Some of the stackers might already know that I'm a ( digital ) nomad, you may wonder what a digital nomad is and why I became one.
"Digital nomads conduct their lives in a nomadic manner while engaging in remote work using digital telecommunications technology." - Wikipedia.
You might already be living the digital nomad lifestyle if you work online and don't need to be in a specific place at a particular time. But, just like anything else in life, being a nomad comes with its own perks and tradeoffs.
A Bit About My Journey
For the past seven years, I have explored Southeast Asia, the Caucasus, and some parts of Europe, and now I'm based in Anatolia and slowly heading to the least explored:
2017: My First Taste of Freedom
I was working in a consulting firm, it was quite a nice job with lots of fun events. Basically, everything looked great from the outside, but deep down I wasn't happy... Not that I'm super passionated about it, and I really hated those boring meetings, not to mention need to wake up so early and the traffic!
My wake-up moment came when I was sipping a $2 avocado smoothie in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I was texting with clients at the same time, and the funny part was they didn't even know where I was. 👀 And I LOVED waking up every day and being able to do whatever I wanted. Every day felt like a new adventure instead of doing the same thing again and again.
By the end of 2017, I started writing, and this decision changed my life. I followed a few interesting brains, and they helped me realize the charm of writing online—leveraging the internet to attract serendipity, and you only need 1000 true fans to make a good living! I started documenting my journey and posted my first article ( in another language ), but barely anyone read it. At that time, I didn't know what I wanted to write or how to write—not a fun start.1
2018: Quitting and Starting from Scratch
I started to travel on long weekends and met a German travel blogger in Singapore. To my surprise, he told me that he had never worked at any office job, and he had been traveling for the past seven years and was making all his money online! 😲 Many people are doing the same, and these brave souls are part of the growing digital nomad lifestyle. Back home, I continued my work as usual, but I searched as much as I could about this nomad thing and read others' stories. I needed to know if earning a living online was doable for me. And I began tinkering around with different things on the side with my writing, and then I did a test on my first online booking service. It worked!
"Some birds aren't meant to be caged." — Stephen King
Eventually, I quit. I realized that working for others was NOT for me, you do most of the work yet only get a small cut of the cake, which didn't seem fair at all! It felt like I was restarting my life—like actually living and breathing for the first time. The first thing that came to my mind was building my blog, and I managed to make one by watching YouTube videos! OMG, this was a surreal moment; I had never experienced this level of excitement before—the freedom to get my hands dirty to explore whatever interests me instead of being told what to do and actually learning real skills!
For the first time since finishing school, I was without a steady income. Living in a big city was expensive, and I also found it quite challenging to write without doing anything interesting. I decided to fly to Saigon, Vietnam, where things are much cheaper, and I could explore different cultures and food, win-win! But my writing journey hadn't gone smoothly, and frankly, I hadn't made much money with it yet. I wanted to quit at one point, but then I asked myself if I could return to my former office life and those soul-crushing meetings—NO F*cking WAY. Then, around July, one of my articles finally picked up some traffic, it felt fantastic! I knew that my writing still needed some work, but it seemed people DO want to read authentic content. As an ISTP, I'm certainly a good fit for that!
I then tried writing different topics, but I faced one of the many common struggles: do you want to write things that people want to see or stay true to yourself by saying something that you want to say? I chose the latter, I don't want to write short-lived eye-catching content; I want to write something with long-term value and personal meaning. ( It took me 13 months to build up the first 1k followers. )
2019: When Nomading Began to Get Dull
I went to the famous nomad base in Chiangmai, Thailand. I liked it there and learned a lot from other nomads, but it was challenging to relate to, as they were mostly white male techies or marketers. However, I was just so happy that people were willing to share their stories and show me what skills I should develop—and I was hungry to learn!
Due to visa annoyance, I flew to Myanmar after three months of learning in Chiangmai. And weirdly, I felt more excited to test my newly learned skills than to explore the country. 🤔 Later, I flew to Türkiye and the Caucasus, as I like to explore hidden gems that might not be on the radar of most nomads.
Moving around and working started to get exhausting, and traveling began to feel like traveling for the sake of travel. Fun fact: by the time you have been in over ten countries, you have passed the exciting stage where everything is still fresh and new and you start to see patterns in every country—novelty fades away.
