• I tried vanilla syrups from Monin, DaVinci Gourmet, Torani, and Portland Syrups in cold-brew coffee.
• I think the Monin syrup had the best vanilla flavor, but I also liked the one from Portland Syrups.
• Although some people might enjoy them, I wasn't blown away by the Torani or DaVinci Gourmet syrups.

It's possible to save money by making coffee at home — but if it's not very good, what's the point?

Fortunately, the right syrup can help make even a novice-made drink taste like it's from a café.

To figure out which belong in my at-home coffee bar, I picked up vanilla syrups from Monin, DaVinci Gourmet, Torani, and Portland Syrups.

I tested them by stirring half the serving size of each into 8 ounces of cold-brew coffee. (A full serving can be too sweet for my liking.)

Here's how the vanilla syrups compared.

Monin's vanilla syrup seemed promising.

Although the Monin syrup bottle was plastic, the elegant-looking label made it feel more high-end to me.

I paid $18.69 for the 33.8-ounce bottle, or $0.55 an ounce.

The ingredients list is short: pure cane sugar, water, natural flavors, natural vanilla extract, and fruit/vegetable juice for coloring.

Of the syrups I tried, this one had the highest calories (100) and sugar (23 grams) per serving, which was 1 ounce, or 2 tablespoons.

The Monin syrup had a rich flavor and a nice level of sweetness.

The syrup had a thin consistency and a nice, natural vanilla scent.

When I added it to the coffee, the vanilla flavor wasn't as strong as it had smelled in the bottle, but it still came through.

Because of the higher sugar content, I expected this syrup to be too sweet. Instead, I found it was the perfect level of sweetness with a more complex, rich aftertaste that kind of reminded me of caramel.

The DaVinci Gourmet brand was new to me.

Although I was familiar with brands like Monin or Torani, I had never come across DaVinci Gourmet in stores or online before.

This 25.4-ounce bottle of syrup cost me $6.88. It had the lowest cost per ounce at $0.27.

The ingredients list includes water, cane sugar, citric acid, preservatives, natural flavors, and added caramel color. Each 2-tablespoon serving contains 18 grams of sugar and 70 calories.

This syrup tasted a bit too artificial for my liking.

The syrup was very thin, and it had an alcohol scent that reminded me of opening a bottle of vanilla extract. It was quite dark from the added coloring.

As for flavor, this tasted very sweet with a really faint vanilla flavor. I didn't love the aftertaste, which seemed somewhat bitter and artificial to me.

To me, Torani is the most recognizable brand of the bunch.

I was the most familiar with Torani, which is oftentimes the only coffee syrup I see on shelves at my local grocery stores.

The 25.4-ounce bottle I purchased came with a pump for convenience and cost me $14.99, or $0.59 an ounce.

The ingredients include pure cane sugar, water, citric acid, preservatives, and natural flavors, but no additives for color.

Each 2-tablespoon serving contains 20 grams of sugar and 80 calories.

The syrup's flavor was more subtle than I expected.

The syrup was very light in color and slightly thicker in consistency than the others (although still thin enough to stir easily into cold coffee).

I didn't smell much of anything when I opened the bottle.

Although I've used Torani syrups before, I was surprised by how subtle the vanilla flavor seemed when comparing this side-by-side with other options.

The sweetness level was ideal, but I wished the vanilla flavor were stronger.

Portland Syrups is a smaller and new-to-me business.

The next syrup I tried is from Portland Syrups, a small business based in Portland, Oregon.

I loved that it came in a chic glass bottle with a metal cap. Notably, it was the only syrup to require refrigeration after opening.

This 12-fluid-ounce bottle cost $14.99, or $1.25 an ounce.

Despite the higher price, this syrup still contains the same number of servings as the others I tried, since it's more concentrated. The serving size is 1 tablespoon (half of the others).

The ingredients seemed simple — filtered water, organic cane sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, vanilla concentrate, lactic acid, and organic vanilla fleck.

It has 25 calories and 6 grams of sugar per serving.

I was impressed by the complex flavors in this syrup.

Upon opening this syrup, I strangely thought it smelled like vanilla and bananas.

Given the simple ingredient list, I expected a really strong vanilla flavor. In reality, I only got a hint of vanilla, and instead got a lot more richness and depth from the brown sugar.

This syrup was delicious with coffee, but it tasted much different from how I'd expect a vanilla syrup to taste.

My favorite syrup offered the most traditional vanilla flavor.

All in all, I think Monin's syrup gave my coffee the best classic vanilla flavor.

I felt it had the strongest vanilla taste and I appreciated its fairly simple list of ingredients — even though it was a bit higher in sugar than I'd typically like.

The Portland Syrups option was a close second for me. It fell short because it didn't have the classic vanilla taste I expected, but the deeper, more complex flavor notes made it enjoyable.

I wasn't wowed by the Torani syrup, but I'd buy it again in the future simply because it's the easiest for me to find in grocery stores. I liked the level of sweetness in it, but I wanted a stronger vanilla flavor.

Torani also sells French-vanilla and vanilla-bean syrups, so I may try those in the future to see if the vanilla flavor is more prominent.

Although the DaVinci syrup was technically the cheapest per ounce, I'd rather pay a little more for a different syrup on this list.

The good thing about all of these, though, is that you can use as much of each as you want to create your perfect cup of coffee.

• Shahad Ishraq was a systems development engineer at Amazon in Germany for just over three years.
• He quit at the end of May after the company implemented a five-day RTO.
• Ishraq said Andy Jassy's memo wasn't surprising, and he isn't concerned about his future career.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 30-year-old Shahad Ishraq, from Germany. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Reading Andy Jassy's new memo on generative AI, I'm not surprised by anything.

I worked at Amazon for nearly three and a half years and left in late May because of the 5-day RTO mandate. My commute took an hour and a half each way, so I wanted to move to another job where I could still see my career progressing and do interesting work.

The memo feels consistent with what I'd been hearing from management and Jassy while working at Amazon. I think Jassy's comments are to show shareholders he's invested in the technology.

I initially worried about AI when I wasn't as familiar with the products. However, using AI will give you a better understanding of what it's capable of and what skills you can develop to differentiate yourself.

At Amazon, there were some eager adopters of AI and some skeptics

I joined Amazon in 2022 as a systems development engineer, working in Leipzig, Germany. My day-to-day work involved designing and implementing software and performing operational tasks.

When AI tools first came out a few years ago, we were told we could use them, but we should be very careful and follow the company's policies on their usage.

Amazon is a huge company. Within it, I spotted and heard about different approaches to AI adoption. There seemed to be a bunch of excited early adopters who shared their findings with everyone. There were people like me who followed the first bunch and saw what went well. There were also some skeptics and a small number of engineers who were outright against using AI.

For me, the dawn of AI was a bit scary at first. Everyone was saying it would put me out of a job. Unless you test the technology yourself and see what it can do, you'll fear the unknown. AI wasn't part of my job until sometime in 2024.

There were also some barriers to using the technology. When I first joined Amazon, ChatGPT wasn't even available, but when it did come out in 2022 we couldn't use it that extensively because of data security issues that come with copying our code into those models. When Anthropic's Claude became available within Amazon Bedrock — the company's internal service for developing generative AI applications — we were able to make more use of AI.

In my last few months at Amazon, I started experimenting a lot with approved AI tools, doing extensive tests with them. They don't do everything for me, but I've integrated these tools into my workflow, such as by asking it to create a plan for my tasks or spot differences between documents.

I noticed it often fails, and I have to make changes, but overall, it has improved my speed and increased my throughput significantly.

AI won't eliminate software engineers anytime soon

Andy Jassy's memo feels very consistent with what I've been told internally before I left Amazon and what the company has communicated publicly.

News articles talking about the memo focus on Jassy saying that a lot of jobs will be taken by AI. However, in the same sentence, he also says jobs will be created.

I've tried creating production-level applications using AI, and it takes a lot of effort to get these products ready. A company like Amazon can't roll out an application that breaks and causes havoc. They have to have firewalls, checks, and tests.

I don't see people going out of jobs in huge numbers soon. Amazon went on a hiring spree during COVID. If we see more layoffs, I think it will be associated with cutting back after that spree, rather than the impacts of AI.

AI agents are helping out software engineers a lot, and the amount of work agents do will probably increase gradually. I'm able to get agents working on three different things, while I look into other tasks.

But AI hallucinates quite a lot. It does things it's not asked to do. I often have to correct an AI agent producing code. Humans will be required to build guardrails and act as guardrails themselves. Implementing these guardrails will take time, and I think this will slow down the AI agent hype.

There's nothing new in Jassy's memo

I think Jassy's comments about AI are to show shareholders he's invested in the technology. Memos have to come out. Jassy has to place a lot of optimism around AI; otherwise, shareholders will think they're not doing anything with AI.

