I’ll never forget how I felt on October 15th, 2015. When my bosses, cofounders, and people who came to be my best friends told me we were closing down the company, I thought I’d hallucinated. Time froze, their voices warped, and my vision blurred. I tried to focus on their images on video chat through the tears welling in my eyes. But quickly, I found myself sobbing at my kitchen table, feeling like my life had come to an end.
I was only 21, so little did I know how much life I still had ahead of me. But in that moment, I could only think about how much we’d all dedicated to this project over the last couple years. We all thought we could change the world with this company. It had filled us up with purpose and excitement to work 14-hour days regularly. For these reasons, I couldn’t believe we were cutting our losses at this stage. There was nothing else I wanted to work on. Most of us had sacrificed starting college when the rest of our friends did after high school so we could build something meaningful. The rest had dropped out of school while building Vipassana.
So what was Vipassana?
Simply, it was a personal development game and community. The virtue of Vipassana was to help each member achieve a balanced life and discover their purpose, rooted in four core components: Mental, Physical, Social, and Financial. Spirituality and religion could be included in the Mental quadrant, and family could be included in the Social quadrant.
Vipassana set out to enable everyone to become the best versions of themselves through playing a game, and being a part of a community of likeminded individuals.
How did it work?
$100 a month got you full access to the game, community, and a month’s supply of proprietary protein powder and vitamins.
- The game: Our bread and butter, the Art of Living game was hosted on a simple web2 website. It consisted of 50 levels, but was destined to reach 200 levels.
- The community: Members were generally aged 18-30 and spread out across the US, with a small percentage outside of the US. Membership got you access to the exclusive Facebook group, which was a lively, active place.
Anyone who joined would get a personal login with their email and password, just like any social media platform. Once logged in, you start at Level 1, with no way to skip ahead. The only way to advance is to play.
Each level described a single concept. It would consist of a 1-3 minute original, cinematic video and a 1-3 sentence call to action.
The way to play was by watching the video, reading the snippet, and completing the call to action (CTA) by submitting it directly into the website. Thus, you unlocked access to the next level.
The submitted CTA was “proof” of completion in the form of a video, photo, and/or written submission.
Examples of levels and CTAs:
From Level 1, Energy:
“As we’ve learned to understand energy, we’ve also learned to take back our life. All of us concur it’s about the little things in life, and we’re gonna get into that in Level 10, but what this level is about is having the energy to actually go carry out those things that are really important. To be able to invest into the girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife that you want to… or maybe pouring more into your family, or into your work.”
“Now for many of us, it was the understanding that there are many things that rob us of energy. And it’s these simple concepts… getting really angry, getting really jealous… when someone cuts you off in a car, you just can’t handle it, and you have to scream at them. And this was a big turning point in my life, because when I realized just like in a video game, you only have 100 points of energy and you get angry at the dude in front of you, it’s like, 5 points down, Brett. And suddenly my smile isn’t as brilliant, my laughter isn’t as loud, my memories aren’t as vivid, because I’ve taken away from my energy.”
“We want you to weigh on these thoughts. We want you to really think about: ‘What’s the one thing that just drains me of my energy?’ Because no one else is going to know it except you. Maybe it’s that person at the office, maybe it’s that person on Instagram, or maybe it’s a friend that you wish you had their life and you never really told anyone, but it kind of eats at you… Whenever you think of this one thing, we want you to write it down…”
The CTA at the end was to write at least a one-sentence plan on what you are going to do to cease letting that thing rob you of your energy once you’ve identified it.
The popular Level 3: Gratitude
The CTA was to consider who you would be honored to have as your pallbearer — the people who would carry your casket when you die. Reach out to 3-5 people and tell them how grateful you are to have them in your life, and how much they mean to you.
Now for me, I was used to expressing loving sentiment to many people in my life. At first, I took the “easy route” and only contacted those to whom it would be easy to express gratitude for me. But when I examined myself more deeply, I realized there was one person for whom I felt extreme gratitude, but it would be challenging to express it to, because we didn’t have a verbally appreciative relationship: My dad. The Art of Living game forced me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to walk up to my dad and tell him I appreciate and love him.
