November 2024

As an entrepreneur with 17 years of experience and now working on my fourth company, I’ve become hyper-aware of how vital it is to protect company culture. Building a successful company is about much more than hitting revenue goals or scaling quickly — it’s about fostering a healthy, vibrant workplace where your team can thrive. A toxic culture will undermine that faster than you can imagine.

Here are some hard-learned lessons I’ve gathered over the years about identifying toxic culture and, more importantly, how to fix it before it’s too late:

1. Toxic culture doesn’t always look toxic at first

It’s easy to think of toxic culture as blatant negativity, conflict or disrespect. But in my experience, it starts in much more subtle ways: passive-aggressive comments, cliques forming, communication breakdowns and employees feeling like they can’t speak up.

At one of my earlier companies, I didn’t notice these red flags until they started showing up in our results — people missing deadlines, more frequent sick days and a noticeable dip in team morale. By the time I realized it, the culture had already started to rot from within. Toxicity starts small, but its impact grows quickly.

Related: These Toxic Behaviors Are Employees’ Biggest Frustrations – Is Your Company Guilty of Them?

2. As a leader, you set the tone — always

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen leaders make is thinking culture will take care of itself. It doesn’t. You, as the entrepreneur or business leader, are responsible for setting the cultural tone.

As a leader, make a conscious effort to lead by example. That means being transparent with my team, reinforcing our core values, and creating a space where everyone feels heard. It’s not enough to say you have great company values — you have to live them every day. If the leader isn’t walking the talk, no one else will either.

Keep a pulse on your team’s dynamics. Regularly check in with employees at all levels — not just your managers — to uncover the unspoken problems that might be festering.

3. Toxic culture drains talent — and fast

It’s not just productivity that suffers when a company has a toxic environment — it drives your best people out the door. One of the most painful lessons I learned early on was losing talented employees because of issues I didn’t address in time.

A toxic culture drains creativity, enthusiasm and the desire to stay. One powerful way to build the culture back into your company is for all employees to take ownership of their work, collaborate freely and feel proud to be part of something meaningful. When your team feels valued and supported, they’ll stick around. They’ll leave when they don’t, no matter how great the product or pay is.

Related: Do You Work for a Toxic Company? Here Are 4 Not-So-Obvious Signs to Watch Out For.

4. Don’t wait — address issues immediately

If you see signs of toxicity — address it immediately. Delaying is dangerous. In my experience, waiting to have tough conversations only allows the problem to fester. Whether it’s poor communication, office politics, or someone undermining your company values, these issues must be confronted head-on.

I’ve adopted a zero-tolerance policy regarding behaviors that threaten our culture. That doesn’t mean being ruthless — it means being firm about what the company stands for and making sure everyone aligns with that vision. Sometimes, tough decisions have to be made. Letting toxic behavior slide, no matter how small, is a slippery slope.

5. Culture is a living thing — nurture it

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in 17 years as an entrepreneur is that culture isn’t static. It evolves as your company grows, your team changes and new challenges arise. That’s why I’m constantly checking in with my team—gathering feedback, assessing the vibe and making sure we’re staying true to our values.

Protecting your culture is an ongoing process. It’s not something you can set and forget. You need to nurture it, keep it in check, and make sure it’s growing in a healthy direction. At the end of the day, your culture is one of your greatest assets — don’t take it for granted.

Related: If You Do Any of These 3 Things, You Might Be a Toxic Co-Worker

Ways to be proactive in creating a great culture

1. Hire for culture fit, not just skill: When we hire, we don’t just look for the most qualified candidate; we look for people who align with our values and bring a positive attitude to the team. It’s easier to teach skills than it is to fix a toxic personality. Make cultural fit a key part of your hiring process — you can’t build a great culture with people who don’t align with your vision. This is a fiery topic, though. If you weigh too much on culture fit, you could hurt your company culture – don’t overlook the necessary and critical skillsets required. When you fill a company with wonderful people who lack the skills, those with the skills tend to be frustrated very quickly.

