The Vishen Code

Lily Ong discovers how the charismatic edupreneur Vishen Lakhiani connected the dots of his past to form his own belief system and a world-class company.

- Lily Ong

Vishen lakhiani is not content with being just an entrepreneur. “Someone who designs logos on Elance or builds million dollar companies can be entrepreneurs. The spectrum is too wide. What defines me is what I stand for as an individual,” says the founder of Mindvalley—an edu-tech company. Only five minutes into our chat and Vishen was already aflame with passion, telling us about what he believes is his mission on earth.

Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, he was picked on because of his appearance during his public school days. And while he admired his mother’s work as a teacher, he knew it was not feasible to pursue education as a career thanks to the state of the educational system at the time. So instead, he chose computer engineering and went on to study in the University of Michigan, where he then secured an internship at Microsoft in the United States.

“My parents were so proud of me for landing a great job. I did what society wanted, but it was not what I wanted. One day, Bill Gates invited the company’s interns to his home for a barbecue. Everyone was having fun, except me. I couldn’t bring myself to shake his hands, because I hated my job. I left eventually, because I knew I chose the wrong path,” reflects Vishen.

As he pondered over what to do next, he joined a non-profit called AIESEC, which allowed him to travel the world to foster cultural understanding between countries. Helping others rejuvenated him, although he knew he was on borrowed time. After that, he set his sights on Silicon Valley to seek his fortune. Unfortunately, this was when the dot-com bubble burst in the US.