The grass is perfect. Glasses clinking. That sweet, smoky smell of barbecue hanging in the Redmond air.
Summer 1998. I’m 22. Standing on the lawn of Bill Gates’s home.
The most powerful man in tech is right there — three feet away, flipping burgers, chatting with the other interns like it’s just another Tuesday.
I had worked my entire life for this moment. University of Michigan. Computer engineering. One of the most coveted internships on the planet.
And I couldn’t bring myself to shake his hand.
Not nerves. Something deeper. A knowing I couldn’t yet name.
I had spent years walking toward a destination that was never mine. And standing on that perfect lawn — surrounded by every external signal of success — I felt like a fraud.
A few weeks later, I quit.
What followed was two, maybe three years of wandering.
New York. San Francisco. And eventually a deeply boring California town called Sunnyvale — which was, I can confirm, exactly as dull as it sounds.
I was broke. I was lost. And I had landed in what I can only describe as my personal nightmare: cold-calling attorneys from a phone book to sell them case-management software.
Let me paint you the full picture.
A Malaysian kid named Vishen Lakhiani. Interrupting stone-faced lawyers in the middle of their days. Phone-slamming. Yelling. Creative profanity — and I mean creative. Lawyers, it turns out, are powerfully poetic when they’re annoyed. Their descriptions of what I could do with myself involved medieval torture techniques and inanimate objects I will not name here.
I was failing. Every. Single. Day.
And then — almost by accident — I walked into a room.
One day. One workshop. A woman named Amanda, smartly dressed, designer glasses, who shattered every meditation stereotype I’d ever held. She taught me to access altered states of mind. And more importantly, to use intuition as an actual tool.
Something cracked open in me that day.
I went back to work the next morning. Same phone book. Same attorneys. But I was different. I started using what I’d learned — the intuition, the mental programming, the ability to quiet the noise and feel which calls to make. My results shifted. Then they transformed.
That one workshop didn’t just change my sales numbers. It changed my life.
I became a certified Silva instructor. Taught classes in London and New York for five years. And one question haunted me from that seminar room:
“Why did this transform me in a single day — when it was never taught in my $29,000-a-year degree?”
That question became the founding question of Mindvalley.
I’ve told that story thousands of times.
The phone book. The attorneys. The meditation class in Sunnyvale. It became the seed of one of the world’s foremost personal growth companies — 22 years in the making.
But here’s what I really want you to hear.
I didn’t build Mindvalley to $140 million on a great product alone.
One of the first things that helped scale this business was the passionate retelling of a true story. A story that was real. A story that had shifted my life. A story people could feel.
When I told the phone book story — the rejection, the desperation, the one workshop that changed everything — people leaned in. They shared it. They sent it to friends. They signed up for whatever I was offering, not because of the features.
Because they saw themselves in that story.
Your product pitch is forgotten by tomorrow. Your story is shared for years.
Here’s why this matters to you.
Storytelling is the key to business. It’s how founders get their products out to the world. How movements get built. How a kid from Malaysia with a phone book and a meditation certificate ends up building a company that reaches millions.
And the science backs this up.
Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker found that people remember stories 22 times better than facts alone. Twenty-two times. Your data impresses people for a moment. Your story moves them — and stays with them.
This is what I’ve spent years learning to do.
And it’s what I want to give you.
I want to share two lessons from teachers I’ve personally learned from — both speaking at the Mindvalley Speaking & Influence Summit happening this June 26-28.
Eric Edmeades is the finest speaking trainer I’ve ever encountered. I believe this so deeply that I flew my 18-year-old son to Florida for a week just to train under him. Eric once told me a story I’ve never forgotten. He was backstage at a conference, about to go on, when a stranger ran up to him. This man had seen Eric speak six years earlier. And he started reciting Eric’s own story back to him — word for word. Not a framework. Not a statistic. A story.
The lesson I learnt from him is: “If you want your message to outlive the moment, put it in a story.”
Lisa Nichols is one of the most electrifying communicators I’ve ever witnessed. As a child, a teacher told her she was a bad speaker and a bad writer. She believed it for years. She went on to move millions of people to tears, to breakthroughs, to complete transformation.
The lesson I learnt from her is: “Your voice was never the problem. The story you tell about your voice is. And that story can be rewritten.”
This June, Mindvalley is hosting the Speaking & Influence Summit — completely free.
Last year, 75,000 people attended. This year, we’re bringing together Eric Edmeades, Lisa Nichols, Paul McKenna, Linda Clemons, Shadeh Zarai, and me — to give you the exact tools to find your story, own your voice, and communicate in a way that actually moves people.