My advice to Amazon employees is to start using AI as much as possible to overcome their fear of the unknown. I now work as a software engineer at a utilities company. The more I've been using AI, the more comfortable I feel about myself. I can see what skills I have that I can use to stay relevant.

In tech, languages and developments come really fast. My guess is that people will need to use AI to write code and increase their throughput, and pure software engineers will gradually be replaced by people who have both software engineering and AI skills.

I'm personally trying to learn these skills because I think they'll become more important.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider, "Amazon employees use internal generative AI tools every day to innovate on behalf of our customers. We have safeguards in place for employee use of these technologies, including restrictions on sharing confidential information with third-party generative AI services."

Do you have a story to share about the AI job market? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Reid Hoffman said AI will transform jobs, but he doesn't think it will cause a 'bloodbath.'
• The LinkedIn cofounder was referring to comments made by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei last month.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also disagreed with Anthropic's AI job loss predictions.

Reid Hoffman, the venture capitalist who cofounded LinkedIn, said AI will transform jobs, but he rejected the idea that it will result in a "bloodbath" for job seekers.

"Yes, I think people are underestimating AI's impact on jobs," Hoffman said on an episode of the Rapid Response podcast, released Tuesday.

"But I think inducing panic as a response is serving media announcement purposes," he said, "and not actually, in fact, intelligent industry and economic and career path planning."

The podcast's host, Bob Safian, asked Hoffman about comments made by Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, in May.

In an interview with Axios, Amodei warned that AI companies and governments needed to stop "sugarcoating" the potential for mass job losses in white-collar industries like finance, law, and consulting.

"We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei said.

He estimated that AI could spike unemployment by up to 20% in the next five years, and may eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within that same period.

Hoffman said he had called the Anthropic CEO to discuss it.

"'Bloodbath' is a very good way to grab internet headlines, media headlines," Hoffman said. (Axios, not Amodei, used the phrase "white-collar bloodbath.")

But, Hoffman added, "bloodbath just implies everything going away."

He said he disagreed with this assessment, believing that transformation, not mass elimination, of jobs is a more likely outcome.

"Dario is right that over a decade or three, there will be a massive set of job transformation," Hoffman said.

But he compared it to the introduction of tools like Microsoft Excel, which were believed by some at the time to mark the end of accountancy roles.

"In fact, the accountant job got broader, richer," Hoffman said.

He added: "Just because a function's coming that has a replacement area on a certain set of tasks doesn't mean all of this job's going to get replaced."

Instead of AI eliminating roles, Hoffman predicted: "We at least have many years, if not a long time, of person-plus-AI doing things."

Hoffman isn't the only business leader to question Amodei's AI doomsday prophecy.

Speaking at VivaTech in Paris earlier this month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he and Amodei "pretty much disagree with almost everything" on AI.

"One, he believes that AI is so scary that only they should do it," Huang said. "Two, that AI is so expensive, nobody else should do it."

Huang added, "And three, AI is so incredibly powerful that everyone will lose their jobs, which explains why they should be the only company building it."

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Russia's economy is on the brink of recession, the country's economy minister said.
• Maxim Reshetnikov said at an economic forum that data shows its economy is cooling.
• Russia is facing stubborn inflation, labor shortages, and the impact of Western sanctions.

The Russian economy is "on the brink" of entering a recession, the country's economy minister warned on Thursday.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a major annual business event in Russia, Maxim Reshetnikov said data showed the economy "cooling."

When a moderator asked him to describe the state of the economy, he said it seemed that the country was "on the verge of going into recession," according to Russian news agency Interfax.

He later clarified that he wasn't making an outright prediction. "I said that we were on the brink," Reshetnikov said. "From here on out, everything will depend on our decisions."

Reshetnikov has already raised concerns about the direction of the Russian economy. In May, while addressing the State Duma, he said that the economy was cooling so sharply it risked entering a state of economic "hypothermia."

In that address, Reshetnikov urged Russia's central bank to take into account easing inflation when setting interest rates. On June 6, the bank did just that, cutting its key interest rate from 21% to 20%, citing signs of declining inflation.

While inflation is easing slightly, it has remained stubbornly high — now hovering around 10% — since spiking in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Hard or soft landing?

The central bank's moves to dampen inflation meant a sharp economic slowdown was inevitable and even intentional, said Brigitte Granville, professor of international economics and economic policy at Queen Mary, University of London.

"The key question has always been whether the Russian economy would undergo a 'hard landing' — meaning inflation would be brought under control at the cost of tipping the economy into recession — or a 'soft landing,' where inflation moderates without triggering a recession," she told BI in an email.

Even if a technical recession did occur, Granville said Russia's labour market remained extremely tight, supporting wage growth. "Even a hard landing would not have serious consequences for the sustainability of Russia's war effort."

All in on defense

Since the start of the war, Russia has gone all in on defense spending.

It's on track to spend about $130 billion on defense, roughly a third of its federal budget, up from 28.3% in 2024.

It's also potentially running low on cash, with one Swedish economist predicting that Russia could run out of liquid reserves as soon as this fall.

The country is still grappling with the effects of Western sanctions, which have targeted its oil and gas exports and largely cut financial institutions off from the international financial communication system SWIFT.

Russia's economy is also suffering from a severe labor shortage, driven in part by the military mobilization, as well as a brain drain of young professionals leaving the country.

According to state media, Russia had a shortfall of some 2.6 million workers at the end of 2024, with shortages hitting the manufacturing, trade, and transportation sectors especially hard.

• Chef Aidan Owens of Herb & Sea is here to answer all your questions about oysters.
• East Coast oysters are briny and lean, while West Coast oysters are smaller and creamier.
• For oyster beginners, Owens recommends trying small varieties like Kusshis or Kumamotos.

For the uninitiated, oysters can be intimidating.

There are different sizes, varieties, and toppings. Should you go with Blue Point or Kumamoto? Should you add mignonette or cocktail sauce?

To answer all your burning questions and help you look like an expert at a seafood restaurant, we asked Aidan Owens to share his tips.

The Australian chef is the culinary director for Herb & Wood in San Diego and Herb & Sea in Encinitas, California, where he exclusively cooks with seafood from independent local fishermen. Owens even has an oyster shell recycling program to help a local lagoon conservation foundation.

Now, without further ado, here's Oysters 101.

East Coast vs. West Coast

It's common to see oysters identified as "East Coast" or "West Coast" on restaurant menus. This identifies whether the oysters come from the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, which infuses them with different flavors.

"East Coast oysters — like Blue Points or Wellfleets — are briny, salty, and lean," Owens told Business Insider. "West Coast oysters — like Kumamotos or Shigokus — are smaller, creamier, and sometimes a little sweet."

If you like your oysters mild, opt for those from colder waters. Owens explained that they grow more slowly and have a softer flavor.

"Brinier oysters usually come from warmer, saltier waters," he added. "They taste like the ocean."

Large vs. small

Don't just choose bigger oysters for the extra meat. They have a different taste from oysters of the smaller variety.

"Bigger oysters are brinier, meatier, and built for the grill," Owens said. "Smaller oysters are delicate and silky, perfect with just a squeeze of lemon."

If it's your first time with oysters, Owens suggests starting small.

"I usually recommend Kusshis or Kumamotos," he said. "They're delicate, sweet, and super approachable for first-timers."

Don't forget the toppings

When it comes to raw oysters, Owens prefers to keep the toppings minimal.

"A splash of lemon, a classic mignonette, or maybe a fermented hot sauce," he said.

However, don't be afraid to pack a punch if you're grilling the oysters.

"Go bold with garlic butter, smoky bacon, or even a little kimchi butter," Owens added.

Stay safe with a smell test

The rule that you should only eat oysters during the months that end with "R" is an outdated myth that "comes from a time before refrigeration," Owens said.

"Back then, warmer months made oysters riskier to eat," he added. "Thanks to modern refrigeration and farming practices, oysters are safe and delicious year-round."

All you need is a quick smell test to ensure your oyster is fresh.

"A good oyster smells like clean ocean air," Owens said. "If it smells like a bait bucket left in the sun, walk away."

• We started our family young and quickly realized the importance of planning for our child's future.
• Despite more immediate financial pressures, we prioritize our child's 529 savings plan.
• We are now committed to long-term financial planning and legacy building.

In 2021, my husband and I were only one year into postgraduate life and very new to marriage. At the time, our financial literacy left a lot to be desired, and being new parents only complicated all of this.

As our son grew month after month, we started thinking more seriously about his future and that of our family.

The phrase heard so often, "The days are long, but the years are short," started to feel very real as we navigated the first year with our son. We knew that while the day-to-day may feel overwhelming, many years from now, we'll look back and wonder if we had made the most of the years that flashed before us in a blink.

That's when I knew it was time to start saving for my son's future.

