Vilga has created over 18 bestselling books, DVDs, and online courses, including several for the web site DailyOM, which offers courses on personal wellness of the mind, body, and spirit. There are over 50,000 students in his online courses. One of his DailyOM classes is called “A Year to Get Rich With Purpose.” “It’s about getting wealthier by looking within, by inner growth,” says Vilga, 58, who lives in New York. “I’m not promising you’re going to be a billionaire by the end of this course. But, if you do the work, you’ll be able to say ‘My life is richer.’ Probably economically as well.”
A Mind Shift From Scarcity to Abundance
Vilga, who’s also a personal coach, teaches people to redefine and reinvent the story they’ve told themselves about money; how to uncover unconscious limits they might have around finances; build habits that will allow them to expand their capacity to receive (and give); and create a mind shift where abundance, not scarcity, is the norm. “One of the main things I teach about is accountability, staying on track, a sense of purpose, that you’re moving with some intentionality,” says Vilga. “Our thoughts have an impact on the world we live in. There is documented proof that what you think and what you feel affects your body and the experiences you create.” Vilga grew up in Manchester, Connecticut. He was the first person in his family to go to college, and an Ivy League one at that. “I was a National Merit Scholar and all of these schools started writing to me,” he recalls. “I realized that I wasn’t going to become a factory worker like my father. I knew I had to move forward.” He majored in English at Yale, where he was exposed to a world filled with privilege. But he was more interested in people like him, who weren’t as familiar or comfortable with money. He freely admits that a large part of the reason he started teaching this material is because he wanted to learn about it. “I’ve coached people who don’t even have a sense of what it costs them to live,” he says. “People are often shamed by the fact that they don’t know financial stuff. I couldn’t find anyone who spoke to me on a practical level who wasn’t a little bit shaming: ‘You’ve made bad choices, this is all your fault.’” That’s the opposite of how he works. Rather than shaming people, he motivates them to get to the core of their feelings about lucre. It also requires them to maybe delve into their financial statements, but not in a way that overwhelms. “Accessible exercises that don’t require being an accountant, but may require you looking at your bank balance,” he said. Vilga works with business owners, people going through a major life transition, and those trying to expand their creative horizons. He knows of what he speaks: Since the pandemic, Vilga has been learning the piano, practicing every day for 13 minutes. Why that number? Because it’s a palatable chunk that gets him in the chair. “The alarm goes off and sometimes I’ll stay a little longer,” he said. “But I must do at least 13 minutes. You can do a lot of amazing things if you work at it a little bit each day for a year.”
