Success Stories focus on veteran travel advisors and how they achieved success. Here’s a look at Megan Hill, owner of Destination Fun Travel.
How did you get your start as a travel advisor?
I grew up in a family that shared a passion for traveling, which was spearheaded by my grandparents who often took us on trips around the world with them. Although I had always enjoyed traveling, it was in 1986 when I went to Africa for the very first time that I fell in love with it. I thought Africa was the most amazing place that I had ever been.
It was then that I decided I wanted to travel everywhere in the world. From that point on traveling and exploring the world has been a top priority of mine. I truly enjoy learning and experiencing the different cultures, history, cuisine, traditions and natural beauty of the world.
I opened Destination Fun Travel in 2008 after a successful 15-year career in the pharmaceutical industry working for Wyeth (Pfizer) and Abbott. Although I truly enjoyed the pharmaceutical industry, my passion was still traveling and experiencing the world. I decided to make travel not only my passion but also my career.
How did you build your business?
When I initially opened my agency, I was a one-person operation, and my goal was to exceed expectations for every client with phenomenal customer service. I chose a few travel wholesalers and partnered with them, fully utilizing my BDM support while analyzing the marketplace.
I was very dedicated to my clients and provided exceptional customer service. I wanted my clients to feel special, as if they were the only clients that I was working on that day. At first, my business grew mostly by word of mouth and through bridal shows. (I purchased a fun customized Destination Fun Travel bar display that really had the agency standing out at the shows).
As the agency grew, I started to hire employees and advisors to assist me. I personally trained them and watched them also become successful. Teamwork is a major focus of the agency, as we all help, support and encourage one another.
What characteristics make you a successful advisor?
When I was in the pharmaceutical industry, I was a trainer for both Wyeth and Abbott. I really feel this training helped me tremendously with the agency, my agents and with clients to think outside the box, analyze the marketplace and find the agency’s niche and marketplace.
I love to brainstorm with other successful advisors about things they do that work well and follow through on those items with my team. I encourage all advisors to make a business plan and to put their ideas, thoughts, obstacles, and goals in writing and reference them throughout the year.
What have been your greatest challenges been?
I opened the agency in a time when online travel agencies such as Expedia, etc., were just becoming popular. But I knew that OTAs would not replace agents, as there will always be clients who want/need someone to take that trip to the next level.
Of course, the overall greatest challenge was with COVID and having the entire world shut down. But with COVID, an entirely new passion and opportunity for advisors emerged. Agencies and advisors became smarter through COVID and refined how they operated and worked, such as documenting every client’s booking approval with the suppliers’ Terms and Conditions and always receiving and documenting insurance acceptance/denials in writing from the client, etc. COVID was a golden opportunity for people to experience firsthand and understand the value of a travel advisor. I know I can confidently say that post-COVID we are better advisors and agency owners, and the travel industry is smarter and better today than it has ever been.
What have your greatest accomplishments been?
My greatest accomplishments so far would be with the solid success of the agency and my amazing team of advisors. The agency focuses on offering a supportive team environment to assist, encourage and guide advisors to be successful.
Many years ago, I was invited to Sandals Stars Awards before my sales were at the level they are now. I felt honored to be included, and I very much appreciate Sandals and the other travel partners who saw the potential in me. I was a sponge on trip networking with others at the event. I took so many notes from successful advisors throughout the trip.
It was just a few years later that I was on that stage receiving those big awards. That certainly brings a big sense of accomplishment and pride. The agency and Destination Fun Travel advisors win many sales awards each year with many agency partners from ALGV to Classic Vacations to Sandals and Beaches Resorts, etc. It is the training, collaboration, support, trust and teamwork that makes this happen.
What tips can you provide advisors new to the industry?
Think outside the box and find those golden opportunities to sell travel around your community. This can be done through social media, networking, consumer events and finding a need/niche in the marketplace that you can fill and exceed expectations. I encourage all advisors to look deep into themselves and find what they enjoy booking and focus on their love and passion.
Always listen to the needs and wants of the client. Sometimes advisors tend to want to book their own budget for a client’s trips and not the client’s budget. Always try to upsell the clients, as happy clients will be repeat clients. You are always better off to under promise and over deliver.
I recommend starting quotes with ocean view or ocean front concierge level rooms. Then, advisors can go up or down, depending on the client’s wants and needs.
I also encourage advisors to personally pay for and experience a butler suite. They can then honestly and passionately talk to future clients about their own experience and why spending a little more may take that trip experience to the next level.
Talk advantage of the numerous resources available through our travel suppliers and partners. As for marketing, be sure to find the best network opportunities.
