Over seven seasons of "Shark Tank" and six seasons of its Canadian predecessor "Dragon's Den," Robert Herjavec has seen hundreds of pitches from entrepreneurs looking for funding.

By this point, he can determine whether he can trust an entrepreneur with his money within the first few minutes of a pitch.

The investor and cybersecurity CEO recently chatted with The Ranker Podcast host Daniel Kohn about his new book, "You Don't Have to be a Shark," and explained what he considers to be the top mistakes entrepreneurs make in a pitch.

Here are the red flags that Herjavec looks for from his chair in the Tank. His insights are just as relevant outside of the show, whether you're looking to make a deal with a client or trying to get hired.

SEE ALSO: 'Shark Tank' investor Robert Herjavec reveals how deals are affected by what happens behind the scenes

They don't dress appropriately.

When Herjavec was a college student, he had a part-time job as a salesman in a high-end menswear store, he writes in his book. He learned that the best salesmen would pinpoint which shoppers were going to spend the most money and then spend most of their time with them. It was an imperfect science, but a reliable indicator was how the potential customer dressed: If he already had nice clothes, he could afford to buy more.

The same dynamic takes place in a pitch room, whether on "Shark Tank" or in a Silicon Valley office, Herjavec said on The Ranker Podcast.

Whether you like it or not, the clothing you wear instantly communicates signals to other people's subconscious. For example, Herjavec said, he likes to pester his fellow Shark Mark Cuban, a big fan of T-shirts and jeans regardless of the occasion, by telling him that he intentionally dresses like "a slob" to show that he's already an influential billionaire and doesn't need to impress anyone at this point.

As for entrepreneurs that step into the Tank, Herjavec is looking for their clothes to look intentional, and to complement their companies. Not all entrepreneurs have to show up in formal wear for him to take them seriously, but if they step in wearing shorts and flip flops, they better be in the surfing industry.

They have poor body language.

A long time ago, a venture capitalist friend of Herjavec's told him that it takes an average of 45 seconds for an entrepreneur to walk into a room, greet everyone, sit down, and get comfortable. And by the end of that 45 seconds, the friend said, he already had a hunch about whether he was interested by the way the entrepreneur carried him- or herself.

For a "Shark Tank" segment, an entrepreneur walks down a hallway to an "X" on the floor, where they stand silently for 30 seconds as the camera crew collects the establishing shots they need. As soon as the entrepreneurs take their first steps into the room, Herjavec assesses how they walk and how they stand, he said on the podcast.

If you're looking to impress Herjavec, walk quickly and assuredly. "It’s pretty rare that busy, confident people walk slowly," he said.

As for posture, he doesn't care if there are multiple entrepreneurs presenting together and the head of tech development, for example, is slightly hunched over and withdrawn. But if the head of marketing or the CEO is anything but standing up straight and opening themselves up with confidence, he's concerned.

They don't know enough about their company or industry.

Herjavec noted that viewers probably notice that sometimes the Sharks tear apart an entrepreneur whose pitch isn't going well and other times they let things slide.

As he explains in his book, "We can tolerate a sales pitch that is less than exceptional if the story promises to make us money. But many of the pitches are made by people stumbling and fumbling over the facts or lacking answers to key questions, such as "What are your annual sales to this point?""How much margin do you make on your sales?" and "What do you plan to do with the money if we give it to you?"

He said it even more succinctly on the podcast: "I'll forgive a lot of stuff, but lack of expertise is death."

You can listen to the full podcast episode on iTunes or The Ranker Podcast's website.

Reading good books helps visionary leaders sharpen their foresight and imagination. Below are my top picks:

SEE ALSO: 33 business books every professional should read before turning 30

1. 'The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains' by Nicholas Carr

How is all this constant Web browsing affecting our brains? Technology and culture writer Nicholas Carr argues that the internet, by instantly serving massive volumes of information, is making us expert skimmers and scanners, flitting and darting from one distraction to the next. The result is shallow thinking and the loss of our ability to concentrate, focus, and reflect. "The Shallows" will motivate you to read more books, which, unlike the internet, train our brains to pay attention and engage in deep thought.

Find it here >>

2. 'Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model' by John Mullins and Randy Komisar

Every new business comes with a business plan, and authors John Mullins and Randy Komisar assert that the original business plan is rarely the right one. "Getting to Plan B" teaches a systematic way to test your Plan A and iterate it — so you can find your winning business model before you run out of cash. This book will show you how to use analogs, antilogs, and leaps of faith to discover the most profitable business model.