The dreaded Level 12: Dreaming
“If you have not started the beginning steps of achieving your dreams, you have to understand there is something holding you back in your comfort zone… For Level 12, we were thinking something a little bit different: We want to give you a very challenging call to action… Some will stop at Level 12.”
CTA: Record yourself singing or dancing to whatever song you choose for 10 seconds, and upload it. For extra points, we would encourage members to upload the video to the Facebook group, to help ease the tension of the ultra-shy folks.
Level 20: Belief
“When we experience things, we have an understanding. Once we have an understanding, that understanding raises our belief level. Whether you want to travel, whether you want to work, whether you’re doing personal development, sometimes you actually have to experience it rather than just talking about it. So once you experience it you see, ‘Ah, this is not that hard! I can travel to another state, I can travel to another country, I can go and work at another job, I can have personal growth. Once you have that one kernel of belief, that first kernel, then it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities.”
CTA: Pick a Vipassana member to see a sunrise with, or go stargaze with, and upload a picture of yourselves while doing it. “The stars are out every night, the sun rises every morning. We have knowledge of this, but rarely do we go see it.”
Level 38: Serendipity
“Although it is good to set intention, needing control can prevent us from seeing the serendipity in our lives. What I mean by that is once we get comfortable with the fact that things aren’t perfectly going to go our way, we pick up our head, and as we look to our left and right on this journey, we start to see beauty unfold that we never could have imagined. Serendipity is a moment of clarity that something unexpected now has meaning in our life… Serendipity is riddled throughout our entire lives, but sometimes it takes us getting comfortable with uncertainty to really start accepting the gifts that are all around us. To accept these gifts that were perceived as random chance at times, we must become more aware. And as we start to look where we’ve seen serendipity in our lives before, we have a better idea of how to spot it daily.”
CTA: Type up an instance of something in your life that didn’t go your way, but somehow it worked out better than you wanted.
“What if you cheated?” some people would ask, “by submitting something other than the actual CTA.” If you cheated playing the Art of Living game, you were only cheating yourself. Your personal growth is essentially the product of Vipassana, because of the very simple nature of the game: You can only keep playing by continuing to push yourself to do something beyond your comfort zone.
Levels generally got more complex and challenging as you advanced through the game. And because it was a game, it was fun! Leaderboards generated healthy competition, while sharing completed challenges in the Facebook group drove more community engagement, excitement, and bonding with one another.
Vipassana was only spread via word of mouth. Whoever invited you in was usually your “mentor,” although very inexperienced members could share their mentor with their invitees if they so chose.
Why didn’t it succeed?
I believe in hindsight, as I write this in early 2022, Vipassana didn’t succeed for two main reasons:
- Limited technology. If you are “plugged in” today, you’re likely aware of “Web3,” or the third iteration of the Internet. It consists of the blockchain, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as new-age clubs or an alternative to centralized companies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) serving as “membership tickets” to exclusive clubs and communities, and Discord as a popular cloud space to host online, distributed communities.
The Art of Living game could have been built on the blockchain, which serves as a ledger for every action and transaction that takes place, rather than on a JavaScript/HTML website. Access to the community could have been automated with the purchase of an NFT and/or unique cryptocurrency tokens issued by the DAO, and Discord would be a much more “sensible” place to participate in a community with “strangers” from the internet than a Facebook group. - Generational readiness. Particularly Gen Z, whose oldest members are aged 26, are extremely familiar with Web3 and all its promises of a better future of the internet. Being digital natives, they are comfortable with the constant evolution of consumer technology. Plus, they grew up on video games! The first major benefactor of Web3 are game creators, as a 3D virtual world (which is being coined the “metaverse”) is easiest to grasp in the form of a game (think of any video game). An NFT could be your unique avatar in a game hosted in the metaverse. Meagan Loyst, founder of GenZ VC’s, broke down what the metaverse is and who the earliest adopters and benefactors will be in this post.
