This YouTube interview (published Jan 25, 2023) features Vishen Lakhiani and another speaker describing how meditation transformed their careers. They recount hardship during the 2001 dot-com crash and after September 11 (job loss, sleeping on a friend’s couch, car trouble), discovery of meditation, rapid career improvement (promotion within months), a period training as a meditation instructor (about five years), and founding/growing Mindvalley into a large company (~$100 million revenue) without outside VC or bank funding. Throughout they attribute resilience and business success to meditation practices (equanimity, creativity, visualization).
Questions this video answers
January 25, 2023
2001
About $100 million in revenue
No — it states Mindvalley grew with no VC, no investors, no bank loans.
University of Michigan, electrical engineering and computer science degree
Chapters
Being able to go within, being able.
To train your brain to even go through that level of chaos helped me as an entrepreneur. It started out this way.
I was a former Silicon Valley exec.
I discovered meditation and it completely changed the course of my career.
I was in Silicon Valley during a really horrible time. 2001, the dot com bubble burst.
And then September 11th hit.
I lost my job. I lost all my money. I lost the money I'd borrowed from.
My father to start my company.
I was sleeping on a friend's couch. And I remember I was so broke, I couldn't even fix the brakes on my car.
And I crashed into a minivan carrying two kids.
Right?
Unfortunately, nothing happened that I was.
It was a horrible time.
I had to pay for all of that.
And as a result, I couldn't even afford rent.
So it was during this time that.
I stumbled upon meditation. I was googling online for answers. I was trying to figure out why.
My life sucks so bad.
And that practice of meditation that I.
Learned completely shifted me.
I had a job at that point, really low level.
In four months, I went from low level entry level to vice president of sales because I was just so good at my job. As I started bringing in these protocols.
That I was learning from meditation protocols.
Such as being able to be really peaceful. In Zen, it's called equanimity during stress. So you can focus better, being able to increase your levels of creativity so you have better ideation, being able to visualize your goals and then move towards them.
And so I stayed with the company for 18 more months. And then I was thinking, man, this stuff, all the stuff I learned at.
My electrical engineering and computer science degree from the University of Michigan, which I paid maybe a quarter million dollars for in that time's money, was nowhere as useful as this weekend meditation class. So I decided to quit and become a meditation instructor. So I did that for five years.
During that time, I built Mindvalley. Mindvalley became a massive company with about 100 million in revenue, with no VC.
Funding, no investors, no bank loans. And I attribute it to this practice of meditation, being able to go within, building up mindvalley. There were at least three times I.
Almost lost it all. But being able to go within, being.
Able to train your brain to even go through that level of chaos, help me as an entrepreneur.
