If you are new to this blog, you must be wondering why on earth people want to establish and run a location independent business. To most, the reasons are quite personal; this also holds true in my case.
If you asked me, my first and foremost reason why I want to establish and run a location independent business is – like too many others – because I am fed up with working in the cubicle. Cubicle not only limits my space, but it also limits my creativity. I feel strangled and I feel so limited because I can’t do whatever I want with my life and my career.
I’m not a good staff
That’s the main reason why I quit my 11-month-old job as a web programmer at an educational institution. The 11-month tenure fed me up because I have to travel for hours to go to work. The 11-month life deferred plan fed me up because, well, it’s life deferred. It sucks as, in 4 hours, I finish all my work, but I can’t just go home. Why? Because it’s a 9 to 5 job. You have to wait until your work hours finish.
Even though I like to talk to people, I don’t like to hang around socializing, doing unproductive things. I felt like I wasted my time; I wasted my life, actually, by working a 9-to-5 job.
You know what I wanted? I want to go home after I finish my work. If I can get an 8-hour-worth work in 2 hours, I want to go home right after I finish working; I want to hang out; I want to do my hobby; I want to do what matters most in my life, other than my work.
But that doesn’t happen. You see, cubicles, to me, are jails. Job security, to me, is a prison. I want to jailbreak and do what I am passionate about.
I jumped into entrepreneurship – with false hopes
To cut long story short, I finally embark on my entrepreneurship journey. I kick off thinking that franchising is the right thing for me. So I buy a franchise unit, borrowing my family’s money. It’s all good, except the fact that in franchising, you need to follow rather rigid guidelines set by the franchisor.
You see, I don’t like rules. I started to feel like I was working in a cubicle, full of “thou cannot do that” rules. I invest in a business, but I can’t run it the way I want? In my case, that’s so wrong.
So, I end up losing my business after 3.5 years of turbulence – it was profitable, but the economic situation and many other factors, including my low-quality leadership due to low morale, pushed me to close down my business.
A new hope: I work at home, making money online
Then during my business’ last few months, I embarked on my online entrepreneurship journey. I started off building web directories and blogs. Not long, I finally made my $1,000/month from my web properties. It was difficult, but it was worth it.
Those allow me to work from the comfort of my home, making money online. I am living a geoarbitrage life because I make money in dollars but I spend with local currencies (I live in a South East Asian country.)
I now live 100% from my online business, supporting my family entirely from my online income. I’m probably not a proper nomad, but I am definitely location independent running a business I can run anytime, anywhere (how?) I can run my business wherever I want. Now, I have plenty of choices – thanks to God.
What’s next?
Able to work from home, I am exploring to do mini-retirements. I am now able to go on vacation as I – and my family – wish, but I also want to go to a city overseas and live for a couple of months, blend in as one of the locals, living like what locals do.
It’s a long shot, but a goal worth pursuing.
