Kind: captions
Language: en
hey everybody welcome to another episode
of impact Theory you are here my friends
because you believe like I do that human
potential is nearly Limitless but you
know that having potential is not the
same as actually doing something with it
so our goal with this show and Company
is to introduce you to the people and
ideas that are going to help you
actually execute on your dreams all
right today's guest is one of the most
successful and unconventional
entrepreneurs I have ever met with 700
bucks and a beat up laptop he launched
what has become arguably the largest and
most successful meditation and wellness
media companies on the planet born and
raised in Koala Lumpur he's lived in
Malaysia Michigan New York the Bay Area
and at the time of this recording he's
house shopping in Estonia not kidding he
and his family also uproot themselves
for an entire month every year to spend
time in a new and exciting location to
ensure maximum exposure to new ideas and
this
very unique perspective the diversity
that it brings is what has allowed him
to question everything and crawl out
from under the hoorde of [ __ ] rules
what he calls bruls that he believes are
holding us all back and in the process
he's had a ridiculous string of
successes that sees him now leading a
global Empire of 200 employees from 40
countries along the way he's founded
omana the highest grossing health and
fitness app on iTunes in over 30
countries dormo which was was recently
the second most downloaded health and
fitness app in the US dealm mates.com
and most importantly his Flagship
company mind Valley he's also a
hyperactive philanthropist who's on the
Innovation Board of the ex prise was
named to the transformational Leadership
Council and through his project
Renaissance he's aiming to make his home
of koala lumur one of the top 20 cities
in the world to launch a startup please
help me in welcoming the CEO and founder
of the radical new mind Valley Academy a
revolutionary educational platform with
over 1.5 million students and
subscribers the creator of aest and the
bestselling author of the code of the
extraordinary mind Vision
Lani so so so honored to be on this show
can I just give a shout out to my family
please Christina Hayden Eve hi and
Hayden check out that t-shirt you
recognize that symbol my son is big Jedi
F well he's the reason that I'm wearing
it nice that Hayden you had said in an
interview that actually it was a talk
that you gave you said um you know we
have to question all these rules um and
one of them is religion and so my kids
get to pick their own religion and you
said that you kind of hope that he'd
choose Jedi and I was right there with
you man you are so yeah I uh I love that
notion tell us what what are the bruls
What's the culture Escape like give us
some of that which
is I coined the what which I call the
the culture scape the culture Escape is
that tangled web of shared subjective
realities that all of us are immersed in
and all of us are influenced by the
culture scape of our local group so I
grew up as a kid in qual lumo and
growing up there my family was Hindu so
I was influenced by the shared
subjective reality of Hinduism the idea
of reincarnation I believe growing up
that eating beef was somehow bad I might
go to hell well Hindus don't believe in
hell but I might want achieve um oness
with the universe or I might be looked
upon badly by God because I chose to eat
beef that was my shared subjective
reality as I grew up I went to a British
school and then I went to I came to
America I went to the University of
Michigan and as I get exposed to these
different elements of the culture scape
because of this this diversity I was
part of I start realizing that not all
shared subjective reality is true so I
realized that you know my my belief that
eating beef was is bad was just
was was just that it's a belief it's
neither true nor false so what I write
about in my book is how to study the
culture escape the shared subjective
realities we are living in and identify
what rules help you and what rules are
really rules or [ __ ]
rules rules that hold you back from
truly living your most extraordinary
life so let me give you an example of a
[ __ ] rule right so growing up in an
Indian family um there's a lot of
pressure pleasure to be successful so if
if you have Indian friends they'll
probably say this as well especially
Indians who are immigrants like me who
live outside India that your family
pushes you to be a lawyer a doctor or an
engineer and if you're not any of that
you're a family embarrassment so Indian
kids grow up to be lawyers doctors
Engineers or family failures so in my
case I loved art I wanted to study art I
I love performing art I loved getting on
stage and acting I loved photography but
when I went to school I viewed art this
the idea of me being an artist as
disappointing my family as the opposite
of success so I signed up for computer
engineering classes I studied hard um
went through all of these boring as hell
classes that I had no interest in at the
University of Michigan so that 5 years
later I could get a job at Microsoft and
now boom I was it I was working for Bill
Gates I was at Microsoft my family you
know they saved up over a hundred grand
for this college education and now I was
a software guy at Microsoft 11 weeks
into Microsoft I realized I was
miserable and I quit cold turkey I
basically got myself fired I had no
motivation for work uh when I was
supposed to be in the office and I
confess and I'm so apologetic to my boss
I would just hold myself up and play Age
of Empires cuz I was so bored with
programming my boss caught me and he
fired me and I wanted that to happen I
realized that for 5 years I was pursuing
something that I had no interest in
because the rules of the culture Escape
