Tesla Inc. is raising prices in Canada and encouraging buyers to snap up cars imported before counter-tariffs were imposed on US-made vehicles.

The electric carmaker’s Canadian website featured a banner on Saturday which said: “Explore pre-tariff priced inventory while supplies last.”

After President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods last month, including 25% on vehicle content produced outside of the US within a US-Mexico-Canada trade pact, Canada announced retaliatory import taxes. Those in-kind levies are designed to mirror the US duties.

Pricing for new orders on Tesla’s site as of April 26 was higher than for the same models listed as being in inventory. For example, the sticker price of long-range Model 3 cars with all-wheel drive was listed as C$79,990 ($57,700) for a new order, but those same 2025 model year vehicles already in inventory were being offered for around C$69,000.  

The company did not respond to a request for comment. The price increases were reported earlier by specialist website driveteslacanada.ca, which said the cost to Canadian buyers for new orders of certain models such as the all-wheel drive Cybertruck are as much as 22% higher.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has come in for criticism in Canada as a result of his support for the US President, who’s repeatedly said he’d like Canada to be part of the US. Musk has said he will devote more time to Tesla starting next month after the carmaker had its worst first-quarter financial results in years.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Donald Trump Jr. told a business forum in Budapest that Hungary and the region should pick the US over China as its economic partner, according to the Portfolio news website.

Trump Jr., who’s holding a roadshow headlined “Trump Business Vision 2025,” said China posed a bigger threat than Russia to the region, according to the business site, which helped organize the closed-door meeting late Friday with Hungarian entrepreneurs.

US President Donald Trump’s eldest son, who’s also an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, hailed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist vision and underscored the close ties between the two countries’ leaders, Portfolio reported.

At the same time, his call to shun China is likely to sit uncomfortably in Hungary and other parts of eastern Europe, which have opened up their economies to investments from the Asian nation. 

Read more: US Envoy Tells Orban’s Hungary to Be Wary of Chinese Investments

Orban has attracted billions of dollars of investments from China, including in the battery sector and the electric vehicle industry, with BYD Co. building a factory in Hungary’s south. Hungary and Serbia are also constructing a Budapest-Belgrade freight line, which is part of China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative.

Trump Jr. was in the Serbian capital on Saturday, his third visit to the Balkan country since October, before traveling to Bulgaria on Sunday and Romania on Monday, where he’ll hold similar events as he pitches for business opportunities.

Executives of more than 30 biggest Serbian companies met with the US president’s son in Belgrade, seizing the “opportunity to talk to a man who is at the center of global events and knows what is happening in world markets,” said Marko Cadez, head of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, in comments to Bloomberg Adria. 

“We did not leave any sector uncovered,” and discussions included tourism, information technology and auto industry, according to Cadez.  

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Times are tough. But Kevin Hart, one of the most successful comedians and actors on the planet, said there's one thing he has "no care [about] when it comes to spending": Experiences. "I think that's an amazing investment," he told Fortune.

Kevin Hart knows what it takes to be successful. He was the world's highest-paid comedian in 2024, earning $108 million. That’s also third-most among Hollywood entertainers overall, more than what Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise made last year. 

That said, times are tough for most Americans right now. With consumer confidence down and market volatility up—partly influenced by global tensions stoked by Trump’s tariffs rollout and his will-he-won't-he approach with Fed Chair Jerome Powell—Americans are tightening their belts and are being very choosy on how and where they spend their money.

In an interview with Fortune, Hart revealed the one thing he says is absolutely worth splurging on, even in uncertain times.

“Anything experience-driven,” Hart told Fortune. “Anything where you’re able to better understand the world, see the world, and experience the world. I think it’s justified.”

Hart mentioned how he recently took his family to Rwanda to experience and understand the culture there.

“We’re not walking out of it with crazy lessons, but just extreme joy that we were able to see and do things together, create these memories,” he said. “It’s extremely humbling when you’re traveling just to see how the world works and see it through multiple different lenses.”

Hart said “discovery” is a critical human experience, and believes any opportunity where you can experience “what life can provide or present to you, I think that’s an amazing investment.”

“Creating and building memories for me and my family will always be something that I have no care when it comes to spending,” Hart added.

Hart, now 45, has become an entrepreneur in his own right through ventures like HartBeat, his production company (his majority stake was valued at $650 million in 2022), as well as his tequila brand Gran Coramino and the Laugh Out Loud Network. He also earns millions from endorsements every year. His Coramino Fund just recently started accepting applications for its latest round of $10,000 grants, intended for small business owners from marginalized communities.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Coal-fired power plants, long an increasingly money-losing proposition in the U.S., are becoming more valuable now that the suddenly strong demand for electricity to run Big Tech's cloud computing and artificial intelligence applications has set off a full-on sprint to find new energy sources.

President Donald Trump — who has pushed for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market and suggested that coal can help meet surging power demand — is wielding his emergency authority to entice utilities to keep older coal-fired plants online and producing electricity.

While some utilities were already delaying the retirement of coal-fired plants, the scores of coal-fired plants that have been shut down the past couple years — or will be shut down in the next couple years — are the object of growing interest from tech companies, venture capitalists, states and others competing for electricity.

That’s because they have a very attractive quality: high-voltage lines connecting to the electricity grid that they aren’t using anymore and that a new power plant could use.

That ready-to-go connection could enable a new generation of power plants — gas, nuclear, wind, solar or even battery storage — to help meet the demand for new power sources more quickly.

For years, the bureaucratic nightmare around building new high-voltage power lines has ensnared efforts to get permits for such interconnections for new power plants, said John Jacobs, an energy policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center.

“They are very interested in the potential here. Everyone sort of sees the writing on the wall for the need for transmission infrastructure, the need for clean firm power, the difficulty with siting projects and the value of reusing brownfield sites,” Jacobs said.

Rising power demand, dying coal plants

Coincidentally, the pace of retirements of the nation's aging coal-fired plants had been projected to accelerate at a time when electricity demand is rising for the first time in decades.

The Department of Energy, in a December report, said its strategy for meeting that demand includes re-using coal plants, which have been unable to compete with a flood of cheap natural gas while being burdened with tougher pollution regulations aimed at its comparatively heavy emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

There are federal incentives, as well — such as tax credits and loan guarantees — that encourage the redevelopment of retired coal-fired plants into new energy sources.

Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents independent power plant owners, said he expected Trump's executive orders will mean some coal-fired plants run longer than they would have — but that they are still destined for retirement.

Surging demand means power plants are needed, fast

Time is of the essence in getting power plants online.

Data center developers are reporting a yearlong wait in some areas to connect to the regional electricity grid. Rights-of-way approvals to build power lines can also be difficult to secure, given objections by neighbors who may not want to live near them.

Stephen DeFrank, chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said he believes rising energy demand has made retiring coal-fired plants far more valuable.

That's especially true now that the operator of the congested mid-Atlantic power grid has re-configured its plans to favor sites like retired coal-fired plants as a shortcut to meet demand, DeFrank said.

“That’s going to make these properties more valuable because now, as long as I’m shovel ready, these power plants have that connection already established, I can go in and convert it to whatever," DeFrank said.

Gas, solar and more at coal power sites

In Pennsylvania, the vast majority of conversions is likely to be natural gas because Pennsylvania sits atop the prolific Marcellus Shale reservoir, DeFrank said.

In states across the South, utilities are replacing retiring or retired coal units with gas. That includes a plant owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority; a Duke Energy project in North Carolina; and a Georgia Power plant.

The high-voltage lines at retired coal plants on the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey and Massachusetts were used to connect offshore wind turbines to electricity grids.

In Alabama, the site of a coal-fired plant, Plant Gorgas, shuttered in 2019, will become home to Alabama Power’s first utility-scale battery energy storage plant.

Texas-based Vistra, meanwhile, is in the process of installing solar panels and energy storage plants at a fleet of retired and still-operating coal-fired plants it owns in Illinois, thanks in part to state subsidies approved there in 2021.

Nuclear might be coming

Nuclear is also getting a hard look.

In Arizona, lawmakers are advancing legislation to make it easier for three utilities there — Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power — to put advanced nuclear reactors on the sites of retiring coal-fired plants.

At the behest of Indiana's governor, Purdue University studied how the state could attract a new nuclear power industry. In its November report, it estimated that reusing a coal-fired plant site for a new nuclear power plant could reduce project costs by between 7% and 26%.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, in a 2023 study before electricity demand began spiking, estimated that nuclear plants could cut costs from 15% to 35% by building at a retiring coal plant site, compared to building at a new site.

Even building next to the coal plant could cut costs by 10% by utilizing transmission assets, roads and buildings while avoiding some permitting hurdles, the center said.

That interconnection was a major driver for Terrapower when it chose to start construction in Wyoming on a next-generation nuclear power plant next to PacifiCorp’s coal-fired Naughton Power Plant.

Jobs, towns left behind by coal

Kathryn Huff, a former U.S. assistant secretary for nuclear energy who is now an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the department analyzed how many sites might be suitable to advanced nuclear reactor plants.

A compelling factor is the workers from coal plants who can be trained for work at a nuclear plant, Huff said. Those include electricians, welders and steam turbine maintenance technicians.

In Homer City, the dread of losing its coal-fired plant — it shut down in 2023 after operating for 54 years — existed for years in the hills of western Pennsylvania’s coal country.

“It’s been a rough 20 years here for our area, maybe even longer than that, with the closing of the mines, and this was the final nail, with the closing of the power plant,” said Rob Nymick, Homer City's manager. “It was like, ‘Oh my god, what do we do?’”

That is changing.

The plant's owners in recent weeks demolished the smoke stacks and cooling towers at the Homer City Generating State and announced a $10 billion plan for a natural gas-powered data center campus.

It would be the nation’s third-largest power generator and that has sown some optimism locally.

“Maybe we will get some families moving in, it would help the school district with their enrollment, it would help us with our population,” Nymick said. “We’re a dying town and hopefully maybe we can get a restaurant or two to open up and start thriving again. We’re hoping.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Parisa Tabriz, general manager for Google Chrome, testified Friday during the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google’s illegal monopoly in the search market. Tabriz said it’s impossible to “disentangle” Google from the success of Chrome, adding she doesn’t “think it could be recreated” elsewhere.

Google believes it’s the only company that can operate Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, and that it would suffer in anyone else’s hands.

“Trying to disentangle that is unprecedented,” Parisa Tabriz, general manager of Google Chrome, said in federal court Friday.

Tabriz said Google Chrome is the result of “17 years of collaboration” between the Chrome team, Google, and the companies that submit technical contributions to the company’s open-source Chromium Project, which is also utilized for several other Google projects like the Android operating system. “Google invests hundreds of millions of dollars” into Chromium, Tabriz said, but noted other companies “are not contributing now in any meaningful way.”

Over the course of several hours on Friday, Tabriz made it clear that Google being forced to sell Chrome, which is what the Justice Department has asked it to do (as well as sharing some of the data it collects to power search results), would ultimately hurt Chrome. 

“I don’t think it could be recreated,” Tabriz said of Chrome’s success under Google.

Tabriz also mentioned the Chrome team is currently working to bake artificial intelligence into the browser to make it more “agentic”: in other words, Google wants Chrome to be able to automate tasks on behalf of users, from filling out forms to doing research to shopping.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The dollar is on pace for its worst performance during the first 100 days of a US presidency since Richard Nixon was in the White House as Donald Trump imposes tariffs and attempts to reshape global trade.

Trump’s trade policy — aimed at rejuvenating domestic manufacturing, shoring up the industrial base and improving national security — has pushed investors into assets outside of the US. That’s led to a weakening in the greenback and lifted other currencies alongside gold.

Meanwhile, data this week showed China remains dependent on foreign demand and South Korean exports to the US declined this month. Government forecasts pointed to a German economy that will struggle to expand this year. 

U.S. & Canada

A dollar gauge is on track for its worst performance during the first 100 days of a US presidency in data going back to the Nixon era, when America abandoned the gold standard and switched to a free-floating exchange rate. The US dollar index has lost about 9% between Jan. 20 — when Trump returned to the White House — and April 25, putting it on course for the biggest loss through the end of the month since at least 1973.

Forecasters see the US economy taking a hit from Trump’s trade policy. The economy is set to expand 1.4% in 2025, according to the latest Bloomberg survey of economists, compared with 2% in last month’s poll. The median respondent now sees a 45% chance of a downturn in the next 12 months, up from 30% in March.

Canada’s next prime minister is set to inherit a half-year of flat economic growth, economists predict, an immediate test of their governance as President Donald Trump’s trade war grinds business investment and exports lower.

