How To Reach The Highest Level of Transformation | Vishen Lakhiani

So if you are trying to explain what mindvalley does, we're beyond learning. We're getting to transformation. And the highest level of transformation is where it is not about that higher salary or the great body or looking good or someone else's validation. It's about just like people on the spiritual part, your growth is what is important to you. And you're using that growth to fuel your desire to fix the world. So let's go deeper into two of these, right? And I want to bring some ideas from some previous speakers who were here last year at reunion. Self actualization, achieving your full potential. Sri Kumar Rao took the stage at Reunion last year. How many of you here remember Rao and his speech? So after that speech, Rao got off the stage, he went back there where I was sitting, and he said, vishen, so love this community. And I'm so glad at what you guys are doing, because MBA programs suck. And I'm like, what do you mean? Because Rao is one of the top MBA teachers in America. He says, they don't teach us what matters. And I said, what matters? And he says, what we gotta learn in our schools is we gotta learn that your business is not about your business. If your business hits a billion dollars, who cares? The question is, did you grow? If your business fails, who cares? The question is, did you grow? And then I quote him, he said, your business is nothing more than a vehicle for your personal growth. So that gives us Rule 1. Your thing is not about your thing. Rather, your thing is nothing more than a vehicle for your personal growth. Rao extends that your children are not about your children. Your children are a vehicle for your personal growth. Your relationship and your marriage is not about your relationship and your marriage. It's about your personal growth. And your business and your career is about your personal growth. Rule 1 liberates you. Rule 1 makes you realize that failure is fine. Because what is failure? Suffering. And what does suffering do? It makes you freaking awesome. So when you embrace rule one, when you embrace rule one, you never forget who you truly are. A soul here on a learning opportunity. And we learn through success, and we learn through failure. Rule one is the essence of self actualization. So I want to teach you a word, Rose, your rate of self evolution. I love that word, Rose, because I just finished watching the Little Prince on Netflix. Anyone seen that or read the book? So anyway, Rose is a character in that book. Rose stands for rate of self evolution. This is one of the biggest markers of how good you're going to do at life. If you want to get into a relationship with someone, make sure you find someone who is growing their rows. If you want to raise great kids, make sure you raise kids who are growing their rows. If you want to succeed at life, make sure you're growing your rows. You're growing your rate of self evolution, which means you are spending that time every day to nurture yourself, to heal your body, to meditate, to go to the gym, to learn how to learn to get better at life, to engage in personal growth and not just do the nine to five like everyone else. So write that down, Rose, and ask yourself this question every morning. How am I going to grow my rose today? Now, the second rule comes from this idea, self transcendence. And the second rule also stemmed from a mindvalley teacher whom you saw on stage last year. His name was Neil Donald Walsh. Any of you guys remember Neil reunion last year? I know you guys loved his speech. You gave him incredible ratings. So that picture was taken at Mindvalley University in Barcelona. Back then it was 300 people, not like 1,100. Neil gave a two day workshop. And somewhere in that workshop, one of you and that person may even be in the room, I don't know, raised her hand and said, neil, what do I do if I wake up every day and I just feel sad and I feel depressed and I feel worried? And Neil said, I'm going to give you one word of advice. And what he said then sounded a little bit, it sounded a little bit too in your face or too like unsympathetic. He said this. He said, I want you to remember that your life is not about you. Rather, your life is about the lives of everyone you touch. When you walk into a room, you don't walk into that room, you walk into that room to heal the room. And when you make your life beyond you, you will stop waking up sad and depressed. That leads us to Rule 2. Your life is not about you. Rather, your life is about the lives of everyone you touch. So I want to teach you a little trick that we do in our mindvalley office. It's called the snapping finger trick. If you agree with any of these philosophies that I'm going to share and integrate, just snap your finger. Okay? Okay. So this gives me like an auditory clue that I'm on the right track. If you disagree with me, just stay silent about it. Just critique me in your head. Okay? So rule two, Your life is not about you. Rather, your life is about the lives of everyone you touch. I share these two rules with you because I want everyone in our community to get to self transcendence. Only when we see ourselves in unity can we truly go forth and create a better world. And you're going to find that self transcendence is an underlying theme at everything about mindvalley and everything about what we do at this conference. This is why you will see that we are bringing Marianne Williamson. I mean, she's all about that. She's kicking people's ass to be activists. And one of the new rules that we've established in mindvalley is that the authors that we bring on must stand for something. They must stand for something greater than just their learning. If you are teaching health, don't just teach health. Take on the food companies that lie to people about sugar. What do you stand for? What is it that you can turn as your so that you can go forward and fix the world? This is the question that puzzles so many people. And it puzzled me for a while as well. And I understood the answer when over the years talking to many people, I realized that the answer actually comes from our wounding. The clue for your mission, for how you're about to go forth and fix the world, comes from your wounding. Let's go back to what Rumi said. The wound is the place where light enters. Think back to a time that you were deeply hurt. Maybe you were arrested for something you didn't do. Maybe you had an abusive partner. Maybe you had an abusive school teacher. Maybe you were treated unkindly. That wounding is often our soul's way of giving us a marker for what we are meant to do in the world. You can take that wounding it and turn it into your mission. You can take what is it that hurt you and use that to fix the world. So let me give you an idea of how you would do this process, and I want to share the story with you guys. Some of you guys know this story, but for those of you who don't, it's the story of why mindvalley is mindvalley. So when I first started mindvalley, I started it in New York and. And everything was going good. I'd been living in the US I was born in Malaysia. I had been living in the US for nine years. And I loved America. And I really, really, really was excited about settling here and creating a life here. And then September 11th happened. And all of us remember September 11th. I was in Berkeley at that time. We never forget the images on TV. But it was what happened after September 11 that really rocked my life. Around 18 months after September 11, I was living in New York and I was running a beautiful office space over there. And I was the director of sales for a.com and my.com, the guys who ran it, they were superbly incredible, patriotic Americans. They wanted to open a beautiful office in New York. They were based in San Fran and help boost the New York economy, help create jobs. So I was there hiring people and creating this incredible company. And then one day I show up at JFK airport and I get called aside and I'm told that I can no longer just enter the country I've been added to, what back then was called the special registration watch list. Around 72,000 men who were born in Muslim countries were added to that watch list. It didn't matter if you were Muslim or not. Not that that matters. I'm brown and I don't shave sometimes, so I could look Arab or Afghani or whatever. But what this meant is, is that I could no longer use certain airports. And before getting on a plane, I had to go for a two hour interrogation. Getting off a plane, I had to go through a two hour interrogation. But the worst was this. Even if I chose not to travel anywhere, every 28 days I had to line up for four hours on this massive line, massive line outside the government office in New York. I remember it was January or February, it was fricking cold, the line was four blocks long. And I had to report to the government to be fingerprinted, to have my photograph taken and to give them my credit card so that my purchases could be tracked, you know, in case I bought fertilizer or something. So I don't blame anyone. And the immigration agents who processed me, there were such wonderful men and women, but, you know, they felt helpless too. They felt it was wrong because I was as American as they were. We would talk about Michigan football, we would, you know, talk about things. And they enjoyed speaking to someone who was so familiar to them. But it was painful for me. And three months after that, I decided I couldn't live in America anymore. I still loved America, but I couldn't live in the country if I was being forced to live like I was on parole. And that's when I moved to Malaysia. And that's when my suffering gave me my mission. And that mission is not just education. That mission is to unify the world. Which is why Mindvalley in Kuala Lumpur now has people from 54 different countries working there. Because I want to create a world where we don't have to put people in boxes based on how they look or their skin color, Sam.