of being a good Indian kid said be a
software programmer so I quit I quit I
went I joined a nonprofit and that's
really when my life began I dabbled in
different things from from traveling
around the world to meditation to Art
but it was through following these
passions it was through ignoring the
[ __ ] rules of the culture Escape but
really identifying what really drove me
what made me passionate that I was able
to build the life I have today and
that's really why I'm so adamant about
teach teaching people through my work
through my my my books to question
everything to question your religion to
question your societal rules to question
the idea of a college degree and I have
a method for that which you know we can
talk about later it's called the three
most important questions but that's how
I feel all of us should be living life
by questioning everything and I don't
mean being skeptical of everything
there's a difference I mean healthy
skepticism ultimately questioning the
rules of the culture scape so we can
stay true to our own inner identity it's
really interesting and the fun so full
disclosure to anybody watching Vish and
I know each other we're both on the uh
Board of the X prise I didn't know that
you like had a a performance bug in you
I think anybody watching will get that
you're very at ease talking you're great
on stage your presentations are amazing
and they have a lot of [ __ ] views
dude how do you let that stuff drive you
like are do the three most important
questions do they address that like
tapping into well let's talk about that
right so I think the idea of goal
setting in the western world is rubbish
cuz here's what happened when you ask
people to set goals even if you teach
them methodologies like SM smart goal
setting you are basically encouraging
people to set goals based on that same
culture scape with its restricting rules
so people especially in the United
States set goals along the lines of this
okay we need to get good grades so I can
graduate high school so I can get into a
good college need to study hard to get a
good GPA so maybe I can go to graduate
school uh so maybe I can do well in my
elsat that becomes the next goal get
into law school the next goal graduate
from law school get into a partnership
become a lawyer and that's how teenagers
often think about their life these
series of like ticks that they have to
go through but here's what happens let's
actually look at that let's look at
lawyers 50% of lawyers in America are
clinically depressed it's not just the
US I think Australia did a similar study
so why are kids going into these
profession
where they end up in in a job that they
thought was a good goal at one point
only to find themselves absolutely
miserable and I say that with some
confidence because I at a certain point
was working in the legal industry I was
selling technology to law firms and I
would speak to lawyers on the phone and
diagnose what was going on in their in
in in their law firms and it was
shocking how many of them actually hated
their jobs and wanted to quit but why is
it the teenagers go into these roles now
it's not just law it's not just lawyers
we set our goals to have two cars and a
house of a certain to be in a marriage
it's because these goals aren't coming
from inside us they're coming from the
culture escape and the culture Escape is
basically a safety net mechanism you see
for the longest time in human history we
had to watch out for each other there
were Wars there were disease go back a
thousand years there were wild animals
that might kill you so you had to follow
certain rules of the culture scape to
stay safe among these were get a good
education so you are not stuck in a
factory job so that you can have a blue
collar job it was get married so if
you're a woman you have a man to provide
for you it was have five kids because
you know if you go back 50 years ago um
infant mortality was so much higher you
had five kids two were going to probably
pass away but the problem is people
continue with these same rules in
today's world when everything has
changed so the qu so the thing is I
don't believe in goal setting because
when you teach traditional goal setting
people are locked into the rules of the
culture scape so here's what I suggest I
suggest we ask ourselves three question
questions and I call these the three
most important questions now the first
question is this it's what experiences
do I want to have okay now I'll tell you
why that's important you see there are
two types of goals they are means goals
and they are end goals so people tend to
chase means goals not realizing these
are very different from n goals a means
goal is do well in my elsat graduate
from college get that particular job
save up for retirement but if you ask
these people why do you want that
there's always a so well I want to I
want to I want to qualify for college so
I can do this I want to get it want to
become a lawyer so I can do this well
the soul leads you to the end goal now
what are end goals end goals are these
things that really lead to the the
beauty of Being Human it's waking up
next to someone you madly love it's
holding your first child in your arms
it's having a puppy it's seeing your
business open for the first time it's
making that you know getting that first
customer it's completing your first book
it's creating a work of art and having
people admire it and fall in love with
it these are end goals so what I
advocate is and the three most important
question is forget the means goals means
goals are goals designed by the culture
scape instead go straight to the end
goals now the first question you ask
yourself to identify your end goals is
what experiences do I want to have in
life and this is where you start writing
down your
experiences and um you know when I do
this exercise I ask people to take out a