Asia

China’s stronger-than-expected growth in the first quarter masks a key vulnerability: a growing dependence on foreign demand, which increases the threat of a sharper economic hit as trade tensions soar. The strong contribution from trade also shows how fragile the domestic economy remains as it faces pressure from deflation, sluggish consumer demand and a prolonged property slump.

Service prices among businesses in Japan stayed elevated last month, indicating sustained inflationary pressures before the impact from US tariffs kicks in, as the Bank of Japan prepares to set policy next week.

South Korea’s preliminary April trade data gave an early glimpse of how US policies could dent shipments of export-reliant economies. It showed outbound shipments to the US and China were down 14.3% and 3.4%, respectively, while exports to the European Union and Taiwan were up.

Europe

Germany will probably fail to generate even minimal economic growth this year, according to revised government forecasts, a reminder of the scale of the challenge facing conservative Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz when he takes office next month. Gross domestic product will likely stagnate after shrinking the previous two years. Government economists previously expected expansion of 0.3% this year.

European car sales returned to growth last month for the first time since December, with gains in the UK and robust demand for electric vehicles making up for weaker sales in Germany and France. Demand in Italy and Spain was also strong. 

Emerging markets

Kenya’s economy is set to surpass Ethiopia’s to become East Africa’s largest this year, the International Monetary Fund said, after the birr was devalued. The fund estimates Kenya’s gross domestic product will be $132 billion in 2025, higher than Ethiopia’s $117 billion. 

Brazil’s annual inflation accelerated to the highest level since mid-February 2023 in a report coming days after central bank directors assured investors that tight monetary policy is working.

World

The International Monetary Fund sharply lowered its forecasts for world growth this year and next, warning the outlook could deteriorate further as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs spark a global trade war. The IMF cut its projection for global output growth this year to 2.8%, which would be the slowest expansion of gross domestic product since 2020. It would also be the second-worst figure since 2009.

California Governor Gavin Newsom boasted that his state has become the world’s fourth-largest economy, following only the US, China and Germany in global rankings. The state’s nominal gross domestic product reached $4.1 trillion last year, edging past Japan’s $4.02 trillion, Newsom said in a statement, citing newly released IMF country-level data and preliminary state data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

Central banks in Indonesia, Paraguay, Russia and Uzbekistan all kept interest rates unchanged this week.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said China will need to strike a trade deal with the US quickly as it can’t win a drawn-out trade war that will do severe damage to its economy. 

In a post on X, Ackman said Beijing “should be highly incentivized to make a trade deal as quickly as possible” because the longer high tariffs persist, the greater the likelihood that companies will lose faith in China as a market in which they can source or produce goods on economically viable terms. If a deal is not struck soon, “every company that has a supply chain based in China relocates it to India, Vietnam, Mexico, the U.S. or some other country,” he said.

“If instead China stubbornly decides to hold out and not negotiate due to pride or other emotional issues, China will suffer that much more severe and permanent economic consequences,” Ackman said. “Time is the friend of the US and the enemy of China’s in this negotiation.”

The hedge fund manager’s assessment flies in the face of those who say China will be able to withstand President Donald Trump’s trade war and the general tone of defiance that has marked Beijing’s position. President Xi Jinping has rebuffed Trump’s efforts to get him on the phone, and China has said the US must show respect and rein in disparaging remarks before talks between the two countries can commence.

Trump has hit China with tariffs of 145% on most goods since taking office, prompting Beijing to retaliate and threatening to wipe out most of the trade between the world’s biggest economies. Still, Bloomberg News reported on Friday that the Chinese government is considering suspending its 125% tariff on some US imports as the economic costs of the trade war weigh on certain industries. 

Given the economic harm posed by the tariffs, both China and the US have good reasons to take the levies down “to a more sensible level” of 10% to 20% as quickly as possible, said Ackman. The only thing stopping the reduction in tariffs “is the fear on the part of both countries’ leadership of looking weak,” he said.

“Both countries know that the 145% tariffs have to come down now,” Ackman said. “They are just trying to manage the diplomacy in such a manner to make clear that it is a mutual decision as opposed to one country ‘going first’.”  

Ackman, a long-time donor to Democrats, has in recent years become a supporter of Trump, backing him on issues ranging from foreign policy to combating antisemitism.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Board game companies are suing Trump because they say tariffs are affecting their profits.
• Stonemaier Games said in the lawsuit it expects to pay "millions" due to tariffs.
• Trump says the tariffs are meant to boost US jobs, but the cost is often passed on to the consumer.

A group of tabletop game companies is suing President Donald Trump because it says his tariffs are reducing their profits to the real-world value of Monopoly money.

Stonemaier Games, which makes the popular board games "Wingspan," "Rolling Realms," and "Vantage," announced its involvement in the lawsuit this week. The company said the lawsuit would "challenge the unchecked authority" of Trump and his tariffs.

"We will not stand idly by while our livelihoods—and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the US, along with the customers whose pursuit of happiness we hold dear—are treated like pawns in a political game," the company said.

Lawyers for Stonemaier, which is based in St. Louis, said in a legal complaint that the company estimates it will pay "millions in tariffs" because it manufactures all of its games in a Chinese factory owned by Panda Game Manufacturing, which is based in Canada. Stonemaier has printed its games in China for more than 13 years, the lawsuit says.

At least nine other companies joined Stonemaier in the lawsuit, saying Trump's tariffs will cause substantial harm to their business. XYZ Game Labs, Rookie Mage, Spielcraft, and TinkerHouse Games are all board game companies that are joining the lawsuit.

Spielcraft, an independent Nebraska-based board game maker, paid $4,335 in tariff fees in April, the lawsuit says.

Other small businesses also joined the suit. Clothing company Princes Awesome, which makes inclusive clothing for children and adults, paid $1,041 for dresses imported from China in March, according to the lawsuit.

"Princess Awesome has also ordered additional products from Peru, Bangladesh, and India that they anticipate will arrive in the United States in the coming weeks and are continuing to place new orders for imports," the complaint says.

Trump and his treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, have said that the tariffs are part of a strategy to increase manufacturing jobs in the United States. But that could take a while. In the meantime, tariffs can raise prices and reduce the dollar's purchasing power, leaving consumers with less money to spend.