Find it here >>

3. 'Get a Grip: How to Get Everything You Want From Your Entrepreneurial Business' by Gino Wickman and Mike Paton

In a previous book, Gino Wickman shared his Entrepreneurial Operating System method for business success. It involves strengthening the six key components of a business: vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction. In "Get a Grip," Wickman and Mike Paton use the story of a fictitious business, Swan Services, to illustrate how to implement EOS in practical terms. With the EOS approach, you can transform your team and your business.

Find it here >>

Tuition is rising, but the college experience isn't changing.

USA Today's annual list of the most popular college majors has found that American students stick to the same basic set of majors: business, nursing, education, finance, pre-law, etc.

Netflix offers dozens of  thought provoking documentaries for users at all points of their study – for everyone from burned out college students to reignite their interests to graduating high school students gearing up for university life. Here are nine Netflix documentaries for the next class of graduates: 

SEE ALSO: Hedge funds are betting billions that Netflix stock will tank

"Remote Area Medical"

Recommended for: Pre-medical and nursing majors/graduates 

Why they should see it: "Remote Area Medical" follows a mobile health care unit bringing health, dental, and eyecare to East Tennessee. A team of volunteer radiologists, optometrists, and physicians set up a free healthcare event for three days, bringing healthcare to a town in desperate need of access.

The RAM was founded in 1985 to bring healthcare to villages in sub-Saharan Africa, but later shifted to rural parts of the U.S.  like Appalachia. The parallel is both obvious and tragic: people in Appalachia in 2012 have equivalent healthcare access to the world's most vulnerable people. Anyone who wants to work in healthcare must see this engrossing documentary about the importance of healthcare and its heartbreaking effects when denied. 

Watch the trailer | Watch the film 

"Spanish Lake"

Recommended for: Sociology majors/graduates 

Why they should see it: Sociology graduates should study this frank and well-researched look at the transformation of a Missouri town from a white suburb to a nearly all black ghetto. Told largely from the perspective of the people in the town, residents agree on a general sequence of events: Spanish Lake, a mostly white suburb, rapidly integrated over time, creating an unsustainable social system of crime, poverty, and drug use. Race, class, gender, and geography are all carefully examined in this breakdown of what exactly happened to Spanish Lake, making it crucial for students interested in the civic consequences of integration. 

Watch the trailer | Watch the film 

"Girl Rising"

Recommended for: Education, Gender Studies, and Anthropology majors/graduates 

Why they should see it: Nothing better reveals the true value of education than what women around the world are willing to sacrifice to get it. In countries like Nepal, Egypt, and Peru, education is denied to young girls. "Girl Rising" shows the transformative potential of education, not just for students but for their nations. It's a narrated series of nine shorts, each following a young girl in a different country.

The young women tell their stories of struggle and success, and of trying to better themselves even as they're ignored by peers and the norms of their countries. Future teachers or students studying gender should see this "Girl Rising" to engage with the true value of education and the staggering, disempowering effects of its absence. 

Watch the trailer | Watch the film 

To Matthew Dix, VHS tapes are more than just products of the past.

Instead of mourning the loss of Blockbuster video stores, Dix is bringing the '90s back by "physically recreating, as well as dubbing, modern movies into a fully functional VHS."

He creates the box design on Photoshop, constructs the packaging by hand, and transfers the modern movies — from "The Hateful Eight" to "Deadpool" — to VHS cassettes. He shows off the process and their results on his Instagram account, OffTrackOutlet.

The packaging is super '90s, down to the rental stickers and prices. He's made copies of Oscar-winning films like "Mad Max: Fury Road" and even Disney's "Big Hero 6."

Dix has also expanded his project to transferring film soundtracks to cassettes.

None of the cassettes are for sale, but you can check out some of his work below and follow him on Instagram:

"Interstellar"

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"Deadpool"

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"Mad Max: Fury Road"

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People who love cars — people who really, really love cars — have a language all their own.

We call these people "gearheads" ("petrol heads" in the UK), and while we are sometime among their numbers, more often we are listening to their secret lingo and saying "Wha?"

The words and phrases all sound cool, and maybe a tad offputting. But with a bit of study, you too can soon be speaking fluent gearhead.

Read on.

Torque

A lot of folks understand horsepower as being a measure of how much energy an engine can output. "Torque," on the other hand, is far less well-understood.

