Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha is a New York Times bestselling author, Harvard MBA, and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world whose research-backed frameworks for happiness, resilience, and intentional living have transformed how organizations think about leadership and peak performance. His books have sold over two million copies and spent more than 200 weeks on bestseller lists worldwide.

From Personal Crisis to Global Authority on Happiness

After his world fell apart through a divorce and the loss of a close friend, Pasricha channeled his pain into the blog 1000 Awesome Things, which won the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences award for Best Blog in the World and attracted over 100 million hits. That project became The Book of Awesome, a number-one international bestseller. His follow-up books include The Happiness Equation, You Are Awesome, and Two-Minute Mornings. His TED Talk, The 3 A’s of Awesome, ranks among the ten most inspiring of all time.

Leadership Development Forged at the World’s Largest Company

Pasricha spent a decade at Walmart as Director of Leadership Development, working directly for the CEO and partnering with Harvard Business School to create the company’s first global leadership program. He founded the Institute for Global Happiness and publishes research in Harvard Business Review on how cultivating a positive mindset drives measurable gains in productivity, sales, and creativity. His keynotes deliver science-backed strategies for building resilient teams, beating burnout, and creating cultures where happiness fuels sustained high performance.

The Happiness Equation: Science-Backed Habits to Cultivate Positive Mindset

We live in a world where we’re bombarded by change, expectation, and uncertainty. News media hijacks our brains while social media tells us we are never good enough. Anxiety, depression, and loneliness rates are at record highs. What we need is a splash-of-cold-water talk that is science-backed, story-laden, and full of laughs. Audiences learn how it is possible, despite larger tectonic plates they cannot control, to use specific research-backed tools and practices to cultivate a habit-based positive mindset every day. Based on Neil’s #1 international bestseller The Happiness Equation.

Be Happy First: Resilience and Breakthrough Performance In Times Of Change

After Neil’s wife left him and his best friend took his own life, he crash-landed in an empty downtown bachelor apartment. Just twelve months later, he was working directly for the CEO at Walmart, running the International Academy of Digital Arts and Science’s “Best Blog in the World”, and had just published The Book of Awesome, which stormed the New York Times bestseller list and sold over a million copies. The lesson was clear: resilience and growth can come from challenge and change. An inspiring talk that shares action-based ways to lift performance to new heights.

The Science Of Positive Growth Mindset

Does great work lead to happiness? Or… does happiness lead to great work? Neil Pasricha shares counterintuitive research-based answers in this fun, fast-paced, research-grounded tour of the emerging neuroscience and positive psychology landscape. Neil shows how cultivating a positive mindset results in 31% higher productivity, 37% higher sales, and 300% greater creativity – and then shares how to get there. Based on fresh research Pasricha published in Harvard Business Review, this is a high-energy, takeaway-laden talk that gets audiences buzzing.

Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others

Which company is #1 on the Fortune 500 and has been for over a decade? Walmart. The retail behemoth’s rise to half a trillion dollars in sales with over two million employees has been well-documented. But what hasn’t been documented is how they develop, nurture, and grow leaders up through those ranks. Neil served as Director of Leadership Development at Walmart and worked for the CEO while partnering with Harvard Business School to develop the first global leadership program inside the retail giant. In this talk he shares how leaders can use science-backed practices to help themselves show up to lead teams of two, two thousand, or two million. It starts with yourself. Neil will show you how.

Happy Habits: Tiny Changes, Massive Results

Why do so few people say, “I love my job”? Gallup reports a whopping 79% of the global workforce is disengaged. But what if there were simple habits that could help turn employees into their most engaged, creative, and productive selves? It’s not crazy talk. It’s actually happening. Using his unique blend of science-backed models and lean-in-and-laugh stories, Neil shares simple happiness habits and, more importantly, teaches audiences how to make them stick. The result is an easy and research-backed way to build small, simple habits to help create workplaces where people show up inspired to do their best work every day.