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Welcome to The Frequency of Wealth, hosted by Nikita Zhitov — entrepreneur, real estate investor, and co-founder of Cityplat. This podcast is where real estate, entrepreneurship, and mindset come together to unlock the true meaning of wealth.
Nikita shares insights from years of value-add investing, scaling businesses, and leading teams through both wins and challenges. But this isn’t just about numbers or deals — it’s about clarity, discipline, and purpose. Listeners discover how meditation sharpens focus, how the right state of mind leads to smarter decisions, and how personal growth fuels long-term success in business and in life.
Through personal stories and inspiring conversations with entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders, The Frequency of Wealth gives you the tools to grow your business, expand your net worth, and strengthen your mindset. It’s a space where strategy meets soul — because wealth isn’t only measured in dollars, but in the way you live, lead, and create impact.
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Because when you go in a meeting with a seller, you got to lift your watch and your phone in a car. What happens in an uncertain economic condition? It all goes out of the window. You got to pay attention to what they're not telling you. I don't know that I would recommend it to everybody. Oh, here's what I want and you shouldn't want what you want. These are golden handcuffs. If everything was be known, it wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be fun. I almost don't want to know a lot of times. What am I doing with my life? What is one life hack that somebody can use to start generating wealth?
Welcome to the Frequency of Wells podcast where we interview successful entrepreneurs who have adopted meditation as a tool for business where we try to identify behavioral patterns, thoughts and spiritual practices that generate abundance. Today we have a very special guest, my good friend Dharma Raja. Originally from India, Dharma immigrated to the United States at the age of 28 as a senior manager at Deote. but he quickly transitioned to become entrepreneur in business for himself and having developed over $3 billion worth of sustainable communities in the Austin, Texas area. As a founder and CEO of Epidom Development, Dharma is a unique in a way that he combines ancient wisdom with modern business strategy to create sustainable communities that serve both profit and purpose. Being a dedicated meditation practitioner, Dharma has a personal connection to Sadguru and he is what I consider a new wave of entrepreneurs of conscious entrepreneurs who are reshaping American suburbia. Dharma, welcome to the uh my show Pregnancy of Wealth podcast. Thank you. That's that's that's a big introduction and thank you for all the kind words uh and and a lot of it is under development but appreciate it. Tell us about background like where did Dharma grow up? Um so yeah my background you know I kind of came from uh uh a pretty interesting background when you compare it with the classical Indian immigrant story. Uh my my grandfather was a uh freedom fighter for India from the freedom from the British uh in the in the ' 40s uh alongside Mahatma Gandhi you know had been really played a very active role in politics. He was a member of the parliament in India. Um and uh started and ran one of the largest life insurance companies in South India in the 40s. Um so he became extremely wealthy. um came from you know the rags the richest story came from uh a a rural part of India south of India uh in in the state called Tamil Nadu and in a rural part of Tamil Nadu and um you know after the independence and the freedom movement and and they they accomplished it and and he built a really successful enterprise um and then the second generation it had a lot of uh there was a lot of uh friction in the family and you A lot of destruction of wealth uh in the second generation which usually in in family cycles happens in the third or the fourth generation but uh unfortunately that happened in the second generation and I say fortunately for me cuz they didn't leave me with that uh blessing of having to do those types of destructive activities. Um and uh and so you know my life in my formative years has been one of watching you know starting watching wealth and then watching steady decline. Um and then you know when I was really in my early teens uh we kind of hit rock bottom as a family and really rock bottom. So um my journey started from there and um you know I was being the only child and watched uh a lot of this play out with my parents and so um you know fast forward I graduated from college and I start you know I start in the corporate world in India and I start working in Indian banking um and then I I got an MBA of sorts and uh I always had a job but I was a real estate broker uh as a side hustle And you know it it replaced my regular day job in comment. I've sold probably about 400 homes in the city of Bangalore, India between 2003 and 2008. Um so that was my first direct exposure as a broker. But you know as my as growing up my my my parents were in real estate you know and and my my mother was a real estate broker and she's still very much as active. So I kind of learned the business from them. Um and uh in '08 uh market was soft in in India just as it was in the rest of the world. Um and uh my day job provided me the opportunity with a visa to come to the United States on an H1 and that's why I came here. So started life again uh from from scratch uh uh in in Houston, Texas and uh then started moving into you know different jobs and then figured out real estate there. One thing led to another. Married my wife who's an architect. uh started building some homes and then started doing some larger subdivisions and here we are today. Very nice. You met your wife in America if you uh no I actually met my wife I had known my wife uh through family connections in India. We had known each other and so we had dated a while and then you know Mhm. So it sounds like you uh were born into Maria originally. So you had that preview and exposure what else looks like. Uh and then during your teenage years when your family hit rock bottom uh you had to basically create your own um make your own way in life but at least you had an understanding and the vision what it could be. Yes. I think the you know today with the amount of work that we do on the uh on the energy side and on the uh mindfulness side and my inner journey you know it's definitely becoming more and more evident to me that u a lot of the thinking and a lot of the attitude and a lot of the personality has been shaped by my early formative exposure to to having a lot and to having nothing. Um, and so that really I think shaped uh how to handle highs and lows and watching people do that and just puts things into perspective as far as what wealth and money really is, what really happens through that journey. Um, so I would say I'm extremely fortunate to have been exposed to that that that early in life. Okay. Okay. So you think it was more of a benefit or it created this feeling of lack of like having lost it all and definitely growing up I mean it was a feeling of lack until really I had sort of a you know till pretty recently through the evolution of my personal inner journey I definitely did consider it as a feeling of lack and to where I stand I definitely realized that that there could not have been a bigger gift. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. Yeah, absolutely. That is is one of the best things that's happened to me. So your name um Dharma in translation from uh Sanskrit Sanskrit literally means the rightous path. How this this concept of dharma guided you throughout your journey and your life in your career? You know I think um I never once took my name as a meaning of how I should run my life. But at a subconscious level when I look back today u it has played a big part in how I have been programmed subconsciously to be able to do that. U um I mean some of the qualities that I think I possess and I have been told uh is you know fairly generous um looking out for people's interests and others interests um you know honesty and and ensuring that you're doing the right thing to you know for everybody around you. We all run for-profit enterprises for the most. Um but you know consciously thinking about how the other you know stakeholders and our process um benefit gain both monetary and personally um is always at the forefront and center of my of my goals. So I feel like that on on a day-to-day life I feel like those kind of principles help me keep me there. Um and then you know I think um the other thing that we have been very fortunate to been exposed to uh is my grandfa my grandfather started a um a school non forprofit school for charity um about 65 years ago in south in in South India after he was successful and through all the turbulences uh the school survived and so we have been uh involved in philanthropy for 60 plus years. We've educated over 40,000 kids. Yeah. And so that um I think that ingrained blessing to have that concept of uh philanthropy even when you had nothing. Um it's easy to be philanthropic when you have a lot of money and you have a lot of means. It's a little harder when you have nothing. But then it gives you a perspective of what that does for you in life. And uh so I think a combination of these things generally gave me a really good foundation to on and grounding for my thinking and how I run my life. Mhm. So you have a personal connection to sguru uh and you practice advanced meditation techniques. Can you give me an example of how uh you've used a meditation uh to influence a major business decision worth millions of dollars? Yeah. No, thank you. Um so so um Suru is is an amazing uh spiritual mystic and uh um I I think you know we're all fairly fortunate to to have him uh to be alive at this time when he's there and um uh I've had a couple of interactions and and uh you know I I follow his practices. That's my biggest involvement is I I follow I started I did the inner engineering with Sguru's uh Isha foundation uh over 10 years ago and then over the last 3 years I have been way more active in in following the practices every day. So that's my biggest um savior for the day. So I spend about 40 45 minutes every day uh at least uh with the practices and uh sometimes in the evening as well uh usually in the morning. Can you describe me your meditation practice at picnic or your morning routine? Like basically um what part of the day do you do it? What exactly do you do? Yeah, the uh I I usually start off uh in in the morning at about uh it depends on what time I wake up, I do not use an alarm. Um so if I wake up at 4:30, so be it. Um or usually between 4:30 and 5 5:30 around that time frame. Um and um you know I do the uh as a part of uh the Isha's practices as a part of the internet you do the Shambi Mahammudra and then um I do a practice called Surya Kria which is your traditional surya namaskcara practices but with uh with a lot more intensity um and so that's that's that's my classic uh morning practice and uh followed up with the quiet time and and breathing. Um and uh recently I have started adding uh uh some of the guided uh cure dispenser abundance practices to it. uh thanks to you your your uh um you know your your exposure to it and and how you opened my eyes to it and and then and I'm uh I'm really enjoying that as a as an add-on to the uh was a big influence on my um spiritual practices and meditation because I have a better logical mindset I you know graduated from school when when did you when did you get exposed to this? uh the first time in 2019 but I haven't attended his like week long advanced meditation retreats until 2023 right okay so um yeah so for me it was really hit home because he explains it with science yeah information so so how and how and and you had also recently had some exposure to ISA and so yeah yeah I also went through inner engineering I went through integration process you know spent u a day with him in Canada in Toronto know um doing some meditation work um and um um but I have I haven't developed my own routines and things like that but yeah I want to but I want to learn from the best mistakes and practitioners out there. Uh to me the to me the biggest thing has been uh my my experience of where I am today in my journey because this keeps evolving. uh where I stand today. Um meditation to me has been uh not just sitting down quietly for hours, which obviously is amazing. Uh but I'm still early on in my evolution. And I find that doing yoga and yogic practices and hat yoga helps me clear out a lot of stored emotions uh across different parts of the body. Get the energy moving. Gets the energy moving. I guess removes emotion the way I feel um at different parts of the body through my through the practices and uh it primes me to to get better to be to more geared up to do you know silent the sitting down with your eyes closed meditation. Um so I kind of it helps me lead up to it. Um I wanted to go back to um second part of the Role question about how meditation practice have influenced a major business decision for you. I look at I look at my I look at my body as a container and and I feel like you know starting in the morning with a practice with any sort of powerful practice of this this type once you clear the container. So, you know, you're coming with so much of baggage from the previous day and and thoughts and feelings and and we all lead busy lives. You know, we're doing multiple things. We run businesses, we have families, we have young kids, uh you know, parents, travel, you know, philanthropy and uh so the container is full and it's all over the place, right? Um, so I feel like this is just a start of this is almost mandatory for me to be able to just reset and to start with a clear container and clean the slate. Um, so I think from that standpoint, first of all, cleaning the slate, clearing the container helps you um, think straight, you know, helps you start off with a helps you reset and start from a base level. All of this is about being able to tap into our deeper inner potential, able to tap into our inner, you know, godliness within us and the resources that you inner resources, right? Um, and so, you know, I think I think if if there's a lot of noise inside, it's hard, right? If you're in a noisy room, it's