Are you ready to go back to Hell?

Nearly 25 years ago, the first "DOOM" game exploded into mainstream culture with floating demon heads and zombified space marines. And in 2016, "DOOM" is back:

That's just one of the many, many demons you'll face down in the new "DOOM" game that launches on May 13. Not big and scary enough for ya?

As grizzly as these monsters may be, they're part of a painstakingly-detailed world — and we've got a mess of concept art from that world right here:

The new "DOOM," like the original "DOOM," stars an unnamed space marine who finds himself fighting off the armies of Hell.

What this translates to in terms of artwork is what you see here — loads of red-ish, dark environments that are ripped straight from your nightmares:

The game (thankfully) doesn't start you out in the dankest pits of Hell. First, you'll explore a space base that's overrun with demons:

Millennials face an uphill battle when it comes to their finances.

Crippling student loan debt, skyrocketing rental rates and dismal wages form a perfect storm of sorts that makes it hard for young adults to get ahead.

There are some millennials, however, who have managed to build up some sizable wealth. According to a recent study, adults ages 18 to 33 represent 11% of high net worth households.

So what’s their secret? It all comes down to making the right money moves.

If you want to take a page out of the rich millennials’ playbook, here’s what you need to know.

SEE ALSO: Why you shouldn't quit your job to become a full-time entrepreneur

1. They embrace investing

When it comes to investing, the typical millennial is reluctant to get started. A 2015 study by Capital One found that 93% of millennials are wary of investing. A general distrust of the market and a lack of basic investing knowledge were cited as the top reasons that 20-somethings are less enthusiastic than older investors.

Among rich millennials, the trend is reversed. Rather than being afraid that they’ll lose money, many wealthy millennials seem to be confident that their assets will perform at the level they’re expecting and that their investments will continue to gain value over time.

They’re also willing to take more of a gamble when they invest. According to a report on millennial investing trends, the typical millennial holds 52% of their assets in cash. Less than two-thirds of high net worth millennials do the same. Instead, many of them veer toward riskier bets, such as private equity and hedge funds.

2. They invest based on their values

Whether or not it’s possible to beat the market on a consistent basis is something investing experts constantly debate. Wealthy millennials, however, tend to tune out the noise and focus on investments that align with their core values.

In a study from Spectrem Group, 45% of rich millennials said they wanted to use their wealth to help others. One of the ways they’re doing it is through impact investing, a philosophy that centers on investments linked to social causes.

While impact investments may not outpace the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ, wealthy millennials still see a payoff by knowing that their money is being used to help worthy causes. Over time, that consistent approach can yield better returns than constantly trying to chase the latest market trend.

3. They don’t overdo it with credit

Millennials in general tend to be wary of credit cards and that’s particularly true for those who have a higher net worth. According to 2013 research from the Schullman Research Center, 67% of wealthy millennials said they paid cash for their last luxury purchase instead of using plastic.

That reluctance to rely on credit means rich millennials are less likely to be bogged down by debt. That, in turn, means they have more opportunities to continue building wealth because they’re not spending a big chunk of their income on debt repayment.

What’s the takeaway here for the rest of us? If you’re in debt, it’s a good idea to make paying it down your top priority. Once it’s paid off, you can use the extra money to expand your investments or bump up your savings. If you don’t have debt, it’s best to be selective about how often you take on credit card debt, loans or lines of credit.

This year's National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year contest is now officially accepting entries, and the submissions that have already come in are pretty mind-blowing.

There are three categories to which photographers can submit their work: nature, cities, and people. 

The grand-prize winner will be named the 2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year and get a seven-day Polar Bear Safari for two at Churchill Wild — Seal River Heritage Lodge in Manitoba, Canada. Airfare is included. 

Below, see 15 submissions to the "cities" category. The contest ends May 27.

SEE ALSO: 11 eerie images of radioactive ruins from the Cold War's 'secret cities'

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Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Winfield Scott, California.

Lombard Street, San Francisco, California.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, Ile-de-France, France.

I've driven street cars that are also race cars: Ferraris, Cadillacs, even the beloved Mazda Miata MX-5. While all were thrilling, I can't say that any were out-and-out terrifying. 

And then I buckled myself into a 2015 John Cooper Works MINI. Don't let he adorable looks of MINI's family coupe fool you. This savage little beast, I'm certain, was trying to do me in. 

You just don't get to feel this anymore with high-performance cars. The Lamborghini Hurácan, for example, is a Lamborghini and therefore supposed to be threatening. But it isn't. It's as easy to live with as a Honda Accord. That's because carmakers like Lamborghini don't want customers to think they need some kind of special certification for dangerous activity before parting with a down payment.

