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For architecture enthusiasts, a longtime dream may have just come within reach: A Frank Lloyd Wright home just hit the market, and it could be yours for a cool $2.5 million. The home, located in Jackson, Mississippi, was designed by Wright in 1948when the late architect was 81for a local oil speculator named J. Willis Hughes and his family. Originally called the Hughes House, the home has since adopted the nickname Fountainhead, courtesy of an elaborate backyard water feature and pool. (Wright was also said to have served as inspiration for Ayn Rand when she wrote her classic novel of the same name.) The three-bedroom home has more than 3,500 square feet of interior space and a scenic view from its position tucked into the wooded hillside. And, while Fountainhead may boast a hefty price tag today, it was originally made to be affordable. [Screenshot: Sothebys] The home is one of just around 60 houses that are considered Usonian, a style created and coined by Wright in the 1940s and 50s. Usonian homes were Wrights answer to the postwar era: Designed to be accessible to the American middle class, they tend to make use of simple layouts, open floor plans, and natural materials. Given that Wrights total portfolio of designs includes more than 1,000 buildings, this style is now considered quite rare. When approaching the homes design, Wright took his cues from the surrounding environment. The contours of the building site determined the homes parallelogram form, which is characterized by a multitude of low, horizontal leading lines. Furnishings like sofas, tables, beds, and dressers are all seamlessly built into the homes auburn wood walls. The parallelogram design is etched in the floors, and dictates the placement of walls, the size of the doors, and the shape of the spaces, the homes listing on Sothebys International reads. It goes on to note that Fountainhead was built with no stud walls in the house, no Sheetrock, brick, tile, or paint and boasts of exquisite, exceptionally durable Heart Tidewater Red Cypress wood for the walls and ceilings. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the house saw some fairly significant wear and tear during the 25 years that it served as the Hughes family residence. However, the most recent owner, architect Robert Parker Adams, alongside his former wife, Mary, devoted years to restoring the home to its former glory. Adams has lived at the property since 1979. Ive been here 40-something years; Ive had my experience, Adams told The Journal, adding that he hopes to share his experience and knowledge with the next owner.
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E-Commerce
We often focus on the visible obstacles stopping women from getting ahead: pay inequality, missed promotions and opportunities, and those boardroom tables with not quite enough seats. Yet there is another, less-visible hindrance to womens career success: our internal habits, harder to name and even harder to shake. The opportunity passed over not because it was out of reach, but because our inner dialogue said it wasnt ours to take. The apology slipped into an email that didnt need one. The shrinking, the over-preparing, and the relentless self-editing. These arent flaws. They are learned responses to a system that taught women to be capable but cautious, competent but not disruptive, and yes, to have a voice, but not one that was too loud. These unexamined habits are shaping the careers we never meant to build. 1. Confusing competence with visibility The sabotage: Many women believe if they work hard enough, someone will notice. Excellence in silence is rarely rewarded. Doing exceptional work and not drawing attention to it isnt noble. Its often just an efficient way of handing credit to someone else. The insight: Hard work that goes unseen and waiting politely for ones turn builds resentment. Being good at your job isnt the same as being known for it, and in competitive environments, what isnt seen often doesnt count. How to avoid it: Dont wait to be discovered. Learn to self-promote and name what you do, so no one else gets to define it for you. Regularly share winsboth yours and those of othersin team settings. 2. Waiting for certainty The sabotage: This is self-doubt amplified. When it comes to promotions, unless almost every box is ticked, women are reluctant to put themselves forward. One unchecked box and its a hard stop . . . until next time. The insight: What if there is no next time? When rejecting an opportunity, what might the perception being sent to your boss be? Your boss isnt a mind reader, magically understanding your thoughts moving back and forth. Instead, they take it on surface value, assuming youre not so engaged or interested in being here. And hesitations compound over time: not just in missed opportunities, but in lost wealth, confidence, reputation, and influence. How to avoid it: Adopt a progress, not perfection mindset. Practice tentative boldness and redefine your readiness, taking