What Motivates You? Part I
I heard a phrase a while back that has since stuck with me: “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” When things are going well, it is easy to get up every morning and compete, but what happens when you do not feel good? How are you going to accomplish your daily tasks? How do you avoid hitting the snooze button at 5 a.m. so you can run three miles like you said you would? This is where motivation becomes an important factor. Part of
The Common Indestructible Thread: The Human Soul
Jyoti Paintel / @jyotipaintel 2020 is starting to be Hell of year already, and I mean that in an almost a literal sense. It has been difficult to watch footage of the complete annihilation of the Australian landscape—due to the bush fires—and not have a heavy heart. But the inherent goodness and compassion of people still have the power to give others hope. It has been inspiring to see emergency rescue teams and even ordinary civilians risking their lives to save animals. It


Nebbiolo & Blindly Traveling the Italian Countryside
Cezar Kusik / @cezartastesearth I went on my first wine trip to Italy in the mid-2000s. I visited the country before, but it was not wine-related. I had just landed a prestigious job as a wine director at Rubicon Restaurant in San Francisco, and with it came abundant opportunities for wine travel. A friend of mine from Seattle, Maggie Hoyle, recently moved to the small town of Como in the Northern Italian region of Lombardy with its fashion- and opera-famed capital city, Mila


The Billionaire's Club
By Bill Smith / bill@pololifestyles.com Every trade has its go-to publication. If entertainment happens to be your bailiwick, The Hollywood Reporter holds its own since inception in 1930. If business is your game, perhaps it is Forbes or, after reading this month’s column, the wisdom of Bloomberg Businessweek (the man himself figures prominently below). In philanthropy, our go-to is the monthly publication The Chronicle of Philanthropy. It covers the ins-and-outs of the phil


The FUTURE of Retail
Tucked away half a block from a busy intersection on the U.S.’ East Coast is an approximately 10’x14’ storage unit filled to bursting capacity with a near-global marketplace of items purchased from over 20 years of globe-trotting travel. Artisan creations and authentic pieces that double as décor and souvenirs have always been a big draw to me when visiting somewhere new. I am known to ask the driver to pull over on the side of the road to talk and barter with merchants and v


Christopher John Rogers Inspired Runway
It’s 5:00pm on a particularly dreary Saturday in New York, but you wouldn’t know that from the energy buzzing in Gallery I at TriBeCa’s Spring Studios. Christopher John Rogers, the 26-year-old designer who just won the prestigious CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award in November, starts his Fall/Winter 2020 ready-to-wear show in a half hour or so, and there’s a palpable sense of anticipation for what we’re all about to witness. After all, with the recent departure of big-name design


NYFW F/W 2020 Designers Showcase Futuristic Inspiration
Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs never fails to cap off New York Fashion Week with a bang, and this collection was no exception. The show at the Park Avenue Armory began with a performance from dancer and choreographer Karole Armitage, which ushered in a crew of dancers in Marc-designed bras and hot pants or skirt sets. Then Jacobs went back to basics, literally. A collection more evocative of old school Marc—mod clothing like simple A-line coats and mini shift dresses—walked the runw


The FUTURE of Service isn't as Simple as Either AI or Human
Automation and artificial intelligence are transforming the customer service industry and raising difficult questions about the role that humans will play in the workplace of the future. For years, pundits have been largely relegated to one of two camps: mass unemployment predictors and budget-minded capitalists. But recently, more and more thought leaders have shifted into a third camp, which argues that the future of customer service and business in general will be rooted i


The Smartphone's FUTURE is Banal Utility
Arek Wylegalski, who invests in technology for a living, doesn’t know what version iPhone he owns. He’s not sure if it has FaceID, but he thinks it might. He’s a partner at the tech investment firm FirstMinute Capital. When we met in August in San Francisco at a startup pitch fest, it looked like an iPhone 7 or 8 to me. Its screen had cracked. As most of the world arrives at a smartphone-saturated future, the United States’ Silicon Valley is neck-deep in a backlash against it


The FUTURE of Travel, Unplugged
As we enter a new decade, Tom Marchant, co-founder of the bespoke luxury travel company, Black Tomato, shared his insight on the technology trends that will be shaping global travel experiences of tomorrow. Black Tomato, in partnership with Euromonitor International research, recognizes that the definition of luxury is evolving, and the experience is becoming ubiquitous, something consumers are becoming increasingly de-sensitized to. Their report, instead, charters a deeper c