Experts told Business Insider that supply chain disruptions caused by the tariffs could cause prices to spike and the availability of goods to decrease in as early as a few weeks.

Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the companies in the lawsuit, said in a statement that Trump's tariffs are unconstitutional and that only Congress should have the power to levy tariffs.

"The Constitution gives Congress—not the president—the power to impose tariffs because policies affecting an entire nation should come from the body most representative of the entire nation," the statement says. "And Congress cannot delegate that core legislative power to the president."

• Julie Beckham is a financial educator and mom of two.
• Her daughter is a high school senior, and her son is about to graduate from college.
• She's had honest conversations about the cost of college since they were young.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Julie Beckham, assistant vice president of financial education and development and strategy officer at Rockland Trust Bank. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in a middle-class family and was lucky to have my parents pay for my education at New York University. NYU was still expensive back in the 1990s, but it was the type of expensive that a middle-class family could still afford with a moderate amount of sacrifice.

Today, as a financial educator, I still consider myself middle class, but there's no way I could pay the entire cost of college education for my two kids, who are 18 and 21. That's true for many families, thanks to the skyrocketing cost of college.

Because of that, I've been very intentional about talking with my kids about paying for college — from the time they started high school.

Here's how we've planned together to manage the cost.

Choose more affordable schools

Schools with a lower profile yet more affordable tuition can offer a better return on investment for many families. Getting kids to consider these can be tricky since colleges are so good at marketing. Sometimes, going to a "name brand" school is less about the degree and more about the swag.

Ask your kids what they love about a well-known school. Then, provide alternatives that have that same characteristic, at a lower price point. Boston College is popular near where I live because of its football culture, but the same vibe can be found elsewhere for a much lower price.

I've told my kids to consider schools that may not be well-known or have all the swag but are nonetheless special. These schools can give talented students more financial aid and a chance to stand out.

Understand what you can afford, and tell your kids

As my kids approached college age, their dad and I talked about the amount that we could afford to pay toward their education. It's based on what works for each of our budgets.

My kids are expected to pay the difference between the cost of their college and what we're able to cover as their parents.

I recommend parents be very honest about what they can afford, so students can decide whether they're willing to take on student loan debt to cover other costs.

Ditch the guilt about what you can't cover

Sometimes I feel guilty that I can't pay for their whole education. But this is my reality and what I can reasonably afford.

Although I'm a financial educator, I didn't have the means to start saving for college until my kids were in their teens. When I did, it was very simple: transferring a small portion of each paycheck to a savings account I named "college." It wasn't a 529 college savings plan, it wasn't a lot of money, and it wasn't very sophisticated, but it was a start.

It's easy to criticize ourselves as parents, but we need to acknowledge we're often doing the best we can for our kids.

Apply for grants and scholarships

Small grants and scholarships might seem insignificant against the huge bill for college, but they add up. You think $500 isn't going to make a dent, but when you're paying $80 for a book, you realize $500 can be helpful.

I helped my kids apply by researching opportunities, reminding them of deadlines, and encouraging them to work on applications. Sometimes they weren't happy to write another essay, but I reminded them it would take an hour and they could get hundreds of dollars.

Ask for more financial aid

Once you've applied to schools and received your financial aid packages, you might notice significant differences in how much aid your student gets from each school. If that's the case, you can ask a school to match what a comparable school has provided.

I've tried this twice. Once, I called the financial aid office, and they said they couldn't make changes. But another time, I was asked to email the other offer, and they'd see if they could adjust the financial aid package. It never hurts to ask.

Consider graduating early

My son is about to graduate from college a year early, which is a huge savings for our family. He did it by taking advanced placement (AP) classes in high school and earning a few extra credits during college. It was hard work, but it will likely save our family thousands of dollars.

College brings up a lot of feelings for parents and kids. There's so much pressure to get this step right. It's helpful to remember that this is just the first of many steps. Although it feels important, it's the decisions we make every day that really impact our lives.

• Tech giants are known for their challenging interviews.
• Google, Meta, and Nvidia top the list of rigorous interviews with multiple rounds and assessments.
• But tough questions show up across industries, according to employee reports on Glassdoor.

It's tough to break into high-paying companies.

Google is notorious for having a demanding interview process. Aside from putting job candidates through assessments, preliminary phone calls, and asking them to complete projects, the company also screens candidates through multiple rounds of interviews.

Typical interview questions range from open-ended behavioral ones like "tell me about a time that you went against the status quo" or "what does being 'Googley' mean to you?" to more technical ones.

At Nvidia, the chipmaking darling of the AI boom, candidates must also pass through rigorous rounds of assessments and interviews. "How would you describe __ technology to a non-technical person?" was a question a candidate interviewing for a job as a senior solutions architect shared on the career site Glassdoor last month. The candidate noted that they didn't receive an offer.

Tech giants top Glassdoor's list of the hardest companies to interview with. But tough questions show up across industries — from luxury carmakers like Rolls-Royce, where a candidate said they were asked to define "a single crystal," to Bacardi, where a market manager who cited a difficult interview, and no offer, recalled being asked, "If you were a cocktail what would you be and why?"

The digital PR agency Reboot Online analyzed Glassdoor data to determine which companies have the most challenging job interviews. They focused on "reputable companies" listed in the top 100 of Forbes' World's Best Employers list and examined 313,000 employee reviews on Glassdoor. For each company, they looked at the average interview difficulty rating as reported on Glassdoor.

Here's a list of the top 90 companies that put candidates through the ringer for a job, according to self-reported reviews on Glassdoor.

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Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate products and services to help you make smart decisions with your money.

• The Great Recession of 2008 hit hard, but you wouldn't know it from the way I was spending.
• I had a job that paid well, so I ignored economic warning signs and overspent in the coming years.
• My mistakes led to years of financial strain that impacted my family and my wellbeing.

Imagine raising five young children, watching the economy collapse into itself, and not changing your spending habits. I don't have to, because it happened to me during the Great Recession of 2008.

I have to say, I don't recommend it. My naivete led to my financial downfall, a divorce, losing touch with my family, and even becoming homeless for a time.

As many of us are now on the edge of our seats wondering what's next for our current economy, I'm planning to be a bit more cautious this time around. I've learned a lot of hard lessons since the last recession, and I won't be making the same mistakes again.

Life seemed good

I felt economically stable in the late-2000s. I had a good salary as a technical writer at Citigroup. My wife and I owned a four-bedroom house, two cars, and had some discretionary money. Our life was comfortable.