piece of paper draw three columns so if
you're watching do that right now take
out a piece of paper three columns top
of the First Column you're going to
write down experiences right and ask
yourself what experiences do I want to
have who do I want to wake up with what
type of house do I want to live in what
countries do I want to visit where do I
want to um travel to what Adventures do
I want to have whether it's climbing
Mount Kinabalu or hiking the
Andes what type of family life do I want
what dog do I want the beautiful thing
about experiences is often they don't
require that much money it's crazy we
associate money with happiness but often
the most beautiful experiences in life
require no money almost any human being
today can fall in love can make a baby
these are some of the most profound
experiences I've had so the first thing
is you make a list of your experiences
now the second thing is you ask yourself
this question for me to be the man or
woman who has all of these
experiences how do I have to grow and
here we come to the second list see I
believe we are souls having a human
experience here on planet Earth but
these souls are not just here to explore
all of these wonderful things about
being human I believe as as Souls as
human beings we create growth human
beings are growth driven machines and so
you make that second list and that
second list is how do I want to grow how
can I learn to be a better father a
better spouse a better lover what
languages do you want to learn do you
want to learn a musical instrument do
you want to learn to write do you want
to learn um to play a particular sport
or learn a particular skill what many
people don't realize about the world is
that growth is a goal in itself it's one
of the key things that drive us forward
as human beings but very few people
write down growth as goals it's because
the education system which tries to
teach us to grow through forced learning
makes many people dread learning so
growth becomes that second list now you
have two lists your experiences and your
growth now you ask yourself the third
question and the third question is this
to be that man or woman who has all of
these experiences to be that man or
woman who is grown in such a way how can
I give back to the world and there's a
very important reason for that question
the Dalai Lama said if you want to be
happy make other people happy and I
believe that when you do these three
most important questions that third
category is what truly leads to
fulfillment it's when you can take your
growth you can take your experiences and
contribute to fellow Souls contribute to
the human race you've learned
entrepreneurship great mentor someone
Mentor a kid who wants to get there you
um you have the ability to um sing
figure out how to use it to deliver you
know beautiful music to inspire people
so your list of contributions becomes
your steps for you to give back to the
world because that takes you beyond pure
happiness into fulfillment now when you
have this list experiences growth and
contribution this becomes your goal list
everything else is just a means skull
now when I started creating this I found
that it allowed me to rewire my brain to
shortcut and bypass so many [ __ ]
rules to go straight to these final
items to go straight to ways I could
contribute ways I could grow ways I
could have these beautiful experiences
and often these were unconventional
Parts like like when I started my
company I didn't work with any investors
or VCS um I decided to start my own
University which is happening in
Barcelona but it all came because when
you have done the three most important
questions you get to Short Circuit the
rules of the culture scape and figure
out shorter Parts towards true human
fulfillment that's amazing and has a
high degree of consistency now what I
want to know is do you like growing up
as your kid do you think that your kids
will still struggle with this like is
the culture escape the kind of thing
that sort of worms its way in and how do
you walk them through not ending up in
that so so so so that that's a beautiful
question and I love parenting one of the
key things in my growth list is be as
great a parent as I can be because I
think that's one of the biggest
responsibilities that being human you
know the whole Act of Being Human gives
us right to raise another like baby you
and not [ __ ] that kid up so too much too
much right so one of the key things I I
remember talking to a parental
psychologist called shelle leco and I
asked the one shell what is the greatest
gift a parent could give a child and
Shel said this she said the greatest
thing you can do for your children is to
be acutely aware that they form their
beliefs because of you so make sure that
you are taking absolute care to give
them the right beliefs now this is so so
so important kids are little meaning
making machines it's how the human brain
has evolved to work we create meaning
about the world now if you think about
say American parenting right let's say
let's say Billy your kid is sitting at a
table and he drops his fork and you go
Billy don't drop that fork and 2 minutes
later Billy drops his spoon and now
you're like Billy I told you not to drop
that fork and that's now you drop a
spoon go stand in that corner so you
take Billy off the chair you go put him
in the corner and if your parents I've
done that I know you guys have done that
as well now here's now I thought that
was fine I'm not slapping the kid I'm
just making him stand in the corner so
he learns to hold his freaking Cutlery
so Shelly said the problem with that is
this we're not paying attention to
Billy's meaning making machine it's that
machine in the child's head that's
creating meaning what if this is what is
going on in Billy's head he accidentally
dropped his fork and he was surprised