2. Create a feedback-rich environment: I’ve found that creating an open environment where team members feel safe sharing feedback is essential to maintaining a healthy culture. Encourage regular, honest communication, whether that’s through structured reviews or casual check-ins. We make it a point to listen—both to celebrate wins and to identify areas where we can improve. Take the time to have monthly scorecard meetings. Identify topics you wish to discuss ahead of time, send them to your team, and give them the chance to come ready to engage in meaningful conversations.

3. Celebrate wins, big and small: Building a great culture isn’t just about avoiding the negative — it’s about celebrating the positive. Recognizing achievements — whether it’s hitting a big milestone or overcoming a tough challenge — boosts morale and strengthens the bond between team members. Small gestures of recognition can go a long way in creating a positive and motivated team.

On Thursday, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced that it would lower the federal funds rate by 25 basis points (bps), or 0.25%, because of “somewhat elevated” inflation and an unemployment rate that “moved up but remains low.”

The rate is now 4.5% to 4.75%, down from 4.75% to 5%. A lower federal funds rate, or borrowing rate that banks charge each other, means lower borrowing costs on credit cards and personal loans — so there’s a ripple effect that could directly affect your wallet. Banks decide individually how to respond to rate cuts.

The news aligned with analyst expectations.

“We continue to expect the Fed to ease policy by 25bps at every meeting through June next year amid resilient but moderating growth and cooling labor market trends,” EY chief economist Gregory Daco told Entrepreneur in an emailed statement ahead of the Fed’s announcement.

The Fed previously cut rates by half a point in September, in its first reduction in four years. The next FOMC meeting, scheduled for December 17 through 18, is the last one of the year; Daco, as well as EY colleague and senior economist Lydia Boussour, both expect another rate cut of 25 bps then.

^{Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Daco wrote that after the Fed cut rates by an “outsized” 50 bps in September, it would opt for a more “gradual recalibration” in November because of “ongoing disinflation and softening labor market momentum along with strong productivity growth.”

Related: A Fed Rate Cut Finally Happened For the First Time in 4 Years. Here’s How the Decision Will Affect Your Wallet.

Elyse Ausenbaugh, Head of Investment Strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, also told Entrepreneur in September that the 50 bps cut in that month “creates some breathing room to go at a slower (or every-other-meeting) pace” for subsequent meetings.

The CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of the latest probabilities of FOMC rate changes, agreed with Daco and Ausenbaugh’s predictions of a slower rate cut pace. It placed the likelihood of a 25 bps cut in November at 99.1% before the decision was announced.

Related: ‘Stage Is Set:’ EY Senior Economist Expects Three Rate Cuts Before the End of the Year

Japanese automaker Nissan reported a loss on Thursday for the fiscal quarter, leading the company to announce it is cutting 9,000 people, around 6% of its workforce. Nissan models did not sell well in the U.S. last quarter.

Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s CEO, told reporters that he is taking the situation “very seriously,” according to the AP—and cutting his salary in half.

Related: Should CEOs Take a Pay Cut to Avoid Layoffs and Cutting Jobs? It’s Complicated, Experts Say

Uchida said he was taking a 50% pay cut and the company is cutting its production capacity globally by 20%.

In 2022, Uchida made ¥673m (around $4.5 million), per the BBC.

“Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient,” he added.

Uchida isn’t the first CEO to reduce their pay when business is down.

In 2023, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan cut his salary by 98% amid a layoff announcement. Later that year, Container Store CEO Satish Malhotra took a voluntary 10% pay cut so that staffers could receive merit bonuses.

In 2013, Nintendo’s CEO famously cut his salary in half to avoid layoffs.

Related: CEO of Tesla Rival Drops Salary to $1 to Cover Bankruptcy Costs

The Federal Trade Commission banned businesses from writing and buying their own reviews in an August ruling. Now, it’s alleging that a customer review site, Sitejabber, published “misleading” ratings and reviews on behalf of the 130,000 businesses on its platform. The FTC’s proposed order would stop Sitejabber from “misrepresenting” customer ratings and reviews “in the future.”

