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After years of career experiments, two clear life paths stand out to me. Just two choices people make, sometimes without realising it. Decisions that define almost every area of our lives. The most successful people pick one of these paths early. And stick around long enough for it to work. Everything that follows grows from those two decisions. The work you do. The skills you build. And the doors that open for you. Ive seen both work. Different roads. But they can all help you build the life you want. You dont need to have it all figured out. You cant. No one can. But once you understand these two choices, you start aiming for what you want. Choice one: Be the best at one thing Hone your specific knowledge. This path cannot be any clearer. You pick one skill. One craft. One path. And you go all in. Not ten things. One. You wake up thinking about it. You go to sleep obsessing over it. You become it. And own it. This choice scares people. It feels limiting. Like youre closing doors. You are. Thats the point. Choice one is the engineer whos been solving similar problems for decades. Or the writer whos still honing her craft after everyone quits. The rewards compound over the years. Skills stack in your favour. Reputation grows. Doors open because people trust you to deliver. When you commit to one thing, you know what to say yes to. You know what to ignore. That alone puts you ahead of most people. But you have to get it right from the start. Think ten, twenty years down the line. Are you still happy doing the same thing? Will automation reduce the demand for your skill? Specific knowledge matters. It runs the primary systems we all rely on. For a writer, its their voice. For a surgeon, its a skill. The stuff people cant Google in five minutes. If you become the best at something, really the best, you can be so good they cant ignore you. But the process takes time. You need more than ten thousand hours for that. Being the best takes sacrifice. Years. Maybe decades. Youll have to say no to almost everything else. And hope AI doesnt disrupt your path to the life you want. This route works. But its rare. And its not for everyone. Choice two: Master meta-skills You build range on purpose. You are not great at just one thing. But youre very good at two or more. You stand out by combining many strengths. Meta-skills are skills that help you learn other skills faster. They travel with you. Things like learning how to learn, writing clearly, thinking in systems and talking or listening to people. Mastering meta-skills means you are not attached to one identity. You know how to ask good questions, how to break problems down. And how to teach yourself new things. You switch between different sets. You collect experiences. You learn fast by adapting. Different roles. Different industries. Different people. Ive seen friends do this well, too. They easily go from design to marketing to product. They are good at connecting dots that other people miss. You dont need to be the smartest person in the room. You need to adapt faster than the room changes. And it changes a lot. If youre good at coding and public speaking you have leverage. Most programmers cant pitch. You can. That becomes your strength. Or maybe youre solid at business strategy and strong at storytelling. That combination makes you unstoppable. The secret is to stack rare but useful skills. It creates a mix thats hard to copy. Thats how you become irreplaceable. Be interesting and useful in a combination of ways. How the two choices work together This is the part people struggle with. If you only pick one thing, you risk getting stuck when things are changing. But you can still win if you pick right. And hone a few meta-skills too. If you only collect meta-skills, you stay indispensable. Together, they compound. Your specific skill makes you extraordinary. Your meta-skills give you range. You become irreplaceable without getting rigid. You can pivot without starting from zero. Thats how careers last. Thats how confidence grows. Ive changed my one thing more than once. Each time, the meta-skills came with me. If you are already on a specific path, what skills would make you better at learning anything else later? Keep an open mind. Designing your extraordinary life is not really about which option is better. But the path that works better for you. For the life you want. By all means, pick one thing. And own it. But then, look up. Learn the skills that let you keep moving. Use your specific knowledge as a foundation. A great life is the work youre known for, connected by the wisdom you apply daily. Dont let your one amazing skill become your entire personality. Let it be the foundation. Then build everything else on top of it with the meta-skills.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump signed a New Year’s Eve proclamation delaying increased tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year, citing ongoing trade talks.Trump’s order signed Wednesday keeps in place a 25% tariff he imposed in September on those goods, but delays for another year a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and vanities.The increases, which were set to take effect Jan. 1, come as the Republican president instituted a broad swath of taxes on imported goods to address trade imbalances and other issues.The president has said the tariffs on furniture are needed to “bolster American industry and protect national security.”The delay is the latest in the roller coaster of Trump’s tariff wars since he returned to office last year, with the president announcing levies at times without warning and then delaying or pulling back from them just as abruptly.The Trump administration on Wednesday also signaled it may back away from a steep tariff proposed on Italian pasta that would have put the rate at 107%. The U.S. had threatened to add a heavy tariff on Italian pasta makers after the U.S. Commerce Department launched what it said was a routine antidumping review based on allegations that the pasta makers sold product into the US at below-market prices and undercut local competitors.A final decision on the sanctions was scheduled for Jan. 2, with the option of extending it.The Commerce Department said Wednesday that based on a new review, the rates would be lowered to between 2.26% and 13.89% for the pasta makers because they had addressed many of the department’s concerns. A final decision is now set for March 12.Italian farm lobby Coldiretti and another food industry association, Filiera Italia, welcomed the development. The two lobby groups had strongly objected to the original tariffs and urged the Italian government to intervene.The two associations said the original proposed tariffs would have doubled the cost of a plate of pasta for American families, “opening the door to Italian-sounding products and penalizing the authentic quality of Made in Italy.”They reported that in 2024, Italian pasta exports to the U.S. amounted to 671 million ($787 million).