We chose a 529 plan

Our knowledge of financial planning for the future was limited. Being a researcher by nature, I scoured the internet, listened to podcasts, and spent more time than I'd like to admit playing with projection calculators. This carried on for months, and when our son was nearly a year old, I opened a 529 account in his name.

I chose this route for a few reasons: tax-free growth and withdrawals, the freedom to apply the funds to trade schools and more alternative paths of education, and the ability to use the funds for his K-12 schooling.

We've contributed to our now four-year-old son's 529 college savings plan every month since, even when it's not been easy. It's not a flashy or exciting decision, and it's not one that we made because we simply have piles of extra money lying around.

Like most parents of young kids, we're juggling the usual financial pressures: a mortgage and costs of homeownership, a car payment and vehicle maintenance, high grocery costs, and the real, ongoing expense of raising a child in today's economy.

But this particular choice to invest regularly in our child's future, even when other needs compete for our dollars, has become a cornerstone of our family's financial mindset.

Our small contributions still add up

At first, the contributions were small — $25 here, $50 there —whatever we could manage in those early months.

But gradually, I stopped seeing it as a "nice-to-have" and started treating it like a non-negotiable. Today, it's baked into our monthly budget, right alongside the mortgage and the utility bills.

We know we won't be able to cover every dollar of our son's future training and education, and that's OK. The point isn't perfection. It's preparation.

Now and as he grows, we will be intentional about modeling the value of hard work and financial stewardship. He'll know that while we've saved and planned ahead for him, he will also have a role to play in his education —through effort, responsibility, and ownership of his own goals.

Preparing for his future is part of our legacy

It's hard to think long-term when short-term costs are constantly staring you in the face. And yet, I believe that choosing to save for our child's future, even when it requires trade-offs today, is a powerful act.

More than a financial decision, it's one rooted in legacy. What does it really mean to raise kids while also building a life shaped by purpose, stewardship, and vision? For me, it looks like this: planning for the future while still being present, setting systems in place that reflect our values, and staying the course — even when things aren't perfect.

Of course, there are seasons when saving takes a backseat to survival. I know what it's like to weigh the cost of diapers against car repairs or a new HVAC system. But I've also learned that progress requires consistency and a willingness to begin, even if it's small.

So every month, we keep showing up for our future and that of our son. Quietly, steadily, and with a lot of heart.

One day, when he's old enough to ask why we made the choices we did, I hope he'll see that we believed in his potential, that we thought ahead, and that we made room for his future in the middle of our very full present.

Because to us, that's what legacy really is: not grand gestures, but intentional ones.

• After flying with 40 different airlines, Qantas stands out as my favorite.
• In my opinion, the airline offers great customer service and in-flight perks.
• Overall, I think Qantas offers the best combination of value, service, and reliability.

When I first started traveling internationally, I wasn't loyal to any one airline. I simply chose whichever flight could get me to my destination at the lowest price.

However, in my 30 years of flying with 40 different airlines in seats ranging from business to economy, I've learned that the cost of a ticket isn't everything.

Oftentimes, the key to having a great trip is booking with the right airline. And after hundreds of flights, I have one carrier I'll choose every time I can: Qantas.

From the friendly staff to the included perks, here's why I love flying with the Australian airline.

I always feel at home on Qantas flights

When flying with Qantas, I always find the staff to be friendly and welcoming.

In some cases, they'll even go out of their way to make my trips even better. Once, after a long layover in Europe and a delayed flight with another airline, I was feeling exhausted and disheveled.

When a Qantas crew member came by my economy seat with water, we started chatting and I explained my situation. Later, they returned with a first-class amenity kit and pajamas so I could freshen up and change out of my travel-worn clothes.

This small, thoughtful act made a big difference for me on a tough travel day, and is something I'll always remember.

I never worry about hidden costs — or pay for airport food

I love that even on the shortest domestic flights, Qantas offers a free meal or snack and nonalcoholic beverages. This means I never need to arrive early to buy overpriced airport food.

Qantas also provides complimentary beer and wine on domestic flights after 12 p.m. — a nice touch that makes even short flights more enjoyable.

One of my favorite perks, however, is that baggage is included in the ticket price on all domestic and international flights. This isn't the case on most major airlines (even Southwest famously ended its free baggage policy earlier this year).

In my opinion, it's just another thing that makes flying with Qantas pretty great.

The Oneworld alliance makes US travel more seamless

Another significant advantage of flying with Qantas is the airline's membership in the Oneworld alliance — a global network of 14 airlines that makes connections easier and offers benefits across carriers.

The perks are especially great for passengers who have a frequent flyer account with one of the participating airlines.

For example, my Qantas gold status grants me priority boarding, extra baggage allowance, and access to over 600 Oneworld lounges globally.

The lounge access is one of my favorite perks, since I can grab a decent meal before boarding a meal-free US domestic flight.

Sometimes, I even shower after a long-haul journey from Australia, arriving at my final destination refreshed and for the day.

When I'm able to, I always book with Qantas

No airline delivers perfect service 100% of the time. After all, delays and cancellations happen.

However, after hundreds of flights, I've found that Qantas offers the best combination of value, service, and reliability.

Although I may occasionally find cheaper fares elsewhere, the overall experience makes Qantas my go-to option whenever possible.

• Excel Dryer, a hand dryer manufacturer, makes its products in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
• COO William Gagnon says being made in the US is a company priority, but that it has not been easy.
• He said the company has gained business amid the tariffs as its costs have remained stable.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with William Gagnon, executive vice president and COO of Excel Dryer, a hand-dryer manufacturer based in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Their main product is the XLERATOR Hand Dryer. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

We are a family-owned and operated company. I own it with my father, Dennis, who always wanted to own his own manufacturing company and make quality products that were American-made, dependable, and that people like to use. That was his criteria.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree. We've worked together over the years to make sure that it stayed that way.

It's certainly been difficult, with the easy route being to simply source overseas and get things cheap from China and keep costs down and make more margin. But that wasn't who we were.

We always tried to find a better way to do things — to be more efficient, reduce material and labor costs, and have quality employees making a living wage — and still be able to produce an American-made product that was high quality at an affordable price.

We are Made-in-USA certified, which requires a minimum of 84% of materials sourced domestically, but we have far surpassed that. We're really in the upper 90% of being sourced in the US, and almost 50% of our materials are sourced in Massachusetts from very local vendors.

For a while, we couldn't find a motor manufacturer domestically that could compete with motors from China in performance, price, size, and other things. But we have since found a domestic partner and shifted all of our motor manufacturing to be with a partner out of Tennessee.

It has not been easy, and it took a consistent, dedicated effort to always be looking and always be trying to find new vendors as close as possible.

Being made in America differentiates us from other hand dryers and certainly makes a difference to our customers and the buyers.

The recent tariffs have also been good for business. We've been able to control our supply lines and our materials and their costs because they're all domestic. With everyone living in uncertain times and not knowing really where the materials they were buying from people were coming from, we've known, and that has put us in a very competitive position.

One of our top distributors put out an e-blast saying that several of our top competitors were raising their prices, but our name was not on that list. We asked them to put out that same e-blast to say that XL Dryer is American-made and will not be having a price increase because we're tariff resilient and domestically sourced. We have absolutely gotten new customers as a result of this.

We are also a global company. We just put almost 600 hand dryers into the new Istanbul airport. But to get our American-made product into Turkey, there are substantial added costs, such as tariffs and value-added tax. It's a barrier to entry there and makes our product more expensive and less competitive. If those costs can come down through trade negotiations, it's going to open up more international markets for us.

Uncertainty is never good, especially for business, so that the sooner things can be negotiated and put into place, the better it's going to be for all involved.

We're a small manufacturer of a niche product, and everyone's story is different. But for us, in the way we've been doing business and doing it harder than most and making it a part of who we are — and being proud to be American-made in Massachusetts, which is where America was born — it is an exciting time for us.

Being American-made is just who we are. It is in our DNA. But I feel it's as if we almost were looking into the future a little bit to be ready for this moment, and it's maybe a positive for all the hard work over the years that we had to put in to keep it this way. It's nice for it to be paying off.

Do you have a story to share about American manufacturing or tariffs? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

Most days, Anita Alvarez starts training at 6 a.m. She performs twists and lifts across the pool, holding her breath underwater for minutes at a time.

While it paid off in the pool — she returned home to Los Angeles in the summer of last year with her first Olympic medal, a silver, in artistic swimming, formerly synchronized swimming — it didn't pay her bills.

Earlier in Alvarez's 12-year swimming career, she worked at a sporting goods store to supplement the $250 monthly stipend she said she received from Team USA.

Alvarez told Business Insider her stipend had since increased to $1,900 a month. But rather than adding to that with coaching gigs, teaching private lessons, or prize money as she's done in the past, she's joined the US Air Force's World Class Athlete Program. The program funds Olympic athletes' training in exchange for three years of military service after their Olympic careers.

