• Kiley Pulley became Walmart's youngest US store manager at 21, starting as a cashier at 16.
• Her former store manager helped her through her succession plan and interviews.
• Pulley emphasizes learning daily and adapting for career growth.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kiley Pulley, a 23-year-old Walmart store manager in Buckeye, Arizona. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2019, when I was 16 years old, I started working at Walmart as a part-time cashier. I wanted my own money, and figured, why not just get a job?

My sister and my mom were already working there, and it was also right down the street from my high school. It was easy for me to get out of school and walk to work.

Over the next few years, I moved through different roles, from cashier to stocker to online fulfillment. Then, when I turned 18, I became an academy trainer, and six months later, a digital team lead.

When I became a team lead in mid 2021, it hit me that I wanted to stay at Walmart full time and make it my actual career. At 19, I became an operations manager, and right before I turned 22, I became the youngest store manager at Walmart in the US.

People ask me, "How did you do it?" My answer is to show up and learn something new every day. Here are six things I've learned along the way.

I realized I could help people by hiring them

Originally, I wanted to start either my own nonprofit or my own business and help out the homeless population; then I realized that I could do all that through Walmart.

I could make a difference through the people that I hire and the impact that I have on my associates at the store.

When I became a team lead, I was making good money, and I also really liked it. I started actively working toward becoming a store manager. I got on succession plans and was on monthly calls with our market manager. When I became an operations manager, I led multiple projects in our market to get myself ready to become a store manager.

I'd also ask to cover for store managers when they'd take off work; that way I could gain additional experience that was needed to be promoted. I remember thinking, I'm going to be a store manager at 21. I'll be the youngest in the company.

I had to learn that my words carried more weight

As an associate, I was friends with everybody. I could joke around with everyone. When I became salaried, everything changed.

One of the biggest learning points for me has been the way I talk and how to engage with people from different cultures. Changing my tone and limiting the joking and playful attitude felt necessary as a leader in the building.

At the time, setting new boundaries for myself made me feel more confident in my new role and even now in my current role.

I was a little nervous when I first went into a salaried position. People said I might have issues managing those older than me, but I've never had problems with my team not respecting or listening to me.

I also made my social media profiles private. I think connecting on social media can make it harder to separate between being someone's manager and being their friend.

I had to learn how to delegate

Getting out of the "if I want it done the right way, I'll do it myself" mindset was a big learning. I realized not everyone's going to know everything that I know, and if I really want to delegate and get tasks done, I'm going to have to teach and train.

A big part of being an academy trainer and team lead is training your associates. Once you get to operations manager, you kind of have to step back and expect your team leads and academy trainers to do that same thing.

I had to learn that if I delegated, things could get done faster or more efficiently.

I had to learn to be a servant leader

When it comes to my associates, if they need something, whether that's ordering the supplies or putting in tickets for them, I want to do that. I want to advocate for them.

I know it makes them more productive, but they'll probably be happier coming to work, too.

Also, everyone likes the appreciation of, "Hey, thank you for doing this today," or "Thank you for going above and beyond on this."

I had to learn to have work-life balance

When I first became salaried, I was always on the clock. I stopped going to the gym, and I sacrificed some time with my fiancé and family. I'd stay at work and say, "They need me."

It was my fault; the team didn't need me that badly. Now, I'm doing better. When I get home, I'm not spending the whole day looking at metrics or constantly texting my team. I've gone back to the gym.

I learned to take a step back and trust my leaders to do what they need to do. I trust that they know what they're doing.

I think there's always going to be some event you could miss out on. That can be hard to juggle sometimes, but I'm lucky enough to have a fiancé who's also career-focused and driven, so we kind of use each other as motivation.

I realized I could build a career without giving up on school

I went to college for business and ended up dropping out when I got my salaried position. I told myself that I'd get back into college when I got my first store.

My old store manager was the one who promoted me through all of the hourly supervisor roles. She even prepped me for my first salaried role. She sat in the office reading interview questions with me. Every time I'd say the word, 'um,' she'd say, "Nope, restart."

She was constantly there for me, and even still having her as someone to go to has been great. My market manager has also known me since before I started promoting. Every time I think I'm too young to be in this room, he's always in my corner.

I'm now enrolled in Live Better U, a program where Walmart pays for certain bachelor's degrees. I'm getting some of my foundational courses, and then I plan to get my college degree.

Keep pushing to learn more

For teenagers starting out, I encourage them to do a good job and learn as much as they can.

Companies are constantly changing, especially with technology. It's important to adapt and not be comfortable with what you already know.

When I look at my future at Walmart, I told myself I'd get to market manager at 27 or 28 — that's my short-term goal. Then, long-term, my goal would be regional EVP.

