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The impact of GLP-1 medications on weight loss is undeniable, but emerging research suggests the results may only be temporary. A growing body of evidence shows that when patients stop taking GLP-1 drugs, much of the weight they lost returnsand so do the medical complications that may have prompted treatment in the first place. The only way that they work is if you keep taking them, Scott Isaacs, an endocrinologist at the Grady Health System in Atlanta, told Market Watch. And when people stop taking them, they have a lot of weight regain, and the medical problems that went away tend to come back. New research from the University of Oxford found that weight is projected to return to pretreatment levels within about 1.7 years after stopping medications. Improvements in cardio-metabolic markersincluding blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes-related indicatorsalso trend back toward baseline within about 1.4 years after cessation. The recognition that long-term benefits depend on a patients willingness to remain on the medication has become increasingly widespread, both as patients experience these changes firsthand and as more research emerges. Oprah Winfrey has spoken publicly about regaining weight after stopping treatment, later saying that using a GLP-1 is going to be a lifetime thing, according to an interview with People. However, not everyone is willingor ableto indefinitely commit to GLP-1s. In a study published last year, researchers analyzed the health records from 77,310 adults in Denmarkwhere Novo Nordisk, a major developer of GLP-1 drugs, is basedwho used Wegovy for the first time. The researchers found that 52% of people stopped taking the drug within a year, pointing to cost and side effects, which have become growing concerns for users worldwide. Patients can expect to pay at least $4,200 out of pocket annually for drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy, an unsustainable expense for many. As it becomes clearer that GLP-1s may represent a lifelong financial and medical commitment, researchers and clinicians are increasingly evaluating more permanent weight-loss interventions, like bariatric surgery and endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG), according to Market Watch. ESG typically costs around $12,000, while bariatric surgery can cost roughly $17,000. Though still expensive, the one-time nature of these procedures may make them a more appealing option for patients seeking lasting results, according to Bariendo, a network of weight-loss surgery clinics. As evidence continues to surface, patients pursuing weight-loss solutions are facing a central question: whether they are prepared not just to lose weight but to commit to using a medication for life, too. By Leila Sheridan This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates, has a low-key terrifying question she throws at those interviewing for a role at her startup. The 23-year-old recently raised a $35 million Series A for Phia, the AI shopping agent she cofounded in April 2025 with her Stanford University roommate Sophia Kianni. The startup, which has since garnered more than 1 million users and grown revenue elevenfold, is currently valued at around $185 million. Gates recently joined Brian Sozzi, Yahoo Finance executive editor, on the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast and revealed her go-to interview question for prospective candidates. I stole this from another founder, she said. How much do you think California state spends on healthcare? And do a bottoms-up approach for how you would build that out. She told Sozzi, Ill ask that for every single role. Ill ask that for sales, Ill ask that for marketing, Ill ask that for engineering. Its not because she expects candidates to know the answer off the top of their head. Instead, she said it highlights how someone goes through a logical approach to solving that question. Curveball interview questions, designed to surprise candidates and test problem-solving ability or performance under pressure, are famously beloved by founders. Microsoft apparently posed the question “Why are manhole covers round?” to interviewees. Elon Musk asked, “You’re standing on the surface of the Earth. You walk 1 mile south, 1 mile west, and 1 mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you?” Many will relate to the panicked feeling that arises upon being asked to sell a pen or divulge their greatest weakness. As entry-level roles become scarcer and the competition for top talent grows fiercer, hiring managers are increasingly getting creative to single out the cream of the crop. Still, researchers have questioned the usefulness of trick questions against other evidence-based assessments. As Phia continues to grow, its not the only question Gates has up her sleeve. When it comes to hiring salespeople, she asks candidates the craziest thing theyve done to close a deal. That teaches you a lot about how far theyll go, how dedicated they are to do something, she said. While Phia has accepted no money from Gatess parentsI have a chip on my shoulder, she admitted on the podcastshe did share one of the most important lessons shes learned from her parents about entrepreneurship. “From my dad, I’ve really learned that your team is the core of what you’re building, she said. You can’t do anything without an incredible team.”
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E-Commerce
Being a freelance designer has its perks, but pay transparency is not one of them. Designers are constantly forced to second-guess themselves: Should you charge a day rate or a project fee? Are you earning as much as your peers? Is AI taking work/jobs away from you? Today were launching a new, data-driven effort in partnership with the American Institute of Graphic Arts to help you answer those questions and more with confidence. Its called the Design Pricing Transparency Project, and its dedicated to helping freelance designers understand how much they should be charging for their work. Were asking designers across the industrygraphic designers, UX professionals, art directors, and othersto help us gather information by taking a short survey. We want to know what kind of projects youre working on, how you price that work, and how youre feeling about the general state of freelancing in 2026. If youre a full-time or part-time freelance designer (yes, even if you have a full-time job!) we want to hear from you. And we know that getting paid is not a one-way street. Thats why were also asking companies that hire freelance designers to tell us what they pay, what theyre projecting for the coming year, and how AI factors into all of it. Our goal is to create a detailed snapshot of the freelance financial landscape. Well share the results later this year in a special report. You can take the survey here.