While the phrase "professional athlete" often evokes thoughts of multimillion-dollar contracts, red-carpet appearances, and lavish living, this type of stardom is often reserved for the upper echelon of male athletes in the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL.

Many full-time athletes outside these leagues — and many of those within them — still struggle with finances. Careers in sports are often short, and some athletes come from families with little experience dealing with large sums of money.

"It was stressful because you want to be so focused and dialed in on the Olympic training that we're doing, and that's not just the time we're at the pool," Alvarez, 28, said. She added, "But then, knowing that I had to leave after eight hours in the pool, I'm physically, mentally exhausted, and then I have to get out and rush to shower to run to make it to work on time."

Four current and former professional athletes shared how they'd faced these uncertainties by prioritizing financial literacy, investing, and starting businesses of their own.

A short window to make money

A 2020 study published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the average length of "maximum achievement until retirement" in terms of sports performance was 4.9 years for athletes in individual sports and seven years for those on teams.

"Our career span and lifespan in the NFL is so short that by the time you've spent that money, it's super hard to get back," Sheldon Day, a defensive tackle for the Washington Commanders who's preparing to enter his ninth year in the NFL, told BI. "Most people don't understand the lifespan, and then they think the money's going to always be there."

A 2022 analysis of player data by The Sports Daily found that on average, an NFL career lasted just 3.3 years.

Athletes like Alvarez have a much longer window to earn, but the opportunities appear to be fewer. Alvarez, who's worked with brands including Skims and Tresemmé, said she usually sees brand deals and sponsorships pick up leading into the Olympics, but when the games end, the companies move on to whatever's next.

Of course, the athletes aren't just training every time there's an Olympics. "It's not every four years," she said. "It's every single year that we're here training."

A survey released in December by Parity, a sports marketing and sponsorship platform for professional female athletes, indicates Alvarez's experience of working while training isn't unique: Seventy-four percent of the 500 female athletes surveyed said that in the previous year, they had a job outside of being a pro.

Planning for retirement while still in the game

Angela Ruggiero was a star on the ice, medaling in four Olympics, including a gold medal in the 1998 Winter Games. Still, she knew hockey wouldn't be enough to financially support herself, especially in retirement.

"It was tricky, but I think I always knew I was going to have to get a job being a female athlete and not making a ton of money as a pro," Ruggiero, 45, told BI.

Ruggiero said that during her last Olympic cycle, from 2008 to 2011, she earned a base pay before bonuses of $2,000 a month from Team USA, in addition to endorsements from brands such as Coca-Cola and Nike.

"I was 31 and wasn't saving money, whereas my peers who had had regular jobs were ahead of me financially, which is kind of crazy — I had a gold medal and four Olympics under my belt," she said. "But that's never why I did it. I never did it for the money. I did it because I loved the sport."

It's a common experience among professional female athletes. Seventy percent of respondents in the Parity survey — which had representation from 55 sports — said it was "very likely" they'd need a new source of income when they retire from competition.

For Ruggiero, part of the solution was investing. Later in her career, she asked Coca-Cola, one of her sponsors, to give her equity in the company, she said. When they gave her a check instead, she took a piece of it and bought stock in the company.

The former NBA player Baron Davis, who is reported to have earned more than $140 million throughout his career, playing for 13 seasons across six teams, also had the forethought to invest his earnings. His first investment was with the then startup Vitaminwater, but it came with a condition.

"The only ask was, 'I want to be on your marketing team or an advisor on your marketing team as a creative, so I can learn how to replicate a brand and its success,'" Davis, 46, said.

"And that shaped my career to say, 'I can be my own agent. I can do my own deals. I can pitch to brands. I know what I'm capable of both on and off camera,'" he added.

After those experiences, Davis said he felt better equipped to become an entrepreneur after he last played in the NBA in 2012. He created Baron Davis Enterprises, a holding company of his investments including content studios and a membership platform for people who work in sports, business, and entertainment.

Similarly, Ruggiero used her sports background as a launchpad for her second career. After spending eight years with the International Olympic Committee, she cofounded Sports Innovation Lab, a data and analytics company focused on improving advertising, sponsorships, and fan experiences.

"Sports Innovation Lab came from my experiences as a board member, a practitioner, someone that had gone to business school and studied disruptive innovation under Clay Christensen, and I'm looking at my industry going, 'We could be doing better if we had the insights,'" she said.

Still, these career changes don't come without challenges. Davis said athletes could experience pushback in their second careers because they're athletes.

"You have the ability to get into meetings or get into places based on your fame, your history, or your recognition," he said, adding that athletes are often asked to still prove themselves as entrepreneurs, investors, and C-suite executives.

Helping the next generation of athletes

Athletes are uniquely positioned to help others within their professions.

Day, 30, watched as an NFL teammate spent money on cars, jewelry, and nights out at clubs, seemingly not considering that one day the paychecks would stop. After witnessing that teammate struggle financially while still in the NFL, he decided to do something about it.

Alongside former NFL player Richard Sherman and a health and sports scientist named Tom Zheng, Day founded The Players Company, which seeks to help athletes with personal finance through education, networking, and community events.

In 2024, the company partnered with Mogul Club, a real estate platform, to help players invest in real estate — something Day himself tapped into early in his pro career. "I jumped right in on the single-family real estate side, trying to give back to the city of Indianapolis where I'm from," he said.

Day, who's earned $7 million so far during his NFL career, per the sports financial system Spotrac, has since incorporated commercial real estate into his portfolio, in addition to building homes in lower-income neighborhoods.

Whether an athlete is handling millions of dollars or working second jobs, earning money is only half the battle. Knowing what to do with it is a separate challenge, and athletes ultimately need to figure out what they're saving for, Andrea Brimmer, a former varsity soccer player at Michigan State University, told BI.

"You think about money in terms of how it can empower the things that you love or the people that you love the most in life, and it gives you a very different purpose in earning money," said Brimmer, who's now the chief marketing officer at the online bank Ally Financial.

Ruggiero said money management should be emphasized more while athletes are still playing, not after they retire.

"What we're told as athletes is: Eye on the prize. Win the gold medal. Win the championship," she said. "You're given all these amazing tools for the prize, the sports prize, which is great, but it doesn't always serve you."

"Even in the NCAA, if you're a collegiate athlete and you're going to go pro the next year," she continued, "could you at least take a class over balancing your checkbook?"

• Many CEOs and business leaders have shared their thoughts on work-life balance.
• Some support it while others call it a hindrance to success.
• Here's what some of the biggest names in business make of work-life balance.

How do you juggle your personal life with your work?

Just about everyone has an opinion on work-life balance, including CEOs. Some business leaders see it as an important equilibrium to maintain, while some outright hate the idea.

Here are some top business execs' takes on work-life balance.

Mark Cuban says, "There is no balance" for incredibly ambitious people

On a recent episode of "The Playbook," a video series from Sports Illustrated and Entrepreneur, billionaire entrepreneur and former "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban said, "There is no balance" for the most ambitious people.

"People are like, 'I need a work-life balance,'" he said. "If you want to work 9-to-5, you can have work-life balance. If you want to crush the game, whatever game you're in, there's somebody working 24 hours a day to kick your ass."

Leon Cooperman encourages young workers to "love what you do," but remember there's more to life than work

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman said in a recent interview with Business Insider that there's more to life than hustling.

"I've been married 61 years to the same woman," he said, adding that his greatest success in life is that "my kids still come home."

"Love what you do — it's too demanding and difficult not to," the Wall Street veteran said. "Pursue it with a passion," he continued. Cooperman said that while he spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs, it never felt like work because he enjoyed it so much.

Jeff Bezos says work and life should form a circle, not a "balance"

In 2018, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that workers should aim for work-life harmony, not "balance," at an event hosted by Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer. Bezos also called the concept of work-life balance "debilitating" because it hints that there's a trade-off.

Bezos said that it's not a work-life balance, but "it's actually a circle."

Bezos said that if he feels happy at home, then it energizes him and makes him more productive at work, and vice versa.

Satya Nadella thinks you should focus on "work-life harmony"

Microsoft's CEO also thinks that "work-life balance" isn't the goal. Instead, he says to focus on work-life "harmony." In 2019, he shared his thoughts with the Australian Financial Review, saying he used to think that he needed to balance relaxing and working. But he's since shifted his approach, aligning his "deep interests" with his work.

TIAA's CEO thinks the entire concept is a "lie"

"Work-life balance is a lie," TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett said in a 2023 fireside chat. Brown Duckett has previously said she used to struggle with guilt and balancing her demanding job with being a mother.

Brown Duckett says that she views her life as a "portfolio," and that she takes time to perform different roles like mother, wife, and business executive. Though she may not always physically be with her children, she says she strives to be fully present during the time she is able to spend with them.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt said work-life balance was why Google was behind in AI — then walked back the comments

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt criticized Google's remote work policy and work-life balance during a lecture at Stanford University in 2024, saying these were contributing factors to the company trailing behind startups like OpenAI on artificial intelligence.

"Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," the former Google exec said in a recording of the lecture that was posted online in August. "And the reason the startups work is because the people work like hell."

He added that those looking to start successful companies today are "not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups."

After his comments gained attention, Schmidt walked back the comments.

"Eric misspoke about Google and their work hours and regrets his error," a spokesperson for Schmidt previously told Business Insider in an email.

Arianna Huffington says you shouldn't have to choose between work and life

Arianna Huffington, founder of Thrive Global and HuffPost, told Great Place to Work that we shouldn't view productivity and relaxation as two opposing forces. Huffington said that when one area of your life improves, the other does as well.

Huffington said employees should focus more on "work-life integration" since "we bring our entire selves to work."

Still, Huffington believes that your personal life should always come first.

"While work is obviously important and can give us purpose and meaning in our lives, it shouldn't take the place of life," she said. "Work is a part of a thriving life, but life should come first."

Don't expect a work-life balance if you work for Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a known workaholic, and he expects those who work beneath him to be as well.

In 2022, just after Musk took ownership of X, formerly Twitter, he sent out an email to employees telling them to either dedicate their lives to working or leave the company. Musk reportedly made X employees work 84 hours a week. While some people think remote work improved their work-life balance, Musk has often criticized it and called it "morally wrong."

According to Walter Isaacson's biography of him, Musk would stay at the office overnight and shower at the YMCA when he joined the workforce in 1995. Musk has continued the habit while working at Tesla and buying Twitter, often spending the night at work.

In 2018, Musk said that he works 120 hours a week, amounting to 17 hours a day.

Jack Ma has also actively endorsed long work hours

One of China's richest men, Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma in 2019 expressed his support for the controversial "996" work system in many Chinese workplaces, which refers to working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. He's called "996" culture a "huge blessing" for younger workers.

"Many companies and many people don't have the opportunity to work 996," he said in 2019. "If you don't work 996 when you are young, when can you ever work 996?"

"If you find a job you like, the 996 problem does not exist," he added. "If you're not passionate about it, every minute of going to work is a torment."

China's government called the grueling 996 schedule "illegal" in 2021, though it's believed to continue to be an expectation at many Chinese companies.

• After losing a nonprofit job, Jode Blank pursued a six-figure consulting career but burned out.
• The nonprofit role involved travel and cultural exchanges, which pulled her away from home often.
• She now works at a med spa and is building an AI automation business to combine her skillset.

I didn't realize it while I was there, but I lived my dream life when I worked at a nonprofit in the J-1 Visa Work and Travel program.

I placed international students from all over the world into jobs throughout the Midwest. I often had students stay with our family in our home, and it was a unique way for my kids to learn about other cultures.

When I lost this job after 13 years, I took it hard and aimed high for a new six-figure consulting gig so I wouldn't lose out on income. I realized that wasn't the right fit — now I work the front desk at a med spa and work on my own business on the side.

I saw the world like a local at the nonprofit

We traveled and experienced the cultures through our local partnerships in each country we visited. This job afforded me the ability to travel when I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I didn't make much, about $52,000 in my last year, but I always considered the travel perks a benefit beyond my wages.

We learned the political views of the locals and had real conversations about the relationships between our country and theirs. I often left fascinated and with a deeper understanding of how other cultures view the US.

In 2019 and 2020, I had incredibly busy years

Over five months, I traveled to New York and Washington, DC, as well as to China, Italy, and Romania. Although I loved the travel, it put a ton of pressure on my family.

When I was in Italy in 2020, things were starting to shut down in Europe. I foresaw what was coming and knew it would happen in the US soon.

In June of 2020, because there was no travel, our entire company shut down, and I lost my job. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still devastating.

I was homeschooling my kids and didn't think I could manage starting a new job while trying to educate them during lockdown. I earned a copywriting certification, got referrals from within that certification program, and took on some consulting work for influencers.

I was making six figures by my second full year as a consultant

I worked all the time, and the clients I worked with were demanding and didn't respect my boundaries. I often got messages while on vacation, on weekends, and late into the evenings.

I burned out fast, sometimes working 16 to 20-hour days. The money wasn't worth the headaches, and I developed chronic health conditions from the long hours at my desk without any physical activity.

I hated it. I couldn't sleep, and I always had the weight of other people's businesses on my mind.

In 2024, I gave it all up

After four years, I let the last of my clients go and left the digital marketing industry. I never felt better, except that I had no income and no plan. I just knew I was done working with high-maintenance influencers.

I started searching for a new career path. I'd worked from home for 18 years, so it was hard to think about going back to an office. I felt like it would crush my soul.

I found a job as a cryotherapy spa technician

It was a low-wage, $15-an-hour job with the possibility of commissions from sales. It sounded like a breath of fresh air — just the escape I was looking for. I could go home and sleep at night without worrying about everyone else's business. I applied and started working two days a week and every other weekend.

I thought it would be a temporary job to fill an income gap while I got my own business off the ground. I decided to build an AI automation business because it would allow me to use my writing skills and tech interests to help people generate better leads. It would also allow me to work with many different types of businesses that are not internet marketing, which I was looking to move away from.

I loved my job at the spa

Many of the clients became friends, and before I knew it, my schedule was filled and I was making sales regularly.

The other added benefit is that I get to use the cryotherapy equipment on myself. I've lost inches around my waist, and it's tightened up my jawline. I have so much more confidence, and I'm focusing on my health and well-being — something I had put to the wayside while I was working as a consultant.

Working at the spa has also given me time to reflect on my tendency toward workaholism

As I turned 50, I needed to consider how I wanted to spend the last 15 years of my career. Upon reflection, I loved the people I worked with at the nonprofit and how I got to experience the world. Truthfully, though, I had to depend on a lot of people when I was gone.

My parents and others helped me out with my kids while I traveled, and I missed a lot. My kids often sobbed when I would leave, and my husband dreaded it. Even if I hadn't lost my job due to the lockdown, I wouldn't have been able to work at the nonprofit much longer.

I'm still figuring out what's next for me

I know I can't stay at the spa forever. My AI automation software business is picking up, but I'm acutely aware of my old patterns of workaholism resurfacing.

Just when I think I have it figured out, we're hearing rumblings of economic downturn. It's possible I may stay at the spa longer than I originally expected.

I'll adjust my automation business to strictly working with corporations at a certain revenue level, so I know they can afford my services. Right now, I'm taking it day by day.

Do you have a story to share about recovering from burnout? Contact this editor at [email protected].

• Costco has been clamping down on shoppers using membership cards that don't belong to them.
• There are still ways to shop without a membership: online, with a gift card, or as a member's guest.
• The extra charges and hassle of workarounds can quickly add up to more than the annual fee, though.

Costco's Netflix-style crackdown on unauthorized membership sharing over the past two years raises a perennial question about how to access the jumbo packs of toilet paper, tubs of salted caramels, 40-pound bags of dog food, and other staples without signing up for a membership.

Access to the warehouse club and its bulk-price deals is primarily reserved for card-carrying shoppers with Gold Star, Executive, or Business memberships. These memberships start at $65 a year and include access for two shoppers who live in the same household (or work for the same business).

There are still ways to shop Costco's selection without paying the fee.

Here are three ways.

1. Shop online without a Costco membership

While some items on Costco.com are reserved for members, non-members can shop through the site's Instacart-powered Same-Day option or Costco's partnership with Uber Eats. The same-day services offer about 2,000 fresh, frozen, grocery, and household items for delivery.

The best prices on those platforms are reserved for members only, though. Uber says members will pay 15% to 20% less than non-members. On Instacart, non-members may be assessed a 5% surcharge on some orders.

Beyond the fees, pricing online is generally higher than at the warehouse. Costco is upfront about that.

Its pricing policy states: "Item prices are marked up higher than your local Costco warehouse. Instacart uses the markup to pay for their delivery service."

A 2022 analysis from Insider's Reviews team found that the best prices on Costco items are found in person. Business Insider also compared online and in-store pricing for a basket of commonly purchased items and found that this is still largely true.

For example, on June 18, a 30-roll pack of toilet paper cost $20.99 in the warehouse. On Instacart, the same pack costs $24.56 for members and $25.79 for non-members.

Other items in the basket included Costco's famous rotisserie chicken, salted caramels, eggs, dog food, bottled water, and coffee beans.

The pre-tax total for the seven in-warehouse items was $98.43, compared to $120.92 for non-members on Instacart. The difference of $22.49 was made up of $16.73 in higher pricing and a $5.76 5% surcharge. The comparison does not include a driver tip or rush fee.

The savings mean the $65 Gold Star membership fee would pay for itself after three trips to a warehouse, and six trips would cover the cost of a $130 Executive membership.