One thing I always remind myself is that I worked hard to get to this life, so I can't be upset now that I have it. Maybe we don't have time to do all the fun things right now, but if we work hard through our 20s, thinking about where we might end up when we're 30 or 40 keeps me motivated.

• Felipe Rochi lost one of his jobs while his wife was pregnant with their first child.
• They decided to take the leap and grow their side hustle — a rental camcorder business — together.
• As new parents, the two of them split the tasks involved in running the business.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rachel Calaj and Felipe Rochi, a married couple in their 30s. Together, they run a wedding camcorder rental business that they started as a side hustle. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Rochi: I'm an SEO supervisor. I also had a second job in the SEO space, but I was terminated this summer, in early June.

Calaj: I've been a school psychologist, typically hired through an agency to work for a district on a contract basis.

We found out we were pregnant last December, and my contract ended in May. We were trying to think throughout that time what we would do next year.

Felipe lost his job before our baby shower

Calaj: As a first-time mom, I wanted to stay home with my child. We were trying to see if Felipe's two jobs would be enough for me to do so. Then, he got terminated the day before our baby shower. It was a very sad moment for us, but we still had a great time at the baby shower, even if it wasn't the best timing.

Rochi: Unexpectedly losing my job and her contract ending around that time impacted our income significantly.

Calaj: It changed everything for us; it was a turning point. We were in the middle of buying baby clothes and all the things that you need.

Rochi: I applied for a decent number of jobs. You never hear back from jobs fast enough. You're just waiting to see if you got it. My dad owns a cleaning business, so we considered asking him for work in the meantime. With a kid on the way, we were thinking about anything I could do.

Calaj: I reached out to the district that I worked for the previous year to see if I could do some flexible, part-time contract work. We were trying anything we could to have extra income at that point.

We turned an idea into a new income stream

Rochi: In April, I saw videos of somebody renting camcorders to people to record their weddings, and then editing the footage for them.

I immediately thought it was a really cool idea.

My brain started to spin. Before even telling Rachel, I created a website and a TikTok account for our business, Pass the Cam, and posted a few videos just to see if it could work. I've tried a lot of side hustles over the years, including starting a newsletter that sent people entry-level remote job postings and creating a product called DooBagz, a bag dog owners could clip on to hold a used poop bag. However, they didn't work out.

Calaj: With this camcorder side hustle, I could see real momentum behind it from the start. Felipe hit the ground running, and when our first order came in, I was so excited.

Our first orders gave us hope we could do this

Rochi: We were at T.J. Maxx one Friday night when somebody reached out and said their videographer canceled and she needed our camcorders the next weekend. I was like, "Oh snap, I have to ship this out ASAP."

I bought a Sony 4K camcorder and memory card from a camera store nearby for around $1,100, including the warranty, picked it up on Saturday, and bought a random box to ship it to her.

Because we didn't have the money to pay an editor right away, and we were trying to pay off the camcorder I'd just bought, I edited the footage she sent back, since I have a little bit of experience with editing. She loved it.

That first client was in May, before I lost my job. By the end of the month, we had gotten two more clients.

It gave me something to fall back on when my termination happened in June. I said, "Hey, I got a couple of clients out of this, so why not try this more?" I was still applying for jobs, though, because a second job felt more secure than betting on a side hustle.

Calaj: Of course, there was still some uncertainty. You always wonder whether something will take off or eventually fizzle out.

We've had nearly 100 clients since we started

Rochi: Our goal is to reach 100 clients by the end of 2026. We're nearly there, and we still have some months to go, so I think it's possible.

We've made over $50,000 in net volume since starting in May, about half of which was in September alone.

I see more camcorder rental businesses showing up compared to when we started, but with millions of weddings a year in the US, I believe there's room for everyone.

We try to price our packages slightly lower than our competitors, run almost monthly promos, and include everything without charging for add-ons.

We actually dropped the prices for our two most expensive packages in order to stay competitive. Our packages are $429 for our starter package, $699 for the core package, and $899 for our deluxe package. They differ in terms of the type and number of camcorders, the length of edited video, and additional attachments like microphones and lights.

Calaj: I handle the operations side, like managing bookings, handling shipping logistics, ordering packaging, hunting down the best deals on boxes and stickers, and growing our camcorder inventory. The cameras are probably the biggest expense that we have at this moment, but it's been worth it so far.

My husband leads marketing and is the main point of contact for every couple we work with. He takes care of the camcorders themselves, making sure each one is working properly and set up with the right settings before it ships. He also works with our editors and reviews their work, so everything we send out is top quality.

On top of that, he manages our finances, making sure we're smart about what we earn and how much we reinvest back into the business.

Rochi: Sometimes overbooking happens, or we don't have enough inventory. I think that's all part of learning a new business.

