SHOW / EPISODE

I Left My Business for a Month to See If It Would Survive. Here's What Actually Happened.

20m | Sep 24, 2026

"Sometimes the best way to see what you have truly built is to simply remove yourself from it." - Dr. Sonia Chopra


"Mindset work can't be handed to someone like homework. It has to meet you in the right moment." - Dr. Sonia Chopra


If you follow me on social media, you saw the beaches in Greece, the streets of Tallinn, the Eiffel Tower. What you didn't see is why we go.


Back in 2019, I made a vow to take one full month off every single year. Not a long weekend. 

Not a week where I'm still checking in. A real month away from my practice, my side hustle, and everything that usually needs something from me. It started as an experiment. I wanted to know if I had built a business that could grow without me, or if I had built something that owned me. 


Seven years later, the tradition has become about so much more than that. It's about freedom, about family, and about giving my children access to conversations that took me 40 years to find.


This year, one moment showed me exactly what these trips are for. And it didn't happen on a beach.


Today on University of Why:

  • The vow I made in 2019, and what actually happened the first time I left my practice for a month
  • Why a business that can't run without you might not be yours at all
  • Mindvalley University: the global campus that brings families together in a new city every summer
  • Why Tallinn, Estonia became one of my favorite places in the world (and why you should eat your way through it)
  • The friendships that turned strangers at a conference into family across countries and years
  • Watching my kids navigate a city on their own, and working through my own anxiety about letting them go
  • Sitting beside my 13 and 16 year old daughters during a lecture on mindset, and why that was my favorite destination of the entire trip
  • Why you can't force this kind of learning on your kids, and how to know when they're ready
  • Three questions to ask yourself about what you've built and what you're afraid to step away from


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