menu_open Columnists
Sydney Lake

Sydney Lake

Fortune

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Self-made billionaire Selena Gomez says people didn’t take her seriously in the beauty business at first: People had ‘preconceived ideas of what I’m good at’

Selena Gomez spoke at Fortune's Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

previous day 2

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Kamala Harris doesn’t believe her presidential run was her finale: A glass cliff ‘suggests finality, and I’m not into that’

The former vice president spoke Tuesday at Fortune's Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, D.C.

previous day 8

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on how her ‘complicated relationship’ with social media shaped her business strategy

“I also recognize the role that it plays in business,” she said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference.

tuesday 2

Fortune

Sydney Lake

CEO says she’d welcome an AI-bot board member: ‘If you don’t have an AI agent in every meeting, you’re missing out’

Hanneke Faber speaks about the value of AI in decision-making at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit.

tuesday 5

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Brené Brown says the key to surviving AI is rejecting Jack Welch’s advice and embracing humanity. The problem is humans ‘can’t stand each other’

Treating our humanity like a liability could mean ignoring our greatest superpower, Brown said.

tuesday 30

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The remote work fight isn’t over: Workers are willing to take a major pay cut up to 25%, according to new Harvard study

Harvard, Brown, and UCLA researchers found workers would be willing to take a massive pay cut to work from home.

10.10.2025 7

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Dolly Parton once turned down a song request from Elvis Presley. That was just one business decision that helped build her $650 million empire

Parton established her own publishing company in 1966, which helped her hold on to nearly all of her publishing rights.

08.10.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Multimillionaire serial entrepreneur cried the first time she made ‘real money’—but not in a good way: ‘Wealth doesn’t erase your problems. It magnifies them’

Emily Lyons said commas in her bank account didn’t help her feel relieved, but rather scared of losing all she had gained.

08.10.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Delta CEO says air traffic control systems are so outdated that some commercial flight routes were faster in the 1950s than they are today

Ed Bastian says it’s still safe to fly, though.

07.10.2025 6

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Red Lobster’s 36-year-old CEO led the company after bankruptcy. Now he’s plotting the ‘greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry’

“Of course it’s risky,” Damola Adamolekun told Fortune’s Ruth Umoh. “I took over a company that’s bankrupt and had a lot of problems.”

06.10.2025 850

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Jeff Bezos tells Gen Z entrepreneurs to gain work experience before launching new companies: ‘I started Amazon when I was 30’

The Amazon founder reminds Gen Z that Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are the "exception."

06.10.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Millennials and Gen Zers are clamoring to break into the housing market. But this real estate expert says ‘not everyone should be an owner’

Just thinking it’s time to buy a house is not “good reason to own a home,” The Real Deal publisher told Fortune.

03.10.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Management guru says society overvalues romantic relationships: ‘There’s an excessive amount of pressure to get married, white picket fence’

Simon Sinek says he’s been asked “what’s wrong with you” for not being married.

02.10.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: ‘You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness’

“Could you imagine if I brought my authentic New York self to every interrogation I did?” former Secret Agent Evy Poumpouras asked on a recent...

26.09.2025 5

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Suzy Welch uncovered the reason Gen Z seems unhireable: Their workplace values don’t match their Gen X and millennial bosses

Gen Z prioritizes values like self-care, helping others, and authenticity.

25.09.2025 20

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Housing costs are so high some Americans are delaying milestones like getting married, having kids and even adopting a pet

More than 44% of homeowners and renters report struggling to afford rent or mortgage payments.

24.09.2025 2

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Pet parents are spending thousands to plan their dog’s perfect vacation through Bark Air’s new luxury concierge service

Bark Air’s new luxury Companion Concierge service helps more pet parents bring their pups on vacation.

24.09.2025 2

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Disney heiress says any billionaire who can’t manage to share their wealth is ‘kind of a sociopath’

Abigail Disney previously said the need to tax rich people like her “has never been so dire.”

23.09.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

‘Shark Tank’ star Lori Greiner doesn’t believe in a 5 a.m. wake-up call: ‘Waking up early doesn’t give you more time. It simply shifts your schedule’

The “Queen of QVC” wakes up at 8 a.m. to match her body’s natural energy. "Success is about maximizing your energy," she says.

23.09.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Spanx founder Sara Blakely’s $1 billion idea started with just $5,000 in savings and wanting to solve her own problem

“Right when I was running out of friends and money, Oprah called,” the Spanx founder told Fortune in 2013. “She chose it as her favorite product...

22.09.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The ‘best time’ to buy a home is right around the corner. Here’s what you need to know

Buyers could start coming off of the sidelines in mid-October.

21.09.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The average American homeowner lost $9,200 in home equity during the last year. It’s not a collapse but a ‘long-term market correction’

Borrower equity is the third-highest ever recorded, but Leo Pond from Four Seasons Sotheby’s told Fortune that a fast climb uphill has turned into a...

18.09.2025 5

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Under Armour’s CEO says micromanagement is ‘totally underestimated’ in business: ‘There’s too much lost on pretense’

Kevin Plank believes in an 80-20 management rule.

16.09.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Canadians don’t want to live in America and it shows: The number of Canadians searching for U.S. homes is down 20% year over year

The steepest decline came in April after Trump’s tariff announcements.

