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
Vishen, you inspire me so much! I recently took a weekend trip with some ladies (moms of the children that my girls go to school with). Although I love these ladies dearly – they are sweet and funny and cool, I can’t say that I enjoyed the trip with them entirely. I felt that something was missing. And your message hit me like a brick. I’m looking for an adventure that I can learn and grown as a person like the trips you talked about here, not the drinking and being pampered in a spa type of trip I had. There is nothing wrong with that, just not the type I yearn for. I would love to go to Paris and live for year to learn French and learn dress chic the French way ( I’m a big fashion nut). Also a year in Japan learning Japanese wood block printing. I hope to meet you one day in person, Vishen! Thank you for the inspiration, always.
I love this idea! As an actor and technologist, I often say I’ve lived over a thousand lives in this one lifetime.
Also, I’ve seen this exact Flamenco show and aren’t they amazing? So present!
I look forward to hearing about your journeys!
mg
We are the same age. Last year hit me hard with the similar conclusions, and I started doing and learning different things: kite surfing, spanish, camping in the mountains in Canada… if not now, then when?! Why not loving the freedom of living… we just have one-and-only-chance😘
Happy 50 Vishen! What a fun way to start your next 50:) I hope you’ll get all your heart desires in the one week… wink,wink… and you are open to linger longer if your heart desires:)
Well… Make your trip to Durango, MX and make sure to visit El Mercadito.. There’s so much beauty in that state.. and if you are brave to travel the mountains and embrace the curbs and dirt roads 🙂
Vishen , This is such an exciting & awesome venture , Ican relate to this idea and my better half taught it was selfish seeing I have a family , who is fully grown and have their own ? Will revisit my priorities.
Happy Birthday Vishen and welcome to the 50’s! Your “I’m turning 50” tag caught me, as I am in my 50’s. Just turned 54 earlier this month. As i read your email, i thought: “look what the universe brought me today”. I’ll be thinking about what life I would like to live for a week but excited to see your journey.
Vishen, I want to say I LOVE this but that doesn’t adequately express the sentiment. Brilliant and remarkable, and I look forward to hearing the journey. I would love to work alongside one of your small containers. I know few others whose values and missions align so well with my core belief systems. Canada has lots to offer.
This is literally the best thing I’ve read in a while(and I read a lot lol).I was smiling while reading it! I love it😍and I love this for you!
Dynamic blessing on your amazing journey!
#Phenomenal
Hi Vishen,
I loved this.
Last year I turned 50 too.
For my birthday, I climbed Kilimanjaro.
Not metaphorically.
Actually climbed it.
Slow steps, thin air, big sky, quiet mind.
Somewhere between the clouds and the summit I realised something similar to what you describe:
life isn’t meant to be optimized forever… it’s meant to be experienced.
I honestly feel better now than I ever did in my 20s.
Stronger, calmer, more alive.
(Probably helped by yoga, a nervous system that finally trusts life… and yes, being a Mindvalley member 😉)
Right now I’m in Costa Rica, living with a local family, learning Spanish, eating whatever mamá puts on the table, swimming in rivers, listening to birds I can’t name, and remembering what “simple” actually feels like.
So when you said “live 100 lives”… I smiled.
Also, important logistical note:
I will happily pay good money to come and watch you do stand up in London 😁
If this whole “100 lives” experiment leads to you bombing gloriously on stage at least once, I want front row seats.
Thank you for writing this. It landed.
Happy 50th life to you.
May it be the most curious one yet.
Warmly,
Monika
Learn to be/do
Tibetan Buddhist monk
Vatican artist
Japanese calligraphy
Peruvian shaman
Chinese tea ceremony
USA west coast surfer… the list is infinite!!!
Enjoy the journey
Be careful with the 💃🏾
This is so incredibly inspiring! I can’t wait to hear about each life lived!
Having lost my life savings to a Ponzi scheme at 73, I have changed my idea of the rest of my life. It aligns with what you are talking about. My version won’t be as grand as yours, but I am going to live my life to the fullest and learn and explore everything I can! Thank goodness I worked for an airline with lifetime discounts on flights. Thanks for the inspiration, Vishal. I love Mindvalley!
This is such a beautiful quest Vishen. How about learning to tend a vineyard or olive orchards in Italy? Or how to live the life of the Innuit in Nunavut?
So cool!!!
I would learn to play the piano propert, study French in Carcassone, learn Western riding in Wyoming (need to bring the allergy medicine), study the Tarot, spend a week in a Buddist monastery…. And then continue to think of all the wonderful things left to get.
Happy 50th birthday Vishen. I also turned 50 last year and I wanted to celebrate life so I rented out a zoo, invited all my family and friends and celebrated the first half of my life by doing a speech to thank each and everyone of them for how they shaped who I became. I was like a wedding but for me! It was an amazing night. This celebration at the zoo on the Africa terrasse having a toast with the giraffes and zebras was in anticipation of the Tanzania safari that I took later. It was a blessing to see how beautiful the animals were in the wild. it was one experience I will never forget.
I love your idea of immersion! I will surely try to do that in my life!
May health and time be blessed upon you for all those great adventures!
Vishen, this is so inspiring. The way you’ve designed a life that lets you live fully, not someday but now, is exactly the reminder we all need. Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures!
Great, Vishen! Happy Birthday! A special one. Wishing you a beautiful and blessed life ahead. Your intention as you said, would bring you to many aspects of life. Rich in nature. Now I am in my 75th year. Still want to lea. rn many aspects of lives. Sometimes they come by themselves, and in some instances, they are planned, intended. Would love to read your story, your journey. Keep moving, find your inner self through many ways…. Good luck!
Do a complete Camino in Spain. Do it alone, only you. Do the entire Camino. I suggest the Primativo.
No fanfare. Do it incognito. Do at the right time of year when there are not to many people and not too hot or cold. Mid April is a good time to start.
Do simply and introspectively. It will change your life
You are so blessed to have the resources to be able to accomplish this.
Congratulations.