it's hard to it's hard to communicate. It's hard to have this conversation. You know, the quieter room like this, it's it's a lot easier for us to have a meaningful deep conversation. So I think you know having that quiet space inside and being able to get there primes you to do whatever you want to do in your own personal way. So I think so it sounds like you um there's not a specific like one major deal that use meditation to you create millions of dollars but it's more of a daily practice of uh getting clarity. I think it's a lot of micro decisions and a lot of um you know I'm you know thinking through how to structure a deal or restructure a deal or refinance a deal or raise money on deal or you know exit or what's path how do you navigate complex economic conditions and uh you know I think when you're in the midst of it and you're in the thick of it it's harder to think and get creative um but then when you sit down and you do a specific practice for 40 45 minutes and you clear the container you actually have that space to be able to think and so you you're getting micro ideas which have major shifts if you implement it the right way right so I think absolutely I can attribute it to to specific deals today and specific instances and specific decisions and thought patterns uh but I think it's it helps you make those micro shifts and gives you you know reveals ideas that you already have in so most developers uh focus um on uh profit margins and business trends, things like that. Uh how do you uh integrate uh something as spiritual as meditation uh without sacrificing um profit? I'm going to answer this question in a reverse manner. I mean let's look at where we're at today. uh developers and you know people like us we we have methods we have systems we have formula we have proformas uh you know we do a lot of underwriting and what happens in in a in a in an uncertain economic condition it's all goes out of the window right you you have no idea what the exit values are going to be you know and and and in a space that you play in you don't know what the cap rates are you don't know what the yield on cost is you don't know what the exit cap rate is going to be in two years can estimate yeah but you cannot predict two you can't you have no idea today and it's hard to make decisions. Um you know in our case you know the pace of the sales to the home builders um you know what is that going to be 6 months from now one year from now it's dependent on a multitude of factors you know pre one thing was just the interest rate now you have tariffs you have you know geopolitical conditions there's a lot of things that you can't predict so all those performance and underwriting is literally you know questionable and and goes out of the window so I think the biggest thing for me is um uncertainty and and and and and the unknown and to be able to handle that and to get comfortable and to deal with that um you start from there. So you embrace the unknown. You have to embrace it and and it helps you this all this work really helps you embrace that unknown and and and uh I think generally I'm predisposed to be starting from the unknown uh which I consider as a blessing. I don't need too much of certainty to be able to get started on something. Oh, okay. So, it sounds like you you don't really have everything figured out, but you kind of just surrender to the process and become an observer whatever life throws at you. Uh you surrender to that and you adjust your strategy. Yes. As things develop. Yes, definitely. I mean, we definitely have to do the rigorous thorough underwriting and we definitely go through the process and we have the tools and templates to do that. Um, but it hits a wall. You know, you know this number. Now what? And so, you know, you're you're you're going you're you're halfway through the deal and you're like, "Okay, none of this is going to add up anymore. What are you going to do?" Um, and so if from the get- go, if you have the ability to deal with the uncertain situation or the unknown, it's less likely, you're less expecting of of of this certain prediction to play out. You're more open to life coming at you. Yeah. If everything was be known, it wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be fun. I almost don't want to know. A lot of times I don't want to know, you know. Uh you know, I think I I embrace the concept and the idea of risk. Uh I understand what people say. The way I look at risk is different from the way uh a lot of my employees or my management looks at risk. Uh I embrace it. But um at the same time, you know, I don't want to know all the the pitfalls or the downsides. I I have an idea of it. But I think the more you dwell on those aspects and the more you dwell on the things and the pos all the possible outcomes of how things could go wrong, the more you stay focused on those outcomes. I'd like to stay focused on if I see a big pattern and a big trend and I see the general trend evolving there and I already as a combination of what I read and see and hear and talk to you know people like you uh Nikita my body already has some inate information that I don't have to sit down and try to you know which I I like to believe is the my intuition so the sum of all those things that I get as stored in the body is my intuition. So, speaking of intuition, you've quietly assembled thousands of acres of land around Austin while most other developers focused um on the inner city. Uh what inner knowing or intuition guided you to do that? Yeah, thank you. So, so, so, so, so just to just for some clarity, we we're now uh fairly all over Texas, Austin and Houston for sure, uh pretty prominently. So I think uh when I was a uh real estate agent, a realtor in in in Bangalore, India and India, you know, in the early 2000s, um I saw a very similar trend to Austin play out there. Uh and uh it was a scenario of u um it was going through a tech boom. Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India and uh um it was going through a tech boom and you know a lot of money was flowing in a lot of offshoring and outsourcing of large companies here in the United States and around the world moving business and work and um to India and so uh real estate was booming and um there were a lot of investors coming into the picture. So for every one real end users there was about three to four investors. Um and at the time I was a broker you know and uh I made you know commissions on transactions but it was not you know kind of taking a bigger charge and really generating value and making a big play. Um and when when when the boom in Austin started I just kind of watched a similar scenario play out that I had seen in Bangalore in the early days. You recognize the same patterns recognize the same pattern. You see I think it's skin life just recognizing patterns because everything repeats itself in cycles. You see the same a pattern happening elsewhere, you can capitalize on it because you know how it's going to play out essentially. Absolutely. That's fascinating that we're talking about this because, you know, this is not a topic that we usually talk about outside this this step of a setting. Um, but that pattern is what really pushed me to say, you know, let's go do this