What Vipassana Taught Me About Building
Sit still. Observe. Don't react. The ancient meditation technique that changed how I approach startups, data, and life.
The first time I sat a Vipassana course, I wanted to leave after day two. Ten days of silence, no phone, no reading, no writing. Just you and your mind, hour after hour, observing the sensations in your body.
It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s also the most useful.
The technique
Vipassana, as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, is deceptively simple. You observe the sensations in your body — heat, tingling, pressure, pain — without reacting. No craving pleasant sensations. No aversion to unpleasant ones. Just observation.
The theory is that all human suffering comes from two reactions: craving and aversion. By training yourself to observe without reacting, you break the pattern at its root.
How it applies to building
In startups, the temptation to react is constant. A metric drops — panic. A competitor launches — envy. A campaign succeeds — euphoria. Each reaction pulls you away from clear seeing.
Vipassana trained me to notice the reaction before acting on it. When a campaign underperforms, I observe the data before adjusting. When a competitor makes noise, I return to our fundamentals. When something works, I study why instead of celebrating prematurely.
Equanimity as a competitive advantage
The most underrated skill in business isn’t technical. It’s equanimity — the ability to maintain mental balance regardless of circumstances. Markets will crash. Launches will fail. Clients will churn. The question isn’t whether these things happen. It’s whether you can see clearly when they do.
Every morning, before I open my laptop, I sit for an hour. It’s not productivity theater. It’s maintenance — keeping the instrument calibrated so that when decisions matter, I’m making them from clarity, not reactivity.
Start with ten days
If any of this resonates, I’d encourage you to sit a ten-day course. They’re donation-based, so cost isn’t a barrier. The only cost is your time and your willingness to face yourself.
Fair warning: it will be uncomfortable. That’s the point.