I believe another reason DAOs are becoming so popular today is that formal education and standard jobs are fading out of the zeitgeist quickly. As David Perell wrote, the trust of the general population is transitioning from the authorities of the 20th century (institutions, politicians, and higher education) to the people. The economy is becoming more decentralized. Everyone is their own media company with social media and newsletter platforms. College enrollment rates are continually dropping. “The Great Resignation,” fueled by the COVID19 pandemic, wherein troves of professionals are leaving their jobs for entrepreneurship etc., means adults don’t have a community stronghold anymore. So where adults used to get their communities (higher education and jobs), there is now a void. Enter DAOs.
There’s much more we could do with the tech of 2022 than what we had widely known and available in 2014, when we founded Vipassana.
Because Vipassana was spread via word of mouth and participants believed so much in its potential to help everyone better their lives, it was often regarded as a “cult” by outsiders. This effect was exacerbated by the fact that social clubs and communities outside of school and religion were not popular or common at the time. Additionally, the gamification of companies for young adults was absolutely not mainstream in 2014-2015 — the prime era of Vipassana.
Who was behind Vipassana?
A group of 20-somethings, led by visionaries Nikhil (CEO) and Brett (President). Another partial owner was Joe, the sales guru, and we had one website developer named Marcel. The rest of us in the founding group were a handful of leaders and ambassadors.
What was my role?
I was part of the cofounding group of ~8 individuals, one of the ambassadors. I served as a “face of the company,” and the most prominent female in leadership. As a side project, I formed a free group for all females in the company to come together and bond at a different level in the male-dominated company. The group grew to 250+ women across the country at its peak.
One of the most memorable events we put on was a retreat. In the spirit of gamification, members could only qualify for an invitation if they were to complete 12 of 16 healthy challenges. We hosted the 3.5-day retreat in a gorgeous house in Palm Springs. The two main days of the event were broken into four main group activities, each covering one of the quadrants of Vipassana (Mental, Physical, Social, Financial). We also surprised the participants by bringing the CEO and President of the company out on Friday night to speak to the group in their inspirational way. Each night involved home-cooked meals, partying, and bonding with all 16 participants.
The end?
Because we all put so much heart and dedication into building Vipassana, it was a heartbreaking and demoralizing experience to end the company. We ultimately weren’t earning enough to cover our expenses, and we didn’t want to put our investors in a bad position. So our leaders made the tough call to cut our losses. On top of that, one of our founders had lost his mom to cancer earlier that year, and he was battling mourning that loss and being an engaged leader in a young company.
On the day they broke the news to a few of us cofounders, Nikhil, who I considered my biggest mentor, said to us: “Vipassana won’t end here. We will each branch out into new areas. We will join and start new companies, we will touch new communities, and we will bring the Art of Living into each of our future relationships.”
Six and a half years later, he’s completely right. Three of us are parents, one is a successful real estate agent, one helps run his dad’s solar company and continues to pursue videography and photography, another is a lead software engineer at an edtech company, and one is a leader in one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. I went on to work in two different companies over the subsequent five years, each in my main fields of interest: Travel and language. I achieved one of my big goals by becoming a people leader in a major non-US city, and I started two of my own companies since then. Now I’m a coach helping people stretch and smash their goals.
All of us remain close as we pursue different paths in our various locations around the US.
Vipassana is always in the back of my mind, and it permeates throughout my being. It’s a part of me. I played the game, and it made me a better person. The Art of Living was my college experience, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything else.
It’s bittersweet to think Vipassana was just a few years ahead of its time. If you’re reading this and Vipassana’s mission or the Art of Living game inspires you in any way, I encourage you to go for it. Maybe you can take what we tried to do and make it better with the technology and generational readiness of today. If you’d like to contact me for more information or to chat about a new project, please do so.
And you can play the game for free, and even preview all levels and skip ahead, thanks to the generosity of our founders and developer for keeping the website functional. The calls to action are not all available anymore, but the lessons in each level are profound.