because I literally quit a high paying job. You know, these are golden handcuffs. Yeah. uh when you're in a senior position in a in a large consulting company uh such as Deote which is very reputable company and you have you're surrounded by extremely intelligent people you're making a lot of money and uh your potential your career looks great you know um well that would be the certainty that would be the known that's the no yes but sounds like you want clearly don't I clearly don't like the certainty although you embrace the uncertainty yes the variety absolutely um and Um but as Dr. Joe says, you know, then no one has never let him down. I don't think it have never let me down either. Yeah. There's uh you almost have to get out of your own way uh in order to because maybe universe have something bigger plan for you. And your journey was somewhat similar, right? I mean, we've talked about this before, but your journey of how you've been through hardships and how you've been through ups and downs in your life with your family is fairly similar. Yeah, it's it is what it's for. And so, you know, I think we can kind of relate on the topic of, you know, how that conditions us to and primes us to be able to go do this, right? Yeah. Um cuz I had a lot of friends around me in the corporate environment who wanted to who are aspiring entrepreneurs but just not able to take the jump and make the step. So when you were sitting in a city council meeting on your resoning or entitlement hearing or when you negotiating with a Korean conglomerate like KBI group, uh how do you use your um meditation knowledge or your higher knowing um insights uh to get competitive advantage and get upper hand in those negotiations? In my evolution where I stand today uh I I focus a lot more on staying open uh and embracing what uh what potential possibilities you could get from different cultures and different business owners. I mean every country is doing business a different way. Um I'm very exposed to doing business in India uh as I have and uh you know Asian cultures are similar not the same but similar to Indian cultures in terms of the relationship based approach and uh and how they think and the concept of ownership versus leasing and you know those types of things. So it helps me understand have a little bit of an understanding of how they a starting point if you will. Um but you know I think just the the combining the energy work and the meditations and the and just staying present um I think just helps you to stay open and and not have preconceived notions and not try to take in you know try to fit a square peg into a round hole and uh in fact one of our senior management people are in Korea right now working with a few companies cuz we have we have a presence around the uh uh Samsung plant in uh in Austin. Samsung is investing um you know tens of billions of dollars into one of the largest uh fabrication plants in the world uh in a suburb of Austin called Taylor and we have uh a lot of exposure there and so we're working with the companies from Korea um and uh you know I think I I think generally it has made me a lot more present. It has lot made me pay a lot more attention to conversations. um I admittedly struggled with paying a lot of attention um in the past and that is improving significantly. I think that's the one thing that I if I were to point the finger to one thing one one thing one shift that all are my inner inner practices is helping me in in expanding business relationships and and even personal relationships is is is being more present being more present be able to pay more. sounds like it's more like a practical to all like meditation helps to gain clarity and being more in the present moment. Yeah. Uh so that you and don't have a preconceived notions uh around cultures or people and by being present attentive and without judgment when you're in those meetings uh it opens you to the possibility and people feel your presence uh where they're more inclined to do business with you. is that I think definitely I mean I think um you know if we're sitting and talking to each other and and you're not engaged with me I know it and vice versa. So I think just uh my experience has been people just tend to take you a lot more seriously. You're more likely to get a deal done. You're more likely to get a job. You're more likely to get a you know a break in life if the person sitting across the table from you knows that you're engaged. You know that's one of the um it's interesting how it comes from a different perspective. Uh but I had the same uh this trick as far as being present uh has been one of my keys to success in real estate career right over 20 plus years. uh namely when I'm in negotiations with sellers. Um and I got it as a tip from one of my mentors. He said when you go in a meeting with a seller, you got to lift your uh your watch and your phone in the car because the moment you start looking at the watch or checking your phone, it tells the other person like, "Okay, they got to be somewhere else." You know, they got you got to be fully engaged. You don't want to have any distractions. The goal is to eliminate all distractions. Yes. So you can focus on the person who you're talking to and because people are going to tell you some things but most of the information especially in negotiations is said between the lines is what you got to pay attention to what they're not telling you and you got to pick up those subtle clues they're going to give you like those little offramps but you don't if you're going to be distracted and not fully present you're not going to pick up on those clues but those clues hold the key in negotiations hold the key to their real motivation because your goal in negotiation is to get to the to the bottom of what's motivates them, what their beliefs are. You have to understand them so you can put yourself in their shoes, understand uh what drives them and then package your proposal in a in a um in a wrap that's understandable to them. If you're going to tell them, "Oh, here's what I want, and you shouldn't want what you want, but you know, you should want this instead." Well, you're going to get rejection push back. If you if you understand what drives them, what motivates them, what um what their belief system is, then you can present a proposal that's consistent with those beliefs and you're more likely to get a yes. It goes back to Aristotle times when he said uh persuasion. When he defined the term persuasion, persuasion is not like me negotiating, persuading you to do something in a negative tone back to old times, persuasion meant a state of agreement where two parties reach state of agreement and they agree on something and the easiest way to do it is uh talk in the language that's understandable of your audience. So um and I think you flew to Korea to meet with the represent representatives of Samsung yourself personally to um integrate their needs into um your projects. Um tell us about that experience. I think uh yeah so it was last year early part of last year and we have somebody there right now representing uh us uh from our team. Um and uh um you know I think the experience is that the Samsung is a big company and a lot of the their suppliers