• Body language is a crucial mode of communication.

• Business Insider rounded up some tips on how to put your best foot forward when it comes to body language.

• Top tips include straightening up and working to improve your handshake.

As Ursula the sea witch famously said, "Don't underestimate the importance of body language."

Some tricks, like remembering to smile, are pretty easy to implement in your everyday life.

However, there are other techniques that, while relatively commonsense, are somewhat trickier to tackle.

Still, they can make a huge difference.

Here are six body language hacks that can be tricky to master, but will definitely pay off forever once you do:

SEE ALSO: 11 signs someone is lying to you

DON'T MISS: 11 skills that are hard to learn but will pay off forever

1. Mirror the person you're speaking to

Mirroring — or aligning your body to match the position of whoever you're speaking to — can be a tough skill to master. But doing it shows admiration and agreement, says Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder.

It can be hard to do this subtly, without looking like you're mimicking or mocking someone, but this is definitely a good trick to employ if you're really trying to make a good impression.

2. Walk with purpose and energy

Not everyone walks with confidence. Some of us shuffle through life with a slumping, awkward gait.

And it can be tough to change the way we walk. But if you take some steps to improve it, you can help to ensure that people don't make snap judgments about your confidence, attractiveness, and trustworthiness, according to Scientific American.

3. Maintain good eye contact

It's all in the eyes.

People with a shaky gaze often come across as anxious, distracted, or dishonest. And it can be tough to master the skill of maintaining eye contact, since it's a very uncomfortable and unnatural thing for some people. But it's a practice that can help you immensely in life.

Luckily, there are some simple techniques for maintaining better eye contact if you feel your stare isn't cutting it.

In "How To Talk To Anyone," author and communication expert Leil Lowndes advises that you should "pretend your eyes are glued to your conversation partner's with sticky, warm taffy."

Once you master this trick, you'll immediately see an improvement in your face-to-face communications with others.

• Starbucks has a new red holiday cup. 
• The cup's release comes after some drama over a conspiracy that the chain was furthering a "gay agenda" using its red cups. 
• The new cup was already in the works before the drama over the last holiday cup erupted.

Starbucks has a new red cup. 

On Tuesday, the coffee chain will unveil a new limited-time red cup intended to highlight charity work and raise money for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

The new cup comes in the wake of a bizarre controversy that centered on whether the hands featured on the last cup were part of a "gay agenda" being pushed by the chain. 

However, Starbucks planned to have the new, limited-time cup prior to the controversy, which stemmed from an ad that featured a lesbian couple.

In fact, a tipster sent Business Insider a photo of the cup in stores last week — just as the bizarre backlash was taking off. 

Starbucks also announced it is giving 27 $25,000 grants to the winners of the chain's "Upstanders Challenge," to find people and groups that are bettering their communities. On December 1, World AIDS Day, the chain will contribute 25 cents to the Global Fund for every Starbucks Peppermint Mocha, Toasted White Chocolate Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte or Eggnog Latte customers buy. 

SEE ALSO: Prince Harry said Princess Diana and his fiancé Meghan Markle would have been 'best friends' and 'thick as thieves'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We went inside a Shake Shack kitchen and they showed us how to make their famous burgers

This year, 600 award-winning Reuters photojournalists worked across the world to document both major historic moments and the human stories that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

The team won the Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News Photography category in 2016, and in 2017, their efforts have only continued.

Ahead, take a look at 50 of the most amazing photos captured by Reuters in 2017.

Editor's note: Many of the images in this slideshow depict graphic violence and injury, and many are upsetting. All captions are by Reuters. 

SEE ALSO: Here's what goes on behind the scenes of the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which reportedly costs millions to produce each year

School children attend a yoga session at a camp in Ahmedabad, India, on January 5, 2017.

Kashmiri Muslims raise their arms upon seeing a relic of Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, a Sufi saint, being displayed at his shrine on the occasion of his death anniversary, on a cold winter morning in Srinagar, on January 10, 2017.

A commuter jumps between trains upon arrival at a station, to attend Akheri Munajat, the final supplication during Biswa Ijtema in Tongi, on the outskirts of Dhaka, on January 15, 2017.

The early birds will inherit the earth.

At least that's what a 2009 University of Leipzig study found. The researchers concluded that "morning people were more proactive than evening types."