I wasn't anxious about the 2007 subprime mortgage implosion. After all, I had a 30-year fixed-rate loan.

I wasn't concerned about the stock market crash of September 2008. In my mind, that was karma hitting back at the never-ending greed of American businesses.

I didn't worry about Citigroup — a multi-national company with billions in assets. Surely, the nearly two-century-old bank was too big to fail.

Then they weren't.

I pretended everything was fine

I obsessively watched Citigroup's stock losemuch of its value. For the briefest of moments in November 2008, it fell below a dollar a share before rallying.

When this happened, I momentarily envisioned a worst-case scenario: Citigroup might rapidly collapse under its financial weight, taking its thousands of employees with it — including me.

I didn't physically reveal my discomfort at the time. Instead, I moved forward like the economic world wasn't on fire. I put on an impassive face and assured my family that nothing was wrong.

My wife and I didn't have late-night chats on proper budgeting. We didn't talk to the kids about tightening our belts. I didn't speak to a financial advisor or shop around for lower car insurance costs. In retrospect, I should have done everything I could to secure my family's financial future.

Instead, I spent thousands of dollars on a family vacation to Disney World. We refinished our deck, purchased new kitchen flooring, and updated appliances. In 2009, we welcomed our fifth child, adding more expenses.

We purchased some of these items with cash (new baby excluded), but a large percentage was purchased with credit, eventually resulting in thousands of dollars of debt.

Still, it seemed like calm seas for the S.S. Keller. However, I wasn't steering a double-hulled cruise ship. I was rowing a dinghy against the current as a waterfall of denial loomed in front of me.

Now I know better

This life of lying to myself and my family hurt everyone in the end. In my mind, it was okay to tap into the savings and use credit for expenses beyond the budget. I had a steady, well-paying job at a large corporation.

Yet, I repeatedly overextended my finances when I should have been reeling in my family's financial habits. Compounding this was undiagnosed bipolar disorder. This contributed to impulsive spending and magical thinking about unrealistic financial assessments, but not all could be blamed on this eventual diagnosis.

The mistakes I made during this time led to my eventual divorce and a stretch of time that I spent homeless. The transition from a four-bedroom house to a minivan was a devastating blow.

Further, each time I review my credit report I cringe at the history of my financial missteps.

I didn't learn how to be financially responsible until after my bipolar diagnosis in 2020. Before that, I spent money as soon as it was earned. I lied to my family and endangered their financial stability. It has taken years to heal the wounds.

I now know that honesty and open communication with your family, even about difficult topics like finances, are essential for navigating uncertainty. While you don't have to prepare for the worst-case scenario, you must have the necessary monetary tools to withstand economic turbulence. This includes an emergency fund, budget, and debt reduction plan. I know this now, and I will be keeping it in mind in the coming months.

Today, I live in Northern Colorado and work hard to maintain a solid financial foundation. Although I recently lost my job, I don't give up and do the minimum to find a new position like I used to. I put in 100%, even when my neurodivergence wants me to do otherwise.

It's a precarious balancing act, especially for someone in their mid-50s. Nevertheless, I'm determined to live a life of abundance instead of scarcity.

• Facebook is testing a downvote feature for comment sections. It's designed to cut down on spam.
• It would allow you to downvote comments that aren't "useful."
• Facebook has tested a dislike or downvote button before, but it never stuck. Will this be different?

Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to make Facebook great again, and Meta announced a tiny new feature that might be a step toward that goal.

As part of a series of features and policies aiming to cut down on spammy content, Facebook is testing a "downvote" button for comment sections. This would allow people to anonymously downvote comments that they deem less "useful."

This wouldn't be the first time something like this has come up. For nearly as long as the "like" button has existed (since 2009), the masses have yearned for a "dislike" button. Meta has toyed around with testing a feature like this, but ultimately has never done it.

Back in 2016, Facebook added the extra "reaction" emojis (smiling, laughing, hugging, loving). Geoff Teehan, a product design director at Facebook at the time, wrote a Medium post in 2016: "About a year ago, Mark [Zuckerberg] brought together a team of people to start thinking seriously about how to make the Like button more expressive."

Teehan explained why they went with additional reactions instead of just a "thumbs down" emoji:

We first needed to consider how many different reactions we should include. This might seem like a pretty straightforward task: Just slap a thumbs down next to the Like button and ship it. It's not nearly that simple though.

People need a much higher degree of sophistication and richness in what choices we provide for their communications. Binary 'like' and 'dislike' doesn't properly reflect how we react to the vast array of things we encounter in our real lives.

In 2017, Facebook also tested out a "thumbs down" reaction button for Messenger. This would've been similar to the Apple iMessage reactions that launched in the fall of 2016 and included a thumbs-down emoji.

Instagram has also considered something like this. In February of this year, Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted about a test of downvoting Instagram comments:

But will people understand what the downvote arrow actually means? Will they use it on comments that are extraneous and actually not "useful," or will they use it to try to crush comments they don't agree with or don't like?

I asked Meta about this, and a spokesperson told me that, unlike past tests of a dislike or thumbs-down button, this test will explicitly tell users that it's about being useful —a little text bubble below the button will say, "Let us know which comments aren't useful."

The test is still just a test. It might not actually end up being rolled out. Personally, I think that less-useful comments are less of a burning issue than some of the other AI-slop stuff on Facebook. (Facebook is working on combating some of that, too.) But hey, that's just my questionably useful comment.

• Bill Ackman said a fear of looking weak is preventing the US and China from cutting tariffs.
• The billionaire hedge fund manager said tariffs should fall to "more reasonable levels" of 10% to 20%.
• He also questioned the belief that China can "win" a trade war with the US.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has said that China and the United States should dramatically cut their tariffs on one another, and only the fear of "looking weak" is stopping them.

Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square who supported President Donald Trump during the election, made the comments as imported Chinese goods entering the United States face a 145% tariff and American goods entering China face a 125% tariff.

A 10% baseline tariff on all imports into the United States remains in effect, while Trump has paused his raft of country-specific tariffs.

Ackman, who thanked Trump for announcing a 90-day pause on his proposed "reciprocal" tariffs earlier this month, posted on X on Saturday that tariffs were "very damaging in the short term to companies that rely on China for a large percentage of their goods."

He added China and the United States should reduce tariffs to "more reasonable levels — say 10% to 20% — as quickly as possible."