We wish we'd had something like this at our wedding

Rochi: Some might disagree with our ways, but we know how expensive weddings already are.

Calaj: When we got married about four years ago, we did more of an elopement-style wedding with our close friends and family because we were starting off in our careers. We had disposable cameras; we still have those pictures around our house.

To hear that wedding videos can now cost thousands of dollars — it's just an insane amount.

We both said that if camcorder rentals were around when we got married, it would be a really cool thing to do. It's really sweet looking at the videos; it just feels very homey.

Rochi: The coolest part is hearing back from the couples over text or in reviews.

We became new parents in August

Calaj: It's definitely been hard to be new parents, but we love it.

Rochi: I always told her my goal: "I want you to stay home and be with our kids." I've stopped looking for a second job. The way the business is going now, and if I keep my full-time SEO job and the growth of our camcorder business keeps going, she won't have to go back to work.

Calaj: It's been really promising so far. At the moment, I have no plans of going back. Once my baby got here, I was like, "Yeah, I cannot imagine going back in six weeks."

It's really special to spend our time building something that's ours.

Rochi: There's no better feeling than knowing we trusted each other enough to take the leap. We lost an income, had a baby on the way, and had no idea what was ahead, but we believed this could work. Seeing it actually work has been incredible.

• Hardik Jagda wants to function like an Olympian, and waking up at 3 a.m. helps him do that.
• He commits long hours to his AI-based company, but says he doesn't enforce 996 hours on his team.
• For Jagda, 996 misses the point. Here's how he structures his day instead.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hardik Jagda, 35, the CEO of Proximity Works, who lives in San Francisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2017, I wanted to build my own company, but I couldn't jump into it full-time because of my financial obligations at home.

Instead, I'd spend the mornings and evenings outside my full-time job working on my side projects. That time was foundational for building my company, Proxmity Works, which I launched in 2019. My aim was to help broadcasters scale their live sports streaming platforms worldwide. In 2020, we started building AI infrastructure for live sports.

Those years made me aware of how my body clock works. I read a lot of autobiographies from entrepreneurs and athletes to understand what allowed them to build what they achieved. I noticed athletes would talk about starting their day early to train and work, in time for rest and recovery throughout the day. I started modeling my days after this, waking up early so I could have four to five hours to build my company before work started. I still stick to this lifestyle now that I'm a full-time founder and CEO.

I want to structure my day to function like an Olympian

In the early stages of Proximity, I performed pretty much every role in the company. Today, I have a team of roughly 45 people, five in the US and the rest spread out globally. My cofounder is based in India.

After 7 a.m., my time isn't mine anymore because I have requests coming in from employees in different time zones.

I like to start the day early, so I'm protecting the first three hours as time for myself. I usually wake up between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Between 3 and 6 a.m., I don't touch my emails or look at messages.

I use these early hours to focus on strategic decisions. There was one point, roughly two years ago, when we had to interview a lot of engineers quickly for a new project. I sat down with my talent acquisition team and found a way to redesign our recruitment workflow to take place within 72 hours. That wouldn't have been possible if I didn't give myself the three-hour morning block.

In the mornings, I work out and write my goals down. These are usually measurable and trackable goals for my company, as well as goals for myself and my fitness.

Most of my team calls don't start before 7:30 or 8 a.m. I usually take my first couple of meetings at home before driving to the office. During the day, I try to minimize Zoom calls and take meetings as audio calls so I can move around during them. I try to wrap up my meetings by 2:30 p.m., work out at 3 p.m., and then focus on more creative tasks, like speech-writing, after that. I spend my evenings with loved ones before going to bed around 9 p.m. and trying to get seven hours of sleep.

It's not like I start my day at 4 a.m. and just work through the next 12 hours. I build in slots for "recovery" throughout the day. On my calendar, I put in 15-minute slots before important meetings, where I remind myself of my goal for the call.

For the most part, I work six days a week, spending my Saturdays focusing on a key skill I want to develop, like public speaking.

'996' misses the point. I don't run my team with this schedule in mind.

For the most part, I work six days a week.

I work more than 40 hours a week, but I don't keep track of the time. I listen to my body.

We don't keep track of how many hours the team works. It's more about a culture of ownership, where people really care about the problem they're working on.

Even though I've become a morning person, we're fine with engineers who are more productive at night, as long as they maintain a five-to-six-hour overlap with the other engineers.

"996 culture," working six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., has gained traction in Silicon Valley. I think it misses the point. It's more about volume than it is about structure. You want to structure your day towards putting in your best work by thinking about when you'll spend time training, recovering, and learning new skills. I'd rather focus on the right structures than on volume.