that his mom you know questioned him
he's a kid you know his hands um he's
still learning to use his hands and so
he wanted to find out was his mom really
angry with him is mom really angry what
if I drop my spoon I just want to see
what happens that's how kids understand
the world they experiment so he drops
his spoon now Mom sends him to a corner
he doesn't get to finish his meal he who
which he was enjoying now think about
Shel says what's going on in Billy's
head the meaning making machine is
turning he's going mom doesn't trust me
mom is angry at me Mom sends me to a
corner cuz she doesn't respect me mom
doesn't love me does she love me why am
I in a corner why can't I speak now my
voice is not important and these things
become part of our identity and these
these things when they repeat is what
creates adults that can be so broken all
of us grow up with these these holes
within ourselves we feel not loved
enough we feel not important enough we
feel that we don't matter all of us grow
up I had these issues as a teenager and
it's because our style of parenting
doesn't take care of the meaning making
machine in a child's brain so how do you
do that well you be acutely aware of how
a CH a child's brain works so with my
son let me give an example of of the
opposite
right I was driving my car with my son
two weeks ago and he asked me a question
I can't remember what it was but it was
something about science he's a science
junkie and as he asked me the question
the phone rang and I checked it and it
was my CFO it was a really I knew it was
an important call so I took the call and
2 minutes into the call I realized I had
ignored my son now what does that tell
him it occurred to me that this meaning
making machine might go off and go oh
Dad's work is more important than me I'm
not important dad's CFO is more
important so I paused the call and I
said Hayden I am so so so sorry your
question is so important to me you're
the most important person in my life I
just need to finish this call because um
it's only going to be 2 minutes and I'm
guessing it's something urgent and then
I'm going to give you full attention
those simple
statements tweak his meaning making
machine and gives him a sense of
importance gives him a sense of of you
know understanding that he is truly
important so as parents you want to be
careful of that now if you do that your
kid is growing up with healthy beliefs
beliefs which are empowering beliefs of
confidence beliefs that say I matter and
when children have that they are less
immune to the rules of the culture
Escape they are less immune to a
religious leader who might say you're a
sinner because you ate the wrong type of
meat or because you didn't follow some
arbitrary [ __ ] rule written 2,000
years ago
they they are able to use their own they
they get a positive meaning making
machine and they are better able to use
that sense of power and confidence to
navigate the world without falling for
other people's
[ __ ] yeah so how do you deal with
like discipline and not wanting to
trigger a negative meaning making
machine but knowing that at or maybe hey
you tell me like do you need to to
Corral them to are there certain rules
that they should follow what happens
when Billy punches somebody in the face
that that's happened to my kid right now
I
believe I think there are two
fundamental things we can have as human
beings that Define how we function in
the world the first belief is that human
beings are fundamentally good the second
belief is that human beings are
fundamentally evil my I have a major
issue with religion I think religion has
gone past its time of usefulness in
human society and it's about time that
we start questioning religion and we
should cut the cord and stop
indoctrinating our children in our
religion whether it's Islam or
Christianity or Hinduism or any other
type of religion but one of the things
is many religions are created by men and
women and enforced by men and women who
believe human beings are fundamentally
evil you know and that's where you get
dumb ideas such as Sin um Bad Karma and
things like that I believe human beings
are fundamentally good I rarely have
discipline issues with my son yes there
was a time many years ago four or five
years ago when I know my my kid punched
another kid because he lost his temper
so I sat down with Hayden and we spoke
about it and we spoke about the value of
compassion and we spoke about Ken Wilbur
and his theories of um um levels of
awareness how one can move from
ethnocentrism to world centrism to
Cosmos centrism how all of us can be
connected in life I never disciplined
him I educ how old was he at this point
he was maybe 5 years old and do you
think he got that I mean like
ethnocentrism is is pretty intense for
you'd be you'd be surprised at at how
how much kid how smart kids really are
so Hayden yeah Hayden um is aware of
philosophers like Ken Wilbur and you
know understands many of these Concepts
now here's why this is important Charles
Darwin we all know Darwin Right theory
of evolution well in 1872 Darwin wrote a
really interesting book I forgot the
name but it had the word sexual in the
title I guess in 1872 you wanted to sell
a book you would put the word
um anatomy of reproduction and sexual
something in the title right I think
that works today too it works today
probably um so so God I wish I could
remember the name of the book but anyway
you guys can Google it was written 1872
or 1873 and in that book Charles Darwin
spoke about this incredible idea called
diffusion of sympathy and when I read
that paragraph I felt
like I I I felt like my hair stand on
end because it was like listening to the
Lama remembering that this was a guy who
lived 150 years ago he said when human
beings start understanding that they can
be sympathetic to the community around