My frame of mind when the JCW MINI — the third generation of the vehicle — landed in the driveway of BI Transportation's suburban New Jersey satellite HQ was that the car would be fun. Which it was. But it was also many, many other things. And some of those things made me think that I should have been wearing a helmet and a fireproof suit.

It's a very, very, very special MINI.

Out test car tipped the price scales at a superbly equipped $37,000 — that's $7,000 above the MSRP and included goodies such as a rear-view camera, high-performance wheels, heated front seats, and satellite radio.

The color was "Chili Red," and this little sucker was hot as hell, to say the least. It was bolted together in Oxford, England before being shipped to the Garden State to commence its joyful reign of vehicular terror.

It's a MINI that actually races.

The street-legal JCW MINI coupé is derived from the MINI Challenge Series car that turns hot laps on the track. 

This means that the JCW has a race car personality — fierce, aggressive, unyielding, precise — and race cars manners — jittery, stiff, high-strung, revved up. It's extremely important to know what you're getting in for, because although plenty of "homologated" track cars are perfectly docile in commuter traffic, the JCW is not.

In fact, of the numerous high-performance cars I've sampled of late, the JDW feels the least altered by the transition from race course to roadway. 

This is of course cool, but the car also reminds me of a Jack Russell terrier that's gotten into the Red Bull: "Gimme track! Gimme track! Gimme track!" is its yapping demand.

There's a recently unveiled convertible version.

I saw it at the New York auto show this year. Yes, it looks pretty sweet. But if you're seeking a race car that's barely adjusted itself to the highway, you might want to stick with the coupé and its more rigid framework.

The again, sawing the top off probably cools this angry little guy's temper somewhat.

As the very first close-up image of another planet beamed to Earth on July 15, 1965, the engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory couldn't wait to see it.

This was Mariner 4, the first spacecraft to photograph the surface of Mars. At the time, it was the farthest any human-made object had ever traveled.

But the computers were going to take eight hours to process a single image before the excited scientists could get a glimpse.

So engineer Richard Grumm had the idea that they should print out the data as it came in from a tape recorder receiving the signal from the spacecraft — and the engineers colored the first image by hand. Dan Goods, a visual strategist at JPL, retold this incredible story on his blog, Directed Play.

Here's how it happened:

The engineers printed out the series of ticker tape strips of paper with numbers on them indicating how bright each pixel of the first image was going to be, and put them on the wall.

Goods wrote that Grumm picked up some pastels from a nearby art store, and chose the most perfect color palette imaginable — especially considering the final image was going to arrive in black and white.

"It is uncanny how close his color scheme is to the actual colors of Mars. It's as if they came right out of current images of the planet," Goods wrote. "I've seen some of the other color schemes he tried and it could have been green or purple!"

It's a known fact that some of the best business leaders in the world are also some of its most voracious readers.

Just in the past few years, tech luminaries like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have started book clubs, encouraging people to read some of their favorite books. 

In that spirit, here are 13 books that have inspired some of Silicon Valley's greatest leaders.

Some of them are fiction, some of them are business-focused, and at least one is so frighteningly technical, even Gates had trouble finishing it. 

These are the books that inspire top tech leaders:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's first laptop knocks out the MacBook and the iPad with one punch

Bill Gates once said "definitely send me a resume" if you can finish the famously punishing "The Art of Computer Programming" by Donald Knuth.

"If somebody is so brash that they think they know everything, Knuth will help them understand that the world is deep and complicated," Gates said.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is a big fan of "The Fountainhead," by Ayn Rand, a book about a principled architect who refuses to back down from his beliefs, even when they're seen as selfish.

Welcome to the "House of Eternal Return," a permanent art installation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that is transporting visitors to another world through 70 different interactive spaces that were all created by 135 different artists.

It fills a 20,000-square-foot space — part of a larger building leased by the arts and entertainment production company Meow Wolf — that was once Silva Lanes bowling alley until it was purchased by none other than "Game of Thrones" creator, George R.R. Martin, who spent $3 million renovating it.

The installation itself combines the features of a jungle gym, children's museum, interactive art exhibit, and a haunted house. It even includes four treehouses.

Tech Insider didn't get the chance to go inside the exhibit, but luckily there are thousands of Instagram posts of the art show. Keep scrolling to see inside the exhibit.

Visitors are introduced to the space with a story about the fictional Selig family. They used to inhabit the old Victorian home that the exhibit takes place in until a dimensional rift led to the breakdown of time and space.

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This refrigerator transports visitors to a "new dimension" in the exhibit.

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Some of the art reflects a warped reality, like this bathroom with an uneven floor.

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Trying to make some extra cash? Have free time you don't know what to do with? Trying to develop or hone a new skill? You should consider getting a side gig.