It's essentially the amount of rotation that a given amount of power can generate. This is an important concept, because car engines take power that is moving up and down in combustion cylinder and transfer it to the drive wheels.

Gearheads love to talk torque because it's the physical factor that makes cars go fast, beyond just pure horsepower. Torque is also delivered at different points as a car accelerates, so heavy gearheads can debate where a car's sweetspot is.

For electric cars, torque is also an important concept, but for different reasons. Electric motors deliver 100% of available torque at 1 rpm, which is why a Tesla Model S with "Ludicrous Mode" can outrun some supercars from 0-60 mph. 

Banger

Internal-combustion engines have cylinders. The controlled explosions that create power enable pistons to move up and down in these cylinders, or combustion chambers. 

Modern IC engines have 4-, 5-, 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-cylinder engines. The 4s, 6s, and 8s are the most most common, giving us V6s and V8s when the cylinders are arranged in a V shape with an equal number on each side; a 4-cylinder engine will usually set the cylinder up "inline"— in a straight line.

Gearheads will often call a 4- or 6-cylinder motor a "four banger" or "six banger" because the exploding gas-air mixture and pistons will "bang" in the cylinders.

Turbo lag

A turbocharger uses exhaust gases to spin a turbine that compresses the air that's fed into the cylinders.

This can increase an engine's power output, making a V6 perform like a V8.

However, unlike an un-turboed V8, which can pour on its horsepower continuously, a turbo V6 can take a few seconds to deliver its power.

Gearheads call the wait "turbo lag" and will often knock a turbo for it. But many modern turbos reduce or nearly eliminate turbo lag.

Pebble announced two new smartwatches on Tuesday, called the Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2.

Based on these new products, it looks like Pebble will beat FitBit at its own game: specifically, making inexpensive smartwatches that can track your fitness.

Namely, I'm comparing the FitBit's only true smartwatch, called the Blaze, with Pebble's two new smartwatches.

That comparison may seem odd because Pebble's previous smartwatches were never considered "fitness" devices; they had no fitness functionalities, really. But now, Pebble's new smartwatches have similar fitness tracking capabilities as the FitBit Blaze.

Pebble's new smartwatches will ship later this year, but they already look superior to the FitBit Blaze. Here's why.

Pebble smartwatches have better battery life.

The Pebble 2 has a seven-day battery life while the Pebble Time 2 has a whopping 10-day battery life. The FitBit Blaze only boasts five days of battery life.

Pebble smartwatches work with a ton of apps and watch faces.

You're looking at just six of the hundreds and hundreds of different watch face designs you can choose from. There are over 13,000 apps in the Pebble app store that gives Pebble's smartwatches a wide variety of functionality.

FitBit, meanwhile, doesn't have an app store, and the Blaze only comes with four default watch faces to choose from.

Pebble smartwatches have better water-resistance.

Here, you can see the original Pebble Time undergoing a water-resistance test in a glass of water. The FitBit Blaze wouldn't be able to do this. The new Pebble smartwatches (as well as the older models) can go down to 30 meters underwater, but FitBit doesn't boast any water-resistance for the Blaze. It is, however, sweat-, rain-, and splash-proof.

Beginning in 2010, central banks around the world turned from being net sellers of gold to net buyers of gold. Last year they collectively added 483 tonnes—the second largest annual total since the end of the gold standard—with Russia and China accounting for most of the activity. The second half of 2015 saw the most robust purchasing on record, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

Not every top bank is a net buyer. The Bank of Canada has liquidated close to all of its gold, mainly in coin sales, while Venezuela is in the process of doing the same to pay off its debts.

But most of the world’s central banks right now are accumulating, holding and/or repatriating the precious metal. As of this month, they reportedly owned 32,754 tonnes, or about 17.8 percent of the total amount of gold ever mined, according to the WGC.

It’s worth noting that this global gold-buying spree coincides perfectly with the rise of unconventional monetary policies following the financial crisis—massive bond-buying programs, rapid money-printing schemes and near-zero or, in some cases, negative interest rates. The jury’s still out on whether these measures have been a success or not, but for now, it appears as if banks are hedging against their own policies.

Investors would be wise to do the same. Confidence in central banks’ ability to stem further economic deterioration continues to deflate.

Below are the top 10 countries with the largest gold holdings...

