Born in London to parents of Indian heritage, Shetty became interested in the wisdom of monks after hearing a talk given by Gauranga Das while he was in college. As he says in his introduction, “I spent most of my childhood doing un-monk-like things” (xii). In his adolescence, he “became involved in a bunch of bad stuff” (xii-xiii). Once in college, however, he settled down and “started to notice the value of hard work, sacrifice, discipline, persistence in the pursuit of one’s goals” (xiii). Still, he remained unsatisfied with the basic goals of “getting a good job, getting married one day, maybe having a family—the usual” (xiii). Thus, the monk’s talk on campus set him on a different path: he joined an ashram and trained to become a monk. He remained on this path for three years until he realized that his true purpose was elsewhere; he felt himself to be better suited to the role of teacher or guide.

After working in the business world as a social media advisor, he was hired by Huffington Post, where he made videos about finding personal purpose and improving mental health. This eventually led him to host his own podcast, On Purpose, whose guests run the gamut from athletes and entertainers to writers and historians.