"The only thing stopping the reduction in tariffs to a more sensible level is the fear on the part of both countries' leadership of looking weak," he said.

"A pause, however, would not be a sign of weakness because it requires both countries to take down their tariffs. It is just common sense," he added.

Ackman also questioned the view that China could "win" a trade war with the United States.

"The problem with this assessment is that, the longer the tariffs persist, the more rapidly every company that has a supply chain based in China relocates it to India, Vietnam, Mexico, the U.S. or some other country," Ackman wrote.

"This is true for US and non-US companies. As a long-term player, China must understand this dynamic," he continued.

Ackman added that whatever happened, companies would no longer be willing to keep their supply chains in China. "That cake is already baked," he added.

Trump and China's leadership made conflicting statements this week about the status of trade talks.

"We're meeting with China," Trump said in an interview with "Time" magazine, which was published on Friday but held on Tuesday.

On Thursday, two Chinese officials said there were no ongoing talks.

• Many tech leaders tried to get close to Trump after the election, donating to his inaugural fund.
• One expert told BI that, since then, it's been a "rocky road" for Silicon Valley leaders and Trump.
• Here's where some of tech's big names — and businesses — stand with the president a few months in.

Some of the biggest tech leaders tried to get in President Donald Trump's good graces before he took office for a second time, meeting with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort and snagging prime spots at Trump's inauguration.

A few months into his presidency, many of those tech leaders are now dealing with tariffs and other disruptive policies, like immigration restrictions and funding cuts, that could impact their bottom lines.

At the time of writing, Trump had exempted many electronics from the harshest levies on China and instead said they would be moved to a different tariff "bucket" in the future. Yet other tariffs have caused US CEOs to pause spending and hiring, and they could make it more expensive to build AI data centers.

The stocks of all publicly listed companies included here have dropped since the inauguration, as has the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said some of the tech leaders have "probably been disappointed."

"The tech leaders had a buddy-buddy relationship with Trump early in the administration, but since then, it has been a rocky road," he said. Moving forward, he anticipates that tech leaders will still try to remain close to Trump, even if it doesn't guarantee returns.

"The fact that he meets with CEOs does not mean that he follows the advice they give him," he said.

Here's where some of the biggest tech leaders — and their companies — stand with the president now.

Representatives for Meta, Nvidia, and Amazon declined to comment to Business Insider. Representatives for the White House and other companies did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, X, Boring Company, Neuralink

Elon Musk spent at least $277 million backing Trump and Republicans during the election, has influenced policy and personnel decisions, and is the face of the White House DOGE Office — for now.

The world's richest man has remained close to the president in the months since, but his involvement in Washington seems to be waning. Americans are souring on his political involvement, according to public opinion polls, and he has been viewed by some as a political liability. During a Tesla earnings call in April, Musk announced that he would be stepping back from DOGE and devoting more time to Tesla.

Tesla has suffered since Trump took office due to a widespread protest movement and plummeting sales. Musk has publicly criticized Trump's tariffs but said on the earnings call that Tesla is generally "the least affected car company" when it comes to levies. SpaceX could also benefit from new government contracts.

Other than Tesla, Musk's companies are privately held.

Mark Zuckerberg: Meta

Mark Zuckerberg and Trump have a tumultuous history, but the Facebook founder has recently tried to patch things up. The Meta CEO called Trump a "badass" before the election and ended fact-checking on Meta platforms. The company donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.

Court proceedings recently began in the Federal Trade Commission's blockbuster trial against Meta. The government is trying to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that the company operates as an illegal monopoly. Zuckerberg was the first witness and testified for hours.

Before the trial, Zuckerberg tried to have the suit dismissed. The FTC asked for $30 billion to settle, but Zuckerberg offered only about $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meta could also take a hit from tariffs, since Chinese advertisers buy ads on its platforms. The company could lose $7 billion in ad revenue, the Journal reported.

Sundar Pichai: Alphabet

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, and Google donated $1 million to the inauguration fund.

The company hasn't been spared from lawsuits — in April, the Department of Justice kicked off a remedy hearing for Google, where it will decide the company's fate after a previous ruling that it's a monopoly. One proposed solution is separating Chrome, Google's flagship search engine. Google has said it intends to appeal the case, and an executive said in a blog post that the DOJ's proposed solutions are "unnecessary and harmful."

Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported first-quarter earnings on April 24 and exceeded initial revenue expectations despite market volatility.

Jensen Huang: Nvidia

Unlike many of his counterparts, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not attend Trump's inauguration. He spent the day celebrating Lunar New Year with employees in Asia. He met with Trump shortly after, however, and Nvidia donated $1 million to the inaugural committee.

The chipmaker sources many of its semiconductors abroad, primarily in Taiwan, making the trade environment tricky. Yet in a March interview with CNBC, Huang sounded relatively calm about tariffs, saying that he's "enthusiastic" about building in the US and that "in the near term, the impact of tariffs won't be meaningful."

Morgan Stanley said in April that Nvidia was still its "top pick" in the market.

Tim Cook: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook personally donated $1 million to the inaugural committee and attended the event. He also had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election.

Apple is vulnerable to tariffs as the company manufactures many of its products in China. Analysts predicted that the original tariffs could massively drive up iPhone prices; It remains unclear exactly how prices will change in the fluctuating trade environment. The company is ramping up production in India.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts sent Cook a letter asking for more information about his reported efforts to get specific tariff exemptions. She wrote that they "raise fresh concerns" about corporations' abilities to "gain special favors."

Jeff Bezos: Amazon

In addition to his role as the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, Bezos also owns The Washington Post. During the most recent election, he sparked controversy by deciding that the WaPo wouldn't endorse a candidate.

After Trump won, Bezos had dinner with Trump and Musk at Mar-a-Lago. Amazon donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, and Bezos and his fiancée attended the inauguration.

Amazon is facing an ongoing antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and tariffs look set to affect it. Some Amazon sellers have had to raise prices, though a representative for the company previously told BI only a "tiny fraction of items in our store" have been impacted.

Shou Zi Chew: TikTok

TikTok is running up against the clock — Trump has repeatedly paused enforcement of a US ban to try and broker a deal with potential bidders for the company in America.

