Archive for October, 2008
6 Things You Must Do Before You Leave The Rat Race, Set Up Your Own Business And Become Location Independent
Photo by F1RSTBORN
“I just can’t do this any more, I’m resigning”.
As soon as I heard the words tumble out of my mouth, I felt relief. Then panic.
Talk about a one eighty…a management consultant re-training as a personal trainer. I’m sure most of my friends and family thought I’d gone loony mad and was in the middle of a break down. And yet it was the most sane, most sensible and truly best decision I have ever made in my life. Really.
If you’re thinking about doing the same and quitting the day job, please don’t do what I did – which was pretty much spur of the moment and not very well thought out at all. A classic case of Ready, Fire, Aim!
No, if you’re going to do the same here’s what I wish I’d have done before leaving the rat race, starting up on my own and finally, becoming location independent…
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News & Updates for October 2008
There are a few minor (and one major) developments on the location independent front that we’d like to share with you today. First up are the minor tweaks we’ve made to the blog:
Dealing With Poverty As A Location Independent Entrepreneur
Photo by Leni Rachael
This post is our contribution to Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty.
Imagine this…you’re gallivanting around an idyllic tropical island thinking to yourself how lucky you are to be a nomadic, location independent professional when all of a sudden a scrawny, scruffy child – who seems no older than about 5 – pulls you out of your reverie and asks you for some food so they don’t starve to death.
That is reality. And it’s the reality you’ll face if you, like us, choose to live and work in countries around the world and you don’t plan to stay holed up in a plush hotel all day, every day.
How would you react if:
- Someone comes to your open front door at night crying and asking for R5 (approx. £0.30) for a bus fare because they have no money and can’t get home.
- You get stopped almost daily on the street and asked for money or food.
- You have homeless people who sleep on the street outside your fully furnished, short term, comfortable apartment.
- You find out that the average wage for a worker in the country you’re staying is approx. £7 (or $14) per day.
- Your cleaner (who probably earns £5 per day) asks if you’ll donate some money to the local community for fixing the church roof.
If you’re the kind of person who would never consider giving money to someone who asks for it because you can’t stand beggars or who wouldn’t go into a shop and buy a sandwich and a drink for a homeless person, then you are probably better off avoiding places such as Grenada and many Caribbean islands, parts of Asia, parts of Eastern Europe, most of Africa and many big cities around the globe. In fact, you’re probably better off never stepping outside your front door at all.
Poverty is everywhere, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. On a continent like Africa, it can be overwhelming. You’re faced with it daily – you may even get annoyed by constant requests for money and food but you can’t avoid it, no matter how hard you try.
In a world where there is always someone far poorer than you, it is easy to convince yourself that your actions (no matter how large or small) make no difference nor have any impact on those with lifestyles less fortunate than yours.
You’re wrong. You – we – can make a world of difference.
The Mindset Of The Nomadic, Location Independent Entrepreneur
Image by Dimi15
Being a nomadic, location independent entrepreneur is not just about travelling around the globe permanently, earning an income via the internet and working from exotic places.
That’s part of it of course. But the biggest part of living a nomadic, work-from-anywhere kind of lifestyle is the mindset which underpins it.
If you follow any other people who live our kind of vagabond lifestyle, you’ve possibly noticed something similar in the things they write, the way they view the world and the ways in which they go about their lives.
It’s these beliefs, values and attitudes which form the “location independent” mindset. Do you have it?