are looking to come here too and follow uh suit and u they'll really look up to them as a as a large player. Uh the culture to me was very one more of you know uh ownership versus you know the leasing mentality and they liked to be the owners of things and very very daring very businessoriented uh as a culture the Koreans and uhospitable um I love the country I mean personally phenomenal country clean one of the cleanest countries in the world um and uh um you know I I think they're very pro business and they they they want to come here and they want to do business with the United States. So I think uh all these things bodess well for us to be able to to you know we're going with the flow. They want to do business with us. We want to do business with them. So I think it's still we're now year two into forging some of those relationships and u it's still early but I look at this as a long-term play. Um and uh I see this as being as a key part of our strategy is is to have uh global connections of people wanting to move into the United States which seems to tie in well with the story of uh of the general uh US economy right now. You know, encouraging manufacturing coming into the United States. Um and so uh I feel like you know our strategy seems to line up well with the where the country is headed. Mhm. And your um Algam Gateway project, it's around $500 million project, almost 800 homes. Uh how do you um balance um for profit business while keeping affordable um and livable comm and creating affordable and livable communities? Yeah, thank you. No, that's a great uh tract of land. We we love that project. It's uh it's about 20 minutes from Austin, east of Austin, towards Houston uh on a major prominent highway and we have a lot of frontage and um we're going to have a lot of retail and potentially some big box retail as well. Um and an apartment complex on there. So it's so it's about you know an apartment complex is about what 18 acres of retail u and uh and then about 800 homes. Uh the way typically we manage the affordability around in in single family in Texas is uh mud districts. Uh, municipal utility districts is something that you can file. You can create it legislatively or you can file it with the Texas Commission for Environment and Quality. And uh, you form a district that helps you um, levy a specific tax rate onto the final product of the house and that you can actually float bonds uh, to get rainbows for based on the value of the homes. So Montistricts have been in Texas for decades and they've really helped keep affordability good in in bigger cities like Houston and Dallas and now Austin's catching up. And then this project you're going to develop retail and multif family yourself or you going to kind of a part it out and sell it in pods? Generally we do the infrastructure and we sell the lots to the home builders. We're going to start phase one of that is within the next you know 3 to 6 months. Um we're actively working that project and um we are going to start some retail too. That's the deal we have with the city is we're going to start some of the retail. So you're going to try to vertical go vertical. We we're going to do in in small portions. Not that's too much of retail for us to go all of it. Uh given that that's not what we do, but we're going to start off with you know one retail strip center um and just to seed the subdivision you know and u and kind of go from there. But generally the plan would be is to sell retail pads. You know a lot of our projects are including this one is in also in the opportunity zone. Um and so you know provides a lot of uh advantageous benefits from a taxation standpoint and investment standpoint. I want to go back for a second to your family. So your grandfather led uh freedom uh revolution in India but he also was one of the uh leaders who pioneered insurance industry in India. Um and you spent years working in corporate consulting. What was the point in time when you realized that you I guess need to follow more your dharmic purpose right? uh and follow your grandfather's steps in uh you know I think that's a great question. And I've never given that any serious thought. But um I think there was several instances across my childhood where I've had u intuitions and feelings. And you know when you think about it where you stand today there were many callings if you will to go and do something right to go do you're always set up for greatness. I think a big portion of this is my father's uh instilling the thinking into me as well. Um cuz I never met my granddad. He died young. And so um but you don't pay attention to the calling. You don't pay attention to the intuition. I think that that's a big part of, you know, when you when you're growing spiritually, you start to learn to pay attention to the intuition. You start to learn to trust yourself a little bit more and you have more confidence in yourself. And till then, you're trying to just go run with the pack. Um and uh you're seeking validation. and you know you you don't know exactly how to navigate life. Mhm. So I think that's the one big thing that uh doing a lot of inner work and meditative practices does for you is you know you get closer and closer to yourself. Um and that helps you trust your intuition a lot more and that's when you really start living life. I mean till then you're kind of asleep right? So um I think I had those glimpses several times at several different points during the first 30 years of my life but it was only in the last 10 15 years of my life that I started really paying attention to it and when you started paying attention to that essentially paying attention to what your soul is telling you right to the feeling sensations inside that's when your net worth starting to grow. Yes. I mean, you know, I think it's it's incremental proof, right? You you trust in small little pieces and you like, oh, well, this really works, you know, um this everybody says do it, you know, this way. Um, you know, I'm going to quit my job and go do this. And, you know, initially you're you go through struggles and you go through, you know, tumultuous times and then you're like, oh, wow, you learned so much. just that learning was worth everything, you know, and so recognizing that um and being able to pay attention to that gives you more confidence to go do more of it and then it's it's a stacking of that. Yeah. So would you say that you have uh you have a shifted point of enlightenment or being awakened? Uh I think I think that's that's a big word and I think um you know I you know I'm still trying to understand what that word really means. So, um I don't know that I would go that far, but I would definitely say I was asleep and I am awake. Okay. Uh I'm definitely awake now. I'm awake to the concept of, you know, there's a lot more to life than this material and physical world that we're in. Um and there's a lot more to life than just, you know, you follow a certain formula and you get to this outcome, right? And then uh you know I think um just having the belief I've never had a problem with belief. I like to think of you know what we're talking about in in a in the way in which there's a there's a continuum and then on the right on one side of the continuum