1. Don’t Fear New Stock Market Highs
Ryan Detrick
2. U.S. Large Cap Stocks Dominate Inflows
Liz Ann Sonders
3. 600m Barrels of Lost Oil
The Kobeissi Letter
4. Crypto Assets See Inflows
Crypto asset flows. “Digital asset investment products saw US$1.4bn of inflows, the third consecutive positive week and the strongest since January … Total AuM reached US$155bn, with flows representing 0.91% of AuM, the highest weekly intensity YTD.”
James Butterfill – CoinShares
5. Apple Gained $3.66 Trillion in Market Cap Under Cook
Bloomberg
6. Increase in Private Security for Execs-Ed Elson
Prof G Media
7. More Private Security in U.S. than Police
Perplexity
8. Growth in Net Worth 2020s
A Wealth of Common Sense
9. These Are The US Cities Where No One Can Afford A Large Home
by Tyler Durden An April 2026 housing report by Highland Cabinetry highlights a growing affordability crisis across major American cities, revealing that the true cost of housing goes beyond total price and is better understood through the lens of cost per square foot. By analyzing home prices, rental costs, and average property sizes across 40 large cities, the study shows where Americans are paying the most for the least amount of living space. This approach offers a clearer picture of value, emphasizing how much space residents actually receive for their money rather than just the overall cost of buying or renting a home.
ZeroHedge
10. In 1 Sentence, a Retired Electrician Just Explained How to Motivate Anyone (Even Yourself)
Forget purpose. This is more important.
EXPERT OPINION BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF ‘CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK’ @MINDAZETLIN
What’s the best way to keep your team feeling motivated, even when times are tough? And how do you keep yourself motivated when everything feels like a slog? I just read a piece that lays out the perfect answer to this question. Its author is Tommy Baker, a retired electrician from South Boston.
Experts often say that the secret to motivation is purpose. They say we all need to know that what we do is contributing to some greater good. That’s always seemed problematic to me, though. Let’s say you work for a fast fashion company doing analysis on sales trends. I suppose you could try to believe that you spend your days crunching the numbers so your company’s sales team can sell more products and that will help more people look a little more stylish, thus making the world a bit better but … that seems like stretch. And indeed, many companies do twist themselves into knots to find reasons why what they do supposedly makes the world better. (This was beautifully lampooned in the series Silicon Valley.)
It’s not about purpose
Forget purpose, Baker argues in his piece. When he retired a couple of years ago, the change hit him hard, he said. At first he thought the problem was a lack of purpose, but it wasn’t. It was a lack of people who needed him. When people need an electrician, they usually need one really badly. When Baker stopped doing that work, people stopped asking for his help, and it was a disconcerting change. “It’s the silence that gets you,” he writes. “The phone that doesn’t ring. The empty calendar. The feeling that nobody needs what you’ve got anymore.”
Eventually, he figured out that he, and his retired friends, really needed to be needed. So he began volunteering, teaching household repairs to young people who were eager to learn them. That turned things around. “Here’s what I’ve learned,” he writes. “You don’t need a massive audience. You don’t need to matter to everyone. You just need to matter to someone.”
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That last sentence says it all, and not just for retired people. It applies to you and me and everyone who works in your company, or any company. If you want to demotivate someone quickly, make them feel like their mistakes really don’t matter because no one is paying attention. If you want to motivate someone quickly, make them feel like the whole place would tumble down without them. Ask for their help. Tell them you depend on them. It may go against the grain to say that. You may fear they’ll respond by asking for a raise, and they might. But there’s no quicker way to build motivation and loyalty.
We all need to feel needed
Being needed trumps purpose every time. In fact, I think, at least some of the time, when we talk about purpose, that sense of being needed is really what we mean. We can see this clearly with someone who feels their purpose is to provide for their family. We can also see it in people whose job is to save lives, doctors or first responders, for example. But it’s true for all of us.
Whether we’re saving people trapped in a burning building, or preserving a species facing extinction, or even helping colleagues who need marketing data they can rely on, all of us need to feel needed. We want to know that, as Baker puts it, our work matters to someone, even if it doesn’t matter to everyone. For many entrepreneurs, the thought that their employees are depending on them for their livelihoods can be one of the most powerful motivators there is.
It will work on you, too
Next time you want to motivate an employee, or get someone on board for your project or idea, tell them how badly you need them. Next time you want to motivate yourself, focus on the employees and customers who need you. Then watch what happens. And see how much of a difference it can make.
There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to know more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many of my subscribers are entrepreneurs or business leaders. They know how important it is to motivate the people who work for them, and to stay motivated themselves. Feeling needed can be a powerful way to make that happen.
