"Power couple" used to be shorthand for the kind of wealth and influence that came with buttoned-up business expertise or massive success in show biz.
But for millennials, priorities have shifted.
Despite the young tech billionaires in their cohort, studies show that this generation prizes work-life balance and finding their true passion. Not to mention, getting rich is harder than it once was — becoming part of a rich and formidable pairing without family money or a pedigreed education can feel impossible.
For that reason, the couples attracting the envy of their peers aren't the ones building glitzy, mass-market empires, but the ones living life the way they want. They're not billionaires (yet), but they're bootstrapping their own passion-project startups. They're not high-powered corporate media brass, but freelancers who work just as many hours, but from their iPhones in remote locales.
As one person on this list said, the key change has been a shift from power to empowerment. The people on this list are creating their own definition of success, living exactly the way they want to live.
Tiq Milan and Kim Katrin Milan are fighting for LGBT interests to be promoted online and in mainstream media.
Tiq Milan and Kim Katrin Milan had each already made a career of LGBT advocacy before they met through Facebook and quickly fell in love.
Tiq is transgender while Kim identifies as queer. Both were working hard at their careers in LGBT youth advocacy when he caught site of her profile.
"I was sending her a message once a month until, about six months in, she finally responded," he said. "When she did respond, we talked for about three days — and had 3,000 messages between us."
Things continued at this pace, Tiq said: "Two weeks later, I proposed on Valentine's Day. I bought a ring on March 9 and we got married May 5. That's how we met and fell in love."
They got married this past May at Manhattan's City Hall and invited some friends, including another transgender woman who acted as their flower girl, and two women who were at the Stonewall Riots.
Now, they divide their time between New York City and Kim's native Toronto. But if you follow them on Instagram, you'll see they spend a lot of time traveling — they say working remotely enables them to jet down to Costa Rica and other warmer climes often.
Of course, this also means they are sometimes on the clock all day. They have an assistant but they're constantly responding to emails and reading the news.
For work, Kim runs an LGBT bookstore in Toronto and also travels the world for speaking engagements. Tiq is also on the speaking circuit and has been doing more and more TV appearances to advocate for the transgender community.
"It's important as a black transgender man to be on these large platforms and [for other people to] see that it's possible," Tiq said. "To have me do it says, 'You can.'"
In addition to Tiq's growing media presence, Kim and Tiq have audiences in the hundreds of thousands online, despite not being household names — but their underground status doesn't bother them.
"We're not waiting for another platform to decide our stories are relevant and valuable," Kim said. "We have a direct line to our community to produce content that's relevant to the people we serve. We know mainstream media takes a long time to catch up."
Nicole Shariat Farb and Michael Farb are juggling twin babies and a life of adventure with their careers as startup founders.
Nicole and Michael Farb are probably two of the busiest people in San Francisco. But with each of them running their own startup, plus twin boys to raise at home, they've become adept jugglers — they seem to make more weekend trips with their twins than most single travelers do.
"Within a month of them being born, they were on a mountain in Tahoe," Mike said. "They go everywhere [with us] and they're troopers."
Nicole and Mike are both startup founders who met in business school, although they come from very different backgrounds.
Nicole is from "a big Iranian family with 13 cousins" in Orange County, Calif., she said. She had a pact with her strict dad that if she finished high school a year later, she could try her hand at an acting career. She regrettably found she "had zero talent," she said, and switched focus to study journalism. Then, after short gigs in PR and teaching, she ended up going back to business school.
Meanwhile, Mike grew up on the East Coast in a small Jewish family, and went to the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a computer science degree. He then worked for Accenture, doing systems development for big banks all over the world.
The pair finally met attending the University of Chicago's business school. There, they worked in the same group — starting CaptainU — the startup Mike still runs, as friends and colleagues. Mike says he selected Nicole to work on the CaptainU team because he was "very impressed" with her.