15.09.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Milestones like marriage and parenthood are so delayed for millennials and Gen Z many of them are skipping out on life insurance, report finds

“We failed you 1,000 times over,” one expert told Fortune exclusively. “We don't educate you at the time that you're going through your benefit...

15.09.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Klarna goes public as millions of Americans rely on buy-now, pay-later. Experts worry it’s snowballing ‘quickly into a serious financial burden’

New data about BNPL comes at the heels of Klarna’s IPO on Wednesday.

10.09.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Sam Altman says people are starting to talk like AI, making some human interactions ‘feel very fake’

“Real people have picked up quirks of LLM-speak,” the OpenAI CEO said.

09.09.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

‘Quiet luxury’ is coming for the housing market, The Corcoran Group CEO says. It’s not just the Hamptons, Aspen, and Miami anymore

Wealthy buyers are expanding their housing horizons.

09.09.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Nike’s ‘Why do it?’ campaign has a Gen Z twist—But branding experts are skeptical, saying it messes with one of the most iconic taglines in history

Nike just launched a new 60-second ad featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Saquon Barkley, Caitlin Clark, and LeBron James.

05.09.2025 5

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Americans say $74,000 a year is the ‘perfect salary.’ But that would make buying a house affordable in only two states

Even doubling that “perfect salary” to $148,000 won’t get you a house in every state.

05.09.2025 6

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The U.S. housing market is ‘finally starting to listen’ to homebuyers plagued by high mortgage rates and home prices, economist says

Mark Fleming’s analysis is based on First American’s Real House Price Index, which, unlike other home-price indexes, accounts for inflation.

03.09.2025 6

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Paris Hilton took out a mortgage on the $63 million mansion she bought from Mark Wahlberg. Here’s why that’s actually a smart financial decision

The reality star made a savvy move in financing her megamansion.

03.09.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

There’s an upside to Trump tariff disruptions that could boost the bottom line for American businesses, global supply chain expert says

Kerim Kfuri outlines five ways businesses can tackle tariffs.

29.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

In a frozen luxury housing market, buyers are asking to ‘try before you buy’ and having sleepovers in multimillion-dollar mansions

Sellers are trying new tactics to get the most money for their homes.

28.08.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Millennials and Gen Z are gambling on a big mortgage-rate drop, using ARMs and refinancing. But that could be a ‘financial ticking time bomb’

About two-thirds of recent younger homebuyers hope for a mortgage rate drop soon, according to a Truework study.

26.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Cracker Barrel’s first rebrand in nearly 50 years backfired. The company’s stock lost nearly $100 million after introducing a more minimalist look

The restaurant chain has gotten heat, accused of going too woke.

23.08.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Gen Z spends hundreds a month on ‘treat culture,’ justifying it with the challenges of daily life

Some Gen Zers are spending hundreds of dollars on little treats each month.

20.08.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Housing shrinkflation is here to stay. New homes are 11% smaller but 74% more expensive than a decade ago

The “death of the hallway” continues.

19.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Silicon Valley talent keeps getting recycled, so this CEO uses a ‘moneyball’ approach for uncovering hidden AI geniuses in the new era

HelloSky takes a different approach to recruiting top tech candidates.

17.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Even a 1% mortgage rate drop could be enough to ‘unlock’ the frozen housing market, Oxford Economics says

A lower rate should be “enough of an incentive” for some homeowners to sell their homes and trade up, opening up inventory.

13.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

How Nvidia’s billionaire CEO went from Denny’s dishwasher to leading a company with a $4.3 trillion market cap

“I’m still working on being a good CEO,” Jensen Huang said in an interview at his alma mater, Stanford University.

12.08.2025 3

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The price premium on new-construction homes is dissolving. New home prices dropped in 30% of large U.S. cities last quarter

Builders also continue to offer mortgage-rate buydowns and other incentives to make new builds attractive to buyers.

11.08.2025 8

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Oakley’s billionaire founder is the latest victim of the sluggish luxury housing market—but the profit he could still make shows an underlying problem

Some ultra-wealthy luxury home sellers are being forced to drop the prices of their listings.

07.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Gen Zers are flocking to these Midwest housing markets where homes are about 30% cheaper than the coasts

Seven of the 10 most affordable metros for young homeowners are in the Midwest.

05.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Not even a 0% mortgage rate would make buying a house affordable in these 6 U.S. cities

Home prices are at the crux of the housing affordability crisis in the U.S.

03.08.2025 9

Fortune

Sydney Lake

The friendship premium: A majority of people would trade 20% in salary to work with close friends, KPMG survey finds

The loneliness epidemic plagues the workplace.

02.08.2025 10

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Zillow say mortgage rates can’t fall enough for Americans to afford a home

Mortgage rates are approaching 7%, but one Zillow analyst says even a 0% interest rate still wouldn't make a typical home affordable in some areas.

31.07.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Bill Gates’ $645 million superyacht—the first ever to be powered by hydrogen—is for sale. A yachtie calls it ‘a modern engineering marvel, period’

The Microsoft cofounder reportedly commissioned the superyacht a few years ago.

31.07.2025 50

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Americans spend an entire week’s worth of pay on rent every month—and in some cities, a full two weeks of income is just going to housing

Due to rent inflation, Americans are paying 66% more each month on housing than 17 years ago.

25.07.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake

Oxford Economics says the crumbling housing market will continue deteriorating because of two key factors

Home prices are 55% higher than they were at the beginning of 2020.

24.07.2025 4

Fortune

Sydney Lake