The FTC’s complaint alleges that Sitejabber collected reviews at the point of sale, or before customers received or experienced a product or service. In one example, customers were asked to rate their overall shopping experience out of five stars and write something quickly directly after checking out.

Related: Do You Own Pyrex Measuring Cups? The FTC Might Send You a Check in the Mail

These quick ratings and reviews, or Instant Feedback Survey results, become part of a site’s profile on Sitejabber. The FTC says this could mislead people into thinking prior customers rated a business’s product or service highly when they were actually just rating the shopping experience.

“Presenting [Instant Feedback Survey] results as post-fulfillment reviews and ratings can mislead consumers into believing that a business’s high review count and high rating means thousands of customers have had positive experiences with the business’s products or services, when in fact the ratings and reviews displayed primarily reflected only customers’ experiences shopping on the business’s websites,” page four of the FTC complaint reads.

How to Avoid FTC Scrunity on Your Website Reviews

Businesses can avoid FTC scrutiny by making sure their Instant Feedback Survey ratings and reviews are unentangled from their product ratings and reviews — so customers clearly know what’s being rated.

This is one of the FTC’s first enforcement actions under its new rule.

“Along with our rule on fake reviews and testimonials, cases like this one show that we’ll act to stop all forms of deception in the review ecosystem.” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine stated.

The FTC’s earlier rule on fake reviews and testimonials stops businesses from buying or selling fake reviews, including AI-generated ones.

Related: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp All ‘Engaged in Vast Surveillance’ to Earn Billions, According to the FTC

I was profoundly moved a few years back by a poignant quote that I read. American football great Jerry Rice, when discussing his exceptional work ethic and its effect on his career, shared his winning philosophy: “Today I do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.”

I find this perspective on tenacity and determination to be extraordinarily impactful — for athletes, astronauts and entrepreneurs.

Similarly, a colleague of mine once returned from an industry conference, buzzing with inspiration thanks to the keynote speaker who had captivated the crowd. The keynote toured the world, sharing her business insights, firing up audiences, and drawing significant income from these speaking engagements.

My colleague said he approached the master orator after she got off stage, expressing his own desire to become a professional speaker. “I’d love to do what you do,” he told her. “What advice would you give to someone like me?”

He said she smiled and responded, “It’s true, my life is fulfilling. I get to travel internationally, speak to amazing people, and find immense joy in impacting so many lives, all while earning a great living. The thing is, there are many people who want to do what I do. But only a rare few who are willing to do what I did to get here.”

The athlete and the keynote speaker understand a critical truth: building a successful career, a thriving business or a rewarding life isn’t always glamorous and is seldom easy. Greatness demands stepping out of our comfort zones, going above and beyond, and possessing unwavering tenacity despite the odds of failure. For athletes, that might mean squeezing in 100 extra reps after practice.

For the speaker, this might translate to bombing ten shows in a row in front of an audience but still showing up for the eleventh. For entrepreneurs, that doggedness may manifest in an endless string of cold calls, all-night strategy sessions and reading 50 business books a year.

The math is simple. Those who consistently triumph are those who persist, regardless of the obstacles, odds and inevitable naysayers. Driven individuals view challenges and setbacks not as failures but as opportunities for growth. This mindset allows them to possess resiliency and perseverance while others flounder, throw in the towel or stew over lost opportunities. Building a business can feel impossibly hard and sometimes thankless, but owning and growing a successful organization is also incredibly rewarding and well worth the blood, sweat and tears.

Let’s be real. Not everyone is wired with the relentless mindset and resolve of an all-star athlete. And doubling down after a loss, particularly a big one, might not be your natural inclination. However, developing your ability to be more tenacious and fiercely committed to achieving your goals is an incredibly valuable asset in your journey to business success.