For non-members, when you add the higher listing prices and surcharges, Costco's savings compared to other retailers like Walmart or Amazon might not be as substantial.

2. Use a Costco gift card without a membership

Another popular workaround is to use a Costco gift card, known as a Shop Card, which allows shoppers to access the warehouse to use the funds.

The hitch with this approach is that Shop Cards are only available for members to purchase and have a minimum value of $25.

That $25 would quickly be used up in one visit, and it could be a useful hack for helping friends and family stock up on supplies. However, you might catch some pushback trying to buy $200 more stuff than your gift card is loaded for.

It's an easy way to let someone explore the club on their own without the commitment of membership. If they do decide to sign up, the Shop Card funds can be put toward the annual fee.

3. Visit the Costco warehouse as the guest of a member

Costco's policy allows members to bring two guests with them to the warehouse. Once again, there is a hitch: only the member is allowed to pay for purchases.

As with the Shop Card hack, this approach depends on a fair amount of trust between the member and the non-member, not to mention coordinating schedules to make a trip to the warehouse and sort everything out on Venmo afterward.

Bottom line: It probably makes sense to just pay the fee

Given the costs and complications of trying to avoid shelling out the $65 membership fee, it may make more financial sense to simply pay the charge, especially for shoppers who expect to make more than a couple of Costco trips a year.

As BI's Reviews team found, and BI again confirmed, the prices of bulk-size items can add up quickly. Shaving a few percent off in fees means the breakeven point comes after a few trips.

As the company puts it, "rest assured that the cost of membership can be recovered quickly thanks to massive price savings once you start shopping."

Either way, the real kicker is even simpler: if you don't think the membership is worth it, you can get a refund.

• Shu Cheng has been collecting and selling high-end sneakers for over 20 years.
• He opened Queens' first sneaker consignment shop in 2011, where he deals with fakes regularly.
• Fakes are harder to spot now than ever, but some things he looks for are color, shape, and smell.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shu Cheng, co-founder of New York City's sneaker consignment store .IMAGE. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've loved sneakers since I was in elementary school. In fifth grade, I begged my mom to get me these Air Jordan 13 "He Got Game" sneakers, but they were $100. She got me Filas instead.

Years later, I saved up and bought the shoes myself. My two best friends and I would go around NYC collecting and selling sneakers. Then, in 2011, we opened Queens' first sneaker consignment shop, .IMAGE.

Sometimes, when my mom mentions those Air Jordan 13s, I joke and say, "Listen, you didn't want to buy me those shoes. So I bought a whole shoe store instead."

Fake sneakers used to be easier to spot

My friends and I at .IMAGE have spent two decades buying, selling, and authenticating shoes. We've built a collection probably worth over $1 million.

One of my favorites is this pair signed by Kobe Bryant, probably worth about $30,000.

I've handled hundreds of thousands of sneakers — Jordans, Dunks, Air Forces — and I'd say about 20% of those are fake.

Counterfeits used to be easier to spot, but these days, the fakes have gotten so much better.

Sometimes the only way to know is to bring them into a buy-sell-trade shop like mine. Even then, we have to get really close and look at every detail.

One of the most obvious giveaways is the color

Take the Jordan 4 Retro Red Thunder, for example. I'd estimate that about 80% of the time this shoe comes into our store, it's fake. I have no idea why this specific model is so popular among counterfeiters.

Right off the bat, you see that the tongue on the real pair is a darker red compared to the fake ones, which are a lighter red.

However, it can be the opposite case where the fake pair has a darker color, like with these white Air Jordan 4s. The toe box coloring on the fake is darker than the real version.

Shape and form are other clues

You can also usually spot a fake by looking at the shape.

For example, the tongue on this real Jordan 4 Retro Red Thunder is a little puffier than the fake one. The legit one looks like it would be cozier on your foot, too.

Other times, the real shoe will have a sleeker look. Like this white Air Jordan 4, if you look at it from the side, you can see that the real one has a pointy shape and structure, whereas the fake looks bulkier.

Smell, touch, and imperfections can be dead giveaways

We even smell the shoes because the fake pairs often use a toxic glue that's easy to detect.

Fakes also often use low-quality pleather, which feels stiffer. By comparison, the real pair feels soft and plush.

Ironically, real pairs often have little imperfections from the factory, but fakes are almost too perfect. That's actually a red flag. If it looks too flawless, I start getting suspicious.

Like these legit ones have a little glue mark that was a manufacturing mistake, but the fake ones don't.

Look at the box

Sometimes, it comes down to the box. For the example, the little dots on the real pair are more metallic silver than on the fake pair. The counterfeit is a little more solid gray.

Even the color of the red Jumpman logo can look slightly different. It's darker on the fake one.

Be wary of really popular models

These are the Air Jordan and the Travis Scott collaboration. This is one of the most counterfeited shoes because it's the most valuable on the market right now.

We have authentic pairs available to double-check any time this pair comes in. We make sure the threading is good and the sole color looks right.

The fake market is always changing and we have to keep up

We used to use black lights to catch where fake factories would mark the shoes for gluing or stitching, but the counterfeiters caught on and stopped using those markers. Now, black lights don't tell us anything.

Nike tried adding RFID tags to help with authentication, but guess what? The fake company would copy those, too.

Spotting a fake is not an exact science. Every day brings a new challenge. A new colorway hits shelves, and you have to relearn the signs.

These fake companies are making sneakers that are so good, sometimes a one-to-one replication, that the general public doesn't even know how to tell them apart. So you've got to come to reputable shops like ours.

We compare, cross-check, and trust our gut.

We don't want any fakes to leak out and hit the shelves because if a customer buys it and finds out, then our reputation is tarnished.

If I'm not sure if a sneaker is legit, I'll put it off to the side. I'm not even going to try and sell it. We've taken losses in the past to ensure our customers get a real product.

This story was adapted from Shu Cheng's interview for Business Insider's "Big Business" series. Learn more about Cheng and the counterfeit industry businesses in the video below:

• Karyn Farr is a travel advisor who has visited more than 125 countries.
• Of all those places, Farr told Business Insider that Mongolia was one of her favorites.
• She said Mongolia's natural beauty, rich cultural heritage, and hospitality make it worth visiting.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with travel advisor Karyn Farr, a Californian who has traveled to 125 countries. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been a travel advisor for 24 years and have visited over 125 countries.

My travels have taken me to Canada, all across Europe, the United Kingdom, the Nordic and Baltic countries, India, South and Central America, the Middle East, Asia, coastal Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

Of all the places I've been, Mongolia is one of my favorites. It's incredibly beautiful and unique, with a lifestyle and culture that not many people get to experience.

I first visited in the summer of 2018 with a small group of people, and we traveled the country extensively. While Mongolia is very welcoming to foreigners, you'll want a guide — unless you're just staying in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, where a lot of the population lives.

If you're heading to more rural and remote areas, you need guides who speak English and transportation arranged in advance.

The country certainly isn't one of the more touristy destinations. I had to fly from Los Angeles to Beijing — a two-day journey just to get there. It requires a truly adventurous spirit, but it's absolutely worth visiting and experiencing for yourself.

Mongolia's scenery is stunning

One afternoon, when I was in Ulaanbaatar, I was walking around when a local man approached me and asked, "Where are you from?" I said, "California," and his eyes widened. He said, "Well, that's far down there," and said, "Welcome, I hope you enjoy your stay in Mongolia."

I did. I spent about two weeks there and visited many different regions, each so different.

Mongolia has a beautiful landscape. There are many lakes, pine forests in the North, which have a climate similar to the northern United States, and open spaces filled with greenery, where cows and horses freely graze.

In the South, there are a lot of mountains, including the Gobi-Altai Mountains. The southern region is also home to the Gobi Desert, which has a lot of sand dunes.

One afternoon, while my group and I were exploring the dunes, our tour guide showed us a natural spring flowing up from the ground. I spent the afternoon watching the spring feed nearby horses. I just felt very connected with the land.

Mongolia is best known for Genghis Khan, a conqueror who founded the Mongol Empire, which became one of the largest empires in history. If you head east, you can visit the Genghis Khan Statue Complex. It has massive statues of Genghis Khan and his warriors.

The country is also known for its horseback riding, made famous by Genghis Khan's army. I had several opportunities to ride the horses when I visited, and it was wonderful.

I had many adventures in Mongolia

There's a lot to do in Mongolia. When my group was in Ulaanbaatar, we stayed in a small Western-style hotel. During the day, we visited a Buddhist monastery. In the evening, we went into town and enjoyed entertainment like traditional music and dance. Mongolians have a distinct vocal style: they throat sing.

When we were in the Gobi Desert, my group stayed at the Gobi Nomad Lodge, a resort with many gers, also known as yurts, which resemble tipis in Native American culture.

At night, we would sit outside and watch some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.