steps forward and refining as you go. 3. Being modest with achievements The sabotage: Women often downplay workplace achievements, opting for humility over self-advocacy. The reluctance to self-promote is confused with bragging and arrogance. But being comfortable in naming your achievement is necessary for self-worth. The insight: What begins as humility can morph into invisibility. Habitually softening your impact and deflecting praise reinforces a narrative where your work is assumed rather than acknowledged. It can train those around you to expect performance without credit. Visibility isnt vanity. Its professional accountability. How to avoid it: Replace vague self-effacement with concrete contribution. Say, Heres what I contributed to that outcome, rather than, I just helped out a bit. Plus, adopt an internal mantra: Its not arrogance if its accurate. 4. Seeking career advice from the wrong counsel The sabotage: Turning only to people who mirror your fears instead of challenging your growth. Often these are friends, family, or colleagues. Their intention might be for the best, but they have a bias to protect. The insight: Whats the point? Friends and family often want to shield us from discomfort. But their advice can reflect their own fears, rather than your potential. And not every colleague has honorable intentions. Discussions like this can snowball, reinforcing not only why you shouldnt take up the opportunity, but any other advancements, ever. The validation might feel safer, but it doesnt help. Its damaging. How to avoid it: Seek advice from those who will challenge your thinking, not just nod along. Limit conversations that turn into bandwagoning. Seek to have actions as a result of purposeful career discussions, even if they are micro-moves. Take responsibility for your decisions: When coming to a decision, do you say, I have decided or My partner and I think more often? Clarity begins with ownership. 5. Being busy instead of strategic The sabotage: Investing in extra work tasks that dont pay dividends. This is saying yes to everything in the name of being helpful while it slowly erodes your capacity. The insight: Over-functioning is not the same as overachieving. The cost is invisibly paid in missed raises, burnout, and career stagnation. The perception of your busyness might be that you are not in control of your workload. How to avoid it: Be discerning and politely decline what dilutes your focus. Track value over volume and pick strategic tasks that upskill and serve your growth. Practice saying no not with guilt, but with respect for where youre headed.
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E-Commerce
Theres a new energy brand on the market, and its betting that the next frontier in caffeine isnt coffee, soda, or any other drink, for that matter. Its the pouch. Wip is a caffeine pouch, available in 100-milligram and 200-milligram strengths, thats designed to be popped between your lip and gum to provide a quick dose of what it describes as natural caffeine. The pouches come in candy-like flavors, including mint, sour cherry, orange citrus, and strawberry kiwi, all packaged in a brightly colored, hockey-puck-size container. If any of that sounds familiar, thats probably because, at least in form factor, its pretty similar to the nicotine pouch brand Zyn, which exploded in popularity after gaining traction on TikTok, primarily among young users. Meanwhile, over the past few years, the caffeine market has also been buzzing with a similar demographic. Energy drinks have gone mainstream, appearing on menus at Starbucks, Dunkin, and Dutch Bros. Older brands like Jolt Cola and Rockstar have gotten supercharged facelifts, while the newcomer Alani Nu notched more than a billion dollars in sales in just one year. From 2018 to 2023, energy drink sales jumped by 73%. In all, the global caffeine market is expected to reach $28.95 billion by 2030. Wip is betting on the idea that if consumers are gravitating toward a pouch for their nicotine boost, it might be a major new unlock for the caffeine industry, too. [Photo: courtesy Wip] The origin of a new form of caffeine The idea for Wip was conceived by David Cynamon, a Canadian entrepreneur who is now the brands chairman and a major stakeholder. According to Wip CEO Richard Mumby, Cynamon understood the ubiquity of pouches in other form factors, mainly in nicotine, and recognized an opportunity to expand the consumer category into caffeine. The brand debuted last summer under the name LF*GO! (alongside a marketing partnership with Mike Tyson), a move that Mumby describes as more of a market test than an official launch. In four months, they got really meaningful traction and realized they needed to bring in the right team to realize the full opportunity of creating an altogether new category for energy and caffeine, he says. Mumby stepped in as CEO last October. Given the inspiration that Wip is pulling from the nicotine industry, Mumbys previous experience makes sense for this new role: From 2014 