and the hummus was just as creamy as described.

The chopped carrots, cucumber, red bell pepper, and red cabbage gave it a Mediterranean flair and added flavor. Overall, however, I didn't feel completely satiated by this meatless option. I'd need a bit more than this wrap to fill me up at lunchtime.

The turkey club wrap was a tomato-flavored twist on a classic sandwich.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

The wrap was stuffed with turkey breast, spinach, turkey bacon, and tomato mayonnaise.

The turkey breast was moist and flavorful, and the turkey bacon added a slight smokiness. The spinach added a touch of freshness, and the tomato-flavored wrap added even more flavor to this take on a club sandwich.

However, I thought the wrap could have used a touch more mayonnaise, and the tomato flavor in the sauce didn't come through as much as I expected it to.

I also tried the turkey breast, spinach, and Swiss cheese wrap.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

The wrap was made with an herb and garlic tortilla.

The fresh flavor of the spinach and pungent Swiss cheese really came through, as did the honey Dijon mustard sauce. I thought the tortilla was also really flavorful.

However, other wraps from Trader Joe's delivered a more dynamic flavor profile. This wrap was undeniably tasty but just a little boring.

The grilled pesto chicken wrap landed in the middle of the pack.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

The wrap was made with pesto-seasoned grilled chicken, ricotta, feta cheese, zucchini, and sundried tomatoes.

This wrap was really moist and flavorful, and the nuttiness of the pesto, which came on the side, added a vibrant flavor that really impressed me.

The two different types of cheese also added a lot of moisture and flavor to the wrap. I liked the addition of the pesto sauce, which I drizzled over the top of the wrap as I was eating.

I'd definitely buy this again for an easy lunch on the go.

My third favorite sandwich was the Buffalo-style chicken wrap.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

This was the only Trader Joe's wrap I had tried before, so I already knew I liked it.

The wrap features chicken meat tossed in spicy Buffalo sauce, complete with diced celery in a tomato-flavored flour tortilla. It also includes a packet of blue cheese dressing.

I thought this wrap was super flavorful and had just the right amount of spice. I dipped the sandwich in the blue cheese dressing provided, which added a more savory flavor.

The wrap was moist without being soggy, and overall, it impressed me.

My second favorite was the only true sandwich in the lineup: Trader Joe's turkey apple cheddar sandwich.

It cost $4.99, excluding tax.

The sandwich is made with thick slices of turkey breast, sliced apples, cheddar cheese, arugula, and Dijon mayonnaise.

Unlike the wraps, this sandwich came served on a multigrain rustico roll.

I loved every part of this sandwich and thought it would make the perfect lunch for the office or a refreshing beachside snack in the summer.

The apple slices added a tart contrast to the savory turkey and Dijon mayonnaise, while the nutty, grainy bread tied all the flavors together.

It was also heartier and more filling than many of the wraps despite being less expensive in most cases. I thought that made this sandwich the best value by far.

The best wrap from Trader Joe's was the tarragon chicken salad wrap.

It cost $5.49, excluding tax.

The wrap was stuffed to the brim with thick chunks of chicken and romaine lettuce.

This wrap reminded me slightly of a chicken Caesar wrap but had even more flavor. The tarragon's fragrant flavor balanced out the fresh notes of the lettuce and mayonnaise, while the almonds added the ideal amount of nuttiness and crunchy texture.

It had a great depth of flavor and kept me full all day. However, it was also one of the highest-calorie wraps I tried, so keep that in mind if you're trying to cut back on your intake.

That said, based on flavor and size, I thought this wrap was great value for the money, and I'd definitely buy it again.

• COVID-era accommodations are losing ground to more high-pressure work schedules.
• Workplace experts say DOGE has set an example that could impact corporate culture and expectations.
• "A perfect storm" of rising costs and recession fears makes workers more afraid to quit.

If you've noticed an uptick in emails from your boss during weekends, are facing strict return-to-office orders, or are being told to accomplish more with less, economic uncertainty and DOGE could be to blame, according to experts in workplace management.

"I think that the pendulum is swinging toward much less work-life balance and much more constant chronic stress," Dr. Tasha Eurich, organizational psychologist and New York Times bestselling author, told Business Insider.

Eurich said increased chaos in the markets is making it much more difficult not only to get by but also to find a way to thrive at work and in life.

"We know that uncertainty is one of the most aversive states for human beings — it sets off the same parts of our brain as would happen when we are being chased by a tiger when our ancestors were trying to stay alive together," said Eurich.

Eurich pointed to data from the World Uncertainty Index — which tracks worldwide political events — showing that levels of uncertainty about geopolitics and economic situations have been steadily climbing back to early pandemic levels over the past six months.

While ongoing conflicts may have contributed to the level of concern, many workplace experts say that in the US, economic uncertainty and the rise of DOGE could also contribute to feelings of uncertainty, especially since the beginning of 2025, which may cause more to hold on to their desks and accept less desirable conditions.

The DOGE effect

With Elon Musk, Tesla's billionaire CEO, as its face, DOGE brought his controversial "hardcore" management style to the government.

This year, DOGE fired tens of thousands of federal workers via email, citing poor performance. Meta has also been using the same tactic for "low-performers."

In February, DOGE sent a weekend email demanding federal employees justify their jobs with an email detailing five accomplishments by Monday night. Musk then said on social media that non-respondents were considered resigned.

This week, DOGE also used Tesla's badge-scan layoff tactic at the Department of Health and Human Services: if badges worked, jobs were safe; if not, employees were out. Many were left in tears.

Musk himself also said that he works 120-hour weeks and expects similar dedication from his employees, particularly from those hired by DOGE. On X, he called working the weekend "a superpower."