FlexJobs, an online service specializing in telecommuting and remote work, recently put together a list of 15 high-paying jobs you can do on the side. To qualify for the list, each job had to be considered "flexible" (and not full-time), and had to pay at least double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to the job posting on FlexJobs. 

Brie Reynolds, the director of online content for FlexJobs, says "side jobs" are defined as anything part-time, including freelance, temporary, short- or long-term, work-from-home, or in-person flexible gigs.

Here's FlexJobs' list of 15 high-paying side jobs you might want to consider:

SEE ALSO: The 13 most meaningful jobs in America

Curriculum writer

Pay: $50 an hour

Type of flexibility:Temporary, part-time

Description: Education professionals with experience in curriculum writing will find a variety of part-time and/or temporary positions to assist educational institutions and organizations with curriculum development, writing, and adaption. These jobs seek people who have excellent teamwork skills and who work well under deadlines.

City-guide writer

Pay: $50-$100/project

Type of flexibility: Freelance, telecommute

Description: Travel and tourism businesses, as well as real-estate companies, often hire writers to write city and/or neighborhood guides with information about population size, shopping, recreation, culture, entertainment, things to do, climate, transit, and more.

Business consultant

 Pay: $48 an hour

Type of flexibility: Part-time, telecommute, freelance

Description: Consultants may work with one local business or a variety of nationwide or international companies to handle questions, review processes, and improve performance. Extensive previous management experience is typically required.

Saving is a critical component of growing your wealth.

That being said, you can't neglect earning, which is what the wealthiest, most successful people choose to focus on.

"The masses are so focused on clipping coupons and living frugally they miss major opportunities," self-made millionaire Steve Siebold writes. "The wealthy also know saving is important. But they know earning money is even more important."

Here, we've rounded up 11 strategies to increase your earnings, from the self-made millionaires who have already done it.

SEE ALSO: 9 things to do in your 20s to become a millionaire by 30

Develop multiple streams of income

In author Thomas C. Corley's five-year study of self-made millionaires he found that many of them develop multiple streams of income: 65% had three streams, 45% had four streams, and 29% had five or more streams.

These additional streams include real-estate rentals, stock market investments, and part-ownership in a side business.

"Three streams of income seems to be the magic number for the self-made millionaires in my Rich Habits study, but the more income streams you can create in life, the more secure will your financial house be,"he writes.

Put your money to work

"The only reason to save money is to invest it,"writes Grant Cardone, who went from broke and in debt at 21 to self-made millionaire by 30. "Put your saved money into secured, sacred (untouchable) accounts. Never use these accounts for anything, not even an emergency."

While always subject to a degree of risk, investing is one of the most effective ways to earn more money. As Ramit Sethi writes in his bestseller, "I Will Teach You to Be Rich,""on average, millionaires invest 20% of their household income each year. Their wealth isn't measured by the amount they make each year, but by how they've saved and invested over time."

Don't worry if you can't afford to finance a great idea

The wealthiest people focus on coming up with innovative ideas first— then, they aren't afraid to fund their future from other people's pockets, Siebold writes in his book, "How Rich People Think." "The wealthy know money is always available because rich people are always looking for great investments and superior performers to make those investments profitable."

You don't have to have money to make money, he stresses: "The truth is you have to have great ideas that solve problems to make money. ... Creative ideas are the scarce resource, but most people are so focused on where the money is coming from, that they ignore their ideas, yet the ideas are the only thing that will actually attract the money in the first place!"

Some leaders — like Larry Ellison, Ralph Lauren, or Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels — have become legendary.

Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, believes virtually any professional can follow their example to achieve greatness.

In his new book, "Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent," he argues that adopting a few key behaviors can turbocharge your company's performance and your legacy.

Here are six best practices he recommends:

SEE ALSO: 4 habits that make Elon Musk such an innovative leader

1. Look for talent everywhere

Finkelstein notes that the best bosses, quite famously, find talent in unexpected places, from go-getter restaurant workers to denizens of the mail room.

"They're always on the lookout, and if they find somebody who's great, they're going to hire them whether or not they have a job opening," he told me in a recent interview.

2. Work closely with your people

"People are afraid of micromanagement," Finkelstein notes, and indeed, too much of the practice can become pathological.

But, he says, "Steve Jobs was a micromanager. Jeff Bezos is a micromanager. I don't advocate micromanagement, but I'm going to say you want to really get close to that."

It turns out that bosses who roll up their sleeves and work very closely with their employees are dramatically more effective.

3. Let your people go.

"One of the things that superbosses are willing to do is give up talent," says Finkelstein.