But being an effective early riser isn't just about waking up before everyone else. It's about putting yourself in a positive mindset and getting important things done before everyone else.

So there's no point in setting your alarm clock at a crazy-early time if you're just going to zone out in front of the television for a bit before slouching off to work.

To start your day right, you've got to get into some good habits.

Following are six morning rituals that may seem hard to adopt but will ultimately reap major rewards, if you stick with them.

SEE ALSO: I tried waking up at 4 a.m. every day like Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, but I ended up creating a perfect morning routine for myself

DON'T MISS: I followed Benjamin Franklin's daily schedule for a week, and the most rewarding part was also the most difficult

Make a plan the night before

This isn't a morning ritual per se, but it's a habit that's definitely conducive to a productive morning routine. So make sure to set yourself up for a successful morning by creating a game plan the night before.

It's always helpful to have everything you need for the day laid out and ready to go when you wake up. Make sure you're stocked on whatever you need for breakfast. Write out a little schedule on what you need to accomplish the next day.

This all sounds pretty simple, but when you're getting home at night, it's very tempting to just crash on the sofa with a glass of wine and leave all the thinking for tomorrow.

Wake up painfully early

Sorry, night owls. It's time to adapt.

In a poll of 20 executives cited by Laura Vanderkam, a time-management expert and the author of "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast," 90% said they wake up before 6 a.m. on weekdays. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, for example, wakes at 4 and is in the office no later than 7. Disney CEO Bob Iger gets up at 4:30 to read. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is up at 5:30 to go jogging.

Yes, this might sound awful, but if you get to sleep earlier, that'll numb the pain of such early wake-ups over time. The bottom line: Productive mornings start with early wake-up calls.

Start the day right with exercise

Yeah, there are super humans among us who crave that pre-sunrise workout (that, or they're just really good liars). Still, for everyone else, waking up at the crack of dawn to sweat and get sore probably doesn't sound ideal.

But the morning is probably the ideal time to exercise. By starting your day with exercise, you'll prevent yourself from putting it off.

Think about it this way: If some of the busiest people in the world can find time to workout, so can you. For example, Vanderkam notes that Xerox CEO Ursula Burns schedules an hourlong personal-training session at 6 a.m. twice a week.

US President Barack Obama starts out each day with strength and cardio training while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey does three repetitions of a seven-minute workout, Anisa Purbasari reported for Business Insider.

"These are incredibly busy people," says Vanderkam. "If they make time to exercise, it must be important."

Buying for men is difficult. They might not always have a wish list ready, so you're often stuck guessing.

Guess no more. We have a list of gifts that the modern gentleman in your life will love.

From his new favorite sweater to a watch that will last years longer than anything with an Apple logo on it, these are 12 items he didn't even know he wanted.

You can take all the credit. We won't tell.

SEE ALSO: The best watches at every price point

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless speaker

The Zeppelin Wireless speaker is, quite simply, everything one should want in a speaker.

First off, it sounds good — really good, especially for its size. For $699 (less than many more expensive speaker sets) you can fill up a decent-sized room with full, rich sound that certainly doesn't lack in depth.

It's completely wireless via both Bluetooth and Airplay, so you can control it from your phone if you have Apple Music or Spotify. It also includes play buttons on the back, as well as a 3.5-mm aux cord port.

In addition, its sculptural shape looks great on the shelf.

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless ($699)

Club Monaco Wool Topcoat

• Hodinkee, a respected watch website, has collaborated with Swatch on an inexpensive, limited edition Sistem51 automatic watch.
• The price is $150 — no premium on the current Sistem51 tag.
• The design was inspired by a 1984 Swatch.

The Swatch Sistem51 was already a cool watch. The Swiss company rolled out the innovative, relatively inexpensive timepiece — $150, automatic, built by robots and featuring a mere 51 components — in 2013. 

Since then, the Sistem51 lineup has grown. I bought an original Sistem51 right after it came out and loved it.

The folks at Hodinkee, one of the web's finest resources for horological news and culture, has produced a number of limited-edition watches in collaboration with big brands. My personal favorite is a $7,900 piece they worked on with Zenith.

That's a decent chunk of change, so if you're on a tight budget but adore watches, Hodinkee's latest effort will make you jump for joy.

