Vishen Lakhiani recounts a personal story about teaching small meditation classes for five years, growing modestly from ~20 to ~40 students per class, and feeling satisfied yet limited. A pivotal lunch with Bob Proctor challenged his small vision, prompting him to quit his job and pursue a larger purpose—eventually growing his work from small seminars to a fest and then Mindvalley University. The core lesson: rather than asking if you are worthy to reach your goals, ask whether your goals are worthy of your potential.
Chapters
When I first started out, I was so embarrassed at like what I was going through that I didn't tell my friends that I was teaching meditation. The funny thing is I was pleased with what was going on. I liked my job. I continued doing this for five years. Five years. And from year one to year two, I'd grown the business by maybe 50%. I'd gone from maybe 20 students to an average of 40 students per class once a month. I was making very meager income, but I was satisfied. See, what was going on is I didn't have the vision in my head. I didn't have the vision for this. I didn't know how small I was playing. I was deluding myself. Now one day I was flying to London to do my tiny little meditation seminar. There were like maybe 30 people in that room. And Bob Proctor at the same time was in London speaking to thousands of people at a nearby hotel. So he said, hey, Vishnu, I have a break for lunch. Come, come hang out, join me for lunch. So I show up for lunch with Bob Proctor and he's like, so what brings you to London? Bob's got this really, really, really deep voice, right? And I'm like, bob, you're going to be so proud of me. I'm teaching meditation now. I don't just build websites. I have 30 people in this room attending the seminar. And Bob goes, wait, wait, wait, 30 people? And I go, yes, 30 people. I'm so excited. And he goes, how much are they paying? And I go, it's like 200 bucks. That's it. And Bob goes, hang on, you flew from Malaysia to London? What's that, like 22 hours? I go, yeah. He goes, you left your wife behind, you left your son behind to come to London to teach 30 people meditation. And he goes, vision, vision, vision. And he closes his eyes so I know something deep is coming, right? I would not be doing what you're doing. You're wasting your time. And I go, no, but Bob, this doesn't work for me. I really enjoy this. I love teaching. Like I'm adding value to these students lives. I'm trying to justify and justify. And then Bob touches his face and he takes this deep breath and he makes like this sniffling sound. And I know again, something deep is coming. And he goes, vishen, you're so much bigger than this. You're playing way too small. And so that lunch ended very abruptly and I went and I taught the seminar. And on Monday I woke up and I decided, fuck it, he's right. And I quit my job, which I was doing for five years, because I realized as painful as it was to hear, I was lying to myself and I was lying to my students. I was telling them to write down their goals. I was telling them to meditate, to dream big. I wasn't playing big. I was fucking teaching 30 people, flying 22 hours coach because I couldn't afford business class, leaving my wife and kid for, like, five days at a time to influence 30 lives. And so I quit. The question is not are you worthy to reach your goals? The question is, are your goals worthy enough of you? And so I went from this. This room, and two years later, the vision of a fest emerged. For two years, I was in a space where I was trying to figure out the next big thing, but I went from that room to a fest. And then seven years after a fest, after that, first a fest, we evolved to the next level, where it went from that room to mindvalley University. Transformation comes from a distressing dilemma. It comes when our worldview is shaken up. And part of that shakeup has to be to help you see that. Could it be that you are living a tiny slice of your potential?