10. India

Tonnes: 557.7

Percent of foreign reserves: 6.3 percent

It’s no surprise that the Bank of India has one of the largest stores of gold in the world. The South Asian country, home to 1.25 billion people, is the number one or number two largest consumer of the precious metal, depending on who you ask, and is one of the most reliable drivers of global demand. India’s festival and wedding season, which runs from October to December, has historically been a huge boon to gold’s Love Trade.

9. Netherlands

Tonnes: 612.5

Percent of foreign reserves: 61.2 percent

The Dutch Central Bank is currently seeking a suitable place to store its gold while it renovates its vaults. As many others have pointed out, this seems odd, given that the bank fairly recently repatriated a large amount of its gold from the U.S.

8. Japan

Tonnes: 765.2

Percent of foreign reserves: 2.4 percent

Japan, the world’s third largest economy, is also the eighth largest hoarder of the yellow metal. Its central bank has been one of the most aggressive practitioners of quantitative easing—in January, it lowered interest rates below zero—which has helped fuel demand in gold around the world.

A group of offices in lower Manhattan have started a very colorful war.

Since early May, workers have been creating massive designs — from the Snapchat ghost to Superman logo — by sticking Post-its to their Tribeca office windows.

According to The New York Post, the managers of one building have asked workers to remove their creations by May 28. But until then, they will compete to see who can make the most spectacular Post-it collages.

Keep scrolling to check them out.

As The New York Times reports, the feud started some time during the week of May 9, when an employee used Post-its to spell out "Hi" on one window. Later that day, someone else responded by posting "Sup" across the street.

Source: The New York Times

And so the war began. A week later, the windows of the office buildings on both sides of the street were covered in sticky notes. Pictured below are two red Angry Birds.

The workers at healthcare advertising company Biolumina recreated Marge and Maggie from "The Simpsons" on these windows ...

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Drug companies aren't exactly known for their reputations. 

But public opinions about them have changed in some surprising ways in recent years, especially amidst recent controversies over the high and rising prices of drugs.

A new analysis from the research consulting firm Reputation Institute evaluated public perceptions of 14 pharmaceutical companies in 7 key areas: 1) products and services, 2) innovation, 3) workplace, 4) governance, 5) citizenship, 6) leadership, and 7) financial performance.

The report found that on average, drug companies continue to be perceived as having a so-so reputation. In fact, people's opinion of the pharmaceutical industry overall has improved since 2015.

Yet Kasper Ulf Nielsen, an executive partner at the Reputation Institute, told Business Insider that these average ratings hide some of the more interesting aspects of the results. For one thing, people tend to have polar opposite views of individual companies, either ranking them as having an "excellent" or "poor" reputation. The company with the highest reputation was Bayer. Also, young people aged 18-24 had a significantly lower impression of pharmaceutical companies than did older people.

Check out the Reputation Institute's drug company scores, ranked from lowest to highest:

NEXT: Valeant's new CEO: 'Did we do that? Yes. Was it a mistake? Yes.'

SEE ALSO: Allergan is geared up for a major change after its failed Pfizer merger

14. Pfizer. RepTrak Points: 65.9

Pfizer, which is known for drugs like Lipitor and Viagra, was ranked the second-most familiar of the 14 drug companies analyzed by the Reputation Institute. Pfizer didn't fare as well as its pharma counterparts in terms of its reputational ranking, though they did score better than in previous years' rankings. 

Survey respondents ranked the company's workplace environment, citizenship (or responsibility to stakeholders), and governance as being the worst compared to all the other drug companies.  

13. Bristol-Myers Squibb. RepTrak Points: 66.0

Bristol-Myers Squibb, the New York-based pharmaceutical company known for its diabetes and heart-related drugs, didn't have much of a change in perceived reputation in 2016 compared to 2015. BMS reputation scores were particularly low when it came to the company's leadership and innovation reputation.

12. Novartis. RepTrak Points: 66.7

Switzerland-based Novartis rounds out the bottom three with a slightly higher reputation than last year. Novartis' reputation score was brought down by lower governance and citizenship scores. 

Over the past 20 years, the Toyota Prius has been the world's most successful "alternative"-fuel vehicle, largely because it doesn't depend on that fuel: electricity. Rather, it runs a gas-and-electric motor at the same time, most of the time, to maximize mpg's and minimize emissions.

Over 3 million Priuses have been sold globally — 3 million!