They've created a special Hodinkee Sistem51 that they're calling Vintage 84, a reference to an actual Swatch design from the 1984 Spring collection. That watch was quartz powered, as were the vast majority of Swatches, developed as an affordable "second watch" and as a Swiss pushback against Asian watches that had rocked the traditional European redoubt of horology.

It's automatic, but inexpensive

The Hodinkee Swatch is of course automatic. There was some skepticism about the quality of a machine-made movement in a $150 watch when the Sistem51 first arrived. But in my case, the movement has been perfectly robust, ticking away for about three years. And regardless, the Hodinkee has always been big on the whole Sistem51 proposition, seeing it as an ideal gateway to mechanical watch ownership. (The Sistem51 is powered by the movement of the wearer's body, it has a 90-day power reserve, and can be manually wound.)

The looks of the Hodinkee Swatch really appeal to me.

"We wanted to embrace the essence of Swatch, and find a way to channel the brand's game-changing past into a watch that felt forward-looking rather than nostalgic," the site's editors wrote to introduce the watch, which is officially on sale for $150 and will commence deliveries on December 12 (pre-orders are being taken now).

The design is a tremendous improvement over its inspiration and will win the hearts of anyone who likes silver-face pieces; what we have here is lovely brushed aluminum. The indices are dive-watch like and have lume, and the Vintage 84 is large but not massive.

Swatches wear light, however, even the autos like the Sistem51, and the Vintage 84 comes on a black silicone band with a black plastic case, so it should be plenty comfy on the wrist.

There are six red dots on the face, a reference to the six jewels in the Sistem51 movement, and the see-through caseback reveals the mechanicals as it adorned with a groovy black-and-white pattern.

Carlo Giordanetti, Swatch's Creative Director, told me a few years back that "a Swatch collector wants to look at his or her watch and smile two or three times a day."

Those smiles can now come from Hodinkee fans as well as Swatch enthusiasts.

(The Vintage 84 can be pre-ordered through the Hodinkee Shop, which recently upped its e-commerce efforts by joining with several big-name manufacturers to sell watches beyond the site's limited-run models.) 

SEE ALSO: This Is The Coolest $150 Watch In The World

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These are the best watches at every price point

• Kensington Palace has announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will marry at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in May 2018.
• The news comes just a day after the couple announced their engagement to the world.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced that they will marry at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in May 2018 — a month after Kate Middleton is due to have her third child.

A notice from Kensington Palace said the Queen has given permission for the wedding to take place at the chapel, where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles had part of their service when Charles remarried in 2005.

It has been a traditional venue for royal weddings ever since the future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863, according to The Telegraph.

The chapel can accomodate 800 guests — a much smaller venue than the 2,000-guest strong Westminster Abbey, where Prince William married Kate Middleton.

The palace also confirmed that the Royal Family will pay for the wedding, including the church service, music, flowers, and reception.

Markle, who is American, will become a British citizen, according to the palace. The notice also said that she is a Protestant, and will be baptised and confirmed into the Church of England before the service.

The couple are planning the wedding themselves, according to The Telegraph, who reported that they want a "fun" wedding that the public can be involved in and is likely to be televised.

Prince Harry's communications secretary Jason Knauf said: "They will be making sure it reflects who they are as a couple."

He added that Windsor is a "very special place" for Harry and Meghan, who have spent time there during their relationship.

Markle will also give up her current charity commitments, and will "begin a new series of charitable ventures as part of her new life in the UK," according to the Evening Standard. She will also become joint patron of the Royal Foundation, along with William, Kate, and Harry.

The news comes after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle publicly announced their engagement on Monday morning.

Harry proposed to her in London earlier this month, and got an enthusiastic yes, which the couple described in a televised interview broadcast yesterday.

They will live together in the grounds of Kensington Palace, and are set to carry out their first engagement together at an Aids charity event in Nottingham on Friday.

They will take part in "a series of royal engagements in the lead up to the wedding, which will also be attended by Meghan Markle's parents," according to the Evening Standard.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The key to long-lasting relationships is more simple than you think

• Some people are more upset when patterns are out of order.
• According to a new study, the more people are annoyed by geometric imperfections, the more they might be prejudiced against other people.
• The research showed a link between a dislike for disorder and judgment against ethnic minorities, obese people, and people with skin conditions.

Does it annoy you if tiles are misaligned in the bathroom? Do these photos drive you round the bend?

