I’m in Spain this week.
I’m celebrating my birthday with a small group of close friends. And for my birthday experience, I took them to see a flamenco show.
Not the flashy, tourist kind.
The real thing.
Low light. Raw guitar. A small room where you can see every line on the dancers’ faces.
And that’s what struck me first.
Their faces.
They weren’t just performing steps.
They were telling stories—of heartbreak, resilience, pride, longing.
You could see entire lifetimes etched into their expressions.
These were people who had lived.
And something inside me paused.
I caught myself thinking:
Their lives must be fascinating.
What would it be like to live a life like that?
Then a playful thought followed.
If I wanted to understand that life…
Why wouldn’t I just learn flamenco?
Not casually.
Not “once a week after work” learning.
Flamenco in London, squeezed between meetings and emails, would be like learning to surf in a bathtub.
So I asked a different question.
What if I did it properly?
What if I moved to southern Spain for a week?
Took daily flamenco classes.
Immersed myself in the culture.
Late dinners.
Struggled through Spanish.
.
Lived—briefly—a different life.
And that’s when something clicked.
I realized I’ve started thinking about life differently.
Over the last few years, AI and leverage have quietly changed everything for me.
What used to take 50 hours now takes one. Teams of 20 have become teams of two or three.
As a result, I’m building multiple new companies alongside Mindvalley with tiny teams, massive leverage, and far more freedom than I ever imagined possible.
But here’s the unexpected side effect of optimization:
It gave me time.
And time, I’m realizing, isn’t meant to be endlessly reinvested into more work.
It’s meant to be lived.
So I decided to test a radical idea.
I’ve committed to taking one full week off every month to deeply immerse myself in a different life—learning something new in the place where it truly belongs.
Some examples of what’s coming:
I’m considering spending a week living with monks in a Greek Orthodox monastery near Thessaloniki. No phone. No electronics. Waking at 5 a.m.
Working the land. Eating simple meals. Praying. Meditating. Napping in the afternoon. Cooking together. Sleeping as the sun sets.
Silence.
Simplicity.
Presence.
I briefly thought about moving to Paris to learn bartending… and then realized that probably wasn’t the direction my nervous system or my liver wanted to go.
So instead, I’ll spend a week in Paris learning French cooking, the way it was meant to be learned.
Each immersion follows two simple rules:
Rule #1: Meet locals.
Not wealthy. Not influential. Not “network-worthy.” Just locals. The baker. The bartender. The monk. Ordinary people living ordinary lives—because their stories are often the most eye-opening.
Rule #2: Learn the skill where it was born.
Flamenco in Spain. French cuisine in Paris. Orthodoxy in Greece.
No shortcuts. No simulations.
This curiosity isn’t just intellectual; it’s physical too.
As much as I love my current training, I’m now exploring entirely new relationships with my body. Pilates. Yoga. Aikido. Ways of moving I would never have touched before.
My goal is simple and slightly absurd:
I want to be in better shape at 60 than I was at 21, when I was 19 and representing Malaysia in the U.S. Open for Taekwondo.
And then there’s the biggest shift of all, now that I’m turning 50.
I’ve decided to stop chasing money.
If my company reaches a billion-dollar valuation, great.
Nice milestone.
But it’s no longer a requirement.
My goal now is this: Live 100 lives before I die.
I will be a flamenco dancer.
A monk.
A Bedouin.
A French cook.
Maybe even a barista.
Each for a week.
100 weeks.
100 lives.
This is worth more to me than a billion dollars in net worth.
I start today.
I’ve officially signed up for a week-long stand-up comedy immersion in London.
And yes, you’ll be seeing me perform in comedy clubs soon.
I’ll be sharing these experiences as I go, what I learn, what breaks me open, what surprises me.
And I’d love to hear from you too.
If you could live a different life for one week every month…
What would you study?
Where would you go?
Who would you want to live alongside?
Share them in the comments. I read them. They shape what comes next.
Thank you for being part of this journey, and this chapter of my life.
Here’s to living many lives.
P.S. If this idea of living many lives resonates with you, you’ll enjoy what’s coming next.
On January 18, we’re bringing together Social Media Summit Highlights:
This is a LIVE curated selection of the top-rated sessions from our recent summit.
You will learn how to build visibility, leverage, and impact in the modern world from Brendan Kane, Prince EA, Marie Forleo, and me.
Now, if you’re curious how ideas turn into movements on social media (and how people design lives with more freedom once they have an authoritative personal brand), I’d love for you to join us there.
407 Responses
i shared my comments a week ago but did not found here.
hey vishen, nice goals! i started doing this when i was age 14, once a year for some weeks abroad, alone with completely strangers. it contributes so much to widening your horizon. as i am 41 now, i have so many insights and stories to tell to my students, children and other people. but what is astonishing: the simpler the lives of the people, the more welcoming, open-minded and the greater the hospitality. i have travelled the world from iceland, to sri lanka, from siberia/russia to kazakhstan, malaysia,…
really great that you inspire millions!!!
blessings from austria
theresa
I love this Vishen- Happy Birthday. I would do just what you are doing if
I could at 57 I got my scuba Padi certification; I started learning the drums; I took an Oxford AI course and now am doing an MIT tech course (and I lead a non profit -go figure).