I think about that lawn sometimes.
I was 22 years old. Bill Gates three feet away. The smell of barbecue. A young man from Malaysia who couldn’t bring himself to say hello — because somewhere inside, he already knew his story was going somewhere else entirely.
He just didn’t know how to tell it.
The story you tell is the business you build.
Don’t wait to tell your story — this is the summit I wish existed when I was starting out. It’s completely free to attend.
Be Extraordinary,
P.S. Before you go — head to the blog version and tell me in the comments: what’s the one story you’ve never had the courage to tell? The one that could build your business if you knew how. I read every single one.
34 Responses
Hello Vishen, my name is Terri Day and I have been a Mindvalley member for many years.
I have just completed the Paul McKenna, Everyday Bliss course. I have just read about your story, it’s a good one but something about it felt very uncomfortable. In your story timeline you express something that, at the time felt right because it was how you felt about it. But, saying that you stayed in Sunnyvale, a deeply boring California town? As dull as it sounds? Vishen, you are supposed to be a good communicator, what are you doing. Your powerful story is going out to millions of people in this email.
I bet the residents dont think their town is dull and deeply boring, yet, you are telling the world that it is.
Please stop saying this and apologise to the lovely people of California. It’s okay to get it wrong, but you can also make it right. Take good care of yourself Vishen.
Bonjour,
Je m’appelle Sophie Heymans. Je suis femme, artisane et maman de deux garçons. Et j’ai appris qu’un bijou, comme une femme, devient plus fort là où il a été martelé.
Je viens de Molenbeek, de ce Bruxelles coloré, dur parfois, mais infiniment vivant. Et depuis ma naissance un 21 avril 1978, j’ai dû sans cesse me prouver. À l’école, je n’étais pas « faite pour le système ». Mais dans un atelier, face à la matière, je me sentais à ma place.
Alors j’ai choisi la voie artistique. L’orfèvrerie est devenue mon langage. J’ai étudié à Anvers, à Londres, j’ai frappé à des portes, souvent fermées, et parfois une seule s’ouvrait : celle du courage. Des maîtres m’ont tendu la main, et ils ont reconnu mon talent brut. J’ai été lauréate du Diamond Award au Hoge Raad voor Diamant à deux reprises.
Ensuite, le 21 avril 2005 j’ai ouvert ma galerie à Bruxelles, exposé des talents belges, donné cours à de jeunes orfèvres. J’étais entrepreneure, enseignante, maman, femme. Et puis, le 21 avril 2015, tout s’est fissuré : fatigue, burnout, divorce, psychiatrie. Je me suis retrouvée derrière des murs, pupille de l’État, forcée à l’arrêt total.
Mais cet arrêt est devenu ma renaissance. J’y ai rencontré des gens extraordinaires, des médecins, des patients, des âmes vraies. Là où tout semblait perdu, j’ai découvert une évidence : on peut tout reconstruire si on est bien entouré et reconnu pour son talent inné.
Le 21 avril 2016, j’ai rejoint MAD Brussels, cette maison de la mode et du design où j’ai accompagné de jeunes créateurs à révéler leur lumière. J’ai vu des humains oser, des artistes grandir. C’étaient les cinq plus belles années de ma vie. Puis le Covid est arrivé, et là encore, tout s’est arrêté. Le 21 avril 2020, épuisée par cette période intense de travail à domicile, je négocie ma démission pour pouvoir accompagner plus de personnes en entreprises et sortir de ma zone de confort.
Je suis à nouveau indépendante, plus alignée que jamais. Je veux mettre mon parcours au service des autres, et surtout des humains fragilisés par la société capitaliste, pour leur montrer qu’il n’y a pas de chute irréversible. Je forme, j’accompagne, je recrute, je prospecte, je transmets ma vision et mes valeurs en asbl, en entreprise privé, dans des cabinets politiques grace à des entreprises qui voient mon talent et me forment.
Une fois de plus j’observe et j’apprends. Mon constat: le monde de l’entreprise est à la dérive. L’ecologie, le déplacement des populations, l’intelligence artificielle, le management et le leadership sont complexe et chaque humain recherche simplement un peu de reconnaissance.
Une fois de plus je me suis réinventée et mes histoires deviennent des faits.
Puis je me dis que le changement vient de soi, j’observe et je me rends compte que je ne sais toujours pas qui je suis. Je cherche à nouveau et le 21 avril 2025 je respire à nouveau.
Je reviens à l’essentiel, je deviens bénévole au Fleurakker, un champ de fleurs à Jette ou je me reconnecte à ma féminité, à mon enfance par le biais des fleurs et le travail de la terre. J’y accompagne des personnes fragilisées par la société.