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E-Commerce
When I worked a corporate job, I was often in charge of purchasing decisions. At one company, my team had inherited a lot of homegrown solutions. I saw the limitations of these products and was quick to replace them if the budget allowed. In corporate settings, “build vs. buy” is a well-known decision framework. Companies weigh the cost of developing something in-house against purchasing an outside solution. Its often simple math: how much time and resources does it take to maintain this internally versus what does it cost to buy or outsource? Solopreneurs face the same decision constantly. However, the stakes are a lot higher when it’s your own time and own money as decision factors. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-mobile-1.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Work Better\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn\u0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.workbetter.media\/\u0022\u003Eworkbetter.media\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91457605,"imageMobileId":91457608,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Knowing when to DIY and when to hire out is one of the most important operational decisions a solopreneur makesand one thats hard to figure out until youve been through it a few times. When to DIY Not everything needs to be outsourced. Some tasks or projects are worth learning yourself, even if the learning curve is steep at first. The strongest case for DIY is when you’ll repeat the task often, and it touches a core part of your business. Updating the basics on your own website or maintaining your project management toolthese are things you’ll do over and over. If you outsource them, you’ll either keep paying someone else or find yourself stuck when you need to make a quick change. There’s also value in the learning itself because figuring something out makes you a better operator. An example of this might be understanding your business’s financials. Even if you pay a bookkeeper to prepare them, you still need baseline knowledge about your numbers. If you outsource and dont take the time to understand the output, youve created a blind spot in your business. And sometimes, the budget just isn’t there yet. That’s a valid reason to DIY, especially when you’re starting out. But it helps to set a time limit, especially for one-off projects. If you’ve spent a few weeks trying to make something work and you’re no closer to a result you can actually use, that’s a signal to stop and reassess. When to hire it out When I first started my solo business, I created all kinds of assets in Canva. Banners, social graphicsyou name it, I made it. But eventually I realized that Id hit the limit of my design abilities. There was no easy way for me to learn those skills, nor were they a core part of my regular business. So I hired someone to do a design overhaul and create everything for me. Hiring help is a trade. You’re exchanging money to gain back your time (and, quite possibly, your sanity). Often, for a better result than you’d produce on your own. The clearest case for hiring is one-time, high-skill tasks where quality matters. In addition to design, you might hire for legal contracts or tax setup. These aren’t things most solopreneurs will do repeatedly, and the cost of getting them wrong can be higher than the cost of hiring a professional. It’s also worth hiring when a poor DIY result could cost you credibility or clients. A clunky website or an amateur-looking proposal might turn away the exact opportunities you’re working to attract. Here’s a quick filter you can use. Ask yourself:How often will I do this? Does quality matter a lot? Could I earn more in the time it would take me to learn? If the answer to that last question is yes, hiring almost always makes sense. The real cost of I’ll just figure it out When you’re solo, your time has a direct dollar value. Every hour you spend learning website design or wrestling with accounting software is an hour you’re not doing client work. That’s a real cost, even if its not reflected in your businesss financials. Of course, solopreneurs sometimes can’t afford the upfront cost to hire. That’s a very real consideration, especially in the early days. There’s no universal right answer to DIY versus hiring. But being intentional about the decisionrather than defaulting to “I’ll just figure it out”is what separates solopreneurs who stay stuck from those who move their businesses forward. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-mobile-1.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Work Better\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn\u0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.workbetter.media\/\u0022\u003Eworkbetter.media\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91457605,"imageMobileId":91457608,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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E-Commerce
In a time when hiring has slowed dramatically, layoffs have become the norm, and AI has flattened early differentiation, even job titles have blurred. The problem is that capable, experienced people increasingly describe feeling stalled, unseen, or interchangeable in todays workforce. Consider the current landscape of advice to understand the dilemma. People are encouraged to stand out, but without guidance on how to do so. Theyre told to pick a lane and niche down, while careers are becoming more nonlinear. Whats missing is a true strategy that reflects how work actually functions today. Thats where optimal distinctiveness becomes an advantage. Social psychologist Marilynn Brewer introduced optimal distinctiveness theory to explain a fundamental human need: to belong and be ourselves at the same time. People do their best when they feel included, safe, and distinctly valuable. When either side of that equation is neglected, performance and well-being suffer, along with employability. Excessive sameness leads to conformity, disengagement, and muted creativity. Excessive difference leads to isolation, friction, or marginalization. In the middle is optimal distinctiveness: where individuality strengthens the group, rather than competing with it. And its a career strategy that meets this moment. Why the Old Career Playbook No Longer Fits the Market The labor market has shifted, but traditional career strategies havent. Job growth is uneven and cautious. Early-career workers are being hit hardest, while senior leaders face roles that are broader, less defined, and more fluid than before. In a 2025 Chief x Harris Poll of women leaders, 83% reported that the career success playbook they were handed early in their careers no longer applies to them. Nearly all described making career moves that defied traditional ideas of safety and linear progression. Across levels, the same concern keeps surfacing in different forms. Early-career professionals wonder how to break through. Mid-career professionals worry about staying relevant. Senior leaders ask how to evolve without losing themselves in the process. Beneath these questions is a shared dilemma: People either generalize themselves so much that they become forgettable, or they describe their work in ways so complex that others cant place them. Neither approach helps in a job market that increasingly rewards clarity and recognizability. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Virgil Abloh, and Staying Distinctive A widely recognized example of optimal distinctiveness in action is Lin-Manuel Miranda. He didnt succeed by blending into Broadway norms or rejecting them outright. Instead, he fused hip-hop, history, and musical theater in a way that was legible to the industry yet unmistakably his own. His work was distinct without being alienatingand that balance is what made it resonate so widely. A less obvious but equally instructive example is Virgil Abloh. Trained as an architect, Abloh moved fluidly between streetwear, luxury fashion, art, and design. Rather than positioning himself as a traditional designeror an outsider disrupting fashion from the marginshe articulated a clear intersectional identity. His work was understandable within established systems yet distinguished by his integration of disciplines that rarely spoke to one another. That clarity made him not only recognizable but also referable. People knew when to call him in, and why his perspective mattered. Together, these examples point to the same lesson: Career advantage today doesnt come from fitting neatly into existing boxes or standing so far outside them that others dont know what to do with you. It comes from being distinct in a way others can recognize, remember, and place. Optimal Distinctiveness as a Career Strategy At work, optimal distinctiveness means being recognizable enough to be relatable and differentiated enough to be memorable. And it matters more as AI accelerates sameness. Human decisionswhether someone is hired, referred, trusted, or rememberedstill hinge on whether someone is easy to understand and clearly valuable. Optimal distinctiveness means using language that’s clear and specific, and often at the intersection of multiple roles or domains. Sarabeth describes herself as a creative disruptor. The phrase is familiar enough to feel accessible, yet specific enough to signal how she works. It gives people an intuitive sense of when and why to engage with her. She sees similar shifts with clients who initially describe themselves through job titles and role-based summaries. One of Sarabeths clients was a senior professional with experience spanning strategy, operations, and organizational development. On paper, her profile looked impressive but interchangeable. But when she reframed her work around the intersection of those domains, her positioning became clearer and more distinct. Instead of being experienced in many things, she became known as an opportunity-spotter who creates sustainable human systems. Once that intersection was articulated, conversations changed, referrals became easier, and the work itself felt more energizing because the language finally reflected how she experienced her contribution. Connecting Identity to Impact This is where optimal distinctiveness aligns closely with my illumination process. Across leadership development and career transitions, the same pattern shows up repeatedly. People create more impact when they reclaim what makes them distinct, clarify which aspects of that distinctiveness matter now, and express it in service of the collective rather than at odds with it. One of my clients, a senior leader at a global life sciences company, approached me about feeling invisible despite a strong track record. She had been rewarded for reliability and execution, but over time had muted the part of herself that excelled at talent development. Through our work, she reframed her role around that strength and intentionally redesigned how she showed up in meetings and strategic conversations. She didnt change jobs, but she changed how she was understood, and her influence expanded almost immediately. Innovation doesnt come from blending in completely, nor from separating yourself entirely. It emerges when people feel secure enough to belong and confident enough to contribute something uniquely their own. Finding Your Optimal Distinctiveness Optimal distinctiveness rarely arises from credential stacking or clever titles. It tends to surface at the intersection of a few core professional identities that you consistently draw on. When people map those identities and ask who they are at the overlap, a form of hybrid expertise often becomes visiblesomething that doesnt fit neatly into a single category but feels accurate and grounding. Naming that expertise usually starts with a core noun that reflects how you operate at workarchitect, builder, connector, translator, catalystfollowed by language that adds precision rather than complexity. The strngest signals narrow understanding instead of expanding it. Pressure-testing that language in conversation is essential. When it fits, people lean in with curiosity rather than confusion. When it doesnt, the awkwardness is usually immediate. In a labor market defined by uncertainty, clarity becomes a form of agency. Optimal distinctiveness gives people a way to shape how theyre understood without contorting themselves to meet outdated expectations. The future of work is unlikely to reward those who conform most smoothly or perform uniqueness most loudly. It will favor those who can articulate who they are, how they create value, and why that combination matters now. If multidimensionality is the reality of modern careers, optimal distinctiveness is a practical way to navigate itstaying visible, relevant, and human in systems that increasingly struggle to see people clearly.
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E-Commerce
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