Wine in the USA

Wine in the USA

The US drinks more wine by volume than any other country in the world, with a huge 3,073.5 million litres consumed in 2016. The volume is predicted to rise 4.9% by 2020 and will be worth $38.6 billion USD, so it goes without saying that the US wine market is a huge industry, so much so, grapes are the highest value fruit crop in the USA and represent 32% of all non-citrus fruit produced.

The USA accounts for 10% of the world's grape production and 5% of the global grape acreage. The USA also produces around 8% of the world's wine, and exports globally. There are almost 8,000 wineries in the US.

By far the biggest wine producing state is California. Out of the 806.45 million gallons produced in the US in 2016, 680.27 million gallons were produced in California. California is home to the world renowned Napa Valley, a 2044 squared kilometre region close to San Francisco. While the name is known all over the world, it actually only produces around 4% of the wine in California. The most produced wine in the region is Cabernet Sauvignon, which takes up about 40% of the wine production.

US wine is exported all over the world. In 2016, US wine exports earned a record $1.62 billion USD. 90% of these came from California which increased in value by 18% in the UK. By 2020, The Californian Wine Institute predicts that it will achieve $400 million USD in UK sales. The rise in value of the US dollar is creating some challenges for exporters from the US as demand in Europe is decreasing as the US dollar aligns with the value of the Euro. That said, the European Union is in the top five importers of US wine, alongside Canada, China, Japan and Mexico. The wine exportation from America was worth 4.8% in 2016 of the world export total ad is one of the fastest growing wine exporters in the world after New Zealand, Hong Kong and China.

The USA was the top importer of foreign wines in 2016 with a total of 17.7% of global wine imports. This was an increase in 9.3% from 2015. The most popular countries to import wine from are Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand and Spain who are all world renowned wine growing countries. There was a substantial decrease in imports from South America as imports from Argentina were down over 20% and Chile were down over 15% from the previous year.

Wine is also very important for the US tourism industry. People travel from all over the world to experience a tour of the Napa Valley for other wine regions, and every year there are 30 million winery visits which provide over 50,000 jobs for American citizens. Package holidays revolving around wine tastings and locations in America are available from all over the globe, and regions such as the Napa Valley are world renowned amongst wine experts and enthusiasts and this results in a huge tourist income.

The economic impact of the top ten wineries in California are worth $71.2 billion USD alone, followed by New York which has an impact of $13.8 billion USD and Texas with $13.1 billion USD. While California steals the spotlight, the rest of the country is still contributing a substantial amount.

The largest consumers of wine are millennials and baby boomers, which has seen a change to the marketing in wine and a tilt in trends, such as an increase in consumption and interest in prosecco, rose and sparkling wine. The most popular wines are chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and blends of red wine. Sangria is also becoming more popular, although consumption is heavily weighted in the warmer months. Millennials are a key group to economic growth, and their growing interest in the wine industry has many positive effects for wine and is leading it towards a bright future.

With over 550,000 locations in the US that sell wine including such diverse places as car washes, bookshops and movie theatres, the US wine industry is massive and ever expanding. Wine sales are increasing both internally and externally, in numbers and in value, and the business is set to have a very strong and prosperous future.

Advice for Job Seekers

Advice for Job Seekers

Money matters might push you into taking a job you don't want, but you might want to hold out for something better if you want to propel your career forward.

There are also some traditional advice to find a job that will help you boost your possibilities. According to Teri Hockett, the chief executive of What's for Work, a career site for women, pursue your passions, leverage your network, tailor and tidy up your resume, do your homework, and dress for success are foundational aspects to job seeking that are timeless.

David Parnell, a legal consultant, communication coach and author, agrees: Much of this has been around long enough to become conventional for a reason: it works, he says. If you take a closer look, things like networking, research, and applying to multiple employers are fundamental ‘block and tackle' types of activities that apply to 80% of the bell curve. They hinge upon casting a broad net; they leverage the law of averages; they adhere to the fundamentals of psychology. It's no wonder they still work.

Some of it does get old and overused, because job seeking is as unique and creative as an individual, says Isa Adney, author of Community College Success and the blog FirstJobOutofCollege.com. When you ask any professional who has achieved some level of greatness how he or she got there, the journey is always unique, always varied, and rarely cookie-cutter. Most have, in some capacity, followed their passion, used their network, and had a good resume--but those things are usually part of a much bigger picture, and an unpredictable winding path. Instead of always following the exact by-the-book job seeking formulas, most were simply open to possibilities and got really good at whatever it is they were doing.