Do you have a story to share about working in a 996 culture? Contact this reporter at ccheong@businessinsider.com

• Bruno Bianchini quit his job at Google to focus on sustainability in Cambodia and green finance.
• While still at Google, he pursued a degree at Harvard in sustainable studies.
• He says leaving Google was a hard decision, but his career shift aligns with his values.

This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with Bruno Bianchini, the 40-year-old former Head of Global Partnerships for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey for Google, who is based in the Netherlands. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Growing up in the Italian countryside, sustainability was simply part of everyday life. At 18, I left my small village near Milan to study at Bocconi University in Milan.

In 2005, I started my degree in accounting, corporate finance, and law. Then I did a master's in business administration. When I was about to graduate, a friend at the university said a group of professors had opened a boutique consulting firm. I interviewed for the role and landed it.

That path led me first to consulting and then to Google, where I spent more than 13 years before leaving to pursue work in sustainability.

I started work as a business analyst at the consulting firm in January 2011

At 25, I was working on three projects — a hotel, a food company, and a company that made pressure gauges. My experience was very much about seeing problems through an analytical lens.

In 2012, I was invited to a friend's birthday dinner, where I was seated opposite a guy working at Google. Although Google was already a huge company, I had little sense of its scale. I thought of it mainly as a search engine.

We stayed in touch, and they eventually asked if I'd be interested in an interview

I remember wearing a jacket and tie, and I thought, I can't show up at Google like this; they're never going to hire me. I roughed up my hair, removed my jacket and my tie, and went to the interview.

I had three interviews at Google on the same day. One interviewer asked me about role-related knowledge, the next about more general knowledge, and the third was Googleyness — whether I was a culture fit. I remember thinking in the interview that I wanted to work with these people.

About a week later, I had a fourth interview. The process moved quickly because it was for a temp job. In July 2012, I joined Google.

The Google office in Milan was colorful and playful

I remember there was a game area. In consulting, I'd start work at 8:30 a.m. and leave at 10:30 p.m. every day. At Google, people were coming and going whenever they wanted. The culture was a huge change for me. It was fantastic.

A year later, I applied for a full-time role working with DoubleClick for Publishers, now part of Google Ad Manager. I did lots of prep for the interview, and I got the job.

In 2016, my boss asked me to give a presentation at the Google office in Dubai

After the presentation, a guy who became my new boss asked if I'd consider moving to Dubai because they were expanding the team. Two months later, they opened the role; I applied, got the job, and moved to Dubai.

That same year, I got to see the San Francisco campus for the first time. When I saw the scale of the buildings, the number of meeting rooms, micro kitchens, and the bicycles employees rode around campus, I was mesmerized. Working for one of the most innovative companies on the planet, I felt like I was always at the forefront of tech innovation. I definitely got a kick out of that.

By 2024, I had become the Head of Global Partnerships for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey at Google

As I was managing a large region, there was a lot of travel.

On office days, I generally worked 9-to-5, depending on projects and deadlines. I might have calls with people in the US, but travel was more hectic. From the moment I arrived, I was having breakfast with colleagues, attending an event, or meeting with clients.

Throughout my time at Google, my value system changed

I'd been thinking about sustainability for some time. When I was in Milan, I met someone from LA who told me they were vegan. They told me about the damage the dairy and meat industries are causing to the planet. I started reading more, and I went down the rabbit hole. I remember feeling that I wanted to be part of the movement for the solution.

While still at Google, I looked into which universities offered degrees in sustainability and came across a program at Harvard.

In December 2025, I resigned from Google

I pursued my master's degree in sustainable studies at Harvard online while working at Google. The last part of my studies involved a thesis. I took a sabbatical from Google and traveled to Cambodia to work on an ambitious project that plans to reforest 100,000 hectares of flooded forest. I worked on the feasibility study.

Google was kind enough to say, "Go pursue your dreams, and if something doesn't work, you're welcome to come back." Eventually, I decided it was time. After four months in Cambodia, I felt the umbilical cord was stretched enough. When I returned from my sabbatical, I handed in my notice.

I feel now that I have a big purpose in my heart, confidence in the abilities Harvard gave me, and, at the same time, I feel financially secure. I could leave a high-paying role where I was making more than $300,000 in annual total compensation for the unknown.

I'm now working as an independent consultant for this project in Cambodia.

Leaving Google was not an easy choice

Google nurtured me in so many ways, but as I was learning more about sustainability, my value system was changing. I was encouraging people to sell more stuff, and on my dark days, I remember thinking that staying at home on the couch was better for the environment.

I want to capitalize on my background in business and finance. I'm currently working on publishing a research paper about the project in Cambodia. I'm doing this long-distance while we're securing funds for the pilot. This month, I moved to the Netherlands, as it is one of the best places for green finance.