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
Your 100 Lives idea really resonated with me. I love the intention behind it learning through presence by stepping into ordinary lives lived well.
If I could suggest one life for a week, it would be working alongside farmers in regional South Australia.
Early starts. Physical work. Routine and responsibility. Living to the rhythm of land, weather and daylight. Not a retreat, but real participation in where our food and livelihoods come from.
Spending time with farmers whose knowledge is practical, earned over decades, and often unspoken. Understanding first-hand how the drought impacted their lives.
Days begin early, end when the light fades, and are shaped by what needs doing rather than what’s planned. It’s hard, repetitive work — and humbling.
A simple, demanding way to better understand where our milk, wool and beef etc actually comes from, and the people behind it.
A life that feels consistent with the principles of 100 Lives.
If a week like this ever fits, South Australia offers it quietly and well. Nothing more Aussie than a farmer!
Hi A very Happy Birthday to you Vishen.
Wow wow wow
I cannot believe I am personally writing a Celebratory Message to You.
100 lives sound a fab and inspirational .
I have followed you for some time and read some of your books that have inspired me to be a better version of myself.
There are still some things that I need to work on but I know and have in a strange way, for as long as I can remember known I will get there, where ever that may be.
I have gone from a single parent of 4, working 3 days a week and in debt due to ex husbands control over money, or lack off, as I have had to pay all the debts off whilst renting, to now running my own business which is very fulfilling teaching life skills through cooking and baking to adults with disabilities/autism. Thais has happened through being inspired by yourself. Now I am setting up a CIC to work with other sectors of the community. I am also in the very beginnings of organising a Festival to bring providers , clubs and groups together with the boroughs community of learning disability and autism from children services to adult services in a lively fun way. It has to and will be big as the borough has nothing like this.
I welcome any advice and tips from you, as you are a pro in organising festivals. Now I have 4 grown up children and 4 wonderful grandchildren. A wonderful partner that adores my family and supports all my crazy ideas and like you, we have chosen to actively to have 1 weekend away with my wonderful partner for the last two years, each month to immerse ourselves in things? Such as another counties culture (we was in Basel Switzerland, in October 2025 and the tele was on and I turned the tele over, and I caught the end of you on an interview on CNN and it stop me in my tracks and made me think I am following you and wouldn’t be in Basel if I hadn’t read and joined Mindvalley) another weekend was to learn the history and how to and have a go at kintsugi.
Another immersion we are looking forward to is a Huckleberry Finn weekend in May, on a floating wooden home in the middle of a lake where we are off grid and my partner can fish and I can read and just be present in each other’s company.
I am yet to own my home, however, I know I will and plan to have homes all over England and the world that I rent out to holiday makers, but they are also there for us to stay in as and when we need to. One country that is definitely on the list is Italy, as my daughter moved there and although we see each other regularly, my plan is to have a home from home near her.
I look forward to to hearing and reading about your next exciting chapter in your life. Again a Very Happy birthday and savour every moment of what you are seeing in the real moment. 😊🎉
Wow I am directly speaking to you. Take care from Natasha😊
I love this idea! Can’t wait to hear about your experiences.
I probably would do the exact same thing learn all I could live all I could and be all I can. Id love to travel Greece. Paris. Etc. Try take skills and lessons from everyone cool enough to share it with me. Thats cool thing u done.
You made me think of Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek). Reading his work nudged me toward prioritising life experiences over work and money, and structuring work so those experiences become possible. He became a tango champion in Argentina as a result of his adventures by the way.
For a workaholic like me, the shift from being money rich to time rich was massive. It opened the door to hobbies, adventures, and travel that genuinely enriched my life: from exploring old cities and local traditions in Saudi, to sledging down an entire mountain in Slovenia with my toddler, to learning two Latin American dance styles (even though I used to think I was too clumsy to dance).
I find your goal truly inspiring and I love how you’re incorporating the “learning from the source” into it. I hope this adventure will enrich your life in the ways money alone can’t. You deserve it. Happy birthday, Vishen!
Vishe thank you for your inspirational thoughts and guidance. I love you’re getting to live 100 lives I truly believe walking in others lives helps us in do many ways from the breakdown of barriers to building compassion. You are living a life only some can imagine. Good luck to you. I can’t wait to read about your adventures.
Happy Birthday!
This is wonderful! I beg of you one thing – take a professional photographer with you to record your amazing experiences. Then write a book about it all, because we all want to know what it’s like to do this!
Happy Birthday! I am SO excited for you and inspired by the authentic immersion weeks you have planned. Genius!
Have the time of your life and if you ever want to come to NYC and learn how to sing for a week, I’m your girl! 😊
Dear Vishen, Happy Birthday! I have deep respect for what you do and have achieved as CEO of Mindvalley. I appreciate your curiosity for varied experiences, but calling week-long immersions “100 lives” misses something crucial. As a working artist, I can tell you that my life isn’t something that could be understood or fully experienced in a week.
The flamenco dancers whose faces moved you – their art emerged from years of struggle, cultural inheritance and complete commitment. What you are describing sounds more like 100 immersive experiences, simply dipping your toes in as a consumable experience. Which can be wonderful but is far from actually living those lives. And the difference absolutely matters, out of respect, especially when you are engaging with people for whom these aren’t choices but their actual reality.
I wonder if the very AI tools that gave you this extra “time” are also shaping how you think time should be used – fast, optimized, extracted. But humanness does not work that way. True connection requires the opposite: slowness, uncertainty and staying with something even when it’s difficult and boring. Those dancers didn’t “try” flamenco for a week. They lived through years of practice, failure, financial struggle and cultural inheritance. The depth you saw in their faces comes from duration and consequence, not immersion.