Searching for a job can be exhausting which might entice you to just take any job you can get to get back the hours you've put on searching for a job. Although this means you are not constrained by the motions of job searching, you'll be held to the new expectations of being the new person on the team.

It's only when you are passionate about your job that you don't feel burnt out. Being passionate about one's career means you are going to give it everything you've got because you are excited about it and happy to take on a new challenge.

If you are not under financial stress, you might want to consider taking some time off from searching for jobs. During that time you can reconnect with what you've been sacrificing, you'll have renewed energy to put it towards finding the right role for you.

If you are not on a rush to get a job, you might want to hold out for something better because if you don't like your job, you'll start dreading it and your productivity will decrease. Sooner or later, you'll need to start looking for a new job. Before applying to a job, ask yourself if you'll be excited about doing it in the future?

If you've passed the test so far, ask yourself if the job posting will improve your career. Is there potential for growth? Although it might be a job you like, it might also be one you are overqualified for or one you've done before or there are no opportunities to move up the ladder, and therefore, it is not going to help you move up the ladder or learn new skills. Unfortunately, no matter how much you like this job, it is a dead end and you'll lose motivation along the way.

If you only qualify for a job that will not get you the position you want, you might want to consider taking a class or doing an internship to fill in the gaps, so later on you can apply to the job you want.

If nothing else works, you might also want to try something new. Times are always changing and while it's always good to follow the basic advice, we also have to get rolling with the times, says Amanda Abella, a career coach, writer, speaker, and founder of the Gen Y lifestyle blog Grad Meets World. For instance, group interviews are making a comeback, we've got Skype interviews now, or you may interview in front of a panel. All this stuff didn't happen as often before--so while the same basic stuff applies, we have to take into account all the new dynamics.

Jobs created iPhone out of disdain

Jobs created iPhone out of disdain

Apple's iPhone is a beloved useful tool in this generation. This revolutionary phone inspires high-mindedness, genius and foresight. The birth of the iPhone, however, had little to do with any dignified feeling. On the contrary, Steve Jobs invented the iPhone out of disdain.

According to the iPhone's co-inventor, Scott Forstall, the origin of Apple's smartphone project are in founder Steve Jobs‘ disdain for Microsoft and a grating social interaction with a particular employee of the software giant. If it wasn't for Steve Jobs‘ hatred for the latter, Apple may have never created the iPhone.

Steve hated this guy at Microsoft, Forstall said at an event at the Computer History Museum, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone. During the talk, Forstall recounted the story of the birth of the iPhone.

The iPhone had a very circuitous route. We'd been working on a tablet project, Forstall said. It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft.

First thing is, they're idiots, Jobs would say after interacting with this guy. Apple's founder was not referring to Bill Gates, his friend and rival who founded Microsoft, but to an employee Jobs hated. The unnamed Microsoft executive, who was supposedly the husband of a friend of Job's wife Laurene Powell Jobs, continuously bragged about Redmond-based company's plans for tablets and styluses.

Since the two couples ran in the same social circles, they would often end up at the same parties and functions. After every social interaction with the Microsoft executive, Jobs would return in a bad mood. Forstall said: Any time Steve had any interaction with the guy, he'd come back pissed off. His disdain for this Microsoft employee who wouldn't stop showing off drove Jobs to decide to beat them.

The turning point came when the Microsoft executive over dinner said how Microsoft was going to change the world with its Tablet PC software and stylus, that the software giant had solved computing with it, and that Apple should just license it. After putting up with this bragging, Steve Jobs lost his patience and, as recounted in Walter Isaacson's Jobs biography, said: Fuck this, let's show him what a tablet can really be.

Tablet PCs were smaller and lighter than laptop computers and included touch displays. What drove Jobs angry - and what made the employee's comment so annoying - was that Tablet PCs would work only with a stylus. Although iPads have Apple Pencils today, Jobs famously hated styluses. After the interaction between Jobs and the Microsoft employee over the weekend returned to the office on Monday and let out a set of expletives, according to Forstall who recounted Jobs as saying: First thing is, they're idiots. You don't use a stylus. Jobs argued that styluses are counterintuitive anyway and people lose them. We're born with 10 styluses, Jobs said.

