Vishen Lakhiani calls the fear of being seen the "visibility wound" and traces how he overcame it. His video exposing Nestlé's Milo product reached 50 million views and forced the company to lose health ratings, showing what happens when you push past the fear of visibility.
Chapters
Do you have something that you've always wanted to share? A political opinion, an activism, an idea about your product or service, a message you really want to get across, but something says pause, something says I'm not ready to be seen. Look, I used to be so afraid to be seen on social media. If you follow me, you know I have millions of fans and followers right now. Last year, I was even asked by CNN to host the 2025 New Year countdown globally. In front of 100 million households. But 10 years before that, I was so afraid of social media, so afraid of being seen, that I would actually speak to just one person in my video, my son Hayden, who was 4 years old and didn't give a damn. I remember being in front of Steve Jobs' house once during a business trip to Silicon Valley, and I thought it was really cool. I wanted to create a video about it, but I thought nobody would care to see me this nerdy dude talking about Steve Jobs' house. So I started the video with, "Hey Hayden, look where I am." And I'm this nerdy dad just kind of showing him around. 6 people commented on those videos, maybe about 20 people liked it. I started the video with, "Hey Hayden," because I was so afraid of criticism. I thought, well, if anybody comments, Vishen, you suck, I could just say, well, I wasn't creating the video for you, I was creating it for my son. My son was my crutch. He was 3 years old and he frankly didn't give a damn about Steve Jobs' house. Then one day something happened. I read an article about an injustice in my country, Malaysia, about how the company Nestlé was controlling what the government was declaring as healthy because it funded the government nutrition society. And that Nestlé was pushing a product called Milo as a health drink for kids, but it was 40% sugar. This injustice made me really want to speak out. And that video ended up getting 50 million views. It caused Nestlé to lose its health ratings in Australia and New Zealand. I got barred from the press, barred from radio interviews, even though I was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in my country. But at that point, my visibility wound had completely been smashed. I was doing it for something beyond myself. And here's the great secret. You might have a visibility wound too. And that visibility wound could be preventing you from getting to millions of followers, from being on news channels, from solving some great injustice, because somewhere along the line, somebody told you you weren't enough, or bullies picked on you, and your response was to hide and say, I don't wanna be seen. But that visibility wound isn't just holding you back from making a dent in the world. It's holding you back from showing up at work. It's holding you back from pitching your ideas. It's holding you back from asking that guy or girl out. That visibility wound is a real thing, and a large number of people have it. What I wanna invite you to do is if this video resonates with you, if you feel that the only people who actually need to see you on video are your family and that the rest of the world doesn't care, I need you to rethink that. And to help you rethink that, if you're ready to step up, this June 26th, 27th, and 28th, my company Mindvalley is hosting our annual speaking summit. It's a free 3-day event. We bring in world-class people who train you on how to communicate, and every year 75,000 people attend for free. And this is training that you would otherwise pay for. We keep it free because it brings tons of exposure to our company. And I'd like to invite you to join. If there's something in your heart, in your mind that you really need to get out, that some inner voice that needs to be pouted is saying, "Not yet, not now, I'm too small," I need you to show up so that we can toss away that inner voice. And have you use your real voice to make the impact you were meant to make in the world. Claim your free pass to this summit, June 26th, 27th, and 28th, live and free.
