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 commend you Vishen! Enhancing your life through these immersive weeks to nurture person growth and insights is inspiring. Can I suggest a second phase to your plan? To take all your learnings and experience and apply it to support key projects. Looking outwards and contributing to communities, environmental initiatives or animal welfare would be an incredibly rewarding opportunity to better 100 other lives.
I would go to Paris and write like Hemingway and other great writers such as Gertrude Stein. I would go to London and stay with our friends who have won 37 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show and learn about beautiful gardens that don’t die on you. I would go to Wales and live in the book village with the locals, working in the shops. I would go to Copenhagen and learn their priorities and attitude on how they have eradicated homelessness.
Love this idea. It gives me inspiration. Of course, first I need to make loads of cash to travel the world…ha ha….will continue manifesting or just say, “I’m already having all the money that I want and am living 50 lives.”
Happy Birthday Vishen! En Noviembre 2025 estuve en Granada y justo pude disfrutar de un tablao Flamenco. Como dices, me conecté, sentí la pasión en cada movimiento y lo viví a traves de ellos. Tambien me quedó la sensación de querer aprender a bailar Flamenco, así que te escribo en español para que lo vayas practicando el idioma 🙂 Mis 50 fueron el año pasado y creo que estamos en la mejor epoca, viviendo los nuevos 30. Me gustaría compartir en un monasterio Sufí en Turquía, no leer, no hablar, solo estar. Iría a Bahía en Brasil para aprender a bailar Samba…qué emoción! Me quedaría en un viñedo familiar en Francia y tener vivir la sensación de pisar las uvas con los pies y danzar en ese ritual. iria a una panadería artesanal en Italia para aprender a amasar, el proceso de fermentacion, de esperar y confiar. Visitaría Oaxaca y buscaría una curandera para aprender de los secretos de la tierra, a rezar, a caminar con conciencia. Formaría parte de una cooperativa de mujeres en un pueblo de Colombia, en las montañas, aprendiendo de las lideres comunitarias, maternando y compartiendo mi presencia y esencia. Compartiría con una sacerdotisa balinesa en un pequeño pueblo en Bali para aprender a hacer ceremonias en el agua. Gracias por inspirarme y hacerme viajar con el corazón. Te veo y te leo.
You could use techniques developed by Tim Ferriss, who is known for learning skills and languages very fast. He shares techniques in his “4 hour chef” book.
This message came at perfect time when I needed encouragement most
Cool idea!!! Hope you have a Great Bday!!!
Hi Vishen,
Happy Birthday, fellow Capricorn! I love this idea, as I strive for experiences that go far beyond traditional measures of success. I’ve been traveling the world by bicycle so I can experience places in a deep and immersive way. Staying long-term in small villages, living alongside locals, and learning their cultures and traditions. Along the way, I intentionally seek out organizations that support women, children, and the environment to offer support.
I look forward to following your journey.
Denise
I would love to spend a week with you, Vichen! Thst would be amazing.
Thank you Vishen! These messages deeply inspire and seem to be inline with how I am evolving. I will 60 soon. I will be a nomad, traversing the globe exploring what moves me (handcrafts, metal working, textile making, leather working – all of these interests will be done at source i.e. Mexico, Thailand, Eastern Europe, Africa, etc). Excitingly scary is the mood lol. It’s about damn time…
Hello Vishen, I hope you get to read this message. I live in Querétaro, México, just outside the city and about 40 minutes away from San Miguel de Allende. We live in contact with nature and have the space to grow some of our food, make our own tortillas, watch the sunrise and sunset and the change of the seasons. I work with biodecodification, biomagnetic therapy, family constellations and some other things. I invite you to stay one of your learning weeks with us and we can exchange knowledge and experiences. I also like cooking so you can learn about Mexican cuisine, which is very rich and varied. If interested my email is analegorreta@hotmail.com
I can send you pictures if you’d like.
You inspired me!!!! Thank you very much!!
I was working on my Big Dream and preparing my Perfect Plan to achieve it but with the same sensation of the last 3 years. That is not what i really want, besides be things and achievements that I want something was missing. This idea of live a 100 lives and learn on the right place with the right people really resonates with me.
Thank you for share and inpirations.
Elaine, brazilian, living in the USA
I love this idea Vishen! I turned 50 a few months ago myself and I made a list of things I want to learn as well but you Vishen have taken this idea to a whole new level and I’m here for it! I want to learn Tai Chi, go to a crystal cave and pick my own stones, take an improv class, learn a new language in a foreign country, learn about ancient Kemet and Nubia in Egypt. Spend more of my time living in a constant state of joy!
Hi Vishen, this is fantastic and exciting! As a transpersonal psychotherapist I worked with many people coming through the midlife transition (usually starting around 50). I studied it deeply (Jungians understand this resonant time best, but their writing is hard to decipher), and wrote a book called ‘Growing into Wisdom’. This is when we claim the unlived life and come into a wider, deeper sense of self; when the soul life grows larger and the egoic life takes a back seat.
Those who deny the call often begin to shrink and create dramas.
I learned this from my own journey: ‘Change your life before life changes you’ (usually in destructive ways). I have such deep respect for your willingness to grow in a proactive way, and am particularly interested in your words: ‘I’ve decided to stop chasing money’. Wow!
Amazing idea!! Enjoy!!
Happy 50th Vishen! 🎉
Living 100 lives is magnetic- and somehow I think a week on the East Coast of Canada could be its own kind of immersion. 😉 I’ll be following this chapter with interest…and maybe a little envy.
How will your children fit into this experiment? Possibly a great dad opportunity.
Totally inspiring! Thanks Vishen 🙂
Aleks, 46!…… 47, 48, 49… 50.
Gotta go, lots to plan.
I LOVE YOU VISHEN. I would go to India and study with a Guru and try to find out how they go out of their bodies and remain youthful and unaffected by life. HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!!!
I hope that your day is as Wonderful as you are. Jai Vishen
Thanks so much for your inspiration, Vishen!
This really hit differently. I love the idea of taking time off for new experiences. It opens up a whole new level of possibilities to experience life. I’m far from being able to take a week off every month, but it stirred something in me, and now the ideas are just flowing.
Deepening my Ashtanga Yoga and Kundalini Yoga practices. Being a temporary artist, painter, or writer in a creative hub of a country. Learning salsa in Cuba. Following the trail of Mary Magdalene in the south of France. Diving deeper into animal communication and practicing with wild animals in Australia or Africa. Looking after children at a children’s center in Zanzibar. Earning an international boat license and chartering a boat in the Mediterranean. Learning the tea ceremony in Japan. Checking out the World Happiness Report and moving temporarily to one of the top countries to explore what makes them special and happy. Another one-week retreat with Dr. Joe Dispenza to connect with my soul on a deeper level. 10-day Vipassana course… It’s less about the experience itself and more about the feeling and the being behind it. Being healthy and in the best shape of my life will be a by-product.
I am currently designing my lifebook and will definitely try to integrate some of the experiences into it. To live life fully. Such a great idea – thank you!
PS: Happy birthday! The adventure is just beginning!