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
What shaped my world was raft guiding for the first 10 years of my adulthood. What better way to immerse yourself in nature, than to poise yourself in it, on it, and at the mercy of it, learning to work together with the power & awe she possesses. You wanna get straight into the meat & potatoes of this activity? Spend a week at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You won’t emerge the same person, Vishen.
Sending lots of love your way & so many genuine thank yous for completely changing my life. I appreciate you so very much Vishen! And have SO much fun!!
If you’d like to experience the cheese maker life for one week in magic place in Italy just let me know. But be aware about “la maledicion de la leche” , you won’t be able to step out …
Hi Vishen, Always like to read about your learnings and experiences. What a great way to experience life in so many aspects and versions.Excited for you!.
Regards,
Samantha
Happy Birthday Vishen! Love that you are shifting your perspective from making money to making memories, living, truly and fully living –what a beautiful vision you are setting out on. Excited to watch you transform in the process.
Adding to your suggestions: try being a homeless for a week
I did a 10 day Vipassana silent retreat in December 2025 an I loved it! No phones, no contact with the outside world and no talking to each other. It was amazing.
How exciting this idea sounds! I’m sure it will be a deeper eye opener and experience. If you want to try roller skate dancing in Barcelona, get in touch 😉
Umm, I want to try this! Is there a website with more info?
Happy Birthday, Vishen!!
A life of curiosity – a life fully lived!!
Thank you for sharing your genius ideas, inspiring stories, and amazing adventures!!
Cheers to your 100 lives!
I love this! I think it’s incredibly valuable and can offer such powerful insight to study someone else’s life and how they see themselves in this world.
It feels like exactly what the world needs right now.
It’s a great question to ask: What lives would we choose to live (just for one week)?
I would definitely go somewhere warm, maybe the dessert, live among tribals in South America or Africa, go back to Nepal where I travelled as a young graduate and live in silence on a monastery.
The purpose should be to live simple, to see the world from another angle, to broaden my perspectives, to dare to learn something new – and to challenge my own assumptions and way of living this very prioritized life 🌱
Abundance of blessings, unconditional love, gratitude and respect. Happy 50th , Vishen. 🎂🌹 Miracle of Mind by Sadhguru is keeping me focussed daily on Mind and Body. Blissful and grateful. Blessings to all. 🌹❤️🌹🙏
I would explore more teckniques to reprogram mi mind. There is hipnosis, there are Jose Silva techniques, … but I would explore further. Sometimes people even with hipnosis have some dificulties to reprogram their minds. I love exploring further of what’s still known.
This way mey be we will skip resistance and find a way mixing the best of different techniques to reprogram people minds and help them have a better life. You included.
If I could take a week or rather may be even 3 weeks off, I’d like to go to a village and learn farming from scratch.
Another two weeks I’d like to travel to Mansarovar in Himalayas.
Another 1 week in the most deserted beach lakes or islands of the world chilling with simple food and local people .
Another week in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland living with locals there and travelling to the innards of the forests and the river bank everyday!
Another week in a Yoga centre ( in fact I can do this for months together) learning more about technicalities of my body-mind and enabling me to be an even better instrument of service to the world.
One more week I’d like to be with Sandy Jadeja entourage taking a historical trip in some part of the world, and learning stock market more at the same time over dinner.
One more week I’d love to spend interning at Mindvalley and working with you Vishen and adding value to what you do. I can go on!! 🙂 And if you like my work, who knows you might make me one of your team members in one of the new companies that you are building. 🙃🙂
Happy Birthday Vishen! I have lived in several parts of South America and Central America and now in Canada…
1) of my biggest dream is to travel the world with my husband and 2 kids (age 10 &12) as I considered the World is the Best Classroom for kids to learn and for us adults (me) to Re-Learn.
2) to continue to Live my purpose and passion as an experiential education facilitator, which is to serve with enthusiasm and contribute to a kinder world while having fun and yes prosperous in all senses.
