October 17, 2023
Episode 178 – Dhiren Master – Lessons of a Master
“It’s not about you, it’s about a higher purpose. Our purpose here on this planet, for each and every one of us is, every day to become a slightly better version of ourselves than we were yesterday. Do everything in love. Everything in love. And love means not judging.” – Dhiren Master
- Dhiren Master starts his bio with this: “I have failed more times than I have succeeded (LOL!).” That appropriately sets the stage for Dhiren’s humility, humour, and self-awareness in this conversation.
- Dhiren has lived and worked in 10 countries across 5 continents including Kenya, UK, Netherlands, France, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA, Canada, and Brazil. He spent a decade in strategy consulting culminating in being a Partner at Monitor Company, another decade in various corporate roles – he was Head of Strategy Worldwide for BG Group a £70bn market cap company advising the Board where to invest £1bn annually across 26 countries at age 33 – and over a decade as an entrepreneur. He is currently on his 8th start-up.
- He won a scholarship to study Engineering at Cambridge University and received an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD, Europe’s top business school at the time.
- Dhiren has held leadership roles in numerous industries, has won marketing awards, holds 4 engineering patents (working on the 5th), speaks three languages, completed a triathlon and half marathon, plays the guitar, paints, and really enjoys doing Karaoke impersonations of Elvis. He has a self-published book on Amazon called “Second Chance” and is currently working on another book titled “Musings: Thoughts on metaphysics, spirituality and people.”
- Dhiren’s passion is to be a firebrand for radical love and spiritual truth.
- To say Dhiren is a highly accomplished individual is certainly correct, but in this episode Dhiren speaks more in depth about his life beyond the accomplishments. Dhiren shares his experience with depression, self-examination, and the changes he chose to make through self-realization. Dhiren shares his spiritual journey and the path it led him to, plus insightful guidance in the face of depression, in support of growth, life-change, and creating our reality. Listen in as Patrick and Dhiren reconnect, have some laughs, and discuss significance, personal growth, higher purpose, and spreadsheets.
- [00:42] Patrick introduces his next TEDM guest and old friend, Dhiren Master.
- [03:03] Dhiren and Patrick get reacquainted after 16 years, and Dhiren shares in short form, what he’s up to these days, where he’s doing it, and a new project he has underway.
- [6:00] Second Chance. Dhiren talks about the book he wrote, an autobiographical account set as a fictional story, which is his story set in different parts of the world between 1995 and 2001. The book provides the opportunity for self-examination to “make you think about what you think” toward enhanced understanding and a broader view of the world.
- [11:18] Dhiren shares a bit of his scholastic background, (many impressive accomplishments he attributes to being very good at exams), plus his work and business adventures that took him to numerous cities and countries including Canmore, Alberta which is where his path crossed with Patrick’s.
- [17:20] With first-hand experience living with and examining depression, Dhiren shares the knowledge he has gained about depression, his own feelings of hyper self-judgement, and the realization that we’re all in charge of writing the script for our personal story.
- [23:16] Our internal vs external reality can be quite divergent. Although incredibly intelligent, worldly, business savvy and sought-after, Dhiren’s internal world was much darker and self destructive. Love, in the end, was the light bulb moment. Dhiren came to realize he needed to make the choice to love himself if he wanted to find love from others.
- [28:03] Dhiren explains the shift that happened within, which allowed him to experience self-love. He is a self-described caterpillar, and the evolving is a work in progress, always.
- [30:10] Significance and acknowledgement are real human needs. Is this what Dhiren was externally searching for? Dhiren describes the hole he felt around validation and purpose and how that unfolded for him. The change came with the realization he had to give it to himself.
- [35:18] Seeking approval externally. Patrick and Dhiren discuss negative love syndrome and the need for our parent’s love. Indeed, parental approval {what would my “parent” think} can morph to spouses or mentors or friends or even children. We attract the energy we emit and it’s up to us to write a different story. Dhiren shares a bit of his story and wisdom around that.
- [41:40] 4235 Dhiren offers two very insightful messages of guidance for self-discovery and self-care in the face of depression and in support of growth, life-change, and creating our reality.
- [45:22] Dhiren shares the spiritual path he took from the age of 34, that also became his book “Second Chance: A story to make you think about what you think.” His journey took him to India looking for God and while there he had a supernatural experience with Jesus. He talks about where his life took him as a result, and he imparts the one spiritual truth the threads through all of humanity.
- [53:16] The darkness and the light. The fear mongering, divisiveness, and manipulation in our world has reached epic proportions, and its largely due to the frequency and access of information to support that narrative. Simultaneously the light is getting stronger and there exists a greater search for higher purpose among many. Dhiren conveys his feelings of the darkness, the light, and humanity’s trajectory.
- [60:50] Given his life experiences, and what has unfolded, is Dhiren still fired up about the future? Don’t let Dhiren and Patrick fool you – you’re listening to a couple of 40-year olds.
- [66:41] Over to the rapid fire for some fun: impactful books in Dhiren’s life; iPhone or Android; a job he doesn’t like but keeps doing because he’s good at it (meet the Spreadsheet Master); favourite inspirational quote; messages at the pearly gates; room-desk-car; favourite music and Elvis karaoke; favourite movie.
- [71:27] Dhiren’s gratitude.
- Connect with Dhiren Master
- Selected links and people mentioned from this episode:
- Second Chance by Dhiren J. Master
- Thermablade
- The Hoffman Process
- The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy by Viktor E. Frankl
- Leadership and Self-Deception – The Arbinger Institute
- Transcending the Levels of Consciousness by Dr. David R. Hawkins
- Connect with REIN Canada
- REIN Canada
- [email protected]
- REIN Channel