them very soon they start understanding
that they have a natural Advantage by
being sympathetic to the entire nation
but then very soon they realize that
they have a further Advantage by being
sympathetic to people of other nations
and one by one this diffusion of
sympathy will extend until someday the
entire human race will be sympathetic to
each other he predicted world centrism
he predicted that more and more of us
are going to go up to areas of world
centrism Charles D didn't just talk
about how we evolve he talked about how
we are going to evolve the natural state
of evolution of human beings according
to Charles Darwin is that sympathies and
sympathies is basically 1872 language
for compassion is going to extend and
extend and extend until the human race
is one I guess today you can call that
Unity right so back to why it's
important for a kid to know this when
you see and I'm not trying to get
political I'm trying to get logical when
you see a man like Trump get on
television and blame Mexicans and blame
Muslims you can tell that his ideas are
counter to the Natural forward evolution
of the human race which is diffusion of
sympathy to people of all colors and all
Creeds in other words he's holding us
back and if you decide that the goal of
a political leader is to help human
beings evolve you would not vote for
Trump assuming you understood Darwin you
understood Ken Wilbur's philosophy my
child at 7 can can watch Trump on
television and go this guy is kind of
you know
bad so I believe that is the most
important thing we can teach our people
because if people learn that there would
be no racism there would be no Wars they
would me
no um discrimination against people of
different colors or religions there
would be no discrimination against gays
and the thing is if you are a religious
person and you learn that the way you
embrace your religion changes religion
goes away from being a suffocating
poisonous bruel to something that can
open you up to new experiences do you
consider yourself a philosopher or an
entrepreneur more I'm imagining there's
a bit of both but interesting question I
realized I just went on on Philosophy
for a really long time which is amazing
but I'm I'm very curious to know
where your self defition would fall I
used to think I was an entrepreneur but
again entrepreneur is a means goal okay
so I I I don't like that label
entrepreneur there are entrepreneurs who
are Freelancers on you know on um
freelancer.com right now who will design
a logo for you they're an entrepreneur
entrepreneur simply means you're earning
your own income they're entrepreneurs
like you who have built billion dollar
companies the the Gap is too wide to put
everybody into one label so I Define
myself not
by the label entrepreneur but by what I
stand
for I believe it's not our label that
matter it's your stand uh one of one one
guy I know Patrick gentempo has a quote
your stand is your brand and I believe
what makes us truly unique as an
individual is what we stand for so I
fundamentally stand for one thing and
it's reflected in everything I do and
that one thing is Unity it's my number
one value so I'm an activist for Unity
more so than I am an entreprene
I
mean I if I lost my business and you
know that happens right small chance but
it happens I wouldn't lose my identity
if I stopped standing up for Unity I
wouldn't be Vision everything I do in
mind Valley is about taking Darwin's
prediction of sympathetic diffusion and
getting it out to more people there's
this big desire in me for Unity and I
don't know where it comes from um maybe
it was the racism I experienced as a
child often the biggest childhood pains
we we experience are simply the things
that define our future values but that's
what makes me me I'm a fighter and an
activist for human Unity that's my
number one definition of myself wow man
that's intense uh and I love that and I
love that you've thought enough about it
to really know what your you know your
real end goal is that's phenomenal the
reason that I asked is you know I think
a lot about what is the ultimate power
of being an entrepreneur what is the
endgame to you know put it in your terms
and for me it's you know I definitely
consider myself an entrepreneur but the
reason that I consider myself an
entrepreneur and the reason that I think
that that's so powerful and the reason
that I get so excited um doing things
like the adventure trip that we did for
the exerprise is you get to be around
other entrepreneurs and they sound like
[ __ ] philosophers like they sound
like you sound and I know anybody
watching this is
thinking this guy runs companies you
know what I mean like they're they're
thinking of you as a philosopher what I
want them to see in that is that
Commerce becomes this very powerful
vehicle for you to build a platform to
launch what you're trying to do with
unity in a way that's sustainable in a
way that touches a lot of people um like
tell them about um awesomeness Fest now
known as a Fest um and that you give
away the profits and but you're only
able to do that because you're such an
effective entrepreneur well let me let
me first backtrack a bit I I want to
give you guys um a model that might help
explain this right in my book I have a
quote I think it's the single most
quoted line in my book um and it is
business people do it for the dollars
but entrepreneurs do it to push the
human race forward I love that that's
the difference people lump everyone
together but no they are business people
who will start businesses that basically
are designed just for shareholder value
just to make a buck entrepreneurs are
people like you you started Quest
Nutrition because you wanted to make a
dent and on Obesity in America you
wanted to help people live a healthy
lifestyle entrepreneurs I found true
entrepreneurs do it because there's this