The Prius said "Hello, world!" in 1997 in Japan. Back then, the car was effectively a Toyota Echo sedan with the "Hybrid Synergy" drivetrain dropped in. That was enough to get the ball rolling, and in 2001 the Prius came to America, and America never looked back. "Hybrid" became a household word, and as gas prices rose in the 2000s and SUVs slipped in popularity, the Prius had the first-mover advantage to end them all.

When I lived in Los Angeles — a big market for the Prius, thanks to gas prices in the region that are higher than the national average and lengthy commute times — it was hard to go a day without seeing a Prius. And if we had friends over, the streets were lined with Priuses.

Oddly, we never owned one, but when it came time to get a new car on the East Coast, I headed straight for a Toyota dealership and all but drove home an hour later with a 2011 Prius. As a moderately used car for the suburbs, the Prius has no peer. Best off all, it costs me $18 to gas up — once a month.

That's the beating heart of Prius love, if you ask me. You may not like the offbeat looks, the extremely disconnected driving experience, the plasticky interior, or the wimpy horsepower, but all is forgiven when you get change from a twenty at the filling station that first time. Hallelujah! Praise Prius!

My car is a third-generation model. In 2015, Toyota launched the fourth generation, with some interesting upgrades, including more aggressive styling. Would this undermine all that has made the Prius loved and hated in equal measure?

Toyota lent us a 2016 Prius Three Touring, which tipped the cost scales at $28,100 as tested, so we had a chance to find out.

The sun was out at our suburban New Jersey automotive HQ. The Prius was "gray metallic" and looked quite nice.

The 2016 Prius joined my 2011 model in the driveway.

Two Priuses are better than one! Note that on the '16, the styling is more aggressive and angular. This change has already polarized some in the Prius community: A lot of loyal owners don't want the car to get more interesting-looking.

Small urban apartments aren't ideal spaces to grow plants. But Livi, a new mini planter created by a team of landscape designers and architects, aims to make greenery accessible to everyone.

Livi can stick to any surface — whether that's a windowpane or wall — which helps plants get the optimal amount of sunlight.

The idea is to bring life to dim, cramped apartments, especially ones with limited space on their windowsills, the lead designer, Hooman Koliji, tells Tech Insider.

The Livi team launched a Kickstarter campaign, which has raised over $21,000 of its $23,500 goal since April 20. Backers can order one for $16, two for $30, or six for $66, with expected delivery in September.

Check out the cute planters, which are shaped like little critters. 

SEE ALSO: 13 times companies killed products too soon and broke our hearts

The Livi set comes with a 2-inch-wide pot, a plastic water dropper, and packets of seeds for a variety of herbs, succulents, and flowers. It can grow anything from strawberries to basil, as long as the plant doesn't require too much space.

The planters, which each measure six inches in length and height, come in eight different colors. They're made from recyclable plastic using a 3D printer.

The Livi's micro-suction pads feature hundreds of tiny air pockets that create a vacuum when pressed against a smooth surface.

The National Security Agency will neither confirm nor deny the stuff you buy in its gift shop.

The boilerplate Glomar Response— the government agency equivalent of "no comment" when asked for documents — caught our eye while checking out the NSA's museum right outside its fenced walls at Fort Meade, Md.

There on the window outside the NSA's gift shop (there's a gift shop?!) stood a lone sign saying the agency didn't endorse any of this stuff.

You can buy our merchandise, people, but don't come knocking on the door asking for refunds.

Check out what we found inside.

SEE ALSO: 13 times companies killed products too soon and broke our hearts

The NSA's museum, called the National Cryptologic Museum, is located about a stone's throw from the agency's headquarters at Fort Meade, Md.

There's a bunch of interesting stuff inside, though a few exhibits take some liberty with facts surrounding the agency's history.

Source: TI

As with any museum visit, we had to check out the gift shop before we left ...

You have an epic idea. Now what?

The real challenge for any entrepreneur isn't getting started. It's staying in business.

Yes, you can be successful as an entrepreneur but it won't be easy. It has never been easy to start and run a successful company.

Startups are always hard. But if you don't pursue your dreams, you'll never know if it stand the chance to be successful. Dreams are all we have. Take them seriously.

The bitter truth is that most entrepreneurs fail to get their businesses off the ground. Every insanely successful startup story has a flip side. If you ask any great entrepreneur about what it takes make it, he or she will most likely mention one of these signs.