“Coldiretti and Filiera Italia will continue to defend our premium pasta exported to the U.S. market, which we have also supported with a strong campaign in the international media,” the associations said in a statement. Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report. Michelle L. Price, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city’s striving, struggling working class.Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall just after midnight, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath as the city’s first Muslim mayor.After working part of the night in his new office, Mamdani returned to City Hall in a taxi cab around midday Thursday for a grander public inauguration where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes, administered the oath for a second time.“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,” Mamdani told a cheering crowd.“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives,” he said.Throngs turned out in the frigid cold for an inauguration viewing party just south of City Hall on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades. Mamdani wasted little time getting to work after the event.He revoked multiple executive orders issued by the previous administration since Sept. 26, 2024, the date federal authorities announced former Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on corruption charges, which were later dismissed following intervention by the Trump administration.Then he visited an apartment building in Brooklyn to announce he is revitalizing a city office dedicated to protecting tenants and creating two task forces focused on housing construction. ‘I will govern as a democratic socialist’ Throughout the daytime ceremony, Mamdani and other speakers hit on the theme that carried him to victory in the election: Using government power to lift up the millions of people who struggle with the city’s high cost of living.Mamdani peppered his remarks with references to those New Yorkers, citing workers in steel-toed boots, halal cart vendors “whose knees ache from working all day” and cooks “wielding a thousand spices.”“I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed ‘radical.'”Before administering the oath, Sanders told the crowd that most of the things Mamdani wants to do including raising taxes on the rich aren’t radical at all.“In the richest country in the history of the world, making sure that people can live in affordable housing is not radical,” he told the crowd. “It is the right and decent thing to do.”Mamdani was accompanied on stage by his wife, Rama Duwaji. Adams was also in attendance, sitting near another former mayor, Bill de Blasio.Actor Mandy Patinkin, who recently hosted Mamdani to celebrate Hannukah, sang “Over the Rainbow” with children from an elementary school chorus. The invocation was given by Imam Khalid Latif, the director of the Islamic Center of New York City. Poet Cornelius Eady read an original poem called “Proof.”In addition to being the city’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations. Free child care and bus rides At the watch party on Broadway, onlookers stood shoulder to shoulder gazing up at several jumbotrons and singing and dancing to stave off the cold, with some passing out hot cocoa and hand warmers. Many described feeling as though they were witnessing history.Among them was Ariel Segura, a 16-year-old Bronx resident, who had arrived five hours earlier to secure a place near the front of the crowd.“I’m out here fan-girling a politician, it’s kind of crazy,” he said, wiping away tears as Mamdani concluded his speech. “Now it’s time to hold him accountable.”In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, Mamdani ran on a focused platform that included promises of free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.Mamdani insisted in his inaugural address that he will not squander his opportunity to implement those policies.“A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are on the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition,” he said.But he will also have to face the everyday responsibilities of running America’s largest city: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.In his speech, Mamdani acknowledged the task ahead, saying he knows many will be watching to see whether he can succeed.“They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again,” he said. “So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world.” Quick rise to power Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.Now that he has taken office, Mamdani and his wife will depart their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.The new mayor inherits a city on the upswing, after years of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic lows. Tourists are back. Unemployment, which soared during the pandemic years, is also back to pre-COVID levels.Yet deep concerns remain about high prices and rising rents.In opening remarks to the crowd, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised New Yorkers for choosing “courage over fear.”“We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few,” she said. Dealing with Trump During the mayoral race, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city.But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to theWhite House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.Still, tensions between the two leaders are almost certain to resurface, given their deep policy disagreements, particularly over immigration.Several speakers at Thursday’s inauguration criticized the Trump administration’s move to deport more immigrants and expressed hope that Mamdani’s City Hall would be an ally to those the president has targeted.Mamdani also faces skepticism and opposition from some members of the city’s Jewish community over his criticisms of Israel’s government.Still, Mamdani supporters in Thursday’s crowd expressed optimism he’d be a unifying force.“There are moments where everyone in New York comes together, like when the Mets won the World Series in ’86,” said Mary Hammann, 64, a musician with the Metropolitan Opera. “This feels like that just colder.”Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this story. Anthony Izaguirre, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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