In the desert, we saw camels, horses, sheep, and yaks. I also tried my hand at archery. Hunting is a historic tradition in Mongolia, and there was an archery range set up. I wasn't exactly accurate, but I was proud to get my arrow to the target.

In Ömnögovi Province of the Gobi Desert, we visited a local family and spent time in their yurt home, where they served us traditional food and fermented mare's milk.

We also explored the Flaming Cliffs, also known as Bayanzag, famous for their glowing orange rocks; the Singing Sands, sand dunes that make music when shifted by the wind; and the Khavtsgait Petroglyphs, ancient rock carvings dating back to the Bronze Age.

I feel incredibly special and blessed to have had the opportunity to experience this. It's not something everyone dreams of doing, but I grew up in Iowa, where you don't see much beyond the familiar.

As a child, I would read books and imagine distant places. I always wanted to travel. One time, my mother asked me, "Why do you want to go to all these places?" And I simply said, "Because I can."

I would definitely return to Mongolia — I had so many great adventures, made unforgettable memories, and even made a friend.

Our group's guide, who shared so much about her lifestyle with us, later came to California to visit me and a few other members of our tour group. She and I cooked a Mongolian dinner for everyone in California, giving us a chance to reminisce about our time there.

• Victor Schwartz's business VOS Selections is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Trump's tariffs.
• Schwartz thought imported specialty wines were his edge in the business until tariffs hit.
• Despite a stressful year so far, Schwartz says the positive response he got is energizing.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victor Schwartz, owner of VOS Selections, a wine importing company based in New York. His business is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

Suing the government was not part of my business plan, and we have taken a big hit from the tariffs, yet in a strange way, it's been incredibly energizing to be involved a this case that could help so many.

I founded my business about 39 years ago as an importer and distributor of fine wines, spirits, and sakes. We have 19 people in the company, including me and my daughter.

I started my business in France, and we work with very small producers for cutting-edge products. The idea was to bring in things you don't find everywhere, and I thought that was really going to be my edge in the business, until the tariffs hit.

I knew I was sticking my neck out as the lead plaintiff of the case, which goes further than just throwing my hat in the ring, but I still decided that I needed to do this.

Tariffs made an already tough business even harder

There hasn't been enough information on just how complicated this process is.

The prelude to the tariffs is already bad. In our first quarter, we were down 16% compared to last year. Restaurants and retailers we work with are complaining heavily, cutting back products either in anticipation of tariffs or because consumers are not buying.

Then the main tariffs hit in April. My daughter and I spent two full days looking through every product in our book to determine what the tariff impact was going to be, which products we needed to drop, and how much tariffs we could afford to eat. As we all know, all the numbers changed in a few days, and it just keeps happening.

Keep in mind that alcohol is a heavily regulated business. Under regulations in the state of New York, for example, we have to post prices by the fifth of the month prior to the month of sale. Combine that with the time it takes for products to cross oceans and get through customs, this means we have to think about May pricing in March.

We're in that position of having to make firm decisions about what our pricing is going to be under very uncertain situations. As a small business with more than 600 mostly imported products from 350 producers, that just became impossible.

By now in June, the contraction I have feared is playing out. We go back to a good customer and say, "Hey, you've been using this product, but now we have to bring more of it in. Are you interested in this product at the new price?" Most of the time, they say "no." It's not like they're going to buy a domestic product. They're just going to buy another imported product that is less expensive.

Also, the customs are not going to release our container unless we pay them upfront. A 10% tariff means 10% less of our cash flow, and that means being much tighter on our inventory, reducing and stopping some orders where we could, and not moving forward on new projects.

As we run out of more products and have to raise prices on new imports, it's only going to get worse as we get into August and September.

I stepped up because bigger players won't

Retaliation was something I had to take into account when I decided to become the lead plaintiff.

One of the big motivating factors for me to step up is that the big guys in business were not getting involved. The big guys who have the money and power are cowering or defending their own self-interest.

The administration could come after me in many different ways to harm my business. Because this is a heavily regulated industry, we have to work with the government all the time. We deal with the TTB, the FDA, and Customs and Border Protection.

There have always been glitches here and there, but now whenever there is a glitch, I always think in the back of my mind, "Is this a real glitch or is this somebody coming after me?" So far, there is nothing. But I did have to consider potential consequences. If I hadn't been in this industry for 40 years, I may have made a different decision.

About 99% of the contacts I have gotten are positive, and this has really made me feel energized. It really blows me away that people have taken the time to write me cards and letters — not just "thank yous" but long letters too.

It seems that I have really struck a chord. I guess most lawsuits, in a certain sense, are just you looking out for yourself. But with my case, I just feel like we are trying to do something that's going to help a lot of people, and that is very empowering.

• Air India is cutting international flights by 15% after a deadly crash and conflict in the Middle East.
• The crash, which killed 241, involved a Boeing 787. The airline is conducting checks on its fleet.
• Fighting between Israel and Iran has closed airspace, causing airlines to suspend some flights.

Air India announced Wednesday it would cut its international schedule by 15% in the coming weeks, citing last week's deadly plane crash and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

"The curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary following a devastating event which we are still working through and an unusual combination of external events," the airline said in a statement provided to Business Insider.

On June 12, Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board.

It's still not clear what caused the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to crash minutes after take-off. India's civil aviation ministry has held just one press conference since the crash, and questions weren't allowed.

"The investigating authorities are continuing their efforts to find out the reasons for the accident," Air India said in its statement.

It added that the reduction in international services was due in part to a safety review of its aircraft.

The airline said India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which regulates the country's civil aviation industry, had ordered enhanced safety inspections across Air India's Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft fleet.

It said that, as of Wednesday, 26 of 33 planes had been inspected and cleared for service, with the remaining seven still under inspection.

It also said it was conducting its own "enhanced safety checks" on its Boeing 777 fleet as an added precaution.

But these aren't the only reasons for the cuts to international services.

Air India also cited geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, where both Iranian and Israeli airspace has been closed following an Israeli strike on Iran last Friday.

The two countries have continued to trade aerial strikes, leading to Israel's flagship carrier, El Al Airlines, suspending all flights until further notice.

Several global airlines, including Emirates and Etihad, have also suspended flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran.

Air India said that due to "certain disruptions" to international operations over the six days before Wednesday, it had canceled 83 flights.

The airline said the 15% cuts to international services on widebody aircraft would continue until at least mid-July.

"This effectively adds to our reserve aircraft availability to take care of any unplanned disruptions," it said.

The airline said it would try to rebook affected passengers on alternative flights, but they can also choose to reschedule or request a full refund.

• When I was born, my parents were in their late 30s.
• Once I realized they were older than most of my friends' parents, I started to worry.
• However, my anxiety has subsided over the years; I've learned to be grateful for the time we have.

When I was born in the winter of 1991, my mother was 39 years old. She turned 40 before my first birthday, while my dad hit the big 4-0 when I was only 2. Their reasoning for having children later than many of their peers was multifaceted: they didn't meet until their late 20s, then school took center stage for a decade or so, pushing kids out of the picture for another decade.

For much of my early childhood, I didn't know the difference between my parents and my friends' (often younger) parents. In fact, I don't think I can point to a single instance when my parents' age even crossed my mind before I entered elementary school. They were just my parents — my playmates and role models — and that was it.

Then, while chatting on the first-grade playground, a new friend and I started talking about our family members' birthdays and ages. My mom was 46, I told her. With wide eyes, she shared that her mom was just 26. Her grandmother, who'd also had children very young, was only in her early 40s.

Suddenly, I came to the staggering realization that my parents were older than some of my friends' grandparents. A quick blip in a casual conversation set off an anxiety that would be hard to shake.

My parents' age became a source of worry

My anxiety around my parents' age grew as I got older, as did my generalized anxiety, though I wasn't officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder until late high school. The most common theme of my worry was losing my parents prematurely because of their age. I remember sitting awake at night, mentally calculating how old each of my parents would be when I reached particular milestones.

When I was 10, they'd be nearing 50. When I graduated from high school, their 60s would loom. If I got married at 30, they'd be 70. The math made me feel scared and isolated as I wondered if they'd be there to mark special occasions, like I expected most of my friends' parents to be.

Over the years, I noticed subtle and not-so-subtle differences between my parents and others. While many of my friends' parents were fans of modern pop music or enamored with tunes from the '80s, mine introduced me to '60s and '70s classic rock. We had a record player in the living room that spun everything from Pink Floyd to Carole King, remnants of my parents' youth.

I know "oldies" were likely a fixture for some younger parents, too, but I grew to love the fact that I could identify songs on the classic rock station — and it became a fun way to connect with my mom and dad, who had seen some of these artists perform live.

By the time I reached high school, a trend in my friendships emerged: I was (mostly unconsciously) drawn to friends who were also in the "old parents club." Many of my pals with younger parents were still around, of course, but I made quick bonds with those who could relate to the unique anxieties and delights of having parents with similar (read: more… mature) life experiences. Once I learned I wasn't alone in my plight, I slowly began to see my situation as more of a blessing than a curse.

