Episode #808 - How A One-Hour Meeting With the Dalai Lama Changed This Entrepreneur's Life

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell. I'm talking with Ranjeet Moon Holker. Hello, Ranjeet.

Hi. Wonderful. Nice to see you.

Where are you today?

I'm Phoenix, Arizona.

Phoenix, Arizona. Okay. And what's the weather over there?

Oh, it's pretty warm out there actually and it was raining yesterday so it's cool as well. So warm and cool. But put together we just had a.

Big storm blow in from over that way. I'm over in Colorado now. So what I'd like to congratulate you on your incredible success in business in the professional area and your own personal achievements, but also how you've been able to make an impact with other people. And so how did you get like for example, you were chairman of the American association of Information Technology professionals, spearheaded over 100 events just in the last year with over 25,000 participants. And so you do 14 different things but you're making an impact, you're hitting a lot of people. And so you've been in the area of financial planning, coaching, advising people. And to do that you have to have achievements yourself. And so when you got started, I'm going to back up when you got started, where did you come from and what was your intent as you got into the business market? What got you excited about a career and what you saw maybe other people doing that you'd like to be doing?

Okay, in fact, I would like to put it exactly the other way. I wanted to do things what other people are not doing. That's the first and foremost thing actually. So at 24, I was director general and dean of one of the leading universities in India called Symbiosis. It is one of the top 10 business schools. Then I became a CEO for Financial Planning Standards Board. Then I moved to USA. I was, you know, started on this next league program helping people become the best version of themselves. One thing laddie, that I have seen is if you see other people's successes in as your success and try to help others to become the best version, I think the success follows naturally to you actually. So you don't really have to make any effort. And that has been my kind of, if I may use the word, core mantra for success actually that's what I have seen myself doing over the last two decades.

What caused you to get that idea in your mind at a young Age I want to be doing something different than what most people are doing.

Well, I think I must confess to you that behind me you see a photograph. I was, I think 23 or 24. I got to meet Dalai Lama at that particular moment of time, actually at a very young age of my career. And I got a one on one. It was not just a kind of, if I may use the word, just kind of interacting with him very few moments. It was a very intense discussion for roughly around one hour. I met him and I personally feel that changed my outlook towards life. And one of the things, I just asked him a question that what is your guidance to me that if I want to make impact on the world, he said, don't try to change the world first, change yourself and try to do something for others. If you can see other people's success as your success, I think you will be more connecting with people. And this is, I think this whole perception has lived with me till date and I'm very happy about it, let me put it that way. So that was that. I think I was 23 or something at that time. And I have lived with that philosophy.

Dalai Lama, is that absolutely. How did you come across getting time one on one with the darling Lama?

Oh, I think it's not about me getting time. I think I'm able to time he got to, I mean, there was a common function in our institute when I was a student and I met him at that particular moment of time. And incidentally I was kind of escorting him from one place to another place where I got a very one hour time, a private audience with him. I would, let's put it that way, I took a chance to meet him again. He was kind enough to kind of give me an audience. And that changed my entire perception about life, about how do we view success, how do you view business? And nothing has been stopping me after that.

Now what were you studying at that time and then what position and what direction did you move in.

After that? I was actually doing my marriage MBA actually at that particular moment of time. After that I joined a capital group which was in India. They had an operations in India. I was in financial planning. After that I became a director of the same institute, my alma mater of symbiosis at 24. So I was there for over five years and then I became chief executive officer at 28 of financial planning standards Board.

Yeah. Now talk about, explain to us what it's like growing up in India. The competition and the odds. You know, it's like, you know I was talking with some friends, Ranjit, over the weekend. And it seems like anything great you want to do in your life in the beginning, it seems impossible. Like if you hear one reason people get discouragement from their friends when they tell their friends they want to do something great and they've got this great idea. One reason people are so negative is because most people don't succeed. They're not really driven. The odds are phenomenally against you doing anything great. But in spite of that, we see people do great things all the time. And now what was in your mind? How hard big of a challenge was it? You know, how, how did you see your opportunity growing up in India? What, what was that mindset?

Okay, I think, let me simplify the question here. What you are saying is that, you know, what you are talking essentially about is something what in today's terms, what people call as imposter syndrome, you know, that people believe that. Oh, you know, it's, I'm not cut out for that. Or, you know, something like this. I think it primarily seeks. Emerges from a purpose that. Okay, you are trying to seek other people's validation before you even start it. If I have to achieve something, first thing is that don't try to seek validation from other people. I never seek validation from other people about something which I intend to do. Your intention has to be very sacred and for yourself only. That's the first and foremost thing which I have seen. Second thing, don't try to do something for only for yourself for the sake of doing it. Do it for the betterment of people around you. If you, I mean, I think these. I like to keep things very simple, Larry. I don't like to over complicate things. I don't like to kind of talk to philosophical things also. I may not be kind of cut out for that, but only these two things. What I have been, first, as I said, no imposter syndrome. So I don't let that imposter syndrome come near me at any point of time. And second thing is always try to do things for the betterment of others.