If so you're not alone — in fact there's a whole Reddit thread /r/MildlyInfuriating dedicated to things that send shivers up people's spines when the patterns just don't quite work.

According to a new study, published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour, there could be a link between a dislike for a disorganised bookshelf, and developing prejudices against people.

The researchers from Yale University conducted eight experiments on hundreds of American and Chinese children and adults, which found that those who were more opposed to messy desks and crooked pictures scored higher on discrimination tests.

In the experiments, people were asked about their feelings towards "out-groups" such as ethnic minorities, obese people, drug addicts, and people with skin conditions.

The findings were tweaked to allow for outside factors such as neuroticism and political leanings — and even after this there was an association between being upset by geometric imperfections, and prejudice towards others.

It was measurable in children as young as six, and got stronger the older the participants were.

"The ingredients of prejudice are in place very early in life," said Carol Sigelman, professor of psychology at George Washington University, who was quoted by The Times newspaper.

"Humans may start out all too ready to judge one another, but how do some forms of human difference become more stigmatising than others, and how do some human perceivers become more prone to stigmatise?"

She added: "The research provides a simple potential explanation for why some people feel uneasy around and dislike people who deviate from societal norms."

This research fits in with the growing body of research that shows how the physical things and our social behaviour can overlap.

For example, the study cites two other studies, one which says individual differences in sensitivity to physical pain can predict sensitivity to social pain, such as being socially rejected, and another which found that increasing physical warmth can make people feel more connected to each other.

"These physical-social overlaps are paralleled in neural circuitry, tentatively indicating that a common neural basis for pattern deviancy and social deviancy judgments may exist," the study reads.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s why your jeans have that tiny front pocket

New York City has the South Street Seaport. Los Angeles has the Santa Monica Pier. San Francisco has Fisherman's Wharf. Now we can add Washington, D.C.'s The Wharf to the list.

The Wharf is a $2.5 billion 3.2 million square-foot redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront, once a bustling commercial district that has languished since at least the 1960s. 

The development, which broke ground in 2014, is intended to change that. Filled with shops, restaurants, hotels, and apartment buildings, the development hopes to create a hip neighborhood just 20 minutes walking-distance from the National Mall.

We took a walk through the new development on a recent trip to Washington, D.C. to see what all the fuss is about.

The Wharf is located in Southwest D.C. It's about a 20 minute walk to the National Mall and the Washington Monument. Not bad if you work in downtown D.C.

Phase 1 of the redevelopment opened in October. It includes more than 20 restaurants and bars, tons of shops, multiple condo buildings, and a couple hotels. There's a lot going on.

It's an easy enough place to drive to. The complex has an underground parking garage that can currently fit 1500 cars. Eventually that will expand to 2500.

I took the elevator up through The Channel, one of the neighborhood's four new apartment complexes. The Channel is situated directly above the area's new concert venue.

• 15 Central Park West has been called the most powerful address in the world.
• Important people, from celebrities to Wall Street CEOs, have owned units in the building. 
• Some have since sold their homes for eye-popping amounts.

There are plenty of legendary addresses in New York City, but 15 Central Park West stands out. The ultra-luxury condominium on the corner of West 61st Street and Central Park West has been home to a long list of bankers, celebrities, and assorted bold-faced names, including Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Denzel Washington.

Author Michael Gross, who published a history of the condo called "House of Outrageous Fortune" in 2014, calls it the world's most powerful address. Unlike many of New York's history-filled apartment buildings — especially its main rival across the park, 740 Park Avenue — 15 Central Park West is a relative newcomer.

Completed in 2008 by developers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf, it offers a ridiculous array of amenities to New York's moneyed elite, including an in-house chef, a lap pool, and a private screening room.

Julie Zeveloff contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: Meet the richest person in 33 countries around the world

15 Central Park West took three years and about $1 billion to construct, including the cost of the land. It was an immediate success, ringing up $2 billion in sales. Even today, the building continues to break real-estate sales records.

Source: "House of Outrageous Fortune" by Michael Gross 

Robert A.M. Stern, the architect of 15 CPW, was inspired by the great New York apartments of the 1920s, not today's glassy towers. The building has two sections with 201 units in total, as well as a formal driveway.

Source: "House of Outrageous Fortune" by Michael Gross

Other amenities include a library, private restaurant, three-lane lap pool, and health club with private massage rooms and yoga area.