Here are seven hands-on ways to become a more mentally resilient and tenacious business leader:

1. Be ambitious beyond your wildest dreams

Establish lofty goals for yourself and your organization that exist independent of any preconceived caps or barriers.

Dreaming big isn’t just wishful thinking; it’s a growth strategy.

2. Embody unwavering positivity

An optimistic mindset is clinically linked to better physical health, lower anxiety, higher productivity, and increased perseverance. Start by reframing negative thoughts into actionable solutions. Cultivating a positive outlook can empower you to face challenges more effectively and enhance your overall well-being.

Related: 5 Ways You Can Build a Strong Leadership Team

3. Commit to self-discipline

This is a hard one for many of us. Discipline and consistency require an unwavering commitment. So start small and achievable, like eating a healthy breakfast or responding to 10 emails every morning, then broaden the scope.

4. Build your business IQ

Lifelong learning provides you with a steady stream of business insight and is a catalyst for resilient thinking and innovative opportunities. Read books, attend webinars, watch videos. Be a sponge.

5. Break down goals incrementally

Don’t overwhelm yourself by hyper-focusing on your big goals. Instead, break those targets down into a series of achievable mini-goals and the actions that will get you there.

Related: I’m a CEO, Founder and Father of 2 — Here Are 3 Practices That Help Me Maintain My Sanity.

6. Build a strong team

Surrounding yourself with the right people allows you to delegate, lean in, or dial down when needed. Your ability to adapt is highly dependent on the strength, support, and alignment of your leadership team.

Related: How to Assemble a Strong, Dynamic and Interdependent Team

7. Take time for yourself

Even the most tenacious athlete understands the importance of rest and self-care. The same goes for entrepreneurs. Eat right, sleep well, and move your body to best support the clarity and focus you need to keep showing up.

Remember, success isn’t a destination but rather a culmination of habits and activities that continue to move the needle forward. Whether you want to be a sports star, a motivational speaker, or a wildly successful business owner, tenacity and resiliency will always provide you with a strategic edge.

On January 2, Amazon’s 350,000 corporate employees will have to return to the office five days a week instead of working a hybrid schedule. After the announcement, employees speculated that the mandate was a way to get them to quit without formal layoffs, but Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reassured employees at an all-hands meeting Tuesday that this was not Amazon’s way of secretly forcing them to quit.

In a leaked transcript seen by Reuters, Jassy states that the move to completely in-person work was to strengthen culture, not cut costs.

“A number of people I’ve seen theorized that the reason we were doing this is, it’s a backdoor layoff, or we made some sort of deal with city or cities,” said Jassy, according to Reuters. “I can tell you both of those are not true. You know, this was not a cost play for us. This is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture.”

He added later that returning to the office was “an adjustment” but said, “We’re going to be working through that adjustment together.”

^{Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

A July survey showed that about one in four C-suite leaders hoped strict return-to-office mandates would force employees to quit. Uncompromising return-to-office policies were sometimes layoffs in disguise, the study found.

Related: Amazon CEO Mandates Employees Work in the Office 5 Days Per Week Starting January: ‘Strengthening Our Culture Remains a Top Priority’

At Amazon, 91% of 2,500 employees surveyed in September said they were “dissatisfied” with the return-to-office policy and 73% indicated they were already thinking about looking for other jobs.

Returning to the office has persisted as a point of contention at Amazon over the past few months. In October, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said in a leaked meeting that there were “other companies around” for Amazon employees who didn’t like the return-to-office policy,

523 Amazon employees sent a letter to Garman last week protesting his remarks. These workers “have not only personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work, but have seen the extensive data which supports that experience,” the letter reads.

Related: Hybrid Workers Were Put to the Test Against Fully In-Office Employees — Here’s Who Came Out On Top

One data point in support of hybrid work over fully in-person work is a study published in the scientific journal Nature in June. The study randomly divided 1,612 employees of travel company Trip.com into two random groups: One group worked fully in person and the other worked two days per week from home and three days per week in the office in a hybrid schedule.