Cette fois-ci, je vais lancer mon entreprise, en grand cette fois-ci. Mes deux fils grandissent et dans mon adn coule le sang d’une grande lignée d’entrepreneurs, d’artistes et artisans, de notaires, de prix nobels, de noblesse ancienne belge dont j ́arbore aujourd’hui fièrement le blason.
Mon prénom Sophie est un prénom intemporel, souvent associé à l’intelligence, la réflexion et la profondeur. Le 21 avril 2026 je découvre enfin qui je suis par le biais de différentes femmes brillantes qui m’entourent. Je suis autiste asperger à haut potentiel émotionnel. Je comprends enfin mes forces et mes faiblesses, j’analyse mes ombres et ma lumière. Comme disait si bien Carl Gustave Jung :« Ce que tu refuses de confronter en toi-même, tu le rencontreras à l’extérieur comme destin. »
Aujourd’hui j’écris chaque matin un nouveau chapitre. Je les transformerai en fait en date du 21 avril 2027 en SARL. Avec toute mon équipe d’experts internationaux je proposerai, un accompagnement qui démarre par le besoin profond de retrouver sa lumière. Mon SARL et ma fondation seront un concept de maison d’accueil et de transmission, un lieu de repos du monde, un endroit où chaque humain pourra retrouver sa valeur et briller.
Tout mon parcours est un test permanent de mon concept global de services et de produits que j’ai développé en collaborant avec chaque personne rencontrée sur mon chemin.
Parce que la vraie richesse, c’est de créer ensemble, d’être vus, reconnus et soutenus.
Mesdames, Messieurs, aujourd’hui, je suis ici non pas comme une survivante, mais comme une transmetteuse.
Je veux porter ce message simple : on peut tout reconstruire quand on est bien entouré.
Et si je suis là devant vous, c’est parce que, quelque part, quelqu’un a cru en moi à un moment où moi, je n’y croyais plus. Alors à mon tour, je tends la main.
Merci,
Sophie Heymans Kesteloot
Hello,
I want to tell the story of my life as a caterpillar, travelling the world, consuming knowledge and tools wherever I went. 🐛 Trying to figure out the mysteries of life and the universe. ✨ Until one day, after spending nearly a year in the beautiful National Park of Mindvalley, I was finally full. 💜
I quietly wrapped myself up, got lost in a rabbit hole, broke the Matrix, left my body for a week, and found my way back from the void. All this with EVE as my travel companion. 🦄
Now I am totally transformed, my wings still drying. Standing between “what if?” and a leap of faith. 🦋
I am considering, with your permission, to share my experience at the upcoming MVU in Tallinn. 💫
Love & kindness, TJ
Thank you, Vishen, for asking. My story is about feeling so tortured and like I didn’t belong here on this planet as a young person, but being admonished by a thundering male voice one day, when I first thought of killing myself. It said, “Your life is a precious gift! Don’t do anything to harm it!” That message sent me on a lifetime of wondering and exploring to find out how my life could be a precious gift. Now that suicide wasn’t an option (you wouldn’t want to piss off that guy!), I had to satisfy that curiosity. At age 75, I’m still exploring and discovering, and feeling more alive than ever. Now I know that LIFE is joy beyond measure!
February 2026 I was told by the Superintendent of Schools to resign or have my employment terminated (was chief fiscal officer). When I went back to my office, security escorted me out of the building.
Now, I know deep with me I am here and exist to impact many, many lives through Selfing-Mastery AUMNOW framework. Thusly, Liberate Suffering-being to generative prosperity. Increasing awareness of what matters, perceiving reality more clearly, acting from values rather than reactivity, and building Health, Wealth, Love, and Peace through consistent behavioral alignment.
Given my own practical Selfing-Mastery AUMNOW reflection is to:
Sensibly Sensing Here-Now: What am I experiencing right now without adding a story?
Noticing Here-There: What are the long-term consequences of this event, both painful and beneficial?
Acting From FACTS: What evidence supports my legal claims? What evidence supports my mission? What is the next highest-value action?