SEE ALSO: PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel warns new grads of the hidden dangers of sticking to a career path

DON'T MISS: Bill Gates proves you don't have to be a risk-taker to be successful

1. You can execute on your ideas

"Y Combinator doesn't invest in ideas, it invests in people"— Paul Graham

Execution is everything for startups. You may have the best idea and even have funding for it, but if you can't execute, you have no business. Having a great idea is not enough. You can have the most brilliant idea, but if it's executed poorly, you will be out of business soon. You will ultimately end in the dead pool.

You don't need an original idea to be successful. Dating is nothing new but Tinder changed how to help people find better dates online. Google has executed search brilliantly but it wasn't the first search engine.

There are hundreds of people who may have had a similar idea as the one you are currently thinking about, but failed to execute. If you have what it takes to get an idea from nothing to a stable business, you will go far on your entrepreneurship journey. Ideas are cheap, it's execution that matters.

2. You genuinely care about what you do or want to do

If you don't care enough about a product or service you want to provide, don't even start it. Startups are not sprints. They are marathons. You won't be able to build a business that can last if it doesn't mean more than money to you.

Every entrepreneur needs that intense, driving or overmastering feeling of conviction about his or her idea to push it past the idea phase. Running a startup takes a lot of perseverance. And It can wear you down. It's full of stress and set backs. And most startups fail. You've got to love it to get past every obstacle.

If you are not passionate about your career choice, you might as well give up right now, as your startup will never take off like it should. Solving a problem you deeply care about is an amazing way to start a company.

Related: Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?

3. You are able get over failures in life and business

“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.” — Ken Robinson

Successful entrepreneurs know how to get over their failures. Failure is not sign of permanent trouble, but merely as a sidestep on the path to success. Great entrepreneurs know that. And they have the strength to move beyond temporary challenges.

Read about Richard Branson. You will be surprised by the number of businesses he founded in the past. You probably know about his most popular companies. But it goes beyond that.

Check out this timeline of his businesses now and in the past. Not all of them are still up and running though. But it gives you a fair idea about his perseverance and what it took him to make it that big as we know today.

When "X-Men" was released in 2000, it wasn't the first superhero movie ever made — plenty of Batman and Superman movies came before it.

However, "X-Men" was the first superhero movie that really carved out a niche for the genre.

It was dark, fun, and faithful to its source material while taking some liberties. For instance, instead of colorful outfits, everyone wore matching black uniforms.

People loved it.

While modern cinema seems to be dominated by superhero movies, "X-Men" still holds a special place in people's hearts. On May 27, "X-Men: Apocalypse," the latest in the franchise, will be out in theaters.

In its honor, we decided to go back to where it all began. "X-Men" had a few veteran actors, but it also launched a few careers. Here are the cast members of the original "X-Men" movie, then and now:

THEN: Before being cast as Wolverine, Australian actor Hugh Jackman was only known for starring in a few musicals.

NOW: Jackman has hosted the Oscars and has even been nominated for one, yet he keeps coming back to play Wolverine. He'll be playing the metal-clawed mutant once more in "X-Men: Apocalypse."

THEN: Patrick Stewart of "Star Trek" fame played the wise Professor X, who fights to protect mutants around the world.

Hollywood is expecting some big box office numbers this Memorial Day weekend as "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" hit theaters.

But with many critics writing off "Alice" as an unworthy sequel to the hit 2010 "Alice In Wonderland," with only a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, let's shift our focus to the new X-Men movie where critics are essentially split down the middle on if it's good or not, with a 49% rating.

Here we break down what the critics like and dislike about the movie, which sees the old guard mutants (Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Michael Fassbender") teaming up with the newbies (Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee) to save the world from the first-ever mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac).

SEE ALSO: Here are the stars of the new live-action "Beauty and the Beast"— and who they're playing

Dislike: Same old story

Though plot isn't really a big motivating factor to going to a superhero movie, it's nice to have a good one. Sadly, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg don't really throw the X-Men into any outside-the-box situations. The villain Apocalypse is basically trying to destroy the world and they need to stop him.

That fact annoyed some critics, like Time Out, which thought the movie was "a seen-it-before world domination plot carried out by a petulant Pharaoh with a head like a chewed pencil, and resisted by a bunch of interchangeable, Lycra-clad goody-goodies whose names and superpowers you’ll quickly stop trying to keep track of." 

Dislike: Oscar Isaac just looks silly

Isaac has had a good run, playing the soon-to-be iconic character Poe in "The Force Awakens," and his countless indie film roles. But it seems he had a misfire taking on Apocalypse.