to 2017, he served as CMO for Pax Labs, the umbrella company for Juul and Pax vapes. In less than a year, Mumbys team at Wip worked to create an entirely fresh identity for the brand before it hit the market in early June. The new branding takes a page out of Red Bulls iconic playbook, positioning the product as a tool for athletesand, like Zyn, also a cool accessory. [Photo: courtesy Wip] Is the pouch the new energy drink? From an outside perspective, its easy to see why consumers might choose a nicotine pouch over a cigarette: You can pop one on the go, it has no odor, and, more recently, has become a kind of status-signaling habit among its young male target audience. [Photo: courtesy Wip] Its less clear why one might abandon their daily cup of coffee in favor of a caffeine pouch. Mumbys pitch for creating this new consumption category comes down to what he calls the three Cs: confidence, convenience, and cost. He argues that consumers want to have confidence in the quality of their caffeine (a need that Wip purports to meet by deriving its caffeine from green coffee beans); they want the convenience of a handsfree caffeine option; and they want a cheaper caffeine fix (a 15-pouch pack costs about $8, or about 60 cents per serving). For an emerging brand or category, sometimes you have to go to the periphery to find these unmet needs, Mumby says. But in caffeine, they’re really at the heart of the product. [Photo: courtesy Wip] Branding the caffeine pouch To get the public on board with this novel form of caffeine intake, Mumby says he had a few main goals with the new branding. First, he needed to clearly articulate what caffeine pouches actually are, and establish a brand name that consumers could easily remember. He also needed a high-energy look to compete in an already saturated category. In collaboration with the branding agency Studio George, his team checked the first box with Wip, a name designed to be short, zingy, and catchy. You can’t will consumers to do it, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if I heard somebody walk into a bodega and say, Do you have any mint Wips, or refer to having to Wip their way through a workout, Mumby says. For the wordmark, Studio George opted for a forward-leaning, slanted bold font with jagged edges, meant to convey a sense of momentum. The packaging features flavor-signaling neon colors, metallic silver, and pops of energetic yellow, clearly evoking the world of sports branding. Mumby imagines Wip as a product that could see mass adoption, but its specifically marketed as a companion for athletes and others whose pastimes involve using their hands. Someone headed to the gym, for example, might prefer a Wip over the “cumbersome” proposition of packing energy drinks in their bag, Mumby explains. “Also, a cup of coffee on a construction site is hard to put down and not have dust get into it,” he says. “If you work with both of your hands, you need dexterity. The form factor just lends itself to some obvious solutions.” On first glance, Wip does look strikingly like a nicotine product, especially given its rounded packaging and hardcore aesthetic. Mumby says the brands main strategy to ensure consumers dont get confused is to incorporate clear signals at the point of sale, including by labeling the pouches as clean caffeine on display units. Currently, Wip is available online, on Amazon, at convenience stores in Florida and Arizona, and at some smaller athletic stores across the country. [Photo: courtesy Wip] I Wip my way through this article Before writing this story, I gave Wip a try for the first timespecifically, the 100-milligram mint flavor. While Ive never tried a Zyn, and therefore cant compare the two, this experience was akin to sucking on an abnormally sweet Altoid, or maybe a less-powerful Listerine strip. It wasnt unpleasant (and it did prevent the onset of a morning caffeine headache), but it also wasnt my personal favorite way to consume caffeine. Still, I could see how the form factor might be convenient as a pre-workout boost or a pick-me-up on the job. [Photo: courtesy Wip] My main concern with Wip, actually, is how easy it is to consume. One of the 200-milligram pouches is equivalent to about two cups of coffee. A standard 8.4-ounce Red Bull contains just 80 milligrams of caffeine. Pop two max-strength Wips, and youve just hit the maximum amount of caffeine that the Mayo Clinic defines as safe for the average adult, likely in significantly less time than it would require to chug five Red Bulls. When asked about Wips safety, Mumby says the brands website and social media sets out clear guidelines on safe caffeine consumption, including the 400-milligram limit. Its worth noting, however, that theres no such information on the package itself. While I didnt experience any adverse effects from my 100-milligram Wip, Im not sure I want to know what it might feel like to mindlessly have one too many. For now, Im sticking with coffee.
Category:
E-Commerce
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