Source: "House of Outrageous Fortune" by Michael Gross

• New Year's Eve is a time for parties around the world. 
• While Times Square's ball drop is the United States' signature celebration, there are plenty of others worth attending.
• Some are in big cities like Hong Kong and Barcelona, and others are in less prominent destinations like Valparaiso and Reykjavik.

New Year's Eve is one of the biggest global celebrations, with people throughout the world coming together with family and friends to reflect on the prior year and get excited for the coming one. While Times Square's ball drop is the United States' signature celebration, it's not the only one worth traveling for.

From big cities like Hong Kong and Barcelona to less prominent destinations like Valparaiso and Reykjavik, these are the world's best New Year's celebrations.

SEE ALSO: The best time to book New Year's travel is the week after Thanksgiving — here are 10 places to celebrate that don't cost a fortune

Edinburgh, Scotland

Hogmanay, Edinburgh's New Year's celebration, stretches across four days and features plenty of music and fireworks.

Berlin, Germany

Known for its rowdy club scene, Berlin celebrates New Year's with its "Party Mile," a collection of food vendors, light shows, music performances, and bars spread across two kilometers.

Sydney, Australia

Sydney has the advantage of being the first major city to enter the new year. It's also known for an enormous fireworks display near the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

• Autodromo has collaborated with Ford on a special-edition watch.
• Only Ford GT supercar owners can buy it.
• But Autodromo has also produced a series of GT-evoking watches for $700 each that recall the carmaker's 2016 win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Autodromo is a cool lifestyle and design company, based in New York, that's run by motoring enthusiast Bradley Price. Known mainly for watches that are deft updates of classic timepieces with motorsport associations, Autodromo is widely admired throughout the automotive world.

Now the company has joined with Ford (where Price has many fans) to release a very limited-edition "Owners Watch" for folks lucky enough to buy a $400,000 GT supercar. The roadgoing version of Ford's 2016 Le Mans winner, these machines will be produced in limited numbers: only 1,000 through the 2020 model year.

The watch for this group can be tweaked depending on how an owner has kitted out his or her GT. It will also be powered by an automatic Swiss chronograph movement. The price hasn't yet been released, but since only Ford GT owners can buy it, it obviously starts at $400,000. 

Autodromo is also doing a series of "Endurance Chronographs" that feature references to Ford's Le Mans-winning cars. For example, you can get a watch that evokes the number 2 Ford GT40 that captured the 1966 crown at the famous French 24-hour race. But you can also buy a timepiece that carries the red-white-and-blue livery and the number — 68 — of the GT that drivers Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, and Sébastien Bourdais piloted to victory in 2016.

These pieces are $695 and are currently available for pre-order, shipping in December. Autodromo has created five different designs.

I wrote a book about the Ford GT and the 2016 Le Mans win, so I'm seriously tempted to pick one up. At 40 millimeters, it's a good size — not too big, not too small — and it's related to my previous favorite Autodromo watch, the Prototipo. The movement is a unique Japanese "Meca-Quartz" made by Seiko. Not a true automatic, but with features that fans of automatic or mechanical chronographs appreciate, such as a flyback second hand.

A couple of years back when showing me a special edition of this watch, Price explained to me that he wanted to make a vintage-esque motorsports chrono with an updated, reliable movement so that fans of the golden era of racing could have a watch reminiscent of the time period that wouldn't be a hassle to own (vintage watches, lovely as they are, can be ironically time-consuming and high-maintenance to own). 

Autodromo also designs sunglasses, driving gloves, and watch straps. Check them all out here.

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That's Autodromo's Bradley Price and Ford GT designer Chris Svensson. The Le Mans-winning number 68 GT is in the background.

The $695 Endurance Chronographs come in a lovely box.

"The Le Mans Blue Dial celebrates the Franco-American history of Ford racing at Le Mans, and features the Red White and Blue tricolor common to both national flags," Autodromo says. This is one of five different designs.

• Plant roots need air to breathe, so over-watering soil can cause them to suffocate.
• Gardening pros say you can avoid drowning your plants by touching the soil before you add more water. 
• A misting spray bottle with a small concentration of peppermint soap can keep mealy bugs and fungi away. 

Plants aren’t the most demanding creatures in our homes — they need just three things to stay alive: water, air, and sunlight.

So why do so many indoor plants end up dead?