Rahaf Harfoush, a digital anthropologist and future of work expert, told BI that figures like Musk create a dangerous cultural script and embody the myth that if you just work hard enough, you'll succeed. This myth, she says, conveniently leaves out structural advantages like generational wealth, elite networks, and access to opportunity.

"What's left unsaid is this: billionaires can work those hours because their wealth buys them time," said Harfoush. "They have chefs, nannies, drivers, assistants — an entire infrastructure that handles the responsibilities most people can't outsource."

"Because these leaders are idolized, their behavior sets a tone. It becomes a kind of performative workaholism that companies mimic not because it's effective but because it aligns with our deeply held beliefs about what ambition and success should look like," Harfoush added.

'A perfect storm'

While Musk and DOGE push a version of work driven by ambiguous measures of high performance and includes toiling through the weekends, the job market and economic uncertainty make it harder for unhappy workers to find new opportunities.

Businesses large and small are finding themselves in limbo because of Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs on the US and Canada. Workers are becoming more afraid to quit under the concern that there will be a 2008-esque recession.

"We're seeing a perfect storm of factors colliding," said Harfoush. "We're seeing echoes of 2008 — people taking on more work, fewer breaks, and less pay — because survival feels more urgent than balance."

How workers can regain control

However, a workplace driven by fear and an idealized version of productivity won't necessarily deliver results in the long run. Homa Bahrami, a senior lecturer at the Haas School of Business of UC Berkeley, said that while workers may comply in the short run when CEOs put a virtual "gun to their head," such moves would impact goodwill, commitment, and the emotional engagement of the employee.

"Ultimately, if you're working in a place with core values are exactly the opposite of yours as a human being, then it's not sustainable, and you're not going to make it really work," said Bahrami.

Eurich also echoed this sentiment and called laying off workers to set an example the "most counterproductive thing" a company could do.

There are ways for workers to push back and regain some extent of control.

Bahrami said that though burnout can often not be avoided when conditions are adverse, it helps to have a forward-looking mindset, update skills proactively, and set goals for reaching an ideal job.

Harfoush said that even small acts of resistance could go a long way, starting with delaying that first email check until an hour after waking up, taking real lunch breaks, and, for managers, having explicit conversations with their team about response expectations.

"Often, the pressure to be always-on isn't real — it's imagined," said Harfoush. "But it becomes real when no one challenges it."

• I wanted to make a difference in people's lives. I worked for the nonprofit sector for eight years.
• I wasn't paid much, had limited benefits, and had no financial safety net going into my 30s.
• I pivoted to the private sector and landed a job at Google that instantly tripled my salary.

When I graduated from university, working at a Big Tech company wasn't part of my plan.

I have a bachelor's degree in history and international relations and a master's in human rights. I wanted to address complex social problems and make a meaningful impact on people's lives.

That's why I spent nearly eight years working in the nonprofit sector. I reported on civil rights violations, advocated for women's rights, and worked as a researcher, project manager, and policy advisor for global human rights organizations.

Even though my work gave me a strong sense of purpose, I questioned the sustainability of my path

The organizations I worked for had limited financial resources, usually lacked benefits, and required frequent relocation, often with minimal logistical support.

As I neared my 30s, the pressures of everyday life — like rent and bills — started piling up. So, I decided to pivot and explore opportunities in the private sector.

When I shared my plans to transition, the responses were far from encouraging. Some said, "No one will hire you — you don't have the right experience," while others suggested I start with an internship.

One mentor advised that my best option was to accept a junior role with a steep pay cut and fewer responsibilities, and then work my way up.

The problem was that after nearly a decade in low-paying nonprofit roles and without a financial safety net to fall back on, I couldn't afford to take on unpaid or underpaid work.

Despite the naysayers, I stayed the course

I threw myself into networking. I attended events, reached out to people on LinkedIn, and applied to roles that felt slightly out of reach.

I also tailored my CV and cover letters to highlight transferable skills: stakeholder management, cross-cultural communication, strategic thinking, working under pressure, and navigating complex environments across time zones.

I applied to many roles across Europe, ranging from startups to scale-ups to mission-driven companies. Most of the time, I heard nothing back, and when I did, it was usually a rejection.

Then, I got an unexpected email

Three months into my job hunt, an email from a Google recruiter unexpectedly landed in my inbox.

Five interviews and a written assessment later, I was offered the role of policy advisor to help engineering, product, and legal teams design policies for user safety across Google's products.

At Google, I was earning three times as much as I had in my nonprofit role. For the first time, I wasn't stressed about rent or bills, and I could finally start planning for my future. Being able to think seriously about long-term goals like savings and retirement was a big relief.

I often wondered how, despite rejections from far less competitive companies, I was able to convince Google I was the right fit. Fortunately, the hiring panel became my colleagues and my manager, so the answers were just a Gchat away. They gave me three clear reasons.

3 reasons why Google hired me

First, they hired me because my background was different from the typical candidate, not despite it. They thought my experience in the nonprofit sector and my understanding of ethics and human rights could bring nuance and complexity to discussions on Google's product policies.

Second, having lived in multiple countries (four at the time: Germany, the UK, South Africa, and Lebanon) and visited over 40 for my work, I offered a global perspective. Google is a global company, so this skill was seen as highly relevant.

Third, because I had worked in challenging environments, I knew how to rely on a broad range of input and support to solve problems. My adaptability and ability to work collaboratively with broader communities convinced them that I could manage stakeholders effectively.

This process taught me that what makes us unconventional can also be our greatest asset

In my experience, Google operated like a diverse ecosystem, where every individual and their distinct perspective played a vital role in driving meaningful outcomes.

I spent two years at Google as a senior individual contributor before taking on a new role at TikTok.

My experience at Google made it easier to transition into a new tech role with a more senior title, bigger responsibilities, and a notable 20% pay bump.