That may sound counterintuitive, but they realize that you can't force someone to stay with your company — and instead of parting on bad terms, they ensure their former employees become part of an alumni network that can later turn into new business opportunities.

Even Mick Jagger can't touch Taylor Swift's moves.

Though her last year hasn't been totally easy — including a revived feud with Kanye West— she came out on top in the music world in terms of the money she earned.

Billboard released its annual list of the highest-paid musicians, which ranks how much artists made in 2015, with touring being the primary factor — especially as album sales across the board continue to dwindle.

That accounts for why Adele, despite skyrocketing sales, had to bow down to Swift, who earned $73.5 million in 2015 while she was on her 1989 tour, as well as popular legacy acts that command high sales, from The Rolling Stones to Billy Joel.

See the ranked list of the top 20 highest-paid musicians below:

SEE ALSO: Inside Prince's massive $10 million mansion where he was found dead

20. Fleetwood Mac - $11.3 million

19. Florida Georgia Line - $11.5 million

18. Juan Gabriel - $11.6 million

Scholars say that what we now call English started when Germanic tribes settled in present-day Britain at around 500 CE.

The Oxford English dictionary counts 171,476 words in current use. 

A staggering 47,156  words are now obsolete, though excellent projects like Haggard Hawks are bringing them back.

As you'll see from the below, some of the mother tongue's finest phrasings need to be brought back, as they'll help us mark our days and describe our lives better than what's currently on offer. 

Overmorrow: on the day after tomorrow.

Example: "I'll have that report to you overmorrow." 

Why: Overmorrow was in Middle English but fell out of the language. So instead of having this word, we have the wordy "day after tomorrow." German still has this very useful word: übermorgen.

Bedward: heading toward bed.

Example: "I'm bedward, putting this group text on mute." 

Why: Because it treats your bed as a cardinal direction. As it should be.

Elflock: hair that has been tangled as if by elves.

Example: "I think I bruised my scalp trying to get those elflocks out." 

Why: Because hair tangles are frustrating, but elflocks are adorable. And speaking of them helps to re-enchant our world.

Less than shocking news: The photo above isn't actually a museum-aged Kodacolor portrait of my grandfather. It's a digital picture of my friend Sean, who dropped by my headshot studio and was nice enough to lend his picture to this article.

The film-like texture, dust, and scratch marks are courtesy of an Alien Skin filter. For years, this was Alien Skin's entire business model for its Exposure series — filters and presets to add on to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom in order to emulate the look of film. Lightroom stood largely untouched for years as the best photo processing and editing tool for serious photographers, so it was entirely possible to build a business devoted to enhancing it.

But with Exposure X, released last December, Alien Skin is directly challenging the megalithic Creative Cloud that gave it life. CEO Finley Lee told Tech Insider he intends this software to be a cheaper, more intuitive, and organizationally superior alternative to the ubiquitous Lightroom (or the Bridge/regular Photoshop software combo many photographers use).

Here's how it stacks up against the giant.

A fast, no-nonsense organizational system

The worst part of Adobe Creative Suite for photographers is how complicated organizing everything can be.

You essentially have two options. 

The first: Use the file-management tool Adobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop all the time, and save new copies of your files for every edit you make.

The second: Import every photo you take into an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom catalogue, which lets you make non-destructive edits. That is, edits that are stored in a sidecar file to the catalogue so as not to save over the original photos and be tweak-able at any time. But catalogs are somewhat difficult to organize and easy to error out if you ever touch the photos with an outside program. Large catalogs also tend to run a bit slowly on even medium-power computers.

Exposure X solves that problem.

You can drag and drop any folder into Exposure X without moving it around on your computer. Once there, you can scroll through, re-organize, and tag the images within the program. The system is reminiscent of Photo Mechanic, a powerful, expensive tool photojournalists and wedding photographers use to organize their massive batches of images. But it comes built-in to the program.

Once you're ready to work on an image, it's just a click away from a full suite of non-destructive editing tools. The small files that record your changes sit in a sub-folder within the folder where the image is found. (That also makes Exposure X straightforward to use across multiple computers — just keep the image files in a Google Drive folder and watch your changes instantly sync across PCs.)

Somewhat less powerful, but much easier to use

Exposure X offers a similar, though not identical, set of panels and sliders of editing images to Adobe Lightroom.

For example: The main image controls deal simply with "highlights,""shadows,""contrast," and "exposure," while Lightroom also offers "whites" and "blacks" sliders to make more exacting adjustments.

The most obvious difference though is Exposure X's tendency to present users with simplified routes toward common tasks. One of the first options when you click the adjustment brush is a skin softening tool — something you have to buy from a third party or (more commonly) design for yourself in Lightroom. I found Exposure X's brushes at least as effective as the ones I have saved to my Lightroom, though appreciated the ability to continue to alter them.