New York City indoor plant expert Matthew Schechter believes everyone should be able to bring a little greenery into their home. Schechter was born into a family plant business — he's been learning about leaves and roots since he was a tot. Now he nurtures plants of all shapes and sizes, from basic office shrubs to ornate sculptures for red-carpet events and delicate orchids. 

Plants aren’t just nice to look at: they can naturally purify the air, have been proven to reduce stress and even stopped crime in one Japanese neighborhood. (A Tokyo district dealing with a surge of break-ins in the early 2000s planted flowers and saw burglary rates fall 80%.)

But Schechter estimated that “99%” of plant owners aren’t doing one basic move — and it’s killing their greens. 

Over-watering is more common than we realize

 “No one’s checking the soil," Schechter told Business Insider. “Everyone’s just watering the plants.”

Most houseplants aren’t dying because they’re being neglected, Schechter said. They’re actually being watered too much.

Like us, plant root systems need air to breathe. If soil gets watered too often, plants slowly suffocate and drown. But checking the soil before you 'make it rain' on your indoor flora helps avoid over-watering. If the top layer is still wet, that's a sign it's too soon to add more moisture.

Master gardener Mary Dyer suggests watering plants after the first 1-2 inches of soil become dry to the touch. 

Plant owners often fail because their routines are too regimented, Schechter said. It’s almost impossible to adhere to a strict watering schedule and expect to keep your plants happy. 

“You can go from plant dummy to plant hero in 2 seconds by checking the soil,” he said.

Of course, the amount of water your plant needs and how wet the soil should be depends on the type you own. Succulents like cacti can stay happy in soil that’s near bone-dry, while plants like yellow marigolds and pink bee balm thrive in wet, muddy dirt. Most plants like it somewhere in the middle: not too wet, not too dry. 

Because every indoor environment is different, how often plants get watered also depends on indoor airflow and moisture content in a home. A plant in an old, drafty building probably needs a different watering regimen than one in a newly-insulated condo, for instance. A watering schedule can also shift throughout the year, since radiators dry out the air in the winter. 

Make your plants feel at home

Ensuring there's enough moisture in the air around your plant is important, too.

Use a spray bottle to give the leaves of your plants a spritz “when you’re bored in between your Netflix binging,” Schechter said. 

This will add humidity to the air, making it more like some of the environments where these organisms naturally grow.

“You’re making the plants feel more at home,” Schechter said.

If you’re worried about bugs, a small concentration of peppermint soap mixed into the spray mix (1-5%) will help kill bacteria or fungi away and deter mealy bugs.

Scientists have known for years that humans need a certain amount of physical touch for proper development and well-being. You can apply the same idea to your plants by touching the dirt before you water them. 

SEE ALSO: 5 idiot-proof houseplants that can live for weeks without water

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These amazing, plant-covered towers in Milan are essentially vertical forests

• Business Insider looked into how some of the most successful people out there met their spouses and partners.

• Several couples, like Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos and Bill and Melinda Gates, met at work.

• Others met at recreational events, like a charity poker tournament or a high school football game.

When Bill Gates first asked out his now-wife, Melinda, she said no.

When Lebron James first asked out his now-wife, Savannah, she had no idea who he was.

Warren Buffett's first wife introduced him to his future second wife.

Take a look below at how eight hugely successful couples first met:

SEE ALSO: A look inside the marriage of world's richest couple, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos — who met at work, were engaged in 3 months, and own more land than almost anyone else in America

DON'T MISS: Inside billionaire Warren Buffett's unconventional marriage, which included an open arrangement and 3-way Christmas cards

LeBron James and his future wife Savannah both grew up in Akron, Ohio and attended rival high schools. The couple first met at a high school football game.

She told Harper's Bazaar she wasn't aware of his growing star when she accepted his invitation to go check out one of his basketball games: "I had no idea who he was."

Source: Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates first asked Melinda, a newly hired product manager, out to dinner at a company picnic in 1987.

The only problem? He wanted to schedule the date two weeks in advance. She responded, "That's not spontaneous enough for me," Fortune reported in 2015.

Later that evening, Gates called her up later that night with a wry question: "Is this spontaneous enough for you?" Turns out, it was.