there's faith and then the other side of the continuum the science and you know some people are are able to start and believe more from the faith side and some people are very scientific just because exposure of their background and learning I'm definitely more on the faith side I'm less scientific but um but I had a good amount of science in me so I think science Not in a bad way, but science generally requires you to have proof before you believe. You know, prove it to me and then I will believe and then the other side believe and I will believe till you prove me wrong, you know. So, um um so I think I think a lot of this is is is being able to marry and and and to be able to bring the scientific community more to believe, right? and and even the people who who are believers if you have elements of doubt in in there being able to get yourself more to the stage of belief is very helpful for not just for success I mean I think just for your day-to-day sanity um so being able to be awake to me is just moving more towards being able to believe 100% is have faith yeah have faith and more belief right and so moving more towards the belief continuum the faith continuum that's that's the awakening for me That's the process that I am comfortable saying that I'm getting closer to. That's probably why religions are so popular. All different kinds of religions give people something to believe in. I guess it's a basic human need uh to have faith in something. Yeah. I think I think I think whatever you can use as a prescription, whatever you can use as a guide book to to be able to get there, right, um is good, right? I mean we all have different versions of it, different religions, different understandings of it, different opinions of it. But if it gives you a way, a process to expose and open up the dimension in you to get get you there, why not? Yeah. And um you mentioned your uh wife Ashwini, right? She's a chief architect uh working in the business. Uh how do you manage the a family dynamic when there is um some disagreements around business? Yes. But there's millions of dollars at stake. So it has to be emotionally charged and obviously a lot of stake. It's a very interesting uh um relationship and uh I don't know that I would recommend it to everybody.
Um I would not. I think it's it's we've really found a way to work around it and now we're in a place where we've crossed the hump and it's amazing. Um, but it took a lot of work to be able to manage and balance personal priorities, you know, um, um, you know, family priorities, kids, romantic priorities with, you know, goals of staying on target, priorities, deadlines, timelines, and, you know, being hard on those timelines with the spouse creates a lot of conflict, creates a lot of uncomfortable conversations and situations where, you know, you think that you able to uh separate that or has that affected I mean it is it's a work in progress it's uh there's there's no I haven't found an easy way to do it and we've had to work through it and uh I think it's in a much better place today than it was a decade ago but it's it's it's a work in progress and it the great thing about it is it has helped open up you know new dimensions of the relationship um which has helped us bring us closer Um ultimately so you know looking at it from that standpoint I think balancing it the fact that we are involved in so much of the inner journey and inner personal work and in awinst it helps with being able to see the bigger picture it helps with being able to admit and and and and uh you know acknowledge where you stand don't let your ego get in the way and you know things of that type uh because if you know if generally if you're very tied to your selfidentification it becomes hard to separate it out. Speaking of ego I have a question. So you managing multiple projects worth billions of dollars uh in multiple locations at the same time. How do you maintain or you keep your ego in check and also that must be very overwhelming um to have so many projects going on at the same time. So how do you use I guess meditation or spiritual practices to uh maintain that sanity and also keeping your ego in check? Yeah, for me my my practices are mandatory because otherwise you know retaining your sanity to manage juggle multiple things. Uh uh so I think the numbers and the scale I mean there's three different questions here. First I'd like to address the numbers and the scale. I think you know millions, billions, hundreds of millions. I think these are just numbers and you know I think we allow those to to overwhelm us or to daunt us or to you know um or to get us anxious or scared and inject fear um and I think if you separate out the numbers from it and you just look at the situation for what it is and what needs to be done it's generally a little bit more helpful to manage the day-to-day activities on a lot of these projects and u you know I think a lot of these come with challenges and adversities which I feel like as you're solving and you're working through that's life right you're able to actually grow spiritually as you work through these things because it's teaching you how to handle the situation and now without you knowing it you're just more capable of handling much bigger situations so it sounds like one of the keys here is to develop emotional detachments from to from outcome like where you not where are you not attached to outcome absolutely I mean I think tying into the ego conversations I think generally Um and this is not to boast but I I I feel proud of myself that I generally have lesser of an ego from from what I see generally out there. Um and uh or I did have and that's reducing reducing and and a key part of that is absolutely to detach from the outcome is to detach from taking credit in my opinion. I mean you just it's not in my opinion in life is that you know we're we happen to be here you know we happen to be here things are happening um we are assisting I think we are assisting for sure and our plans are by having this conversation by us meeting by us doing things we're assisting in the outcome of certain things or I think taking credit that you made it all happen is is is is grossly overrated you know overrated. That that's that's overstated. So you you believe in pred in destiny and predetermined Yeah. I just outcomes. I don't think I don't think I can take credit for the uh the the huge successes of our project or you know take all I on the contrary I am responsible for the project. I'm fully responsible for the failures of it. And so you're responsible for the failures, but you're not responsible for I'm responsible to try to make my best possible efforts to get the positive outcome. I all the failures cannot be attributed to me. Neither can all the successes be attributed to me. But I'm responsible to to to play my part to play my day-to-day role to be able to take the project to the successful outcome. I'm responsible to look and navigate hard complex situations and find al possible alternate ways to handle things if if we were to face a challenge. But you know um from a credit standpoint you know I definitely you know do I pat myself on the back and do I get happy 100%. We're super happy about it. I take credit for it but you know