I found Exposure X's brush to render more quickly and fluidly on a Surface Pro 4, both with the touchpad and the stylus. The changes appeared quickly enough on the image that I felt like I was painting them on.

Compare that to Lightroom, where the slower render leads me to temporarily use a bright color just so I can keep track of where my brush has been:

My experience was that Exposure X was much easier to use for my purposes. However, for a severely mis-lit image I'd still want to the precise power of Photoshop's RAW editor.

Here's how I processed my favorite RAW file after about 10 minutes in Exposure X:

And here's the shot that took me closer to half an hour to import, select, and process from scratch in Lightroom a day later:

I actually like my Exposure X result more. Working at speed in Lightroom I made more errors, including generally over-lightening the shot, which flattens Sean's look and erases some of the subtleties of my studio lights.

Exposure X is missing one important feature though

The most glaring omission from Exposure X is any sort of blemish removal tool.

In the screenshot above, you can see me using the Surface Pen to select the area around a stray hair for Lightroom to cover with transplanted pixels from another image. This is a simple feature, but very important for many photographers. As I move toward using this software more than Lightroom, I'll probably keep opening final proofs in regular Photoshop to cut out stray hairs and razor burn.

A representative for Alien Skin tells me this feature will come in a future iteration of the product, though its absence could be prohibitive for some buyers.

Conclusion: A better (if a bit quirky) option for many photographers

The idea of building a full photo-processing suite out of an oddball filter pack is, on its face, a bit strange. But somehow it works.

Exposure X is best thought of as a Lightroom replacement that happens to offer you the chance to mimic the entire history of film on its left-hand panel. I had some fun playing with that, though in my opinion the virtue of crazy old-school films was that they changed the way you shot in fundamental, textural ways. The power to switch between them after the fact feels like cheating, though the results are impressively accurate looking. Steve McCurry may have shot the last roll of Kodachrome in 2010, but with Exposure you could probably fool most viewers into thinking it was you.

At $149, Exposure X really stands out for being a much better value than Lightroom. Adobe charges a $10/month for its software, which means Exposure X will be a better value for some users in the long term. However, don't expect unlimited free updates of the kind Creative Cloud offers.

I'd recommend this software to anyone who likes to work fast and light, or who wants off Adobe's endless subscription plan.

Just for fun, I've rounded up a few of the more and less subtle film effects below.

Being a millionaire isn’t quite as unique as it used to be.

In 2015, there were 10.1 million American households—that’s 8.3 percent of the total population—with a net worth of at least $1 million, compared to just 5.9 percent in the heart of the Great Recession.

Yet hitting the million-dollar mark remains a landmark goal for Americans. For many, it symbolizes ultimate financial freedom.

While it’s easy to assume that people with millions in the bank got there by inheriting family money or raking in massive salaries, plenty earn their fortunes by living frugally, investing wisely and creating their own income-producing opportunities.

Here’s how four ordinary Americans became millionaires in their own right.

SEE ALSO: 5 real people share the money lessons they wish they'd learned sooner

The frugal investor

Ilene Davis, 66, Cocoa Beach, Fla.

Starting out: Though Davis was first exposed to the market when her mother bought her some stock at 18, it wasn’t until she made the major career leap from computer programmer to stockbroker for E.F. Hutton at age 32 that she started investing strategically.

While Davis’s previous job paid the bills, she says it wasn’t fulfilling. Becoming a stockbroker, on the other hand, was a chance to “do something I really loved: investing and helping others save for retirement,” she says.

Finding success: At the start of her new career, Davis invested about 25 percent of her income into profit-sharing and a money-purchase pension plans—retirement benefits offered by her employer that allowed her to share in company earnings. She also maxed out her IRA and made additional investments in stocks and mutual funds. In total, she invested about 40 percent of her “middle-level” income, she says, which has averaged about $75,000 over the past 30 years.

While investing 40 percent is significant, Davis, who currently lives with her boyfriend of 24 years and doesn’t have kids, says she didn’t have “any real reason to spend much.” She prefers shopping in consignment shops, bought a house that was heading into foreclosure and furnished most of it with Craigslist and thrift-store finds and drives used cars until they need regular repairs.

“I am not big on going out to dinner, either, and if I go, it’s where I have coupons. I would much rather cook and have friends over,” she says. “Basically, I have a full life, but little need to impress others with how much I can spend. So my lifestyle is really pretty inexpensive, relative to my income.”

While she does select her own investments, Davis says she initially made a lot of mistakes picking individual stocks. “It’s just too tempting to ‘play’ [or make regular trades],” she says. “Serious wealth accumulation started when I committed to investing on a regular basis in mutual funds, and then left them to other professionals.”

