After 16 years in the same office space, and just six months before our lease came up for renewal, my senior VP turned to me and said, “Now that the pandemic is behind us, what do you think about moving to a new office?”

As children, we were given this advice to help us achieve our goals: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I still fully subscribe to that. Along with my unflagging faith that I’m never alone in my efforts, I’ve believed that wanting something badly enough and being willing to pay the price in time and effort, could make it attainable (God willing).

As Walt Kelly’s cartoon possum Pogo said on posters for the first Earth Day in 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Comstock’s president and publisher considers how the motto applies to California. 

From diving for a shipwreck in shark-infested waters to working at the nexus of ocean science and policy, Dr. Amber Mace’s career has spanned 30 years and thousands of miles of coastal waters.

The pandemic saw millions of workers rethinking their jobs and wanting to strike out on their own. The Census Bureau reported 5.4 million applications to start a new business in 2021. And most U.S. business owners started their own business. There are many reasons to leave a big firm and start a smaller firm, and my experience fell into the most common reason — I wanted more control.

Doesn’t anybody want to work anymore? It’s not just a rhetorical question. More than 50 percent of those surveyed by Pew Research said they believed they would get ahead in their careers by working harder. I was heartened to see that, because my personal mantra for success has always been that working harder is the first and best way to solve most problems.

In times of crisis, CEOs, business owners, government officials and other public figures have a responsibility to effectively convey important — and sometimes life-saving — information to the public. Understanding how best to deliver that information could make or break your reputation and your organization.

AI is a unique innovation that seems to be taking off like a rocket with plans to replace many otherwise human-developed work; but in the end, it could spell disaster to lots of today’s industries if we lose sight of the fact that it needs to work for us, not the other way around.

To mark World Autism Month, Dr. Lorerky Ramirez-Moya of MindPath Health in Roseville offers a guest contribution reflecting on her experience as the mother of a teenage autistic son.

In an age where yoga pants and T-shirts are acceptable work attire in many organizations, what does professionalism look like?