you just don't beat your chest about it. I see. So you do you believe that we are creators of our own reality and we can change that reality or you you think there is no free will and kind of everything is predetermined for us. No, I think it's a combination. I mean I think there's a lot of predetermined stuff but u I think you can I mean the actions you take I do think shape changes um the actions you take whether it's physical actions or it's your internal spiritual actions the actions you take definitely do change and shape uh the outcome of things is it's been my experience so far is the way I would like to put it okay so it sounds like some major events in life are kind of predetermined like you're supposed to go on this path So under this license but day-to-day small details you can kind of navigate and change them. Yes. And yes and I think you can you can magnify the positive outcome of a of a big event and you can mitigate the negative outcome as as well by taking certain actions. It's definitely possible in my in in my experience and and the way I'd like to just two more things on that is what is positive, what is negative and success and bad and good is is all up to perception is all up to how each person's individual's perception of that specific reality and that situation. And what's in your control is to be able to shape how the outcome appears, how the outcome really how how the plane lands, how the you know the outcome is, how the financial outcome and how the blow or the good part is for people by taking certain you know steps. Um so I think definitely those those those those outcomes we have an ability to shape I firm believer. Do you have any particular one example Warren uh into your intuition you got have uh helped you navigate a business decision? Yeah, I mean there's just so many instances now. Um I I um I mean in one of the recent instances just to quote an example you know we have a a large track of land that we're working on right now that we had been working on for the last year for a master plan uh community and now um you know uh my intuition was to stay with it and you know we uh the underwriting didn't check out the the the the suitability for what we specifically do um wasn't really working. It it turned out to be we stayed the course and in the last 6 months it's turned out to be you know 5x what we thought it would be because it came up with an alternate use uh in a completely different uh adjacent you know business line and uh you know that's a big evidence of trusting me on this is a big evidence trust data center it's a data center play um and so we move from next use master plan type opportunity to now it's going to be a data center which we all know is is the biggest and the hottest and the greatest thing to be powering the next wave of AI over the next 100 years and u and this is this is a large one and uh I mean it's just you know I this is completely unplanned um and so for listeners who are listening to us right now if they want to start integrating meditation into their daily life or business. Uh, what is one practical tool they can start doing tomorrow that you can advise or recommend? Well, I mean, I think to help them get started. Well, I think you really have to be curious, right? Um, and I think you know what helped me was really what helped me start was really asking questions to myself. What am I doing with my life? You know, why am I doing certain things? Why I'm adding more toxic thoughts, poisons, substances to my life that is making me go go the other way. So making making me go worse. And why why why is that happening? I had I was fortunate. I had a big adversity. I had a big setback that and I don't wish that on anybody, but I wish that on people. If you don't have a big setback in your life, you're not going to question things deep enough. I think in our current day of um you know we're all so in the mind we're so in so in it right the analytical mind so you you unless you have something that really smacks you in the face you don't you can't pull back and say what the hell just happened this defies all logic I can't understand what is going on I need so sometimes your worst day is your best day is your best day and so is your it's your worst day is your best day. Yeah. Is your best day. Um and so so it's just like I think to be you know I think it's it's hard to manufacture adversity right it's hard to uh create it artificially right so what at the same time I think if you can start asking the questions in your day-to-day life as to what is happening if you're seeing certain patterns that are repeating that are not serving you and that are going down a path of this is just not making sense whether it's a relationship whether that's money it's a job it's you know it's your kids whatever it is hey I'm doing all the things but things are not going the way I think it should be. The formula is not working. What am I doing wrong? I think that question alone is enough to start thinking maybe I've got to think of a different way of doing this. Maybe I'm not doing the right things. You start asking that question. Okay, now what can I do? That's the next question. And then you know you're like, okay, there's a lot of things that are out there. I personally looked at so many different ways to get started. I tried so many different things to get started and you need to be curious. You need to be curious. You need to look Yeah. things. It's so interesting you mentioned adversity because you know there is uh IQ that people measure and things like that. Well, one of the things I do uh when hiring employees for my business is I look at AQ adversity quotient. You may be high achiever, right? But have you actually struggled? I want to know examples of where you experienced adversity in your life and you were able to overcome it. So I look for adversity quotient. Oh, that's amazing. That's beautiful. I'm going to steal that. All right. That's beautiful. Yes. Because I want to know because that tells me how your character is built. Uh you know, you might have I might have two candidates. One have a straight A student, but it came to them easily and everything has been easily. They haven't really experienced at first. When I have somebody who is a B minus or C student, yeah, but given what they started and what circumstances and cards were dealt to them, uh they have over they have overcome uh great obstacles and great odds to get to where they are now. That's fantastic. And to me that's shows more resilience because in business it's not not always going to be you know sunny and you know pretty weather. Yeah, sometimes it could be challenging situations and I want the people on my team have ability to overcome adversity uh and they're not afraid of it. They can look in the direction of fire and uh not get phased. That's that's that's that's just one of the best ways I've heard of that. That's it's a great way. I mean we hear of EQ a lot, emotional quotient and some other cues but adversity quotient is the first time I'm hearing of that's great. Um, no. I mean, I think that's a great interview question and having seeking that talent out in people that is really uh important um thing to do and a lot of people just haven't here's the other