By the time she reached age 50, Davis had accumulated her first of more than $2 million of net worth.

Advice for others: To build wealth, “start now,” Davis says. “Regardless of how much or how little you earn, invest at least 10 percent for the long term.” And build from there.

She also recommends always having an emergency fund, so you never have to use credit cards to pay bills or sell long-term investments when unexpected expenses arise. If you don’t have an emergency fund yet, build one while investing at the same time: “An emergency fund is for unexpected expenses; an investment portfolio is to build wealth that can be a source of future income,” Davis says.

Finally, don’t be preoccupied with market ups and downs. “When the market has really bad days, weeks or months, decide if the world is truly ending. If not, invest more—or just don’t look at your statements to avoid temptation to react,” she says. “Remember the advice from Warren Buffett: ‘Time in the market instead of timing of the market is the key to building wealth.’”

The diversified real estate mogul

Mark Ferguson, 37, Greeley, Colo.

Starting out: After graduating from the University of Colorado in 2001, Ferguson joined his father’s real estate business—just “until I found a ‘real job’ in finance,” he says. Ferguson soon realized, however, that he enjoyed the work and decided to stay, become a Realtor and flip a few houses with his dad each year.

But he struggled at first. “I did not sell many houses as an agent and made almost all my money from the occasional flip,” Ferguson says. “In 2006, I made a total of $26,000, mostly because I did all the [construction] work myself on one flip. It took all my time and cost me so much money in opportunities lost. However, it also opened my eyes and made me realize I had to change the way I was doing things.”

Finding success: Ferguson didn’t find his groove until he discovered his own niche in 2007: selling foreclosures for banks. With a degree in finance, Ferguson knew how to talk to bankers, and although he still worked under the umbrella of his father’s company, he realized working with banks was a better fit than working with individual sellers.

With a new plan in place, he began listening to self-help CDs for motivation, attended industry conferences and cold-called banks to ask about listing houses. Once he was “in” with some banks, Ferguson’s numbers shot up from selling 10 houses a year to more than 200 annually, just four years later.

After becoming a successful agent, Ferguson refocused on flipping houses. He built a team and upped his quota from two or three flips a year to seven or eight—netting about $33,000 in profit each time. Then in 2010, he started buying rental properties.

“Rentals give me passive income forever if I don’t sell the properties,” he explains. “I own 16 rentals now, which provide about $8,000 [of income] a month after mortgages, taxes, insurance—[plus accounting for] possible vacancies and maintenance.”

Finally, three years ago, Ferguson launched Investfourmore.com, a real estate investing site that helps him rake in an additional five figures a month through avenues like coaching and online training programs, ebooks, affiliate relationships and referrals to other agents. That same year, Ferguson earned his first million—the majority of which came from his rentals and house flips.

“My success came from focus, building a team and adding more sources of income once a business was running smoothly,” he says.

Advice for others: “You do not have to invent something or have a great idea to be wealthy. You need to choose a field to be in, or a business to start, and just do it as well as you can,” Ferguson says. “There are no shortcuts. Hard work and persistence are what people notice. The more you can save and reinvest into yourself or your company in the beginning, the faster you will grow.”

The savvy successor

Jim Markham, 67, Newport Beach, Calif.

Starting out: At just 15 years old, Markham was already married with one daughter, and needed a way to support his family—so his mother suggested he become a barber like his uncle. “I went to barber school and found I was quite good cutting hair,” Markham says, noting that he started out charging just $1.50 per haircut in New Mexico.

He soon realized he had a flair for styling, too, so he enrolled in courses and contests to improve—culminating in a silver medal win at the 1967 Hair Olympics. Within just a few years, he was charging $75 per cut.

Finding success: After reading about celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, who’d started the first professional product line for men, Markham was intrigued and contacted him about becoming a distributor. Little did he know that this business relationship would define his career: Markham not only became a distributor, but also Sebring’s protégé—and eventual successor.

After Sebring’s untimely death in 1969, Markham took over his business, and continued refining the products. “I was always looking for ‘a better mousetrap’ and began experimenting with ways to improve,” he says. “If a product I desired did not yet exist, I would develop it myself. Having celebrity clients enabled me to get a ton of publicity on television, radio and print, which ultimately helped build my credibility, and [helped] the brand sell more products.”

Over the years, Markham launched additional hair care companies, including Pureology and ColorProof Evolved Color Care. Markham earned his first million in 1997 through the sale of ABBA® Pure & Natural Products, and now has a total net worth of more than $100 million.