The findings showed that quit rates dropped by one-third and job satisfaction increased in the hybrid group.

Nvidia passed Apple on Tuesday to claim the top spot as the biggest company in the world with a market cap of $3.43 trillion to Apple’s $3.38 trillion.

At the time of writing, Nvidia had a market cap of $3.584 trillion, higher than Apple’s $3.389 trillion and Microsoft’s $3.102 trillion. Apple and Microsoft are currently in second and third place.

According to Bloomberg, Nvidia’s market cap rising above Apple’s shows that AI has become “dominant” on Wall Street. The move also shows that investors expect the AI boom to continue. Nvidia counts the biggest tech companies as its clients, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google.

Related: ‘100% Nvidia’s Fault’: CEO Jensen Huang Says the Company’s AI Chip With ‘Insane’ Demand Had a Crucial Design Flaw

It’s the second time this year that Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company. The first was on June 18 when Nvidia’s market cap hit $3.34 trillion — though within a week, the AI chipmaker was down to third place, behind Microsoft and Apple.

Why Did Nvidia Almost Go Out of Business?

The milestone of this market cap peak represents the long way that Nvidia has come from its early days.

Nvidia was founded in 1993, and, by 1996 was on the brink of going out of business. The company’s CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang said there was a 50-50 chance the business would survive the period and let go of half its staff.

The turning point, and the moment of Nvidia’s continued survival, was the Riva 128 graphics chip the company released in April 1997. The chip put Nvidia “back on the map,” generating revenue for the company that they put back into R&D, which helped “establish Nvidia as a leader in computer graphics,” according to the IEEE Computer Society.

^{Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images}

Though Nvidia endured after all, Huang never forgot the tumultuous period—and he never let his employees forget it, either.

He has started many presentations with the words, “Our company is thirty days from going out of business.”

Nvidia shares have grown over 200% year-to-date and over 2,700% in the past five years.

Related: ‘Everybody Wants to Be First’: Nvidia CEO Says Demand for Its Blackwell AI Chip Is ‘Insane’

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In the 1980s, Payam Zamani was growing up in Iran as a member of the Baha’i Faith — a group persecuted by the Iranian government, which killed hundreds of Baha’is in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Life for Baha’is in the country had been tough even before the uprising, but it became increasingly so after the fact, Zamani tells Entrepreneur.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of One Planet Group. Founder, chairman and CEO of One Planet Group Payam Zamani.}

When Zamani was 10, a mob incited by school officials chased him off campus and attempted to kill him. He survived, and by age 16, was finally able to flee the country. Zamani recounts the 1987 escape in his book Crossing the Desert: The Power of Embracing Life’s Difficult Journeys, which was published earlier this year. Ultimately, Zamani would make a life for himself in the U.S., but his first stop was Pakistan, where he became a stateless refugee.

“I remember the day that I was admitted to enter the U. S. Embassy in Pakistan because the U.S. knew what [I was] dealing with as a Baha’i from Iran,” Zamani says. “That was the first time in my life, at the age of 16, I experienced human rights. There was a country halfway around the world that valued my life more than my own country did. And that is something that always stuck with me.”

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of One Planet Group}

Related: How to Start Your Own Business as an Immigrant in the United States

Zamani stayed in Pakistan for a year before he and his brother Frank Zamani arrived in San Francisco, California in 1988. The brothers had $75 between them and worked whatever jobs they could to make ends meet. Zamani finished his last year of high school and attended UC Davis while his brother enrolled at Chico State. Zamani studied environmental toxicology with the idea of going into medicine; his brother majored in computer science.

However, by the time he graduated, Zamani had a different professional goal: He wanted to start a business in the environmental space. “I knew very little,” Zamani says. “I was only 23 years old. I had just come to the U.S. I had just learned English. I was speaking the language with a thick accent.”

“I had owned 16 cars already, cheap cars. I would buy and sell them to experience different cars.”