"Oscar Isaac is completely wasted as Apocalypse," wrote Uproxx. "I wish they had kept Isaac out of the makeup, as well. I get that Apocalypse in the movie resembles his comic book counterpart, but who cares? (He kind of looks silly on screen, to be honest.)" 

Dislike: This is supposed to be 10 years later?

Though "Apocalypse" takes place ten years after the last X-Men movie, "Days of Future Past," it doesn't seem like much makeup was used to age the characters.

"The continuity in 'X-Men: Apocalypse' is even more of a nightmare than the continuity in 'X-Men' comics," points out ScreenCrush. "'Apocalypse' takes place a decade after 'Days of Future Past,' but if not for the outlandish ’80s fashions, you’d swear it was set about six months later. Slacker speedster Quicksilver (Evan Peters) still lives in his mom’s basement playing video games, and none of the other actors look older at all, even though they’ve been fighting one another for two decades."

The vast majority of us have some financial decision we wish we could undo. A national survey conducted by Bankrate found that 75% of Americans have at least one big financial regret.

Some bemoan not saving more for retirement, others wish they could go back and talk some sense into their college selves before they took out all those loans.

We put out a call for people to share their own personal financial regrets. Here are some of the best responses.

SEE ALSO: One of the reasons anyone should learn to manage money in their 20s might be just as scary as going broke

"Buying a house too early. My wife and I bought a house in 2009, incentivized by the tax credit that was available at the time. We thought that, given how much prices had already dropped, there's no way they could drop much more. We were wrong. When we had a child 6 years later and found our family home, we could not sell our (first) home for nearly enough to break even. We have had luck renting it out, but make just enough to recoup the mortgage payments and save for the inevitable repairs. We should have waited."

— Mike Sturm, blogger at YourFool.com

"The biggest financial mistake I made was being far too financially conservative. For years, I had nothing but CDs. It wasn't until I entered a broker training program with a major financial services firm that I began to learn enough to be comfortable investing. That investing made me far more money than being a stock broker ever did."

— Barry Maher, motivational speaker, consultant and principal, Barry Maher & Associates

"Getting a payday loan. I was young and needed about $300 to pay my electric bill. Someone told me about payday loans and I got one. The interest rate was like, 125%. So, I ended up paying much more than I borrowed. It would have been easier for me to either request an extension on my electric bill, borrow from family/friends, or take out a personal loan from my bank or credit union with a much lower interest rate."

— Aprill Harmon, licensed clinical social worker and founder, MindingHerMoney.com

Freelancing is a constant push and pull. You have the freedom to be your own boss, but sometimes we're not the best bosses of ourselves.

Steer from making these five common mistakes freelancers make, and get ahead of the pack.

SEE ALSO: How to become a highly paid freelancer while keeping your day job

1. Forgetting to withhold taxes

This is one of the first issues freelancers encounter. It's easy to get excited by lump sum contractor checks.

You drop that check into your checking account to pay bills and buy yourself something nice, then before you know it, you've spent it all without saving anything. Come tax time, you're facing a hefty bill. Why?

The IRS charges a self-employment tax of 15.3% no matter how much or little you make. Unfortunately, there are only so many deductions you can claim, so it's very unlikely you can avoid the tax.

Prevent the huge financial burden of a large tax bill now by automatically putting away 20% of everything you earn. The 15% goes to paying the self-employment tax, and the remaining 5% is there to help pay state taxes and, of course, the tax prep fees — the more 1099s you have, the pricier your preparation will be.

2. Neglecting to save for retirement

New freelancers sometimes operate under the misconception that they don't have the knowledge or enough capital to invest in their retirement. It can also be difficult to consider saving for retirement when times are thin.

If the freelance gigs are trickling in slowly at the moment, you might be savings-averse. But this is exactly why retirement savings are so important. Considering the uneven payment schedule of freelancers, a place where your money can grow slowly over time is an important safety net to have.

It's actually super easy to set up an IRA, Mutual Fund, CD, or any other kind of investment account. Find the financial institution you prefer, and they will give you the step-by-step in person or over the phone — they'll even do most of the work for you (you are giving them money, after all!).

At the end of the day, as a self-employed worker, you, and only you, are responsible for your future, so it's time to get proactive.

3. Losing track of expenses

Being a freelancer means having to balance both incoming and outgoing dollars. Do you have to spend money on raw materials? Do you spend hours of unpaid time and/or money on research before doing the job? This should all be tracked and never go beyond a certain limit you determine, based on the work.

