The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own Terms by Vishen Lakhiani

Author:Vishen Lakhiani [Lakhiani, Vishen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Rodale Books
Published: 2016-05-09T22:00:00+00:00

FROM GAME TO GRIND

Quitting my job as a law firm software salesman meant that I no longer had a US visa. Kristina and I faced a choice. We could return to Estonia, her home, or to Malaysia, where I was born. Estonia is a beautiful nation, but its winters are dreadful, so we settled on Malaysia for its warmer weather.

I’d like to be able to say that this is the whole story for why we left. But there’s more. In the years following September 11, the United States was on high alert. For some reason, I was put on a watch list called Special Registration, which was designed to monitor foreign visitors from specific countries. Malaysia unfortunately made the list, and someone in the State Department decided that I was “suspicious” enough that I should be monitored.

I could travel only via certain airports, and it included an exhaustive two- to three-hour extra wait at immigration for special screening. But worst of all, every thirty days while in the United States, I had to register myself at the local immigration office. I would be required to wait in a line—sometimes standing outside in the cold for four hours in a line that stretched more than a block long, until an officer could see me, fingerprint me, take a photograph, and check my credit card purchases to see if I had made any dangerous purchases. It was horrible and demeaning.

After tolerating this for four months, Kristina and I decided we had to give up our American dream and move to a new country. I never stopped being in love with the United States. Although I grew up in Malaysia, I still feel more American than anything else, but I couldn’t stay in the country I loved while being forced to live according to parolelike rules.

So I ended up home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was precisely halfway across the world from my close friends in New York, my favorite city in the world, and my customers and business vendors.

At first the Malaysia office of Mindvalley included just me and my faithful Labradoodle, Ozzy (whom I listed as my PR manager: “the first dog in the country to hold a paid position in e-commerce”). Soon, though, we started growing. I hired my first employees and expanded into a small office space at the back of a warehouse in a run-down part of the city. We then started ramping up with more staff and projects. Suddenly, I had to run a “real” business. Rent. Hiring. Payroll. Filing taxes. Dealing with banks. I loved the work itself but was dragged down by all the worries of running the day-to-day. Being so far removed from the United States posed its challenges.

I struggled, working crazy-long hours. And to make matters worse, I was hitting a glass ceiling. The next four years would be relatively unremarkable. There were ups and downs, and we grew to eighteen people, but our business was still finding its way. At least it paid the bills.

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