Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | When you think about finding true happiness, you often envision a few things: A loving relationship. A deed for a house with your name on it. A bank account with more zeroes than you know what to do with. But what if it was easier than all that? What if the key to happiness was simply a logo? This logo, specifically: You’ve likely encountered such a label before, but since it was at the bottom of a brunch menu or on the side of your blue cheese crumbles, you failed to notice it. But just because it’s listed in small print doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal. Beth Kowitt visited Minnesota-based Room & Board, which in recent years adopted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan — ESOP, for short — to see how it’s transforming the company. On the outside, the mom-and-pop vibe of the furniture retailer that founder John Gabbert began 45 years ago is still there, despite now having 1,100 staff members on the payroll and generating $600 million in revenue per year. “You can hear the thwacking of paddles from the pickleball court as you walk around the building, or spot employees taking meetings outside in its sustainable urban meadow — one of the largest in North America,” she writes. But the mindset of the staff has strengthened with the ESOP. Room & Board’s employees aren’t going through the motions of a normal nine-to-five, unceremoniously clocking in and clocking out. They’re invested — literally! — in the wellbeing of the company, and they’re sticking around to make sure it thrives for years to come. “It became a running joke that every person I talked to had been at the company longer than the last,” Beth says. “CEO Bruce Champeau for 33 years, the chief people officer for 32, the director of marketing for 29, the vice president of merchandising for 27 years. Brett Vander Louw, who runs the company’s delivery operations, was visibly excited to be hitting his 26th anniversary, which would mean he had been at the company for half his life. CFO Jean Sand told me she is considered a newbie at 17 years.” Yet even “newbies” like Sand can reap the benefits of an ESOP. “Employees get paid out when they retire, reach a certain age and have a certain number of years of service, or leave the company if they’re vested,” she writes. “Whatever wealth workers may gain depends on how the company fares and remains hypothetical until they cash out their shares. One employee quipped that it was still too early to know whether it would be yacht money or extra car money.” The concept of earning “yacht money” isn’t a joke, though. Remember the famous Publix millionaires? The person who bagged your groceries in 2015 might be soaking up the sun off the Amalfi Coast as you read this. Same with the humble ice cream scooper that used to work at your local gas station. I’m serious! The employee stock ownership plan at Stewart’s Shops — a cult favorite convenience store in upstate New York and Vermont — has minted hundreds of millionaires. All this begs the question: Why don’t more businesses offer ESOPs? As it stands, it’s still a rather rare model: Although regulations around employee ownership could be improved, Beth says it mostly comes down to money. If your end goal as a founder is to juice your company for all its worth, an ESOP isn’t going to be on the table. But if you’re of the opinion that “life isn’t about making as much money as you possibly can” — which is what Gabbert told Beth — then it’s a great option that makes everybody, especially your employees, happy. Read the whole thing free. Airport Proposal or Recession Indicator? | Hold up, hold up: People are getting ENGAGED and MARRIED at the airport?? I thought I had seen it all, but no, The New York Times has an eye-opening story out about travelers finding their soulmate before they hit the skies. I have to admit, the fact that someone willingly said “yes” to a proposal in the Delta Sky Club at LaGuardia is an incredible feat for the airport. Mere years ago, that place was a cesspit of mold and mysterious ceiling liquid. And now it’s a lover’s paradise! But are people actually … traveling? Erm, no, not really. Thomas Black says airlines are expecting a slowdown as President Donald Trump attempts to reorder global trade with massive tariffs. His crusade against international travelers doesn’t help either: “I have frequent-flier miles saved up for a trip to the US this year, and — like so many others — I now believe that they will be better spent elsewhere,” Mihir Sharma writes. Perhaps the only thing America is excelling at these days is scaring people away: In the world of higher education, Andreas Kluth says the White House is “breaking the pipeline of future leaders of foreign countries who were educated and shaped in the United States.” Trump’s administration has “revoked the visas of more than 1,400 international students on American campuses. In some cases, the government alleged that students were pro-Palestinian protesters, in others that they committed ‘crimes,’ even if those turned out to be unpaid parking tickets or non-existent,” he writes. In a country where international students are harassed, intimidated and expelled, nobody feels welcome. That hostility creates big headaches for universities, which have been under financial pressure ever since Covid-19, writes John Authers. “The Ivy League, elitist and privileged, is under specific attack from the Trump administration, which is withholding all federal grants from Harvard. The legality of this and other measures will be thrashed out in the courts. In the meantime, America’s most famous universities will need money if they want to stare down the federal government.” So, in sum: Nobody wants to learn here. Nobody wants to travel here. And even if they wanted to, nobody can afford to do either! Bonus International Relations Reading: | 
