“Don’t knock the whole building down and rebuild a whole new thing again.”
In short: Master Mantak Chia is a Taoist teacher who has been teaching for around 40 years. In this short 2017 Success Secrets session, Brian Rose asks him what he has changed about himself, who he thinks of as successful and what success takes.
Success Secrets is a quick-fire format in which guests answer the same practical questions. Mantak’s answers are brief and rich in images: students pick up a teacher’s energy, the universe works like a cloud of knowledge you can connect to, and a lasting business grows the way a child does.
The clip runs about four minutes. Its most practical message comes near the end, where Mantak tells Brian that a building you have spent 20 years on should be improved and extended, not demolished, and applies the idea to London Real itself.
Key takeaways
- Students feel a teacher’s energy. Mantak says that when he understands something more deeply, his students notice, even before he tells them anything new.
- The universe is like a cloud. He compares meditation to downloading knowledge from a source far larger than Google, as long as the heart is open and the head acts as an antenna.
- Success takes years of trust. He says it takes around 20 years to build trust, so one good year followed by a collapse is not success.
- Grow a business like a child. Five years, then ten, then fifteen: he sees a business maturing in stages, with each stage needing patience.
- Improve, don’t demolish. People often work at something for 20 years and then want to start again from scratch. Mantak advises extending the same building instead.
What Mantak changed about himself
Asked what he has changed after 40 years of teaching, Mantak said the key is to understand something and then practise it more. When he does, students sense a difference and say he must be doing something new, because they pick up his energy.
He also described people telling him they saw him in their dreams, and explained that when he meditates he expands his energy. In his words the whole universe is like the internet or a cloud, and practice is a way of downloading from it. He pointed to the old Taoist image of ten mountains reaching to heaven as ten antennas connecting the brain to the universe.
What success takes
For Mantak, success means continuing to work on what you believe for ten or twenty years until people accept it. He said it takes about 20 years to build trust, and that people only follow you when they trust you, like you and see results.
He compared this with a child: a business at five years is still growing, at ten it is moving on, at fifteen it is a young man and at twenty a full adult. Mantak, who was known for reading charts in Chinese astrology, said people often work in one field for 20 years and then want to tear it down, which he advises against.
Brian’s five-and-a-half-year-old company
Brian said London Real was then a child of five and a half years. Mantak told him that it had passed the most critical early years, that the next stage is school and learning, and that the job from here is to keep improving the same building.
Who is Mantak Chia?
Mantak Chia is a Taoist master and teacher who says in this clip that he has been teaching for around 40 years. He was also known for reading charts in Chinese astrology. He appeared on London Real in 2017 for a Success Secrets session.
Frequently asked questions
He says success means continuing to work on what you believe for ten or twenty years, until people trust you and see the results.
Mantak means that after building something for 20 years you should keep improving and extending it, not destroy it and start again.
He says it takes about 20 years to build trust.
In this clip he is described as having taught for around 40 years.
You can watch the full session free on this page, with the transcript below the video.