Though he’s tried retirement, he didn’t find it fulfilling and returned to the beauty industry he loves. He currently serves as Product Developer and CEO at ColorProof and is also an active philanthropist, supporting charities such as the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, Habitat for Humanity and City of Hope.

Advice for others: In addition to choosing great mentors who can help elevate your career and continually creating new opportunities for yourself, Markham says one of the biggest keys to his success is investing with the right mindset.

“I’m an investor in stocks, bonds and real estate. I save consistently, invest conservatively and think long-term,” Markham says.

"Return of the Badge" isn't a planned movie for the "Star Wars" franchise, but it is something Facebook decided to celebrate. 

The social network company transformed part of its campus into Endor and let its employees pose alongside storm troopers and Chewbacca to celebrate May 4. (The date is wildly considered to be Star Wars day.)

Here's what Facebook's "Return of the Badge" looked like: 

SEE ALSO: IN THEIR OWN WORDS: 13 startups explain why they failed

Facebook's Return of the Badge kicked off by totally redoing part of its campus into a Star Wars set.

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The Star Wars set was modeled after Endor's forest moon, the home of the furry alien species, the Ewoks.

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Even the lunch was Star Wars themed.

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A new luxury condominium development on Manhattan's Upper East Side has launched sales today, and it has some unusual features.

The Kent is an 83-unit tower built in an old-fashioned Art Deco style — but it's decked out with every amenity a contemporary buyer would want. That includes a one-of-a-kind "Sound Lounge" designed by Kravitz Design, helmed by famous musician Lenny Kravitz.

"The Sound Lounge was inspired by one of my personal recording studios," Kravitz said in a statement. "We wanted to create an inviting and inspiring multipurpose environment where the residents can play music together or practice their instruments." 

It will be stocked with a full set of instruments, amps, and practice equipment for both professional and amateur musicians to play. And that's not the only specially designed room: there's a drawing room with a fireplace, a garden salon with a billiards table, and an "interactive play space" called Camp Kent.

Developed by Extell Development Group, The Kent was designed by Beyer Blinder Belle with interiors by Champalimaud and landscape architecture by West8. Units will start at $2.45 million a pop. Penthouse pricing has not yet been released, but it could be as much as $20 million.

SEE ALSO: J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler is selling his decked-out Tribeca townhouse for $30 million

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Up on East 95th Street, The Kent is a new luxury building in a neighborhood currently devoid of the towers that populate the rest of Manhattan. Extell bought the property for a little over $6 million back in 2013.

It's a classic 1920s Art Deco design on the exterior.

Source: DNAInfo

And it retains Art Deco influences in the streamlined interior, as well; the floor pattern in this entrance hall is a throwback to that era.

With excellent perks, great pay and benefits, and high job satisfaction, employees at this year's 50 best companies to work for in America seem to have a good thing going for them.

But before you start seething with envy, you should see some of the questions they had to answer to get there.

To find these difficult and sometime odd queries, Business Insider sifted through hundreds of reviews on Glassdoor submitted by people who recently interviewed at the top companies.

If you're thinking of tossing your hat in the ring, be sure to prepare yourself for some real head-scratchers:

SEE ALSO: The 19 toughest interview questions you may have to answer if you want to work at Google, the best company in America

DON'T MISS: 5 reasons Google is the best place to work in America and no other company can touch it

'If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?' —Google associate account strategist candidate

'How many Big Macs does McDonald's sell each year in the US?' —Facebook data scientist candidate

'If this wall was a brick wall, and you were a brick, where would you be in the wall? What impact does this have on the wall as a whole?' —Expedia market associate candidate

There are private jets and then there are Gulfstreams. In opaque world filled with eight-figure price tags and anonymous clients, Gulfstream has managed to transcend the business-aviation industry and become a pop culture icon. 

Companies such as Bombardier, Embraer, and Cessna all build world class business jets, but none have made become engrained in pop culture quite like Gulfstream and its G-series jets. 

After all, no other business jet company has been the subject of a pop song that hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sample the Gulfstream experience when the Savannah, Georgia-based airplane maker invited me and several other journalists to visit the company's headquarters.

Our chariot for this trip was none other than a brand new Gulfstream G550 worth a cool $61.5 million. 

Business Insider provided financial compensation to Gulfstream for the trip. 

SEE ALSO: Check out the Canadian airliner that's trying to challenge Boeing

The trip started at the Jet Aviation private jet terminal located on the grounds of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Like Gulfstream, Jet Aviation is part of the General Dynamics family of companies.

Inside the Jet Aviation terminal, those who are fortunate enough to fly are treated to all of the services rendered at a traditional airport, but...

... In a much nicer and more private setting.

Margaritas do not need to be artisanal or elitist in order to be enjoyed.

In fact, many popular US chains serve up decent margaritas — and at decent prices.