Despite the pitfalls, I'm grateful to have older-than-average parents

As each life experience was checked off my list — high school graduation, college, first "real" job, engagement, marriage, and eventually having my own daughter at age 32 — I was overwhelmed with gratitude that my parents are still around. I'd made the painful realization that age wasn't the only metric in my worries; I watched friends and classmates lose parents of all ages far too early, which drove home the point that even if my parents had been 25 when I was born, it wouldn't have guaranteed a darn thing.

Today, I watch my parents enjoy new grandparenthood in their 70s, and I still grapple with a mixture of appreciation and nagging anxiety. My childhood worries (and mental math-ing) haven't entirely subsided, though I manage them more effectively with a combination of therapy, medication, and mindfulness. While I struggle to assuage the very human experience of anticipatory grief, I'm determined not to waste the present moment lamenting uncertainties about the future.

And while I might snarkily poke fun at my parents for falling into baby boomer stereotypes (like accidentally texting me 10-minute-long voice memos of nothing but grocery store background noise) on occasion, gratitude prevails. Gratitude for the childhood they gave me and my brother, for spending their 40s and 50s chasing me around on all my shenanigans, for the things they continue to teach me, and for their dedication to showing up for me and my daughter — even when their knees are a bit creaky. All of it has happened right on time.

• Archer Aviation makes the Midnight VTOL aircraft that is often called a "flying taxi."
• CEO Adam Goldstein said it may create an AI flight manual for air taxi pilots.
• Archer is partnering with Palantir, Goldstein told Business Insider at the Paris Air Show.

Archer Aviation is considering creating an AI flight manual for its air taxis, its CEO told Business Insider.

"We look at using AI and LLMs [large language models] to help simplify things," Adam Goldstein said in an interview at the Paris Air Show this week.

"So, we can look at anything from a flight manual — which may be quite complex, that you can query and ask questions — to internal tools to help us move faster.

"You can imagine if you're in some type of scenario and there's a big flight manual, and you need to understand what to do very quickly, you don't want to be thumbing through some multi-hundred-page book," he added. "You want to ask a quick question, get your answer, and fix your problem."

Pilots have manuals called quick-reference handbooks that outline procedures for emergencies or other situations where the aircraft signals a warning message. The handbooks are typically on a digital device that are easier to search.

AI could make searching faster, but large-language models such as ChatGPT have faced criticism for sometimes generating incorrect information, known as hallucinations.

Silicon Valley-based Archer has partnered with Palantir for work with AI, saying they would develop software to improve a range of systems, including air traffic control, movement control, and route planning.

"There's big complicated systems that need near 100% reliability, if not 100% reliability, and that's why we partnered with Palantir," Goldstein told BI.

He said he used ChatGPT daily: "I think it's a great way to do research and to view the world, and I only expect that to continue."

Archer is one of the premier players in advanced air mobility, which is regarded as the next generation of aircraft.

Its aircraft, Midnight, is electric and can take off and land vertically — called an eVTOL for short, or a "flying taxi."

The goal is to transform commutes in cities. For example, Archer says it would take 9 minutes to travel between Newark Liberty International Airport and downtown Manhattan, instead of the roughly hourlong journeys by car or public transit.

United Airlines has placed an order worth up to $1.5 billion, and Archer last month announced it was chosen as the official air taxi partner of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Also in Paris on Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an alliance to streamline the certification of eVTOLs, including the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Archer plans to deploy its first Midnight aircraft in the United Arab Emirates later this year.

• Jenna Scott was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer aged 31 despite being fit and healthy.
• Misdiagnosed symptoms during pregnancy delayed her cancer diagnosis, complicating treatment.
• She expects to undergo treatment for the rest of her life to keep the cancer at bay.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jenna Scott a 39-year-old Chief Operating Officer in Peach Tree Corners, Georgia. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

For the first three decades of my life, everything was great. I was a cheerleader in middle school and college, where I met my husband.

We got married in 2015 and our friends would say we were living a fairytale.

I got pregnant with our son, Cameron, that year and I thought, "Oh, how could life get any better?"

But in 2017, at the age of 31, I was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer.

The doctor said my symptoms were related to my pregnancy

My symptoms started when I was around seven or eight months pregnant. I told my obstetrician I had really bad abdominal cramping and rectal and vaginal bleeding, but he said not to worry because they were pregnancy symptoms.

It was my first pregnancy so I thought: "This is what pregnancy is like, I can handle it, I'm tough."

My abdominal pain didn't go away after I gave birth and my obstetrician put it down to the C-section. Cameron was my main concern. I was always tired, too, but didn't want to complain.

I saw a doctor who gave me some IBS pills and said he'd refer me to a GI specialist if they didn't work.

They didn't, so he sent me to a GI specialist who told me: "Why are you in my office? You're way too young."

On June 29, 2017, just over a year after Cameron was born, I had a colonoscopy and woke up to four nurses, my doctor, and my husband in the room.

The doctor told me: We found cancer.

Cancer doesn't run in my family and I didn't understand how it could have happened to me at 31.

Stage four cancer changed everything

I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The oncologist said they couldn't see the cancer that well on the CT scan because I had so much muscle and so little fat.

It didn't make sense and I shut down. My husband and mom were more emotional than me.

After that appointment, we collected my son from day care and I just held him. He'd just turned one: how could I process the thought that he might not know me?

Life quickly became full of doctors' appointments and scans, and my employer took away my larger projects so I could focus on my health. I had worked hard to get them so it felt unfair but in hindsight, they were right.

I started chemo on August 9. It took eight hours every other week at the hospital, then a 46-hour drip at home with a portable pack. I had insomnia, hallucinations, and anxiety. I would look at the baby monitor and see one of my coworkers in my son's crib, or tarantulas crawling across my hands.

I had 11 months of chemo, stopped for a few months, then was told it had spread to my colon, liver, and lungs, so I started another 11 months of treatments and surgeries.

By 2021, I was on a lower "maintenance" chemo dose to keep the cancer at bay. I would take six chemo pills every day, alongside various others, which made me very sick and kept me at home when I wanted to be present for my son.

One day I decided I just didn't want to do it anymore and my doctor said I could stop for a while. But by Christmas 2022, the cancer was in my lymph nodes. I waited until the new year to start treatment so I could have my storybook Christmas.

Even with insurance, medical bills were a nightmare

I had to pay a lot out of pocket that first year before my insurance provider could reimburse me, including $500 upfront for the colonoscopy. That was a lot alongside expenses like our mortgage and day care costs.

My husband's insurance plan was really good but I started having issues a couple of years in when appointments were back-to-back and I was racking up bills of about $3,000 a month. The hospital kept calling me for payments and we considered selling our house and moving in with our parents.

Eventually, my husband's friends encouraged him to set up a GoFundMe page, which raised $17,000 in just a few hours while I was having surgery, and $30,000 in 17 days. I felt betrayed at first, but my mom helped me see it as a blessing.

My son looks out for me

Seeing my son grow up has been keeping me together this whole time. We've been reading kids' books about cancer and emotions to Cameron for years and he's starting to understand what's happening.

Once he asked me, "Mommy, can you die from cancer?" and I froze. I didn't know what to say. He cries at night about it, holds me, and tells me he doesn't want me to leave. But he takes good care of me. When my hair was longer, he used to put it in a ponytail for me and put chapstick on my lips.

Today, my cancer status is "non-detectable." I have chemo every four weeks and expect to be on this maintenance regime indefinitely, an idea I struggled to cope with at first.

I work full time, which is hard as I've had a lot of side effects. I've passed out a few times, my body overheats so badly I have to take off all my clothes, I feel like I have to vomit but my body won't do it, and I barely sleep for days at a time. This is my life now.

I try to stay busy to take my mind off the tough treatments. When I have chemo on Fridays and Cameron, who's now nearly nine, has a baseball game on Saturday morning, I'm there with my portable pack just doing everything that I can, even though I feel tired and nauseous and vomit a lot.

And I'm so grateful to our family and friends who still come over to cook and clean for us after eight years. But because the cancer treatment side effects are cumulative, having a happy life is really hard.

I'm hoping I have a long life ahead of me, but I don't want to be on this treatment forever and am perpetually crossing my fingers that science can discover new treatments.

I've realized the things I used to stress about are completely manageable and I have so many blessings. I tell everybody that life is good, it's just how you look at it.

I want young people to understand that they're not untouchable. You need to get regular check-ups and advocate for yourself.

Israel launched 200 warplanes on some of Iran's core nuclear and missile programs in what's been dubbed the "Rising Lion" operation. Iran quickly retaliated by sending 100 drones into Israel, which the Israel Defense Forces said were mostly intercepted.