Also, some clients are easier to please than others. If you fall into a deep hole on a problem project, be sure to speak up. They might be able to give you a bigger expense budget or increase your hourly rate to cover it.

Getting rich is a long-term game ... for the most part.

While your best bet to accumulate wealth is to curb your spending, start investing, and develop "rich habits," there are some less conventional ways to make millions relatively quickly.

No guarantees these strategies will work for you, but here are seven creative ways regular people achieved millionaire status:

SEE ALSO: 13 strategies to save a fortune, from real people who retired before 40

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Launch a personal blog

In mid-2013, Scott DeLong launched a one-person blog, ViralNova, and put a few Google ads on each page. Eight months later, he was generating six figures a month and millions of dollars annually, without a full-time staff or raising any money from outside investors.

ViralNova capitalized on social-friendly stories with catchy headlines that would explode on Facebook, and within a year, the site had grown to about 100 million monthly readers.

In 2015, DeLong sold his website to digital-media company Zealot Networks in a cash-and-stock deal that could be worth as much as $100 million if Zealot appreciates in value.

Create a viral app

It only took Dong Nguyen three days to create the most popular game of 2014, "Flappy Bird."

Nguyen said he was making as much as $50,000 a day on his free app by running a tiny mobile ad banner at the top of the game, meaning he only needed to keep it in the App Store for 20 days to make $1 million.

That's just what he did. After about a month, Nguyen infamously pulled "Flappy Bird" from the App Store at the height of its popularity because he felt his game was "too addicting."

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Publish books on Amazon Kindle

Amanda Hocking was the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store a few years ago, meaning she didn't have a publishing deal and got to keep 70% of her book sales. She was selling about 100,000 copies a month at $1 to $3 a pop, which set her on track to pocket a few million dollars.

She's not the only one making millions publishing Kindle books. Bob Mayer and Jen Talty built a seven-figure indie publishing house in just two years, which they detail in their book, "How We Made Our First Million on Kindle."

Sushi Nakazawa is widely considered to be one of the best sushi restaurants in the US — it even has a coveted four-star review from the New York Times.

The restaurant, located in New York City's West Village, is helmed by sushi chef Daisuke Nakazawa, a disciple of Jiro Ono (as in "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" fame).

Nakazawa serves a 20-course Omakase sushi menu that changes almost daily, depending on what fish is freshest. A meal costs $120 per person.

The restaurant is famously hard to get into — you have to book a reservation 30 days in advance — but I managed to snag a table there. I had high expectations, but the sushi and the dining experience still blew me away. I never knew that sushi could be so diverse and flavorful.

The four-star sushi restaurant is located in an unassuming storefront in New York City's West Village.

But it's home to some of the best sushi in the US.

Chef Nakazawa himself painstakingly prepares almost every piece of sushi.

Happy birthday, Dow!

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average turned 120.

When its was created in 1896, it had about a dozen industrial stocks.

Apple's addition to the current list of 30 American conglomerates back in March 2015 shows just how far the index has come.

Apple took the place of AT&T, which was popularly known as American Telephone & Telegraph when it originally joined the Dow in October 1916.

This index has seen a lot of turnover in its history. And only one of the original 12 members continues to hold a spot in it.

SEE ALSO: What Wall Street is predicting for the stock market in 2016

American Cotton Oil

What it did: It formed as a trust after several mill owners in Texas and Arkansas combined syndicates to regulate the price of seeds. It became a corporation in 1889 after the trust was dissolved through a lawsuit.

Where it is now: It evolved into a company that's now part of Unilever. The original company was dropped from the Dow in 1901.

Sources: Scripophily, Wikipedia

American Sugar Company

What it did: It was the largest American company in the sugar-refining business in the early 20th century, with investments in the Caribbean. It was established in 1891 with $50 million in capital. 

Where it is now: It has since been acquired by American Sugar Refining, whose products include Domino Sugar. It was dropped from the Dow in 1930.

Source: Wikipedia

American Tobacco Company

What it did: The American Tobacco Company acquired over 200 competitors to become the dominant player in the industry. It was founded in 1890.

Where it is now: The Supreme Court ordered it to dissolve following an antitrust lawsuit. It splintered into many smaller companies and renamed itself Fortune Brands. It was dropped from the Dow in 1985.

Source: Wikipedia