I want to learn Italian; refresh my Japanese; spend more time in Bolivia and travel to Europe- mostly, connecting with life long friends and family- and living like the locals-
Savoring the cultures.
I had al this year chalked up with new learning and adventures – and, boom- my mom fell, and ai have been going from long days of work to hospitals – and I don’t know when- if ever things will get back to normal.
Life throws you unexpected events and can crush all your plans in a second, so the thing I will cultivate the most is, tolerance and acceptance and without giving up on my plans, I will give up on trying to control them. I will intentionally work with life- with its ebbs and flows- and learn to be happy with whatever I can do WHEN I can do it without getting upset over having to let go of something, reinvent a plan- or even, postpone it.
We think we control our lives- but we don’t. So resilience is a great skill to master.
Wishing all your dreams and plans and 100 lives come true!!
🙌
I just love your passion for lifelong learning. Your post gave me the inspiration I find is often a missing piece in goal setting. Thank you!
And happy 50th birthday, by the way. I truly believe we can age backwards!
I honestly look and feel younger now, having moved through so much healing and clearing, than I did 15 years ago.
Here’s to growth, vitality, and becoming more ourselves with time. 🦋🌿✨
What would you study?
I would study ancient and modern healing modalities across cultures- trauma healing, somatic work, plant medicine traditions, nervous system regulation, ancestral lineage repair, and feminine wisdom. I want to understand how different societies heal the mind, body, and spirit, and how those teachings can be integrated into practical, grounded life support for modern people.
Where would you go?
I would travel the world, sitting with indigenous shamans, medicine keepers, and elders in places like Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia- learning directly from the land, the plants, and the people. I feel called to walk the paths of my ancestors across continents, to understand how their traditions live inside my blood and how they can be woven into healing spaces for others.
Who would you want to live alongside?
I would want to live alongside healers, teachers, artists, and conscious leaders who are doing real inner work- people who are committed to truth, integrity, and service. I believe that when people who are devoted to healing and evolution live together, we create fields of coherence that uplift entire communities.
My intention is to bring everything I learn back to the US through Mama G’s Traditions- creating sanctuaries, programs, and communities that help people heal trauma, find stability, and remember who they truly are.
I would spend a week at Findhorn
Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland is a pioneering intentional community and educational center demonstrating holistic, sustainable living by integrating spiritual, social, ecological, and economic practices, featuring innovative eco-housing, renewable energy (wind turbines), biological water treatment, and a focus on low-impact lifestyles, serving as a model for global sustainability efforts.
Dear Vishen,
As you embark on your many journeys (many tastes of lifestyles), I hope you experience one or two that draw you to stay longer than a single week and to delve deeper than a taste.
You pique the interest of all of us who will follow you to live this vicariously through you.
Mike Rowe does something similar with his “Dirty Jobs” series on the Discovery Channel– less about learning the job and more about empathizing with the people who do the “dirty work.” In your case, the spectrum of lifestyles will be much broader. Other commenters have made wonderful suggestions, i.e. teaching philosophy or meditation in a small school at any village in the world.
More ideas:
Be a fisherman on a small boat in Malaysia.
Work at a dog shelter in Romania.
Herd reindeer in Lapland.
Make cheese in Switzerland.
Live with the folks in a village in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria where the population has dwindled to less than 10.
Participate in the harvest of giant onions in Giarratana, Sicily in September.
Learn glassblowing in Venice and make something unique.
Learn paragliding on the Dune du Pilat in the south of France.
Build traditional wooden punter boats at Punterwerf Wildeboer (Giethoorn), Netherlands
Spend a week on a coal barge on the River Rhein.
Cultivate roses at the David Austin Plant Centre in Shropshire.
Learn pantomime in Rome.
Learn sculpture in Athens.
Learn to sing Fado in Portugal.
Immerse yourself in Turkish tea culture and learn to brew in a çaydanlık in Istanbul and Rize.
Participate in polyphonic Jürmala singing in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Try to master the matcha ceremony in Uji/Kyoto.
Learn the Haka warrior dance with Māori people in New Zealand.
Learn Ingoma sacred drumming in Burundi.
Harvest and airdry lavender in Provence.
Dive for natural sponges with the divers on Kalymnos, Greece.
Spend a week training guide dogs for the blind.
Play bagpipes in Scotland.
Weave Berber rugs in Morocco.
Learn shoemaking beside the artisans in Campania or Florence, Italy.
Learn woodcarving in Lithuania during Kūčios and Kalėdos holiday week.