deep calling in them to push the human
race forward now as a result business
people and entrepreneurs build very
different types of companies and if you
understand this division you understand
that there are two types of companies
you can join if you are applying for a
job or working for a company this is so
important you can be in a Humanity minus
company or you can be in a Humanity plus
company like Quest Nutrition or mind
Valley Humanity plus companies are
designed not just for profit they can be
highly profitable like Quest you know
like Zumba but they are pushing the
human race forward Humanity minus
companies create money but they serve
very poor uh they don't really serve to
push the human race for but in many
cases they keep the human race stuck in
Old practices if you think about oil and
gas compan companies right now right
which are influencing the EPA to cut so
many environmental regulations if you
think about companies that sell junk
food these are Humanity minus companies
big tobacco junk food uh companies that
are willing to sacrifice quality and and
manipulate people to eat stuff that
actually make you sick because it leades
to their bottom line Humanity minus I
wish Millennials today could understand
this so you guys stop sending your
resumés to [ __ ] companies that are
messing up the planet no one's asking
you to save the world all I'm saying is
don't [ __ ] it up for the next
Generation it's a fair ass so what I
want to know is do you think going back
to what you're saying about the food
companies the humanity minus do you
think that we legislate our way out of
that do we stop food companies from
doing things or do we as consumers make
demands that they be
better that's a very important question
I I I am not for extreme legislation but
the fact of the matter is legislation is
necessary because especially in a
country like like the US right there is
this danger that America becomes a
corporatocracy if not if it isn't
already and certain legislation is
necessary let me give you an example in
talin which is this beautiful medieval
town uh my wife is from there we're
buying a house there I love talin I'm so
happy that there's legislation that
doesn't allow Starbucks in talin cuz I
used to live in New York and I remember
in in 1998 and 1999 walking through the
streets of New York and being able to
visit and have dates in all of these
beautiful little romantic coffee shops
and when Starbucks came in all of these
coffee shops just died out it's just a
Starbucks everywhere and some of these
Starbucks don't even have like places
where you can sit it's coffee on the go
right now I love Starbucks I start at
mine Valley in a Starbucks but I can see
how without legislation certain
historical places like T one of my
favorite cities might lose their native
touch talin has shops stores which are
over 500 years old these might die out
if these these companies come in so
sometimes legislation is necessary and
especially when it comes to food I think
it's so vitally important according to
the CDC the Center for Disease Control
one in three Americans are now
officially obese right and until we
create a world where and hopefully the
millennial generation will figure this
out we create world where companies are
all Humanity plus the fact is a large
number of companies exists straight up
as an algorithm for generating profit
and these algorithms I'm not saying the
Entre these guys behind them are bad or
or wrong I'm just saying the algorithm
of the company is to generate profit at
all cost and these might be counter to
where we want to take the human
species yeah it's a a fascinating
argument that um I won't derail us
entirely and then uh and keep going down
that rabbit hole but it is it's
something I think a lot about um what
was that study that that you uh read
about belief and I think you refer to it
is Bob Billy and Sally and their
teachers it's one where the teacher gets
told these three are special oh yeah
yeah yeah so the numerous studies it's
called the expectancy effect right so
there was this one study done in the
school where they uh they took a teacher
and they played a trick on her they told
her that certain people in her class had
tested and were proven to be
exceptionally gifted But the teacher to
be fair to everyone was not allowed to
tell these kids how they had done in
this presumed IQ test she just had to do
her regular job and be quiet about it
now what they found is that after one
year even though they had randomly
picked the kids whom they told the
teacher was gifted those kids started
scoring better in exams and and that's
the expectancy effect people do good
when you expect them to do good it it's
a really interesting study that shows
that often what we expect to be true
about the world um whether it's because
it changes our Behavior or you know it
influences the world in some way ends up
being true they did that same study with
managers they told managers certain
employees were just had the potential to
be star employees and again these
employees were picked at random and sure
enough those employees ended up being
star employees and that is so
fascinating to me when you think about
the power of the mind because what's
happening
is and this goes back to did you read
Malcolm Gladwell uh outlier
yes I did and he talks about hockey
players in Canada are all born between
January and March because they end up
being bigger and because they have early
wins and because they're just more
coordinated they're bigger they're
stronger and then that gives them the
confidence they go on to do better
simply because they have the confidence
and believe that they must be better and
so they actually separate themselves
from the pack and that just the teacher
because these kids don't even know the
study's happening so just the teacher