They finally started dating at the end of the first year and have been together ever since, Nicole said.
In the time since they started dating, Mike bootstrapped CaptainU into a bustling business using no venture capital. It helps high school athletes navigate the college recruitment process, and is huge in the scholastic sports community with one million monthly members. CaptainU turns a profit by charging participating colleges to use the service, while athletes can access the site for free or pay for added features.
Meanwhile, Nicole worked at Goldman Sachs after graduation and then, after leaving, only took a month to raise a seed round for her startup, Darby Smart, a DIY marketplace that sells high-end designer craft kits, tools, and artisanal goods.
Now, they also have their twins, who aren't identical — "one looks Persian and one looks Jewish," Nicole said.
To fit it all in, Nicole and Mike stagger their wake-up times in the morning. One watches and feeds the kids while the other is getting ready, then they switch.
But they still find time for fun.
"One of our big themes is not letting [childcare] slow us down at all, so we take the kids wherever we go," Mike said. "We try not to get cooped up in the house."
Prince Chenoa and Jacob Dekat are crowning tomorrow's fashion 'it' girls while redefining the publishing business model.
Fashion magazines have been in trouble for a while as print media copes with the digital landscape and its accompanying plunge in print-ad buys.
Plenty have speculated that a shakeup in the business model was needed — and Prince Chenoa, 29, and Jacob Dekat, 26, a couple since 2008, have stumbled upon a new way of doing things.
Prince grew up in Michigan and always dreamed of living in New York City, aspiring to work in radio or TV journalism. After meeting Marc Ecko in college, he got an internship at Complex. That, combined with his prolific nightlife presence, set him up to be a major taste maker in years to come.
Meanwhile, Jacob hails from Medellin, Colombia, and moved to New York City to model. The two met at a casting call for Complex — Jacob was looking for a modeling gig while Prince was the casting director.
"We just kind of talked and connected and hit it off and went for a dinner one night and found out we had so many cool things in common," Prince said. "It was just really cool to meet someone who you can vibe with and be friends with. I think that's why, even for us being together for seven years, it's a reason why we've been able to last. We're friends first and everything else moves into whatever that will be."
They discovered a mutual obsession with the aesthetic and attitude of the '90s supermodels: Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell. They've been basically inseparable ever since and quickly accrued an entourage of up-and-coming models, who they often feature in Galore.
After several false starts on the business front, they hooked up with some other partners and are now the creative brains behind Galore, a monthly fashion publication that anointed the likes of Gigi Hadid back when she was too new to nab spots in high-profile ads yet. Now, she's the current It Girl of fashion.
Their skill set is in attracting cool people and presenting them in the best light possible. They featured Kylie Jenner and Zendaya on the dual covers of a recent issue and plus-size model Tess Holiday inside the book. They also shot 18-year-old model Josie Cansecoin a mock tabloid spread this month. Expect to see Josie on billboards all around you in about a year.
The magazine's bottom line isn't supplemented through traditional ads, but through an influencer network of bold, stylish "Instagram influencers" with massive followings. They're paid to promote products on their Instagram feeds, and Galore's agency, Kitten, organizes the deals.
"We're working 24/7," Prince said. "We eat, sleep, and breathe Kitten and Galore."
Prince says Jacob is the quiet creative mastermind, while Jacob says Prince is amazing at making social connections.
The magazine's aesthetic is retro '80s and '90s sexy — big hair, big curves, and big style. But Galore could never be accused of objectifying the models — they're one of the only magazines that also runs full profiles on the models in addition to their scantily-clad pics.
They recently moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and are loving it on the West Coast. Prince and Jacob still aren't driving; they raved about the comparatively bargain-basement Uber prices in LA.
"We see LA as the new mecca for creatives," Prince said. "New York is amazing but it's very much a business city. It's really hard for artists who don't have a ton of money to create there. In LA you can really be an artist and create there."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: 4 ways to stay awake without caffeine