Source: Fortune, Business Insider, Business Insider

Spanx founder Sara Blakely met her husband — Marquis Jets cofounder Jesse Itzler — at the 2006 Net Jet Annual Las Vegas Poker Tournament. One of her sales representatives wrangled her a seat at the main table with Itzler.

He told Success.com he was fascinated by her departure from the game: "Who goes to bed at 9:30 at night in Vegas? That intrigued me. And she loved to laugh, and that intrigued me, too."

Source: Business Insider, Success.com

• Meghan Markle is engaged to Prince Harry. 
• Prince Harry said in an interview that Markle and Princess Diana would be "best friends," if his mother were still alive. 
• Markle and the late princess have a number of things in common, from a love of fashion to a dedication to humanitarian work. 

Meghan Markle has more in common with Princess Diana than immediately meets the eye. 

On Monday, news broke that Prince Harry was engaged to marry American actress Meghan Markle. The prince designed Markle's engagement ring himself, using two diamonds from the jewelry collection of his late mother, Princess Diana. 

When asked what his mother would have thought of Markle, Prince Harry told the BBC that he thought she would have been "best friends with Meghan." 

"Oh, they'd be thick as thieves, without question," Harry said. "I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me."

Markle and the late Princess Diana come from very different backgrounds. However, taking a closer look at the pair, it's clear why the prince believes they would be best friends.

SEE ALSO: Meghan Markle's first post-engagement public debut crashed an obscure Canadian fashion designer's website

Diana's and Markle's lives started very differently.

Diana was born in 1961, into the Spencer family, a British aristocratic family with royal ancestry. She grew up on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth's private estate, Sandringham, in Norfolk. 

Markle, meanwhile, was born in Los Angeles in 1981.

Markle comes from a more modest background. Her mother, Doria Ragland, is a yoga instructor and clinical therapist, while her father, Thomas W. Markle is a lighting director, the Telegraph reported. Ragland is African-American, and Markle is Caucasian. 

Both Markle and Diana's parents split when their daughters were young. Diana's parents separated in a high-profile case when she was six years old, and Markle's separated when she was just two.

Markle's and Diana's paths to a royal engagement couldn't be more different.

Diana was just 16 when she met Prince Charles. According to The Daily Times, Charles — who was 28 at the time — was visiting the Spencer "ancestral home" and actually dating Diana's elder sister at the time. 

The pair didn't grow close until a few years later. In her late teens, Lady Diana was working low-paying jobs and living relatively simply, despite her aristocratic heritage. Before Charles proposed in 1981, Diana was working as an assistant kindergarten teacher and living in a London apartment with three other women.

• Roark Capital Group has acquired Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion.
• The private-equity firm helped turn around Arby's after buying a majority stake in 2011.
• The firm has a diverse portfolio that includes restaurants, gyms, and auto repair centers.

After struggling to deal with historically high chicken wing prices and millennial disinterest, Buffalo Wild Wings has been acquired by Roark Capital Group for $2.9 billion. Known for rescuing Arby's from a similar position in 2011, the private-equity firm has built a diverse portfolio that includes restaurants, gyms, and auto repair centers. 

Here are some of the highlights of that portfolio.

SEE ALSO: The private-equity firm that saved Arby's is making a $2.9 billion bet that it can do the same for Buffalo Wild Wings

Anytime Fitness

Roark purchased an undisclosed stake in the fitness chain in 2014. It currently has over 3,000 locations, some of which are open 24 hours.

Arby's

The sandwich chain has undergone a massive turnaround since Roark bought a majority stake in 2011. Last year, Arby's counted $3.7 billion in revenue, which was a 20% increase from 2013.

Auntie Annie's

A food court staple, pretzel chain Auntie Annie's was acquired by Focus Brands, one of Roark's portfolio companies, in 2010.

The Victoria's Secret of today is a far cry from the fun, sexy, high-quality brand it was five years ago.

And customers are ditching in droves. Weak sales at L Brands, the parent company, have dragged the stock down 23% in 2017. The shares dropped as much as 45% year-to-date through August 30, hitting their lowest level since 2011, before rebounding slightly heading into the holiday shopping season.

In honor of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show airing on Tuesday night, we went back to the store we visited in New York City to see how the brand is doing now. And what we found surprised us.