Now, when you, you've published over a thousand articles around the world, what do you like to write about and what do you find yourself themes do you see yourself going back to and what's behind all of these articles?

Okay, initially my articles, when I started writing, they were all about how to manage and plan your finances. And currently I have been writing last two years, I've been writing about how to become a best version of yourself and achieve your American dream. For you know, applying for something called as EB1 a green card. Now many people want to come to USA. They dream they come. There are approximately at any point of time there were 1.5 million people waiting to get their green cards. Now for getting a green card you need a job lottery or a sponsorship or a million dollar investments. Ah now what happens is there is a particular type of green card which is called as Einstein Visa. Now the law says that you need to be a Nobel laureate, you need to be an Oscar awardee or you need to be an Olympian medalist for that. Ah now everybody in every field. Now for example if Larry wants e green card there is no Olympic for that in your as a podcaster, right? So would help people to become the best podcaster or the best software engineer, bad entrepreneur. So if you even consider that create success metrics around that and tell the US government that you are best, you can get green card in approval in as fast as 15 days rather than waiting decades for yourself.

For those of you who are sick and tired of fooling around and they're dead serious about wanting to move up fast, I've got something especially for you. I've combined the best insights from over 40 years in business and making $70 million in income and compressed them into a free webinar. That's right, it's a free resource. If you want to find out exactly what the concepts are that I use in coaching million dollar earners, Register now@widelonwinning.com you'll discover the five part framework used by so many to reach their financial, personal and professional goals. You can find that link in this episode's show notes. So you got your EB1A green card in seven days without an Olympic medal, without a Nobel prize. And that puts you in a position to teach other people how to do it. And you got a six month intensive training program to do it. When was that?

Oh, I got it around five years back and I started the program one one and a half year back and so far I have helped over 15, 14 to 15 people become EB1A green card achievers like me. Yeah.

Now what was behind the talk about financial planning in I guess when you were 20 years of running the Financial Planning Standards Board in India. What's that like? What's financial planning like in India? It's a big country. Do they have a big middle class? What do the financial planners? I know in England there's basically nobody talking to middle income people. We tried in 2003 to go over and start A sales force to do that. But the regulations are just too stifling because unfortunately Enron happened at the same time and they put a stranglehold on regulation. So we just had to back out and say we'll do that for another day. But all the people over there financial planning deal with institutions and high wealth individuals. What's it like in India?

Oh, it's a very. I mean I was the first one, way back in 2002 who started the concept of financial planning in India and amalgamated lot of corporations together. So when I was CEO of Financial Planning Standards Board the promoter of the organizations were over 50 corporations. Right. From Fidelity or Financial Group or there is a organization called state owned Enterprises. The government agencies, they all came together. You see there are. India has a population of over 1.5 billion people. Out of them at least, if I may say so, 40% would be what we constitute something as a middle class. So there is a huge amount of influx. It's, it's not about, you know, India is one of the largest, as you call it, nation of savers and we want to convert that nation of savers into nation of investors. So basically just putting your money and you know, buying it into some assets like gold or putting money into, you know, fixed deposits is not really financial planning. So what financial planning is that you have to make money run for you, make money work for you actually. And that's how to pull the concept of financial planning. So I was doing that over a period of roughly two decades out there.

Now when you get like entrepreneurs in the United States, should they consider expand? You know, you have a lot of people that are expanding into opening up offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and actually making their headquarters. There is, we know there's a lot of people in India and seems like there's, you know, seems like there'd be a lot of opportunity. Would you encourage entrepreneurs to think about making a trip to India and doing a scouting trip and seeing about whether or not that's. That's would be a fit for them to expand their business.

You see, India is one of the world's most largest market for every product actually right now it's ripe. Let's say for example, whether you talk from an airline industry perspective next to China, China would be. And even from a manufacturing perspective, India is opening up a huge market. So being a lot of middle class people love to spend money. So whether it is education, whether it is consumer product, no consumer company in the world can ignore India as a market.

Yeah.

So I think there is no product in the world, that is that one would be foolish to ignore Indian market actually.

And so how would people start to find out about that? Because I'm sure most people are completely and totally ignorant about India. Should they, you know, start reading books? Should they start some trips over there and just say, you know, get their feet on the ground to start exploring on their own and start thinking about it. How would people go about evaluating that opportunity?

You see, opportunity exists. I think it's a very diverse market and it's a very clustered market also. At the same time, it's not a consistent market. So for example, if you go in north part of the country versus the south part of the country, it will be totally different. Now for example, for a cosmetic products, there is a particular region that would be very favorable to begin with. Now one needs to have a deep market survey or what we call as a market research done depending on the quality of the products that you are kind of trying to implement out there or try to launch out there, whether it is a cold wing market or whether. So one can easily kind of do that. There are certain tools available, there are agencies available who can help you for that. And one can easily navigate through this entire process. I don't see that as a major complexity.