CEO Shou Zi Chew, the company's CEO, met with Trump in December and attended the inauguration. TikTok spent $50,000 on an inauguration party for Gen Z and influencers that helped spread the president's campaign message. The app's future remains uncertain.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a privately owned Chinese company.

Sam Altman: OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally gave $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and attended the event. He also visited the White House early in Trump's term to announce Stargate, a $500 billion private-sector AI infrastructure investment that spurred a public spat with Musk.

The company gave the White House recommendations for an "AI Action Plan" due to be submitted to Trump in July and advocated for a light regulatory environment.

OpenAI is a privately held company. At the end of March, it announced a new funding round that put its valuation at $300 billion.

Satya Nadella: Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella didn't attend Trump's inauguration but did congratulate him online, like many other tech leaders. Microsoft donated $1 million to the inaugural fund.

• My favorite cocktail requires three ingredients and zero stress but produces maximum flavor.
• A key ingredient is pomegranate juice — as a dietitian, I like that it's a source of antioxidants.
• The other two ingredients are triple sec and vodka, though the drink is easy to customize.

Picture this: It's cocktail hour, guests are arriving, and you're ready to impress them with the most delicious drink they've ever had.

Enter: My favorite three-ingredient cocktail.

It's so downright tasty that people I serve it to often assume it's some secret, ultra-complicated mixology masterpiece. I've had many guests sip it, pause mid-sentence, and say things like, "Oh my gosh, what is this? It's amazing!"

The reactions never get old, and neither does this versatile, elegant-looking drink. It's my secret weapon when hosting, and the best part is … it's actually really easy to make.

Here's how to prepare this cocktail and why I like it so much.

The recipe is pretty foolproof and customizable

My glorious concoction includes pomegranate juice, a touch of triple sec, and vodka. That's it!

Here's how I usually make it:

1. Add ice to a cocktail shaker, then 2 ounces pomegranate juice (I prefer POM Wonderful), ½ ounce triple sec, and 1 ½ ounces vodka.
2. Shake it for about 15 seconds.
3. Strain the mixture into your favorite cocktail glass (bonus points for adding fun garnishes, like pomegranate seeds or a citrus slice).
4. Sip and enjoy.

The cocktail is versatile, and its key ingredient makes me happy as a dietitian

As a dietitian, I'm a big fan of using 100% pomegranate juice because it contains no added sugars and is loaded with antioxidants. This means I can feel slightly virtuous while sipping this cocktail (even though alcohol isn't good for you).

This recipe is quite versatile, too. Ratios can be adjusted based on preference and it can be customized.

If you're not a fan of sweet cocktails, ditch the triple sec and use a flavored vodka instead.

I like using Cathead Satsuma mandarin vodka, which has a subtle citrus flavor that beautifully complements the pomegranate juice.

It's also a tasty mocktail if you omit the vodka or swap it out for a splash of soda water.

Overall, this drink is ridiculously simple to make, tastes like a million bucks, and has a stunning deep-red color that just looks impressive. I suggest giving it a chance.

• Reid Hoffman said he uses OpenAI's Deep Research every day to have a "lens" on AI's future.
• He said using "chain-of-thought" models offered an insight into how these products could be "workers in the future."
• He added that "a bunch of folks" were in the race to develop the best agentic AI.

Reid Hoffman has said he uses a specific tool daily to gain insight into how AI products could be "workers in the future."

The LinkedIn cofounder and investor said he did "at least" one prompt daily with OpenAI's Deep Research tool, an agentic tool for automating complex multi-step internet research. He also said there was many companies building "strong" offerings in the race to make AI agents.

Hoffman, who stood down as an OpenAI director in 2023, citing potential conflicts of interest with his other AI investments, was asked about the startup during an interview on Bloomberg Television on Friday.

He said he was using Deep Research once a day, and that it "gives you the lens to the amplification we're going to get with these products as workers in the future."

The rise of agentic AI, which can independently act on a person's behalf and make decisions without human intervention, has fuelled speculation about how and when AI might replace human workers.

A group of Carnegie Mellon researchers ran a virtual simulation designed to test how AI agents fare in real-world professional scenarios. They found that the top-performing model finished less than one-quarter of all tasks.

"While agents may be used to accelerate some portion of the tasks that human workers are doing, they are likely not a replacement for all tasks at the moment," Graham Neubig, a computer science professor at CMU and one of the researchers, previously told BI.

Hoffman, who cofounded Manas AI, said he saw no clear leader in the race to develop agentic AI, saying there was "a bunch of folks who are doing very strong things," and "not just OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google."

Bloomberg interviewer Ed Ludlow told Hoffman he was increasingly talking to AI in voice mode, which he called "a psychological thing that, as a consumer, you kind of have to get over."

• Trump and Zelenskyy met at the Vatican before Pope Francis' funeral.
• This was their first meeting since a heated exchange at the White House in February.
• "Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic," Zelenskyy later wrote on X.

Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Saturday — their first encounter since a heated exchange at the White House two months ago.

The two leaders held a discussion inside St. Peter's Basilica, ahead of the Pope's funeral, with French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer present during the initial moments.

Zelenskyy and Trump had not met since their heated exchange in the Oval Office on February 28, in which Trump said of Ukraine's war against Russia, "You're either going to make a deal or we're out."

Four days later, Trump announced a pause in US military aid, and the EU declared "an era of rearmament," as it unveiled a defense funding boost.

The Oval Office meeting was in the glare of the world's press, but photos of the Rome meeting show Trump and Zelenskyy seated close together, without aides or interpreters.

Andrii Yermak, a senior aide to Zelenskyy, shared a photo of the leaders in St. Peter's Basilica on Telegram. "Constructive," he wrote.

Steven Cheung, White House communications director, called it a "very productive discussion."

Posting X, Zelenskyy said the encounter had been a "good meeting."

"We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results," he said.

The Rome meeting comes after Steve Witkoff, Trump's designated peace envoy, travelled to Moscow for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov said the talks centered on "the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine."

Following Witkoff's return, Trump said on Truth Social that "most of the major points are agreed to" and that a cease-fire deal between Kyiv and Moscow was "very close."

As he prepared to leave for Rome on Friday, Trump told reporters that the talks were "very fragile." He has also warned that the US might halt its mediation efforts if a deal isn't reached soon.

After the meeting on Saturday, Zelenskyy was greeted with applause when he walked out of St Peter's Basilica after paying his respects in front of the pontiff's coffin.