For now: My attending Mindvalley University in July.🙏🏿
Back in the 1970s, I emigrated to the UK from the US due to my father’s job. I was considered slow and put in the “thickie” class. (That was the less kind name for it.) Every day, other kids would finish their work early and get to play, but not me. I was the only one still finishing his work right up to the final bell, alone. I managed to pass exams, but only just. The Eleven Plus – passed by 1 point. The Common Entrance exam – just scraped a pass. Took 10 O’levels and passed 5 first time – just enough to stay in the school. Resat English Language and Physics – because I was angry (with myself) and felt 7 was a respectable number. I was active in sports (athletics and rugby and founded a Ju-jitsu club) and the CCF (appointed a JUO – Platoon Commander in my final year). Took 3 A Levels. On the UCCA form, I put University of St. Andrews as my first choice. EVERYONE laughed at me and told me I stood no chance – including my parents. In fact, my parents were so worried they took me on a “family tour” of the US, with university interviews in each city: Marquette, in Wisconsin (where I was accepted), Gerogetown and George Washington University in DC, the Airforce Academy in Denver and University of St. Louis In Missouri. I went to St. Andrews to attend a “pre-university course” and requested an interview while I was there. An offer came from them: a B and two C’s. All I knew was, I didn’t want to go to Marquette – not that there was anything wrong with it. I just found the whole environment alien and uninspiring. So I worked my socks off and obtained two B’s and a D – the same number of points as the offer. I was accepted. EVERYONE was surprised. But I wasn’t – well, maybe I was, just a little.
This is my second comment. The first was my story about why and how I created a spiritual group and school for almost 30 years. This is about the two times I became the focal point between good and evil
One was when a practitioner lied and manipulated people to get them to believe he loved them and was like a savior. I was one of a group of local women who were hosting him in their homes so he could teach and do heaings and meditation. I sensed something wasn’t right and regularly fought him to get him to recognize what he was doing wasn’t right (including having affairs)
The other story is more recent. My new husband and I bought a beautiful house with a gorgeous yard and a wonderful room downstairs for my group. It became a nightmare as soon as we took possession . There were structural issues almost every other day but the worst were the many dark entities. I did a lot of research on the house and the area, called upon the practitioners I respected, and we did cleansings, etc. I was attacked physically and spiritually and was told it wanted to kill me because I was bringing pure G-d into the house. My pets were petrified and my relationship suffered. All that occurred should be a movie.
I have no story to tell. At 73 I’m fighting to keep my house. Covid broke my business. I’m building a business out of ashes. Might have to be living in my workshop if I don’t win my fight. Or on street. I’m eating every mind valley and mind control story, name them, Carl Jung, Neville Goddard, Silva, Gregg Braden, Bob Proctor, ag and about 10 other YouTube teachings that I could lay my hand on, to try and create the miracles of all miracles. But it seems like I’m getting no where fast. Money to pay for all of these I don’t have but what I could manage I bought. The rest is YouTube, thank you God for that. I’m against a solid wall. Once I get over this wall , I will have a story to tell.
Thank you for the stuff I managed to learn from you. You have saved my live a number of times. But i have a wife. Kids and grand kids. So, I have to keep fighting.
And then there is the the book on “the game of life, and how to play it”.
Thank YOU.
I have been told many times to tell my stories. All of them. By whom? The students who sit in my metaphysical classes and the weekly meditation groups I offer. Why? Because the stories show how much I struggled like they do and the huge challenges I’ve had to deal with; and, yet, I have helped hundreds maybe thousands to find themselves, Divinity and a better way.
One story is about becoming a student at a spiritual school while working in the hospitality industry. Not a 9-5 job, I worked 60-80 hours a week leaving very little time for anything much less studying and doing homework. The first year, I quit but felt driven to return because it was the only place where people thought and talked about the things deep inside me. When I started Year One over again, I decided it was too much. MY work had taken off and I was busier than ever, That’s when a chiropractor manipulated me, broke off a piece of my disc and pushed it through the base of my spine. A partially severed spinal cord affected many of my organs and I could no longer function the same or work. No more income. A house and pets needed food and care. According to doctors, my body was on the road to atrophying and me ending up in a wheelchair. I would not listen! The only thing I could do was continue my class at night, lieing on the couch instead of sitting at the table with the others. I created a spiritual group almost 30 years ago for two reasons: 1. Selfishly, I could attend workshops and spiritual events in my own home for free at my own pace and meet others of like-mind. 2. Altruistically, to help others discover for themselves that which I received from my training and from the myriad of people I met along the way. Determination, resilience, the belief that everything happens for a reason, there’s a Divine plan and miracles do happen. I became a Minister, a healer, and voluntarily founded and facilitate the group and teach the same classes as the school I attended and from which I have a charter. A lot more occurred over the years where I could have given in but didn’t. To see me, you’d never know my issues. I yearn to continue to help others be the best they can be.
Second story will follow.
Thank you for sharing your story. Being able to listen to the voice of your innate wisdom at only 22 changed the whole course of your life. Many of us can only do this when we’re much older.