Most importantly, enjoy your job as a travel advisor. It is truly one of the most fulfilling careers out there, and I am blessed to be a part of the travel community!
Palantir has emerged as a disruptive force in the AI realm, ushering in a wave of enthusiastic investors to the defense tech space.
Palantir Technologies was the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 during the first half of 2025. With shares soaring by 80% through the first six months of the year — and by 427% over the last 12 months — Palantir has helped drive a lot of attention to the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and defense contracting.
Palantir is far from the only company seeking to disrupt defense tech. A little-known competitor to the company is BigBear.ai(BBAI -3.35%), whose shares are up by an impressive 357% over the last year.
Could BigBear.ai emerge as the next Palantir? Read on to find out.
BigBear.ai is an exciting company in the world of defense tech, but…
BigBear.ai’s share price volatility so far this year mimics the movements of a rollercoaster. Initially, shares rose considerably shortly following President Donald Trump’s inauguration and the subsequent announcement of Project Stargate — an infrastructure initiative that aims to invest $500 billion into AI projects through 2029.
While reduced spending from the Department of Defense (DOD) was initially seen as a major blow to contractors such as Palantir and BigBear.ai, the trends illustrated above suggest that shares rebounded sharply — implying that the sell-offs back in February may have been overblown. Why is that?
In my eyes, a major contributor to the recovery in defense stocks came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his intentions to double down on a strategy dubbed the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP).
In reality, the DOD’s budget cuts are focused on areas that are deemed non-essential or inefficient. For example, the Pentagon freed up billions in capital by reducing spend with consulting firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, and Deloitte. In addition, a contract revolving around an HR software system managed by Oracle was also cut.
Under the SWP, it appears that the DOD is actually looking to free up capital in order to double down on more tech-focused initiatives and identify vendors that can actually handle the Pentagon’s sophisticated workflows.
With so much opportunity up for grabs, it’s likely that optimistic investors saw this as a tailwind for BigBear.ai. This logic isn’t too far off base, either.
BigBear.ai’s CEO is Kevin McAleenan, a former government official with close ties to the Trump administration. McAleenan’s strategic relationships within the government combined with the DOD’s focus on working with leading software services providers likely has some investors buying into the idea that BigBear.ai won’t be flying under the radar much longer.
Image source: Getty Images.
…how does the company really stack up beside Palantir?
The graph below breaks down revenue, gross margin, and net income for BigBear.ai over the last year. With just $160 million in sales, the company tends to generate inconsistent gross margins — which top out at less than 30%. Moreover, with a fairly small sales base and unimpressive margin profile, it’s not surprising to see BigBear.ai’s losses continue to mount.
By comparison, Palantir generated $487 million in government revenue during the first quarter of 2025. In other words, Palantir’s government operation generates nearly triple the amount of revenue in a single quarter that BigBear.ai does in an entire year. On top of that, Palantir’s gross margins hover around 80%, while the company’s net income over the last 12 months was over $570 million.
Is BigBear.ai stock a buy right now?
Right now, BigBear.ai trades at a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of around 11. While this may look “cheap” compared to Palantir’s P/S multiple of 120, there is a reason for the valuation disparity between the two AI defense contractors.
Palantir boasts large, fast-growing public and private sector businesses that command strong profit margins. By contrast, BigBear.ai is going to have a difficult time scaling so long as it keeps burning through heaps of cash.
Not only would I pass on BigBear.ai stock, but I also do not see the company becoming the next Palantir. Palantir is in a league of its own in the defense tech space, and I do not see BigBear.ai as a formidable challenger.
Adam Spatacco has positions in Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Abbott Laboratories, Accenture Plc, Oracle, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Microsoft buys more than a billion dollars’ worth of excrement, including human poop, to clean up its AI mess — company will pump waste underground to offset AI carbon emissions
Microsoft has just signed a deal with Vaulted Deep, paying it to remove 4.9 million metric tons of waste over 12 years sourced from manure, sewage, and agricultural byproducts for injection deep underground. According to Inc., the current cost of CO2 removal with the company is $350 per ton. If you multiply that by Microsoft’s contract, that makes it worth more than $1.7 billion. However, neither entity has disclosed the actual terms of the deal, and its CEO, Julia Reichelstein, says that the company expects its costs to drop over time, and that the mentioned price isn’t the actual sum that the tech giant paid.