Are people entrepreneurial in India?

Absolutely, I would say that. And not only they are entrepreneurial, also the environment right now, the political environment, sociopolitical environment is becoming very conducive for that particular purpose also.

Yeah. And so when you move to the United States, was that five years ago or have you been here longer than that?

Well, I got my green card five years, five to six ago. But I totally lock, stock and barrel. I moved in the US in 2020, roughly around 2020. So initially I was shuttling between the two countries.

And why did you do that?

Oh, I loved the spirit of American Dream. I loved. I wanted to study something more at this particular age also. So I joined during COVID My family was already had moved here, my daughters were studying in the United States. So that gave me an opportunity to move back here. And there was a lot of. I felt there was a lot of learning scope available here for myself actually.

And so you have gotten into what have you done since you got here? What did you start? I mean, what's your entrepreneurial.

At the moment? I kind of landed here. I think suddenly there was Covid actually here.

Yeah.

So everything was locked up. So I had kind of. I couldn't move back at that particular moment of time. So I was managing my operations for Indian operations. Sitting here in the US since everything got knocked out. I did my. It was my second masters at Thunderbird School in Arizona University, you know, so I did that asu. That was my first thing, what I did. And after that, as lot of people started approaching me saying that, well, they are trying for EB1 a green card and can you help people? So I started a coaching program which is called Next week program. And since then, since then there has been no looking back actually.

Yeah, when you came up, you know, there's always struggles. You always have to overcome challenges. And coming from another country and spending years over there, I think it'd be fascinating to hear what kind of challenges you ran into as you started to try and make a name for yourself and what kind of, you know, when. When you came up in your 20s, were you working inside financial institutions?

Absolutely. But I think I was pretty fortunate to large extent that I have widely traveled to several parts in the world. I would have traveled to almost, if I may just. I don't have a head count of that, but roughly around 35 to 40 countries in the last 20 years. And when I say just travel, it is not just as a tourist. So there would be a difference between being a tourist and a traveler. So I have been more like a traveler, adapting myself to local culture, local cuisines, and trying to kind of get the best for work. It has been mostly for work, actually. I would say that meeting the government officials out there, even though it was for a short duration, that gave me an opportunity to be more mobile and to be more accommodative for myself. It is not that I was in India and just sitting out there in India at one place and going for 20 years from my home to office. It was pretty cosmopolitan way of living I did have there. But yes, when I moved here, the culture is different. When I say culture, I am not talking from a social culture. It is also a work culture. How do you manage things here? You have to do a lot of things yourself, you have to drive, you have to learn a lot of things. So there's a lot of support system that follows. But I think I got myself accustomed very fast for that particular purpose. There was a challenge, if you ask me. But I always look at challenge as an opportunity to learn new things. So that helped me a lot.

But now everybody is not getting as you're coming up the ladder, you at your stage, you've got all the credentials, you've written articles, books, you put on major events and you've run financial institutions for 20 years. So you have people who know you, who got into the industry through your supervision. And so you've got contacts everywhere. But in the beginning you don't have that credibility and you're trying to establish your credibility. What did you do? What did you find out gave you the biggest clout in that industry where people would take you seriously? Because the tendency is people don't take you seriously and dismiss you.

It's a very valid question and let me try to respond to this more on a very granular level. I think to begin with, if you are getting into a new field because from moving from a financial planning to a coaching business, I think that was a major shift. If you are asking me that question, that okay fine, how would I make myself as a mark to let people know about my particular expertise is about simply starting off, making yourself available in the world, to the world. And for this you don't really need to kind of reach out to people. You know, in today's online world, if you have Internet, if you have a computer, you have a LinkedIn account, you can create a website. You just start doing things every day better and more so I would have started if I. If I look back just one, one and a half year back when I started the mixed league program and today we have over 15 achievers from the program who have become EB1A green card holders. I would just say that I started off with a website putting myself a blogs post. Today my articles are featuring in Forbes, you know, and lot other New York Times and lot of the things which are out there, it is just. I'm talking to you, I'm getting an opportunity to meet you. You have reached out to me. It is just that doing certain things to create more outreach, whatever is possible, in whatever way it is possible. If somebody wants to become a businessman, wants to sell his products, wants to be an entrepreneur, wants to become an IT expert, software expert, I think it's just that you have to start somewhere rather than analyzing or over analyzing something and trying to make a plan out of it. Plans never work. Actions work.

Thanks for listening to the Million Dollar Mastermind. If you felt there were any valuable takeaways from this episode, please take a minute and leave us a five star review. Your feedback is important and really helps us get the word out to a wider audience. Remember, we have a valuable webinar that is absolutely free. Register for it right now@whiteallowinning.com thanks for listening.