PROFILEJay Shetty

[7] From monk to millionaire

Elisa: Meditation can be a great way of clearing your head and calming yourself down, but for one man, it also led to a big increase in income. Jay Shetty turned the wisdom he acquired at the ashram into a successful purpose-driven business. Let's find out more.

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Jay Shetty wants to give people the wisdom they need to take control of their lives and live according to their dharma, a person's true calling. "Imagine a world where everyone lived their passion," he says. "We'd be better people." As a well-known podcaster, author, YouTuber, motivational speaker and life coach, Shetty has given keynote speeches at companies such as Google and HSBC. He's also won two Streamy Awards, for excellent online content, in the categories Best Podcast and Health and Wellness.

The decisive moment in Shetty's career came in his early 20s, when he became a Vedic monk. While still a student in London, he heard a talk given by a monk called Gauranga Das, who spoke of selfless sacrifice and minimalism. Despite his strong academic background, Das had given up lucrative career possibilities to become a monk, share his wisdom, and teach the importance of mindfulness and service.

Feeling inspired by Das's dedication, Shetty began dividing his university holidays between work placements in London's finance industry and training programmes with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in India — two worlds that seemed at odds with each other. When he was 22, Shetty moved to Mumbai to live as a monk in an ashram, a spiritual retreat common in Hinduism and other Indian religions. He slept on the floor, woke up at four in the morning and meditated for up to eight hours a day. It was there that Shetty learned the importance of service and the healing power of gratitude and meditation. In his bestselling book, Think Like a Monk, published in 2020, Shetty writes: "Service helps other people and helps us. We don't expect anything in return, but what we get is the joy of service. It's an exchange of love. When you're living in service, you don't have time to complain and criticize."

Going back to work and going viral

After three years, Shetty moved back to Britain to share his new wisdom. The transition from full-time monk back into the world of work wasn't easy. "No one wants to hire you when your résumé says ‘served as a monk for three years'," he wrote. He began developing his own content, as he believed it would serve others. Later, he was hired by Accenture, an IT services and consulting company, to produce online shows that he hosted and edited. His videos caught the attention of Arianna Huffington, who brought him to New York to host a show for her company HuffPost (formerly The Huffington Post).

Realizing the transformational potential of everything he'd learned, Shetty started his own video agency. "My vision is to make wisdom go viral," he says. "I want to make timeless wisdom and behavioural science about life and the mind more accessible, relevant and practical for each and every single one of you."