This isn’t the first time Redmond has paid another company to help offset its greenhouse gas emissions; Microsoft signed a deal with AtmosClear in April of this year to sequester 6.75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. However, Vaulted’s technique is unique — instead of extracting carbon dioxide from the air or electricity production, it collects organic waste. It combines it into a thick slurry, which is then injected about 5,000 feet underground. This prevents them from being dumped at a waste disposal site, where they would eventually decompose and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“Generally, what happens to these wastes today is they go to a landfill, they get dumped in a waterway, or they’re just spread on land for the purpose of disposal. In all of those cases, they’re decomposing into CO2 and methane,” said Reichelstein to Inc. “That’s contributing to climate change. And then oftentimes, especially when it’s spread on land, all those pathogens are going directly into people’s groundwater.”
Projects such as these enable Microsoft and other tech giants to offset the massive amounts of carbon emissions produced by data centers, particularly as they consume a significant amount of electrical power, often generated from fossil fuels. For example, Musk is facing legal action in Memphis, Tennessee, after his company, xAI, is accused of polluting the air by using under-reported power generators at the Colossus Supercomputer. Aside from that, many companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and others, are investing in small modular reactor research to establish their clean energy sources for their expanding data center businesses.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Przemysław “Psyho” Dębiak, a 42-year-old programmer from Gdynia, Poland, made history by defeating OpenAI’s custom AI model at the AtCoder World Tour Finals (AWTF) 2025 “Humans vs AI” contest in Tokyo. Considered one of the most prestigious coding tournaments in the world, the AWTF invites just 12 of the top-ranked human programmers—and, for the first time, an AI competitor—to tackle its grueling challenges. After a 10-hour coding marathon, Dębiak edged out the AI by roughly 9.5%, clinching first place while the OpenAI-built model settled for second.
“Humanity has prevailed (for now)!” Dębiak wrote on X, confessing he’d slept only around 10 hours over three days while pushing himself to the limit. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman aptly responded with, “Good job, Psyho.” The AI model, branded OpenAIAHC, was widely expected to dominate the market. Still, Dębiak’s innovative, heuristic-driven approach—using problem-solving shortcuts and educated guesses instead of brute-force calculation—secured the win. Contest administrator Yoichi Iwata praised his distinctive method, noting that while the AI excelled at raw optimization, it “fell short of human creativity.”
Humanity has prevailed (for now!)I’m completely exhausted. I figured, I had 10h of sleep in the last 3 days and I’m barely alive.I’ll post more about the contest when I get some rest. (To be clear, those are provisional results, but my lead should be big enough) pic.twitter.com/fIMo0ifNCdJuly 16, 2025
The AtCoder World Tour Finals (AWTF) is regarded as the ultimate stage for heuristic programming contests that focus on “good-enough” solutions to complex, unsolvable problems rather than perfect ones. This year’s challenge tasked competitors with plotting a robot’s path across a 30×30 grid using the fewest possible moves, an NP-hard optimization problem with countless possible outcomes. With no access to external libraries or documentation, success relied on intuition, creativity, and adaptability—qualities where human ingenuity can still outthink the raw speed and precision of AI models.
Dębiak, a former OpenAI engineer who helped develop OpenAI Five (the Dota 2 AI), competed using only Visual Studio Code with basic autocomplete and admitted the AI pushed him to his limits: “I was close to the model’s score, and that pushed me to give everything.” Near the end of the 10-hour marathon, he overtook OpenAIAHC to claim victory and a 500,000 yen prize. A veteran algorithmic competitor, Mensa member, and four-time TopCoder Open Marathon champion, Dębiak has never held a full-time job and once even joked about considering careers from DJing to professional poker. His win carries symbolic weight, a human triumphing over AI in a field where machines typically excel.
Update: I’m alive and wellThe results are official now and my lead over AI increased from 5.5% to 9.5%😎Honestly, the hype feels kind of bizarre. Never expected so many people would be interested in programming contests. Guess this means I should drop in here more often👀 pic.twitter.com/RsLD8lECNqJuly 17, 2025
All that being said, AI’s steady progress is undeniable—Stanford’s 2025 AI Index found coding benchmarks jumped from 4.4% AI success in 2023 to 71.7% in 2024. With tools like GitHub Copilot used daily by over 90% of developers, AI is reshaping workflows. However, this win highlights that creativity, endurance, and intuition —especially in long-form heuristic challenges —remain human strengths.
Dębiak isn’t naive about the challenge ahead, saying, “It’s easy to imagine a different problem where AI would win and humans would be far behind.”. Still, this feels like a human John Henry moment—a testament not just to sheer human will, but to the spark of creativity machines haven’t replicated and (hopefully) will never be able to.
Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