3) Almost years ago I told my Coach , Gabby Escalante, that in 2026 I want to be one of the speaker standing on and Mindvalley live event… in Spanish and English (as life chooses)
Vishen, thanks for your message today and enjoy with you loved ones your birthday and everything. and thanks for sharing your dreams with us and making us never to give up our dreams, even if they sound impossible!! Because as my Spiritual coach and expert in Metaphors: “HERE EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE “she is the creator of the methodology MetaTraining … Glenda Mejiah is amazing … I give now thanks to God/Universe/Life everything for wonderful people in my way like you and your whole team that brings awareness into the world. Gracias un abrazo Isabel
Happy Birthday Vishen!!! May you have continued health and abundance for your life always and forever!!
**** IDEA**** Please allow me to invite you to consider the beautiful intense life of a suburban homeschooler parent! We have a grass roots sort of freedom (that’s been trending recently) but of our greatest leaders and influential historic figures lived fully this way for centuries! Homeschooling Moms are the CEOs of our home lifestyle- all day- every day. We must create constantly, give, serve, invent, manage, direct, heal, feed.. you name it. It’s a small business and our product is the future of our country. You bet it’s a very motivated and intense focus – usually only truly understood by living it.
Thank you for being the inspiration you are and continuing to strive towards excellence in every way. It shows, it matters. You are a light in the world.
Vishan, congratulations! And you’re already better than when you were 19 or 21…
As they say:
“You can’t step into the same river twice… not only because the river flows on and is different, but also because you have evolved and are a different person. You can’t step into the same river.”
Have fun on your 100 lives, and I hope you share your best insights with us! 😀
This was incredibly enlivening and inspiring. You are modeling a way of living that resonates deeply with me, and I want to share my deep heartfelt appreciation for you, for having the courage (and belief) to live the way you feel inspired to, and for having the generosity (and courage) to share your inspirations and creations with the world. Thank you! 🙏🌍💃
My wife and I just returned from a trip where we spent three days on the beach in Malibu, California, followed by four days in London attending an incredible, superstar wedding, and then a week in Portugal at a mountain farm stay with organic food and stunning scenery.
Experiencing that level of comfort and luxury gave me a small glimpse into what a life of abundance can feel like. That said, I realized I haven’t heard you speak much about how you relate to your family. I remember you mentioning on a podcast not long ago that your teenage children don’t really hug you anymore, which stayed with me.
It made me curious about how your family feels about your newer ventures and the life you’ve built. I don’t mean this in a critical or condescending way at all—quite the opposite. I’m asking from the perspective of viewing you as someone who has created immense abundance and contributed so much to others, and I genuinely wonder how that journey has shaped your own personal and family life.
Happy 50th Birthday!!! This is why I live everyday with a purpose . May your dreams come true. I believe many people would love to do this but it’s hard for them to even leave their neighborhood due to lack of money. All humans have dreams and ideas and not all can accomplish theirs. Nevertheless this is inspiring. May you live many lives!!!!
I would love to spend a week surfing — maybe in Sri Lanka or Australia.
Then I’d head to Thailand for a week to learn Asian cuisine: mastering Pad Thai, mango sticky rice, and tasting all kinds of street food.
A week learning Kung Fu in the Swiss mountains would be both exciting and challenging.
I’d also love to study yoga and Ayurveda in the south of India, diving deeper into balance and well-being.
Before Christmas, going to Lapland sounds magical, taking care of the Husky’s — maybe even becoming Santa for a moment 🙂
Spending a week on a farm learning horse riding and how to care for horses would be amazing — it would feel like living in Yellowstone.
Happy Birthday, Vishen, and thank you for this beautiful exercise!
Feliz cumpleaños Vishen! Continua inspirando
This is a great idea — I love it. I wonder whether you are living these multiple lives on your own or sharing them with your loved ones: your partner, your children?
I believe the next step is sharing this with others who will also grow alongside us. It’s being my dream since quite a while ! … need a lot to work before that 🙂 Maybe we will cross one day
Happy Birthday! Sounds wonderful and congrats for doing these 100 lives in life 🙂
If you loved Flamenco, I’ve got an idea for your list: learning Tango in Buenos Aires! If you get to consider it let me know 🙂 I’m a local Tango violinist and it’s easy for me to help you set it up.
Looking forward to hearing all of the amazing stories and cheers to living many lives!