I was ten sitting in my classroom with my hand raised. Our teacher had asked that all the girls who wished to have a role in the school production of ‘The Wishing Moon’ put up their hand. I was curious and excited to see what part I’d get to play and it seemed like a fun way to be with my classmates. The last to be addressed and still with my hand raised Sister Maria rolled her eyes and said ‘Put your hand down. You couldn’t be heard behind a newspaper!’ Not understanding what this meant but sensing it meant I was a profound failure, I asked my father over supper that evening what did my teacher mean. He explained that she suggested that my voice would not be loud enough to carry from the stage to the audience. I thought about this and still wanting to be involved with the show I applied to make myself useful back stage all the while learning every single role off by heart. During rehearsals I’d stand side stage and when one of the actors forgot their line, I whispered the prompt from my position out of sight and the show went on. The week before the show one of the main cast members ‘the sailor’ who had to eat an apple, perform a sailor dance and had numerous lines to deliver had a misfortune and would not be performing. Totally at sea without their sailor, one of the teachers on the production team had noticed I’d been on the sidelines whispering prompts and attending all the rehearsals and to Sister Maria’s serious objections asked me to step forward and assume the role. I’m delighted to say I seized the opportunity and had no problem being heard from that point on. Today on my own YouTube channel, it is my greatest pleasure to use my voice in conversation with guests – powerful internationally acclaimed women – whom that little ten year old girl in the classroom with a voice that couldn’t be heard never in her wildest dreams imagined meeting. A little girl who sensed that a voice doesn’t have to be loud to have the greatest impact.
Hi Vishen, I love Mindvalley and I had not even known your backstory, but now I admire what you created even more.
My own story is around the calling I found after I became a mother. I had longed for almost 20 years to create my own business, but I always thought I didn’t know enough or have the skill to coach others, so I went the safe route into a full-time job, where I learned all the ropes of accounting and corporate finance. But somewhere along the way of having my two kids and planning pregnancies / maternity leaves, I felt a tug in my heart telling me that I should use my numbers skills in helping other mothers do the same. There’s so many mothers who would prefer to be with their new babies for longer before going back to work but don’t have the financial means because they didn’t plan for it, and my mission is to help make their maternity leave vision a reality. It’s just hard for me to put into words exactly what this calling means to me, but it feels almost like a whisper from God or my higher self telling me this is how I should lead in my life because it connects my desire to help other mothers to a real need.
I signed up for your summit and hope that it can help me put better words to this story and connect with others!
Why I left a telecommunications company i worked for 3 years in 3 different roles that changed each year? The breaking point was having to clear 1500 invoices from 50 infrastructure companies in one week that made my feet right up to my thighs swollen because i was sitting for too long. That hurt me. That hurt burnt me, but deep down lit a fire in me to do something about my life. I was in a job because of my commitments – the bills and rent i had to pay every month to sustain.
By end July 2025, i tendered my resignation without any compensation but a Garden Leave that would pay me till October 2025. By end December, i created Daring Communications and Daring Arts and Daring Creations (a childhood dream to be a designer one day) in January 2026. I still cant find a client for Public Relations work, who aligns with my principles and values to get the business in. And thinking whether i should go back to employment. But the thought of the injustice i had to experience pulls me back. I am the creator my destiny and i am determined to make this work. Spiritual teachers say i can’t because am only meant to stick to a 9-5 job and paint. Is this the story i should tell to my clients?
Getting fired from my first job within 4 weeks ! What the hell do I tell my parents. The bosses called me in one Thursday afternoon into their office in Sunningdale Berkshire -‘James this isn’t working is it?’ What isn’t working, I wondered naively. And then it slowly dawned on me: it was me. I wasn’t ‘picking things up quickly enough’. I knew I wasn’t but 4 weeks ! On that sunny afternoon, I had to call my parents to tell them that I had screwed up my first proper job in record time, and as I did – the tears came. Then I had plenty of time to reflect, crisis meetings with my parents that really didn’t help, but I realised – I had never stopped to think about what I wanted. What my talents were and what was the difference I really wanted to make. And then came the realisation I was not alone. Around 80% of people are in jobs they hate – because of a conversation they never had – about what they really wanted to do with their life. Time to have that conversation.
Thank you Vishen, you’ve given me a clue, or an idea for ‘ my story’.
I totally believe that facts tell and stories sell – Loretta Hart reminds us of this regularly as part of our Business of Bowen advice. I’m a Bowen therapist and I’m using this technique with distant healing more and more these days, but I’ve been struggling to find my story in this modality for a book I’m trying to put together about distant healing. Your story and your honesty have shone a light on where I need to look in my library of memories on my long journey to this point! Many thanks.