In fact, several chains around the country serve margaritas for less than $5, even when it's not happy hour. 

But most importantly, chain restaurants are accessible. After all, sometimes when you're craving a margarita, a less-than-authentic drink from a popular chain will do the trick just fine.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we checked out some of the best margaritas that popular chain restaurants offer around the US.

SEE ALSO: Here's what Americans get wrong about Cinco de Mayo

Chipotle

Chipotle's standard, house margaritas made with Sauza tequila are some of the most inexpensive around, starting at $4.50. If you're feeling classy, you can get the Patrón margarita, priced between $6.50 and $8.

Select Taco Bells

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You have to go to a Taco Bell Cantina in San Francisco or Chicago to get a Twisted Cantina Margarita Freeze, but if you do, you can also swap out the tequila for rum or vodka.

According to Chicagoist, a Cantina Margarita with tequila goes for $7.19.

TGI Friday's

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Friday's is serving up a $5 Blue 'Rita Shaker at participating locations — a drink that typically costs from $5 to $11 dollars. If you miss Cinco de Mayo, you can visit TGI Friday's on Monday, when the chain serves up $3 margaritas. 

Work-from-home jobs may sound like a dream as you hit snooze on your alarm for the third time. They might even be your financial life raft if you're not bringing in enough at your day job or wish you could accelerate the process of debt repayment or saving for that trip you've been salivating over.

The problem is, so many advertised work-from-home jobs are scams. How can you be confident you're not going falling prey to a pyramid scheme or identity theft when you sign up? At the very least, you should research the outfit online by typing the company name + scam into your search engine. Better yet, focus on finding employment with vetted work-from-home options like the ones below.

SEE ALSO: Why you shouldn't quit your job to become a full-time entrepreneur

Gigs you can do from your couch

Many of the legitimate online jobs that can be done from the comfort of your couch don't pay big at first, but some may have the potential to replace or heavily subsidize regular income.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a job marketplace looking for humans to do work that computers either can't do or perhaps just aren't as efficient doing. The work is referred to as a Human Intelligence Task or a "HIT." HITs can range from identifying objects in pictures and videos to transcribing recordings or doing some spreadsheet work in Excel. Price points vary and you aren't likely to make much money at first, but users claim that better-paying opportunities open up the more HITs you've completed.

Turkers, as they can be known, are paid in cash and can work a few minutes a day or spend hours completing HITs. It may not be a way to replace your day job income, depending on your current salary, but the supplemental income can help meet financial goals like paying down debt or boosting a nest egg.

Apple At Home Advisor

If you feel confident in your technology and customer service skills, then you may be able to work for Apple from the comfort of your desk as an At Home Advisor. Apple provides training as well as paid time away and product discounts for At Home Advisors. You may even move up to become an At Home Team Manager or At Home Area Manager. You will have less autonomy with this job than with other work-from-home job options, but the competitive pay and discount Apple products may be worth it to you.

Virtual Assistant

Technology has made it easier for entrepreneurs and small business owners to outsource jobs to assistants they may never meet. Zirtual helps connect virtual assistants with business owners who need help in their business or personal lives. You'll need to have experience and pass some testing before Zirtual is willing to work with you. You may be helping with managing schedules, conducting research, booking travel, handling social media, planning meals, buying gifts or a variety of other tasks.

Gigs you can do near home

TaskRabbit

This isn't exactly from the comfort of your own home, but it's a simple way to earn extra cash on the side. TaskRabbit connects those in seeking help with Taskers who are willing to do all sorts of odd jobs. You might be cleaning, helping someone move, standing in line to buy the latest tech gadget or shopping and delivering groceries. TaskRabbit will notify you of jobs nearby and you have control over the jobs you want to complete.

Gigs for the crafty

Etsy

Those creative skills you employ to relax when you get home? You could turn those into your next big moneymaking opportunity. Sites like Etsy enable you to sell your wares without having to man your own website.

Lacey Quale, 30, creator and founder of LaceyPlacey, turned her frustration into a business.

"In 2011, I couldn't find cute pillows anywhere! Hard to imagine now but back then, there was a huge void in the market," Quale says. "So I decided to make my own using bright, colorful fabrics I found online and sell a few on Etsy."

Quale's first pillows sold within hours of her launching her Etsy storefront in 2010 and six months later, she'd generated $10,000 in sales. Today, the storefront now takes up about 20 to 25 hours of time a week and she's even hired some employees to help free up her own time.

Etsy does take a cut with fees like a 3.5 percent transaction fee and a 0.20 percent listing fee. You'll also need to handle shipping, but Etsy does offer discounted pricing on United States Postal Service postage and you can print shipping labels from the site.