But Zamani would realize another entrepreneurial opportunity. In 1994, his brother landed a job at Microsoft and was on the market for a new Honda. He called Zamani to inform him of a discovery: Honda didn’t have a website. Zamani didn’t know much about the internet at the time (few people did), so he wasn’t necessarily surprised that the car manufacturer didn’t have an online presence.

Still, when his brother suggested they start a website devoted to cars, Zamani was intrigued — because cars were his passion. “I had no money,” Zamani says, “but I had owned 16 cars already, cheap cars. I would buy and sell them to experience different cars. And I loved the idea of arming consumers with more information than the car dealers and salesmen had.”

Related: Immigrant Business Owners Are the Key to Supercharging America’s Economy

Zamani describes a common scenario: You negotiate the price of a car, purchase it, then come home, and a friend or family member who knows cars tells you it was a bad deal. Zamani wanted to take all of the guesswork and regret out of the equation; he wanted people to have the details they needed to navigate the transaction effectively. They would call their business AutoWeb.

“We were the first company ever to provide invoice prices of cars to consumers,” Zamani says. “Dealers did not like it, but our view was, ‘Look, if the consumers show up, the industry will inevitably show up. So, it is our job to make it attractive to consumers, and then the dealers will compete for the consumers’ transactions. And that turned out to be the case.”

“It was against all odds that we were able to build that business and grow it to what it became.”

In the 1990s, Zamani says he and his brother were “the oddballs in Silicon Valley.” They knew nothing about starting a business. They had no network in the U.S., so they had no mentors. They didn’t know the term “venture capital” until a VC reached out to them. Yet no challenge seemed insurmountable after what they’d already overcome, Zamani recalls.

“It was perseverance and being at the right place at the right time and meeting some phenomenal people along the way that ended up helping us,” Zamani explains. “But it was against all odds that we were able to build that business and grow it to what it became.”

Fundraising proved a significant hurdle. In those days, if you weren’t a white man from an Ivy League university, you wouldn’t get funded, Zamani says. So, even though AutoWeb continued to grow and see success, it wasn’t attracting investors. “Today we see that that’s commonplace, of course, for women in Silicon Valley, that they have a very hard time getting funding,” Zamani notes. “And back then, that challenge was extended to even men if they did not fit the mold.”

Related: The 5 Advantages You Have If You’re an Immigrant Entrepreneur

The Zamani brothers had to go all the way to Fort Lee, New Jersey to raise money — and “at a much lower valuation than any company in our situation would have raised.” What’s more, it wasn’t until the round before AutoWeb’s IPO that venture capital in Silicon Valley was willing to back it, albeit still at a significantly lower valuation than peer companies would receive, according to Zamani.

AutoWeb went public in 1999 and reached a $1.2 billion valuation, with shares peaking at $50.

“Our pockets are full, but we feel empty. There’s something fundamentally missing.”

Zamani was in New York on the day of the IPO. “I’m embarrassed to say this today, but what went through my mind at that moment when the company was going public for $1.2 billion was, Now I’ve got to do something bigger,” Zamani recalls. At just 28 years old, Zamani wasn’t prepared for that level of financial success, he admits.

The company also wanted a new CEO. “Silicon Valley loved hiring gray-haired people for CEO roles, and I did not get that mold either,” Zamani says. “So we hired a CEO who I did not think was the right guy for the job, and he proved that very soon after. So I decided it was time to move on and do something else in my life.”

Related: An (Imagined) Interview with Gordon Gekko

Zamani was disappointed with his experience on Wall Street. He says that while founders strive to build companies, VCs and Wall Street want to maximize the share price, even if it means manipulating it before they’re “able to dump it at the right time and move on.”

“That form of capitalism is what has left us all, even the entrepreneurs, founders and executives, feeling that we’re empty at the end of it: Our pockets are full, but we feel empty,” Zamani says. “There’s something fundamentally missing.”

