Vishen Lakhiani


Vishen Lakhiani is a Malaysian-born entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker, of Indian descent. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mindvalley and the author of two books: The Code of the Extraordinary Mind and The Buddha and the Badass.

Career

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Lakhiani attended Malaysian government school. After graduating from high school, he moved to the United States and attended the University of Michigan where he received a bachelor's degree in English. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2001, he moved to Silicon Valley.

Mindvalley

is an educational technology company co-founded by Vishen Lakhiani and Michael Reining that publishes products focused on personal spiritual development and lifelong learning, such as the meditation app Omvana. Founded in New York in December 2002, Reining and Lakhiani were forced to relocate Mindvalley to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2004 when the United States declined to renew Lakhiani's work visa. Mindvalley is an education company that offers teaching programs on mindfulness, meditation, personal growth, fitness, and health.

Dealmates

Dealmates was a Malaysian-based e-commerce site that Lakhiani founded in Nov 1, 2010 with Patrick Grove as part of a joint-venture between Catcha Group and Mindvalley. Dealmates allegedly offered discounts from fashion, beauty, cosmetics, electronics and other vendors  with allegedly over 30,000 visitors a day.
Their website does not exist anymore.

Blinklist and A-Fest

Blinklist was a social bookmarking service, allowed users to organize their bookmarks based on keyword tags, see how others rated their bookmarks and view recently added, popular, or hot public bookmarks. The site has been turned into a tech-related blog featuring stories about startups and apps.
Lakhiani has also founded A-Fest, an invite-only conference offering training in entrepreneurship and mindfulness.

Book

In May 2016, Vishen Lakhiani published the self-help book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind through Rodale, Inc. In the book, Lakhiani argues that a person's outlook on life is shaped by conditioning and habit, and offers 10 laws to help readers break free of this mindset. After its release, the book reached #10 on the New York Times Bestseller List for Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous.

Recognition

At XPRIZE's Visioneering Event in 2015, Lakhiani was a member of the team that won the audience's vote for the best new XPRIZE Idea, involving housing for refugees,
Lakhiani was named "Most Strategic Entrepreneur" in the SME & Entrepreneurship Business Award, Malaysia, in 2017. The Award is an annual recognition program organized by Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia.
Lakhiani is an AIESEC alumnus who speaks or advises in active support of both AIESEC and AIESEC Alumni International endeavors.
He repeatedly stated publicly that he restored his vision through meditation, although in fact he did laser vision correction.