believing even though they're trying not
to let anything on that they think these
kids are special the kids actually end
up doing better that is so surreal and
makes me absolutely terrified to have
children and to like because you realize
like I I want it to be Plato I think
it's Plato that said the only impossible
job is raising children and when you
think about how many like I literally as
you were talking about bruls I had this
vision of your kids and like Vines
representing the bruls like winding
their way over and like your job as a
parent is like one by one to fight those
off because they come for you it's not
like they just get passed on by you
there's so many to navigate the world we
have to make assumptions about it and to
have a consistent Human Experience you
have to um make assumptions you have to
have things you believe and for things
can get in man that are sneaky and it is
so hard to shuck that all off and do
something exceptional all right I don't
want to run out of time I want to hear
about your University because I think
your University addresses a lot of this
stuff right what exactly is mind Valley
Academy and how's it different why is it
important perfect so mind Valley Academy
is a is a company I started uh so mind
valy again is an education company mind
valy Academy is this really successful
online school we started to teach people
the things that school should have
taught you but forgot I often hear from
people who say education failed me and
the reason for that is because if you
really look at what creates happy
successful life it is not the stuff that
schools at teaching us all of us today
walk around with the equivalent of a
freaking superc computer in our pockets
right and on this computer you can
pretty much pull up most information yet
what do schools teach they teach you
geography history math and all of that
is accessible in our portable brain but
what they don't teach us is how to truly
lead exceptional lives how do you be a
great parent and not [ __ ] up your kids
how do you be a great lover so you don't
end up one of those divorce statistics
which afflict 50% of marriages how do
you lead a life of adventure so you
don't wake up at 40 wondering what the
hell am I doing how do you stay
physically fit how do you extend your
longevity how do you know what foods to
eat and what to toss into the garbage
can how do you treat people how do you
get on stage and share an idea how do
you write a business plan how do you
become an entrepreneur how do you learn
how to create a residual streams of
income passive income school doesn't
teach that to you in fact school doesn't
teach you much of what one truly needs
to be successful so what we do is we we
go out there we find the greatest
teachers in the world the greatest guy
for Fitness the greatest uh man or woman
for healthy eating the greatest people
for mindfulness and meditation the
greatest people for self-esteem the
greatest people for goal setting we take
those great teachers and we combine them
with a great curriculum often they have
their own curriculum but we teach them
particular psychology and stuff to
create phenomenal courses we combine
this with great technology great teacher
great curriculum great technology
wrapped around all of it is Art and
Design design and Beautiful film making
and we produce the world's best courses
in these subject matters these courses
are on an app uh we have two apps the
Mind Valley app which is for traditional
courses and a new app we're launching
soon called Mind Valley Quest basically
students join a cohort a group 3,000
students at the same time going through
an an incredible program one of our top
programs is wildfit which is a weight
loss program it's like the most amazing
thing for like reshaping your body all
based on using NLP to change your
approach to food you have 3,000 people
go through it and here's the crazy thing
the completion rate is almost 500%
better than traditional courses wow and
what happens is it's based on
microlearning so you have you know you
take a 10-minute lesson every day it's
not 8 hours of content people go through
and then there's community so people are
supporting each other and at the end of
30 60 or 90 days people now have a
healthy eating habit or they've figured
out how to you know put on muscle and be
physically fit or they now have high
high endurance or they now can practice
mindfulness or they've now learned to
tap into their intuition so we are
roping in many of the world's greatest
teachers Neil Donald Walsh Ken Wilbur um
putting themoff Wim Hoff yeah Wim Hoff
is teaching in our University I'll come
to that in a moment and putting them on
mind Valley Academy through our apps now
at the same time there are certain
things where you learn best as a group
and that's what mind Valley U is about
so we're actually creating our own
University to compete with fouryear
colleges which I think
are not relevant anymore um Alan Watts
who is one of our who's one of our
teachers he's his work is coming to mind
Valley Quest phenomenal philosopher Alan
watt said no literate inquisitive young
man needs to go to college unless they
trading to be a doctor or a teacher or
anything that requires certification and
he wrote that in 1972 it's even more
true right now think about college right
you take a group of 19 20 and 21 year
olds and put them in a bubble for 4
years and when they come out of that
bubble the world has changed I mean
Peter danda said between 2016 and 2022
we will see more change in the world
than between
192,000 so what happens when you emerge
from this bubble your knowledge is often
no longer useless your degree doesn't
matter 15% of people at Google according
to last La block the head of hiring no
longer have a college degree same at
mind Val 15% of our highest no college
degree so people are coming out with
