What You Need to Know Today: November 19


“We will bring in trains that come out as batteries.”
#ThingsElonMuskSays. Tesla is in the process of building its Gigafactory, a battery plant that is located in Sparks, Nevada on Electric Avenue (I’m not making this up!). Some fun facts about the world’s second largest (by volume) building: It’s built on a piece of land three times the size of Central Park. It can sustain earthquakes. It will be completely powered by renewable energy. The list goes on… (pics included).

Facebook enters the charity space. Facebook introduced a new tool that lets users donate to their favorite charities. “Save the Children, the World Worldlife Fund, Oxfam America and Water.org are some of the charities included in the initial batch of fundraisers — with Facebook promising to add more groups in the coming months,” reports Wired.

+ How Facebook turned one of its most popular features into a startup.

CAREER

Why you should treat your employees like the law. On the first day of my first real 9-5 office job, I had to take an oath. Because I worked for a government institution, all employees were required to take this oath. I remember stumbling over my words as I read in front of my manager — I even had to hold my hand high, as if I were being sworn to testify in court. While I can’t recite even one line from that oath today, I was reminded of that day by this Huffington Post article by Verne Harnish. Verne details how two millennials, now each worth $58 million, scaled their mobile app development firm to $20 million in revenue, applying the lessons from his books: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up! One of the ways these twenty-somethings maintain their company culture is by having new hires sign a sworn statement to uphold the company’s four core values. Another trick, was serving cake 🙂 Check this out.

What any business can learn from video games. Disclaimer: I’m not a gamer so forgive me if I sound like a newb. From what I know, League of Legends is a game that offers in-game purchases. You have a character, and you can upgrade this character by purchasing swords, potions, etc. More video games are starting to take this approach: the game is free to own (front end). Where the game developers make money is through in-game purchases (back end). This model is not new — most apps run like this. Free newsletters with affiliate networks work like this. Now, we’re starting to see media companies take this approach, too. That’s whatFortune’s Matt Ingram talks about here, “News or music, television or video games — the principle that unifies them is that they all compete for a person’s attention. Any successful business model ultimately stems from that concept.”

LIFESTYLE

Tony Robbins’ personal financial advisor talks real estate. The truth about your primary residence (your parents won’t like this), investing in REITS, and much more.

Humans of New York refugee stories. Brandon Stanton creator of HONY just published an article with stories and pictures of refugees from all over the world that he’s met.

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#NOWYOUKNOW

17,000 online courses for $10 each.

Black Friday sales have already started. Udemy is offering some big discounts on online courses. Check this out.

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