Trump later wrote a long post on Truth Social, in which he called the war in Ukraine "Sleepy Joe Biden's War, not mine. It was a loser from day one."

The long post ended, "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through "Banking" or "Secondary Sanctions?" Too many people are dying!!!"

• Pope Francis, the 266th head of the Roman Catholic Church, died on April 21 at the age of 88.
• Trump, Macron, Zelenskyy, and other world leaders attended the funeral Mass on Saturday.
• Over 250,000 people gathered to pay their respects to the late pontiff, Vatican authorities said.

After 12 years of serving as the 266th head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis died on April 21 at the age of 88.

Thousands of people paid their respects as the pontiff's body lay in state inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in the days before his burial in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Saturday's funeral Mass was attended by world leaders, including President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A new pope will be chosen by the College of Cardinals in a papal election known as the conclave.

Photos show powerful moments from the late pope's funeral proceedings.

After Pope Francis' death was announced on Easter Monday, mourners assembled for an evening rosary prayer in St. Peter's Square.

Visitors left flowers, candles, and photos of the late pope.

The late pope lay in state in an open wooden coffin on Tuesday at Casa Santa Marta, his papal residence.

On Wednesday, his body was transferred to St. Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest sites in the Catholic church, for three days of public viewing.

His coffin was placed in front of the Altar of the Confession, which sits above what is believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles.

After leading the procession to the Basilica, the Cardinals conducted a service featuring liturgical readings and hymns.

Tens of thousands of people waited in line to enter St. Peter's Basilica and pay their respects to Pope Francis.

On Saturday, Pope Francis' funeral Mass took place in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Vatican authorities said more than 250,000 people watched on during the ceremony, which included Gregorian chants and Latin verses.

Dozens of world leaders attended the Holy event, including Trump. Macron, Zelenskyy, and Biden also attended.

After the Mass, the coffin carrying the Pope's body was brought to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his final resting place.

• When my sister was dying of breast cancer, she made me promise I'd live my life to the fullest.
• At first, I didn't follow through, but eventually I found the courage to act on my promise.
• I decided to move on my own to a beach town, where I met my husband.

When my older sister called to let me know that the painful lump in her breast was not a clogged milk duct from nursing her newborn, my world shattered. My 31-year-old sister was diagnosed with stage 3C breast cancer.

I immediately purchased a one-way plane ticket to stay with her and help with my 2-year-old nephew and newborn niece. Over the next two and a half years, I watched my once strong and bossy sister slowly become bedridden. She then became unable to walk or breathe without oxygen.

In our final conversation, I told her I wished I could take her place. After all, I had no children and was in an unhappy marriage. My sister replied that she was glad it was her and not me. She said she wanted me to have children and truly experience life.

She then asked me to promise to live a life for both of us, doing the things she wouldn't be able to do. She encouraged me to create happiness despite whatever difficult decisions I'd have to make. I made her that promise, altering my life forever.

At first, I couldn't handle the grief and ignored the promise I made

Her passing, though ultimately expected, rocked my sense of mortality and shattered me. We had always talked about growing old together in a nursing home and bickering with each other when we were 95, sharing a room like we did when we were kids.

At 27, I was deeply cognizant that I had no guarantee of time. Like everyone else, I thought I had decades before thinking about mortality, let alone a bucket list.

I was in denial for years. I lacked direction, strength, and self-worth.

Running became my outlet for grief. When I'd get tired and wanted to stop, I pictured my sister in her wheelchair, gasping for air, and took another step for her.

After my sister died, I had no mental or emotional energy to deal with my failing marraige. Having a baby didn't fix it.

I wondered if this was the life my sister envisioned for me as she was dying. Suddenly, I knew it wasn't. At 29, I finally admitted I was anything but happy and knew it was time to make a change.

I eventually acted on the promise I made with my sister

Braving the judgment I knew I'd face, I left my marriage and moved states with my infant and two large dogs to fulfill my dream of living near the beach despite having no family nearby to help. I started saying "yes" to more things and tackling my newly created bucket list.

An opportunity to visit Hawaii arose, and I jumped on it. In just one week, I skydived, got scuba certified, hiked a mountain at sunrise, and swam with sharks.

Keeping my promise to her — to say yes, to create happiness — changed everything. I gained confidence and self-esteem. That transformation led me to my life partner and now-husband, whom I met on the beach. We got engaged and married on that same sand.

Having my second child with him and feeling renewed in my career and personal relationships, I now live a life my 90-year-old self — and my sister — would be proud of.

I choose myself daily and remove what doesn't serve me. Every year, I celebrate aging; each birthday I see means I'm still alive, and I will never take that for granted.

I still live near the same beach where I rebuilt my life, and my car is covered in sand, dog hair, kids' toys, and sunscreen — just as I had always hoped.

• Inventor James Dyson has talked about the importance of embracing "failure" in work and life.
• "I've always said mine is a life of failure," the British billionaire told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.
• He's created thousands of prototypes over his career and also scrapped plans to enter the EV market.

Inventor James Dyson is famous for his namesake vacuums which use his patented cyclone technology. His net worth is $16.8 billion per Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.

But he says that, "mine is a life of failure."

In a video interview with The Wall Street Journal published Saturday. Dyson — who said he created 5,127 prototypes over five years before launching his bagless vacuum cleaner in 1993 — said that embracing failure was essential to life.

"It's true for writers and filmmakers and all sorts of people. It's a life of failure. It takes a long time before you find the one that works," he said. "You just have to get used to that."

Dyson, 77, said he enjoyed the misfires and struggles he's had across his career, saying that real wisdom comes from experience.

"At school, you're taught to get the answer right the first time," he said. While a clever student may get to the answer quickly, he said, they are at a disadvantage to those who take their time getting to an answer, as they haven't "viscerally experienced failure and overcoming failure."

For Dyson, resilience and adaptability are some of the most important skills someone can learn. "Life is about making things work," he said.

He continued: "That's what you have to do. It's trial and error. When something works, it's less challenging, it's less interesting."

Aside from the many prototypes it took him to invent the first vacuum with his namesake brand, Dyson famously abandoned plans to enter the electric car market in 2019 after spending more than $600 million on developing a vehicle that he came to realize was not commercially viable.

"The route to success is never linear. This is not the first project which has changed direction and it will not be the last," he wrote in a letter announcing the decision.

He said of his scrapped EV vehicle, "I could see that it was just too risky."