That is how Jobs got Apple working to outdo Microsoft developing a touchscreen device of its own that would not rely on a stylus but only on the tap of the fingers.

The development effort focused on building the iPad - a tablet-sized multi-touch prototype on which you could move photos with your fingers. This effort was codenamed project purple. The Apple team were focused on building prototype multitouch displays.

During this project, Apple identified that smartphone were becoming a threat to its iPod business and, therefore, focused on developing what would later become the iPhone in 2004. A turning point also came when Jobs visited a coffee shop and noticed that many people in the shop where using their cellphones but they didn't seem happy about it, according to Forstall. This way Jobs identified an opportunity.

Forstall recounted Jobs saying: Do you think you could take that demo that we're doing with the table and the multi-touch and shrink it down to something small enough to fit in your pocket?

Although it was a difficult task to shrink the size of the device from the larger ones developed at the beginning of the project, once the project was complete, Forstall saw that Jobs was a visionary and he was right about this idea as well.

There was no question, Forstall said. This is how phones need to be made.

Entrepreneurs Grade Point Average

Entrepreneurs Grade Point Average

According to a study of 700 American millionaires found that their average Grade Point Average (GPA) was just 2.9. A Boston University researcher followed valedictorians and salutatorians into adulthood. Although the researcher found that most did achieve traditional markers of success, none of these students who graduate at the top of their high-school class revolutionized the world.

Accordingly, these academic high achievers - everyone who graduated from college with an average GPA of 3.6 - went on to earn a graduate degree in most cases and half them landed in top-tier professional jobs.

But how many of these number on high-school performers go on to change the world, run the world, or impress the world? The answer seems to be clear: zero, said Eric Barker in his book Barking Up the Wrong Tree, where he cites the Boston University research.

While these top students generally become successful, they rarely achieve the kind of success that alters the course of History. Students who struggle with formal education, however, are more likely to get there. To be clear, a study of 700 American millionaires found that their average GPA was just 2.9.

According to Barker, this phenomenon is due to two different factors. The first one is that while schools reward students who consistently do what they are told, life rewards people who shake things up.

The Boston University researcher, Karen Arnold, explained: Essentially, we are rewarding conformity and the willingness to go along with the system. Top students basically found out what the teachers were after and delivered it consistently, but they didn't search their own way.

While top students are used to playing by the rules, world's most influential thinkers and leaders have come up with an out-of-the-box solution to some political or scientific issue. Being an expert on something that is already working well never made anybody famous. Instead, leaders have come up with a new approach or a new invention that has revolutionized the world, not to conform with what is already there.

According to Barker, in school, rules are very clear. In life, rules are not so clear. So a certain amount of not playing by the rules is advantageous once you get out of a closed system like education.

The other reason is that while schools reward being a generalist, the real world rewards passion and expertise. Barkers explains that although you might be fascinated in some particular subject in high school, eventually you'll have to move on to another subject. On the contrary, things work differently in the career world. There you have to focus on one particular domain and you are expected to excel at it.

As high school doesn't allow intellectual students who enjoy learning to follow their passions, that is why the struggle with the education system. One successful entrepreneur once said, if I had a 4.0 at graduation, it stood for the number of parties I went to the night before rather than my GPA. Instead of trying to please other people, entrepreneurs follow their passion or look for something that fascinates them and then focus on that opportunity. That explains the high dropout rates among entrepreneurs.

According to Barker, Valedictorians often go on to be the people who support the system - they become a part of the system - but they don't change the system or overthrow the system.

This study doesn't meant that if you were a top student, you won't achieve big time success. What you might learn from this study is that following rules doesn't work in the real world the way it does in high school. To be able to succeed, you have to take risks and persevere. While entrepreneurs love risks, they like to control the outcome. Great entrepreneurs focus on removing as much risk from their endeavor as possible and they only take risks that are worth it, where they feel they have an advantage and they can influence the outcome. You need to bet to win, not to take unnecessary risks. It's not about a leap of faith or the thrill of gambling, but of investing in something new that is calculated to get good results.

Although entrepreneurs must have self-discipline to maximize their resources, entrepreneurs must challenge the system but they need to do this with excellent execution skills.