SEE ALSO: We went to a Victoria's Secret store in New York City and saw why the brand is struggling

DON'T MISS: Victoria's Secret customers are ditching the brand because they say prices are too high and the brand feels 'fake'

Last March, I visited the Victoria's Secret store in SoHo, one of its largest stores in New York City. I went back on Cyber Monday to see what it looked like now.

I expected the store to be decimated from a full weekend of Black Friday shopping, but it looked like everything was in stock.

Perhaps the orderly appearance was more a reflection of the death of Black Friday, and rise of "Black November," the drawn out season of discounts that retailers are peddling to boost sales these days.

Source: Business Insider

Big cities like New York and Washington DC have always attracted young people looking to get their start.

But factors such as rising real-estate prices and high job competition have sent millennials searching for other places in the United States to call their home.

We compiled the cities and towns that millennials have moved to in droves over the past few years, using data from personal finance company SmartAsset, real-estate analytics firm RCLCO, and mortgage software firm Ellie Mae. 

Here are the places you'll find booming millennial populations:

SEE ALSO: I spent 3 months living in Alaska — here are the 7 things people always get wrong about America's biggest state

Charlotte, North Carolina

The millennial population of Charlotte, the biggest city in North Carolina, grew by nearly 11,000 in 2015, the latest year for which there is data.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle gained more millennials than any other city on the west coast, adding about 10,000 to its population in 2015.

Oakland, California

About 7,500 more millennials moved to Oakland in 2015 than left the city, according to SmartAsset.

From the looks of it, Atherton could be any ritzy suburb in America.

But it isn't anywhere. Atherton is an idyllic town located on the San Francisco Peninsula, where even modest homes go for millions of dollars. With a median list price over $9.6 million, it is the most expensive zip code in America, according to a new ranking by Forbes.

"Atherton is the epicenter of Silicon Valley money and it only has ultra-high end properties," said Michael Simonsen, CEO of Altos Research (which partnered with Forbes on the ranking).

It's no surprise that tech billionaires — including Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, former HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Google chairman Eric Schmidt — come home to Atherton's 94027. The town's prestige, privacy, and proximity to major tech companies draw ultra-rich homebuyers, who often pay all cash and bidhundreds of thousands of dollars above asking price.

Here's what it's like inside Atherton.

SEE ALSO: The next hottest housing market in America is this San Francisco micro-hood that's so obscure, most residents have never heard of it

Atherton is a small, mostly residential town located about 45 minutes south of San Francisco and less than 20 minutes from the headquarters of Facebook, Google, and Tesla.

Mega-mansions line nearly every block. Many homes have fences or landscaping that prevent prying eyes from looking in. Each lot feels like its own gated community.

The median sale price in Atherton was $5.42 million in 2016, four times higher than that of San Francisco. That figure is highly conservative, according to local realtor Tom LeMieux.

Forbes' ranking looks at the list price, rather than the sale price, and probably does not take into account off-market sales — which made up one-third of home sales in Atherton in 2015, LeMieux told The Almanac. Those deals are transacted through real-estate agents but are not publicly advertised.

Despite their walls, Atherton estates still have an imposing presence from the street.

• Meghan Markle may have encouraged Procter & Gamble to change the tagline to an advertisement for dishwashing liquid when she was 11.
• The tagline inspired jokes from her male classmates about how women "belong" in the kitchen.
• After Markle wrote letters to Hillary Clinton, lawyer Gloria Allred, journalist Linda Ellerbee, and Procter & Gamble, the tagline was changed.

Meghan Markle may have encouraged Procter & Gamble to change the tagline to an advertisement for dishwashing liquid when she was 11, according to a speech she gave for UN Women on International Women's Day in 2015.

In the speech, she described seeing a TV commercial in school for Procter & Gamble dishwashing soap, whose tagline claimed, "Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans." After two male classmates made a joke about how women "belong" in the kitchen, Markle became frustrated.

"I remember feeling shocked and angry and also just feeling so hurt. It just wasn't right and something needed to be done," she said in the speech.

She told her father about the incident, and he encouraged Markle to make her voice heard. 

"He encouraged me to write letters, so I did, to the most powerful people I could think of," she said, which included Hillary Clinton, civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, journalist Linda Ellerbee, and Procter & Gamble.

About a month later, Procter & Gamble made the tagline gender-neutral, changing "Women all over America" to, "People all over America."

You can watch Markle's full speech here.

SEE ALSO: Meghan Markle's first name is not actually 'Meghan'

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