Years ago, I asked a young boy begging on the streets of India what he wanted most in the world. His answer was simple: “a pencil.” I reached into my backpack and handed him one of my own, and immediately saw his eyes light up with possibility. In that moment, I felt a sense of purpose that has driven my actions ever since.

Let's start with a basic fact - Buzzfeed and Upworthy are able to get us to open their articles with far higher frequency than most other websites. But how?

One of the first video games to really blow my mind was Contra. The Nintendo classic came out when I was just a kid, but in modern culture it’s more famous for its cheat code than the actual gameplay.

The internet was set ablaze last night by film director Michael Bay's meltdown on stage at CES when the teleprompter apparently malfunctioned and didn't show his prepared remarks properly. As you can see below, he became so flustered that he walked offstage entirely and abandoned the talk altogether

This is the time of year when we all make New Year’s Resolutions to improve health, well-being and happiness. So in the spirit of the time, I’d like to share three essential practices that you can implement today that will improve your life drastically.‍

I had a call this morning with someone who is launching a new idea and was seeking advice on how to get it off the ground. In her words, “I’m so passionate about this one issue, but I have no idea how to solve the whole thing when I’m starting so small.” Here was my advice to get an idea off the ground :1- Publicly set a bold but attainable goal.

Last month, I noticed a few people on my Facebook feed sharing a link to a Reddit post that announced the launch of something called the Pineapple Fund. The person behind it wrote that they’d been an early investor in Bitcoin and felt as though at a certain point, enough money is enough, and he or she now wanted to donate $86M in Bitcoin to charities.

When my friend Dan Teicher sent me the music video above, it did just that. For years he's been telling me about his desire to craft a music video using the years of footage he has of his grandparents' life together.

It's not every day that you have the opportunity to meet one of your real life heroes. Not a mainstream celebrity, but someone who you've watched and admired from a distance thinking, "Am I the only one who is so transfixed by this individual?"

Every so often you come across a clip that's just so insane you have to share it. This crew of "urban skiers" prove that you can pursue your passion in any environment. Using wooden crates, cinder blocks and snow, they create ramps out of abandoned buildings, rooftops and anything else you can imagine.This clip is well worth all 10 minutes.

Sometimes you see news headlines proclaiming miracles that seem too extraordinary to believe. “Man reunited with lost love fifty years later,” or “Child falls thirty floors and only suffers a broken leg,” they read. I’ve always questioned the truth of these tall tales, but for the first time in my life I read one of those headlines last night and when I clicked to watch the local news story, I saw a member of my own family being profiled.

Over many years, I’ve developed a series of systems and shortcuts to manage my life. For the first time, I’m going to write them all out and share not just what I use, but how I use them. A few simple tweaks to each secret system allows me to address emails, remember tasks,

Seven weeks ago, on the greatest night of my entire life, I asked the woman I love with every ounce of my being to marry me. The night took months of preparation, and in a moment of absolute perfection, she said “Yes."The next morning the gravity of it all began to hit me, and I just couldn’t stop smiling.

Three years ago today, I wrote the scariest email of my life. It began, “To my Bain family, it’s been real. It’s been great. It’s been really great.” I was saying farewell.When I pressed “Send”, the four paragraph email was delivered to more than 400 employees across the Bain & Company system- The entire NYC office, international partners, managers, mentors and friends.

This past weekend I was in Florida and got to spend the entire weekend with my 83-year old grandmother, Ma. She doesn’t tell people this often, but she was born in Hungary and forced into Auschwitz at the age of 14. In many ways she was my motivation for starting Pencils of Promise, as I found myself living a life of self-absorption in late 2008 and decided to change my ways by focusing on honoring her through the creation of our first school.

In one hour it will be 12:01 am on October 31st, 2012, and it’ll be my 29th birthday. My apartment has no power, no access to internet, and my cell phone has no service. Hurricane Sandy has attacked NYC and the northeast coastlines, and for the past two days normal life has been put on hold.

My 29th birthday ask, help me build a school!This year I’m returning to where PoP started, with a birthday request to help build a school.

In recent years, sustainability has transcended its status as a buzzword to become a driving force in the business world.Companies around the globe are increasingly recognizing that adopting sustainable practices is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic necessity.

Bayla and Dylan, you may not know this but you surprised your mother and me when you arrived six weeks earlier than your due date. You both came out strong and healthy, but your mother almost gave her life to bring you into this world.

Let's start by acknowledging that sleep deprivation is an awful experience, and not good for anyone. There are many reasons that people struggle with sleep, and there's absolutely no denying that a good night's rest is one of the most essential and important activities that we can undertake.But in certain circumstances, a night of bad sleep can be a good thing.

You were deceived by our culture, by the good people at the institution of higher education you attended, and unintentionally by those who love you most. When you made the decision 4-5 years ago to attend the college of your choice, the prevailing wisdom of the day said that this was the best way you could spend your time and money to get ahead in life.

I'm a millennial.The “official” definition, coming from the book Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, defines us as the phone-toting, selfie-snapping people born from 1982-2004.

There are nearly 350,000 results in the Amazon store when you search for the word “happiness.” Books like The Happiness Project and 10% Happier have sat on the bestseller lists for months, verifying our cultural obsession with the pursuit of happiness.But what if I told you life’s biggest winners are motivated by something different from happiness. Would you believe me?