thing I've noticed um just in doing some work with you know my personal business and employees is people have been through adversity but they don't recognize it um and or they don't embrace it or they don't embrace it or they read into it in a different way. I mean you can take it You can you can go down the path of drugs and alcohol. You can go down the path of you know spirituality and kind of you know digging deeper to understand things. you you could really and exercise and wellness and health and you could really take it any which way, right? And um and it's it's it's not wrong to go down this path cuz going down this path of drugs and alcohol will create other adversities for you and somewhere something will smack you in the face where you will come back and course score. It's going to happen. Yeah. It's going to happen at some point. Question is when does it happen? Yeah. the sooner it happens to you, the luckier you are, right? And so, like, I think if you're able to recognize it and say, "Wait a minute. This actually just happened to me." Someone's watching this podcast and they're something really happened to me and I just probably didn't pay attention to it. And maybe there's something that's enough. I think that's enough to start. And then from there, you you stack, right? And and it might take you a little bit longer if it's a small start, but who knows? I mean, you know, you got to start somewhere. You got to start somewhere and it might be there soon. Yeah. Let me ask you some more couple of philosophical questions uh to kind of wrap this uh this up. So, what is frequency of wealth to you? What does it mean to you? And what's your basically what's your understanding of it? Man, I love this idea. I told you I mean I'm just uh in all of you to have started this and take this step to start this channel. And um you know, I think the to me um I think there's a I mean Money is such a driver and an equalizer in this world across the world. Everybody, no matter how rich or how poor you are, it's the one common denominator that you can tell motivates and incentivizes almost everybody, if not everybody. And um you know, I think the spirituality aspect of it is great, but different people have different you know, goals when it comes to spirituality. um when it comes to business and for profit everybody has money as a goal but when it comes to so being able to take you know energy work and spirituality and to be able to is to be able to combine it with the wealth or the money aspect I think was a great way to draw more people into it and then they will start to see the other benefits that come with spirituality and so I think if you're able to give them the money benefit of of getting them to get into spirituality fantastic I mean that's one way to bring them in and they understand it. And of course, you're going to see massive benefits in the money realm and wealth realm. Of course, I I I today do not have a doubt, but you're going to see so many other benefits of it. And you're going to see, you know, run your day-to-day life in a much more calm, composed, and peaceful manner that you struggle, you'll struggle to go back. Yeah. You know, so I think the frequency of wealth to me is or the frequency of money is is really money, you know, is is is is a piece of energy too, right? I mean, we are all seeing fiat getting phased out and digital currencies starting to come in. I mean, not necessarily phased out, but get less popular and digital currencies get a lot more adoption. And it's a lot more believable now to talk about money as energy, right? And money as a frequency. Um wealth is a frequency which is the other aspect of it but you know tying spirituality with frequency and tying energy with frequency will help people understand how to attract more of it to them and then it opens up new dimensions for them. So that's why I like the way you Yeah. People not always look at those two things. Yes. Together when you think of somebody spiritual means a monk. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost bad to make money, right? It's almost like a bad word. Like I mean this guy who's spiritual should not be making money. I think that's total [ __ ] I think it's go hand in hand very nicely too. Yeah. It's actually only when you combine the two. I think that's when you really can start generating wealth. Well, I think the attachment to the money aspect of it is probably not needed, right? which is which you will which we will figure out how to detach when we get further along the journey. We will learn, we will get there, right? But you know it's nothing is wrong with making money. You need it. It's what make the makes the world go around. Yeah. And um so what is one life hack or principle uh that somebody can use uh to start generating more wealth for themsel? What's your favorite life hack um a quantum life hack to generate more abundance? I I think really my quantum life hack is really abundance is it's just belief. Just belief in the unknown, belief in you pick up something, you're just daunting. You're scared of it. You're scared to make a step to quit a job. You're scared to make a step to make a big decision to take on a big project because this is too big for me. You know, there's all sorts of lines in this world. I mean, uh don't bite more than you can chew. Um, that's one of my uh uh favorite uh lines to use as a you know, it's not necessarily true at all. There's there's context for it, but you know, people take those kinds of things and then take them out of context and they just don't take the risk, right? Um so, you know, go take that risk. Go make that step. Um and then everything else will open up for you. That that's a that's that's a spiritual step. But so being able to trust and make that step and make that one decision is will start. We'll create the start. I mean you've you've done it so many years ago and you continue to do it. Yeah. And you see basically just have uh a take the first step is if I were to summarize it just take a step in the direction of your dreams and b have faith. Yes. That's it's all going to work out and you're going to figure it out and then surrender to the surrender to the and if you lose it's okay. It's fine. What's the problem? I mean, it's fine. You just just pick up and go try again, commit to it, and just keep going. Mhm. Yeah. Well, Dharma, thank you so much. Do you have any final um thoughts or ideas you would like to share with the audience? No, this is again I mean I really commend you for starting this and you know Nikita this is you know for a man who's achieved so much success like you have and in in the real estate world and you know um and and found a beautiful way to navigate that. Uh I am very confident that you will find an equally beautiful way to navigate this podcast and this uh channel. So I'm uh I'm really fortunate to be one of the early guests. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you here. Let me shake your hand. Um you've been watching Frequency of Wealth podcast and today we had a very special guest Dharma Raja uh from Texas uh very prolific and visionary developer. If you enjoyed uh the episode, please like and comment and subscribe below and we will see you at the next episode.