these [ __ ] degrees Tove spent four
years on campus and they're hanging out
with other 19 19y olds what can you
learn from a 19y old now we want to
change college so the first thing is get
rid of the four years mind valy you is
one month a year you go for one month
onto our campus and then you go back
into the real world for 11 months you
come back a month later go back into the
real world for 11 months it is 1 month a
year stretched out for 48 years so the
second thing we just got rid of
graduation it's pointless why would you
ever want to graduate from learning
right
so you come back every year now the
third thing we do is it's not just for
teenagers you have parents coming
husband wife 10-year-olds teens 5year
olds it's for people of all ages you
could be in a class with a 13-year-old
and 70y olds and because of this
everybody learns from each other an
interesting statistic shows that 85% of
jobs are found through personal
connections not resumés the rums help
but it's that personal connection
everybody knows rumes are BS by putting
entrepreneurs and teenagers all in the
same campus together your kids make
incredible connections so now the the
next the next thing we hack is the
campus itself rather than put have a a
confined campus our campus is in
spectacular cities around the world like
Barcelona next year it's going to be
Berlin or talin the campus moves every
year so every year for one month you're
living in a new city you're discovering
a new culture you're on this campus with
this incredible community of people of
all around the ages and now we bring in
the magic ingredient
teachers our subject matter and our
teachers are the subjects that truly
change your life our teachers are
legendary colleges do not have the best
teachers they have the best researchers
they're incentivized to employ the best
researchers but the best teachers these
are the people you have on the show
these are people on TED Talks these are
people writing bestselling books we get
these people into our campus it's such a
rich Community but it all started
because my family and I wanted to
question a brw Christina and I were
wondering how cool would it be if we
could live one month a year in a foreign
city with our kids and if we had
Community around us and we had
opportunity to do what we love which is
learn and this new University idea was
born so we launched it uh it's been
ridiculous hundreds of applications uh
we're going through them right now we'll
probably fill our first quota our first
beta test is 400 people but I'm going to
scale this to 10,000 people and yes
absolutely we are taking on fouryear
colleges wow man it's incredible it's a
big Vision thank you all right you're
doing a lot where can these guys find
you online um go to mind Valle
academy.com mind valy academy.com is
where you can learn all about mind valy
Academy our courses our teachers and
mind valy Academy you is where you can
learn about our university project
awesome man all right last question
what's the impact that you want to have
on the
world I already shared what I feel is
the number one thing I stand for and
that is Unity but the second thing I
stand for is human
transformation the impact I want to have
on the world is to help take our human
education systems from what we learn as
adults to what colleges teach and later
we're going to go down to K1 to k12 and
early infant learning and upgrade these
to teach the skills that truly create
happy wonderful kind generous people who
are able to live
beautiful fulfilled lives create
Humanity plus companies and Elevate the
human race as a world Centric species
now this means an overhaul of how our
education system works it means you know
teaching ideas like World centrism
getting it into the K1 to K12 system
into colleges and teaching people to
unleash that that power within I know
that that line sounds corny but teaching
people to unleash that abilities within
to really craft and create the best
lives they can that's the Legacy I want
to live I want to reboot human
education and create something that's
more relevant for the generation that
future that this human race is moving
into I love it man thank you so much for
coming on dude this awesome thanks guys
listen when I say that yes he has a
massive Vision but the thing you need to
understand about him is he is an
entrepreneur to his core and while he
does not define himself by that and I
get it's all about Unity he actually
knows how to execute and that's why it's
important to me that he has the skill
set of an entrepreneur because he's not
an empty dreamer who's pulling all of
this stuff out of the ether to sound
good he's building all of this stuff
based on real world execution knowing
what it takes to actually take on a
4-year University knowing what it takes
to look at a global problem like people
being too ethnocentric or being too
egocentric and understanding how to
build sustainable engines that take care
of that through being an entrepreneur
looking past the dollar and looking to
the opportunity and the way to build
something to get people excited and
rallied around an idea go online and
look at their offices look at the way
that he's constructed it and one thing I
was not going to forget to ask him and I
forgot is that he makes people swear
unlik a Wonder Woman statue when they
start in the Hall of Awesomeness these
are all real things tied to his company
go check it out he questions everything
he is doing things in a new way and I
know I have learned a lot from him I
hope that you guys guys will as well it
is a weekly show my friends so if you
haven't already be sure to subscribe and
until next time be legendary my friends
take care thank you
everyone hey everybody thanks so much
for joining us for another episode of
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