We’re at risk of losing something essential if we start believing we can speed-run human experience the way AI processes information. Some things are only understood by living them slowly, without the exit strategy of returning to another life where you have all the resources.
Best regards, Marike
Visual artist and Tarot reader
Happy birthday Vishen!! I’m also 50 and I LOVE your idea!! I lived in 4 very different culturally countries (now in Spain, but Catalonia part). Of course, 1 week is very short, but as your time is so precios it sounds like a delicious taste. I would love to immerse to geisha art in Japan, Buddhist monks in Thailand (I think it’s only for man though), learn Thai and take care of elephants in santuary, Chinese medicin and QiGong in Chinese monastery, ayurveda in India, live with indigenous tribes of the Amazon, Oceania and Africa, herd reindeers with nomads in the north, learn cooking in Sicily, wine making in Priorat (Spain), acting in Los Angeles, ballet in Paris, opera in Vienna, painting in Italy, samba in Rio de Janeiro, discover wildlife of Galapagos islands etc. etc. Our planet is so magically diverse, I need at least 100 years more to try just part of it! Thank you Vishen for your inspiration!
Amazing decision to allocate one week each month for yourself to explore different interests in depth.
I am hoping to join you once or twice a year, if you ever decide to share some of your weeks with the MV community!
In any case, happy birthday, Vishen.
Happy birthday Vishen!
very inspirational and synchronous.
Many thx for all you and your team do
cheers Harry
A joyful celebration of living to you, dear Vishen. I smile reading your new era vision-medicine. I turned 45 this May and have lived the reverse path of you; meaning making and offerings with no emphasis on wealth, experiential boots on the ground embedded into the fibers of living like a dancer’s sweat spraying into the air a barely perceptible fanning flare to the extra-sensory perceptual-imaginative-expressive embodiment. No wonder shiva is portrayed as dancing life into death. And so do we, welcome to the eternal dance. My new era is about living into accumulating my wealth as I make my final offerings to prepare the earth and her living beings for embodiment to f light on earth. Per your delightful vision, I highly recommend watching a film, The Razor’s Edge with Bill Murray as the main character. One rich chapter in the adventure is in your birthday local of Paris. Existential. Yes, indeed, prepare to be opened and willing in the ways a tenacious surrender does call. James Hillman, the father of archetypal depth psychology published many books however one was a big best seller, accessible on purpose named The Soul’s Code. In this book, he speaks to the soul’s purpose of growing down like an inverted tree. Enjoy & keep loving tenderly with exquisite attentiveness. PS. If you are curious to speak on such matters further, come find me. Meeting in an exchange of perspectives would be welcome. Yes, moving to San Francisco in 2000 when the .com boom was imploding was indeed an interesting time. Though mine was spent attending SFAI. Hope you blow a kiss to the infamous Diego Rivera mural there for me if you find yourself visiting my old haunt. I believe Lady Gates has plans for the institution some it’s folding during the pandemic. Peace, Shanti, Pax
Hi Vishen, what a brilliant idea- you’ve inspired me to create my own ‘list of lives’ to try. I’ve often observed people and wondered what life would be like living in their shoes. Have you considered this one? Live one week on the streets as a homeless person- no money, no food, no shelter, no phone. You will have to figure out how you’re going to physically survive for the week and you’ll have to connect with and live amongst other homeless people, talk to them, listen to their stories, how they came to be where they are. I think the insights you’d gain would be life-changing, giving you a new perspective on the world.
So happy to hear you’ve made this decision. My wife and I have been MV members for years. And wondered if/when you would refocus from pursuing more millions as your top goal. I imagine it’s hard if you’re in the ultra performance industry. I had my shift (still in process) after moving to London, being hit hard by higher costs and family expectations, and most recently with the close of USAID. Still exploring what’s next with a deadline imposed by dwindling finances and appreciate you and your generosity in sharing content.
An idea: One week in a rural community in Japan. https://www.kirameki.earth/. I have no affiliation to them beyond curiosity and there may be other sources. I spent an amazing 5 years in Tokyo long ago; a fascinating culture. All the best, Jerome
Happy birthday Vishen 🙏❤🙏
You share your 50th birthday with my niece and nephew on 18 January.
Love that you are taking an adventure off the work track. Spending time with authentic artists and crafter’s will be soul inspiring.
I have done a few of your courses some years ago. Your hard work and commitment certainly paid off to allow these wonderful learning diversions.
May i add a few more places that you may consider including …block printing in Jaipur, African Pot- Making in KZN, South Africa and the Art of Bunny-chow making in Durban, South Africa.
Enjoy your adventures.
Take care.
Well, what a sharing you have given here. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I remember when I was 50. Ready for new experiences. My husband and I moved to Southern Spain soon after I turned 50. I am now 77 and recently widowed and still living in tiny beautiful white village 45 minutes from Malaga in Andalusia, called Alozaina. Your dynamism for living and experiences is wonder full. Bless you. I am now more inward at this stage of life, which is also wonder full. If you are in Malaga, get in touch if you want to. Blessings to you always.
http://www.alicefriend.com
Class yourself? Perfect.
I’m ready — first in line to write your biography.
Please keep this post for me!
I’ll take the rights now, we’ll write the story when the time comes. 😉
Wow Vishen are you reading my
Mind. Literally yesterday I was editing a video I made of a modern style Flamenco dance display in the Main Street of Pilar de la Horadada, Thinking this is what I would love to do. To find the dance school so I can learn a new style of dance. I wish I could upload it here so you can see it. It is inspirational like you.
love how you continue to push the status quo, and sharing that with us. Have you tried Vipassana? it’s 10 days of meditation – no phone, no entertainment, no eye contact, no dinner, no meat, no talking, it’s about 100 hours of meditation… it felt like hell for the first few days hahaha.. but it changed my life forever, enough that i went back a second time!