“I wanted to make sure that whatever I build considers the true essence of who we are as humans.”

So Zamani decided to lean into his spiritual upbringing for his future business endeavors. In 2015, he founded One Planet Group, a private equity firm that invests in early-stage companies focusing on the future of mobility, education improvements, health technology and environmental solutions.

Zamani says the group’s name evokes the idea that we’re all citizens of one country: Planet Earth.

“I wanted that concept of unity to be an important part of whatever I was building,” he explains, “and I wanted to make sure that whatever I build considers the true essence of who we are as humans, as the spiritual beings that we are. I don’t want to look at you or anyone else I’m going to work with as a consumer, as a competitor, as an employee, as a token of economic value, but rather something much greater than that.”

Related: It Worked for Steve Jobs: Here’s Why Spirituality is Critical for Entrepreneurial Success

“If you’re making that journey something that’s worth living, you will always feel fulfilled.”

Zamani says he couldn’t understand why nonprofit organizations had to stand for the people and businesses for greed, so he’s doing what he can to bridge the gap.

In 2022, Zamani and One Planet Group experienced a full circle moment: the acquisiton of AutoWeb. The deal, valued at just under $5.5 million, was not only a compelling financial opportunity, but also one with personal significance, Zamani says. “It was a chance to bring closure to a chapter that had remained unwritten for years,” he explains. “Returning to where it all began and guiding it forward was both meaningful and fulfilling.”

According to Zamani, aspiring entrepreneurs who want to make an impact with a business of their own should find a mentor, first and foremost — not a family member, but someone who will tell you the truth.

Related: You Need a Mentor. Here’s Where to Find One for Free.

Then ground yourself in values that fulfill your needs as a human and elevate your business to help other people.

“At the end of the day, that will make your journey far more fulfilling,” Zamani says. “The fact is the overwhelming majority of businesses don’t survive. So you want to make that journey worth experiencing, and not just seeking an exit, seeking an IPO that may never happen. Then you feel like, ‘Ah, that was a failure.’ But if you’re making that journey something that’s worth living, you will always feel fulfilled whether or not that climax comes about in your business.”

If you bought even just a bar of bath soap last year, you contributed to the wellness industry—and a new report released Tuesday from the Global Wellness Institute showed you helped it reach a record-high of $6.32 trillion in 2023.

That’s bigger than the pharmaceutical and sports categories.

The wellness industry overall grew 25% from 2019 to 2023. The report predicts that by the end of 2024, it will reach another all-time high of $6.8 trillion.

Related: Why Selena Gomez Is Cofounding a Mental Health Media Company

The wellness market is so large because it includes the massive personal care and beauty industries, which are worth $1.21 trillion on their own. So every trip to the hair salon counts as “wellness” — the study’s authors say that personal care and beauty products are marketed as “self-care” to consumers.

Other enormous industries fall under wellness too, like the $1.09 trillion weight loss, health, and nutrition category, and the $1.06 trillion physical fitness market. Wellness real estate encompasses everything from gyms to office buildings designed with the health of occupants in mind — think air filter systems in an office space. It’s a $438.2 billion industry and is part of the broader wellness category too.

The study attributes record sales to consumers emphasizing health—and spending accordingly—following the pandemic. The global wellness industry dipped during the pandemic, falling from $5 trillion in 2019 to $4.6 trillion in 2020.

Since then, however, it has continued to creep higher, reaching $5.8 trillion in 2022 before hitting $6.32 trillion in 2023.

Related: Serena Williams Launches a New Company That She’s Been Working on for 6 Years

The report showed that people in North America put the most cash behind wellness, with each person spending about $5,768 per year. For context, the next biggest market is Europe, where residents spend an average of $1,794 per person.

Another report published last month from SNS Insider narrowed in on the global corporate wellness market, which includes mental and physical wellness programs for employees. The report estimated that the size of the market would almost double from $64.11 billion in 2023 to an estimated $123.35 billion by 2032.