Immerse yourself in Aachen where mutual respect between Charlemagne and Abbasid Calif Harun al-Rashid diplomatically bridged the worlds of Christianity, Islam, and the Holy Land. (Aachen also has an international university with students and faculty from 140 countries.)
Pauline
This is an absolutely amazing list. I hope he does them all!
Vishen
I would love to see you join a peace corps volunteer to see what they do. Pick the country and culture. There are over 3000 active volunteers.
Mary
Vishen: I love this idea of living 100 lives because in order to have a certain experience, one needs to be in a certain state – our life as well as each of our bodily functions are not permanent. In other words, live 100 lives in one body!!! BTW what would you do and if one of those 100 lives you live is in Japan? I have great ideas…
This !! This ! This! This !
This is exactly what I have always wanted and been unable to succinctly express .. even to myself ..
But life has gifted me with a disabled child which makes this challenging .. but I am up for the challenge ..
Thank you for making it so clear
I was fortunate to live near Wing Chun masters (the real, old-style masters) and learn their art from them when I was a teenager. I lived that life of training almost every afternoon after school for years. What a gift to live a life of learning an art that gives more depth than our everyday of work-chores-sleep-repeat does.
Happy Birthday!
Vishen, what you are really saying is life is not for observing but for living. I’m 80 and have been taking Native American flute lessons for a year. Why? Because I want to challenge my brain. When I lived in Panamá, I took Panamanian cooking and learned Spanish. I took pattern drafting from a Cuban woman who made commercial patterns. I’ve traveled out of the country and lived in many US states. In each location I’ve always tried to immerse myself in the culture. Because it matters. We are not one person in one place but just one person in this vast world. So much to learn. My rocking chair is lonely.
Es una iniciativa inspiradora! Estaré muy atento a su desarrollo!
Gracias por compartir!!!
Oh Vishen. What a beautiful life decision to make. This is a dream so many of us would likely love to experience, myself included!
I’m replying to this on the train, having finally read your email which had sat in my inbox for a few days. I had a feeling it would be a good one and I wanted to give it my full attention, and I’m so glad that I did.
There were a few messages in there that resonated and I needed to hear, the ‘I’m not chasing money anymore’ one sank quite deeply with me.
I’m in an uncomfortable moment in my journey finances wise and I’ve realised the moment I started making it about money, money became this ‘thing’. Before, I always did what I was doing for the experience, and money (whilst i wasn’t rich) was never an issue, I’ve always had enough to pay my mortgage, feed my family and have moments away that being joy (perhaps I am rich after all 🥰).
So .. from the wonderful feeling I experienced in your email, the vision of living 100 lives and how that would look for me .. I am stepping into that energy. Of doing things for the experience again. Of wanting to help others (before it was all about helping animals and nature for me, now I’m in the process of helping humans – which ironically has the knock on effect of helping animals and nature as a bi-product) and be of service. To myself. To my family. And to those drawn to my particular set of gifts (writing fiction).
Thank you for this email Vishen – I genuinely needed that today.
**although … I would prefer if it was more you and less ai .. it’s a little too polished (honest feedback wise) but I can feel your heart and soul in amongst the ai bounce and flows and I enjoyed reading it.
Wishing you lots of laughs and smiles on the first of your 100 lives – stand up comedy – that takes serious amounts of courage!
With gratitude
@raystarbooks ✨
Hi I just turned 50 as well…and I feel younger mentally and spiritually…have to work on physically… But this idea of a 100 lives resonates with me. I have so much to learn and do..so far to go and grow. You have given me so much to ponder…and act on.
Thanks our Modern Monk /Guru
Happy Birthday, Vishen! Wish you all the best!
… I would study acting in the US 🙂
Wow, this sounds great and very inspiring. Can’t wait to read your experiences. All the best on this new journey 🙏🏽
Happy 50th Vishen! I turned to 50 back in October as well. Half a century in Life puts a mark in our lives for sure. I wanted to bring life to all my crazy ideas as I write the to my notes so I don’t forget one and get off my mind.
One of my first Growth item from 2019 and earlier MIQ as I was listening to you was to bring https://3miqs.com to life for myself have place to store my life goals, as well as for others. My goal is to turn this into a platform where we all can connect people with similar goals in life together so they can help each other to achieve that.
This is maybe a timely coincidence for you to be my first user on the platform. Ok, second after me 🙂
An incredible idea. Hugely inspirational. Will look forward to hearing your journey. Bless!
Dear Vishen,
You wrote about living a hundred lives. I’d like to propose a different kind of one—not in Paris or the Andes, but inside history itself. A life where collapse periods are experienced as mirrors: moments that expose missing constraints long before societies have the vocabulary to name them. Seen this way, myth, renaissance, and reinvention stop looking like cultural accidents and start revealing themselves as intelligent responses to structural overshoot. It’s a way of living history from the inside—not to repeat it, but to recover continuity where it was lost.
Warmly,
Michael