One of the most exciting things about being a nomad is meeting some really interesting people. However, it always ends in saying goodbyes... I started to QUESTION everything at the end of 2019—what is the point of this so-called freedom if I can't be around them? The whole nomad thing even begins to seem like a routine too: landing—cab—Airbnb—exploring—dating—eating—departing, and then the same routine again; I ended up flying home to see my parents, but then COVID happened, and everything changed...
2020: Setting Up a Home Base During Pandemic
I felt something was wrong in early January, then the whole world went into lockdown, and it became more and more challenging to travel, not that I was crazy about traveling anymore. So, I made use of the lockdown to redesign my blog and launch a new venture. Originally, I wanted to build a platform to connect, helping people solve the problems I experienced ( one of the problems was banking ), but I made many common first-time founder mistakes, and I will share more of these learned lessons later.
And as adventurous as I am, I didn't enjoy the uncertainty during this time. I knew I needed a home base. I ended up choosing İstanbul, Türkiye as my home base, which turned out to be a really interesting experience! I had to relearn many basic things I took for granted about life in another cultural setting. I didn't speak Turkish, nor did I have many friends there. But my curiosity helped me solve many problems and find lots of gems, from natural skincare to organic farm food.
It reminded me of this quote from Naval Ravikant: "I like to think that if I lost all my money and if you drop me on a random street in any English-speaking country, within 5, 10 years, I'd be wealthy again because it's just a skill set that I've developed, and I think anyone can create."
Nothing is more comforting than knowing that I can live well even in a non-English-speaking country! I'm not afraid of moving anywhere in the world now, even to places most people would not be likely to visit.
2021: Exploring from Outside to Inside
As the business grew, I started hiring and growing a remote team. But I slowly realized that I don't enjoy managing people—not everyone is self-driven. This clashed with my natural working style and created more unnecessary work. I began to see that I had picked the wrong business model for myself too. I stopped writing for a while to THINK about what I wanted. I enjoyed exploring and sharing, but most of my energy was wasted on dealing with unnecessary and intellectually unstimulating tasks...
Meanwhile, the lockdown encouraged me to turn my explorations inward, and surprisingly, I found this far more rewarding. Maybe traveling was a distraction?
I then realized that All I CARED about was personal growth, which can be done anywhere.
2022: Self-Discovering and Occasionally Traveling
I wanted to set up a new base this year to experience something different, and I was eyeing Europe at first, ideally somewhere within the EU, so that it would make it easier to keep exploring this land; it sounds like a good deal, right! But I changed my mind after exploring because I think they are not really for me, or at least not a good fit for what I want now. You really need to verify things on the ground instead of listening to others when choosing where to live.
After seeing that the grass is not really greener on the other side, I've turned most of my focus back into learning again. I also got into crypto, and initially, I thought the NTF thing might be a great tool to help build my online community; I even figured out how to launch one myself! Luckily, I only gifted it to some of the old members instead of selling it; otherwise, I might have stuck with it...phew!
Still, I kept searching for the right tool to help, which then led me back to Bitcoin ( I had some basic knowledge about Bitcoin, but I only saw it as an investment till this time ), and then coincidentally, I found some old Bitcoiners, and I read about what they said as much as I could, and wait: Bitcoin is not investment but money?! And it's freedom money? Freedom!?! Then I kept digging more about it...Also, given that I was no longer searching for a new base and wasting time with all the shining crypto projects, I started reading more books and learning how to cook and stay healthy. Maybe self-mastery is easier than trying to master the whole world.
I also started writing in English this year—I want to challenge myself and see what happens. It was quite scary at first, especially as a non-native, but fun at the same time.
2023: Learn and Make Things
It's been a long year, and I changed A LOT: I moved to somewhere closer to nature because I've learned that all sickness actually comes from the mind, especially the stress from modern city life, with all the dust, traffic, pollution, and noises; People living in mountains or remote villages often live longer and healthier, even happier. I do want to live a long and healthy life, so I need to see how I can live a more natural life and avoid chemicals and fake food as much as I could, which later led me to a series of adventures: it takes lots of work to avoid fiat food and products...
After the move, I feel I've only started to taste real life - surrounded by flowers, birds, sea, mountains, and real food! Also, I was drawn by the beauties and started to get into some traditional arts and crafts; I then took different workshops to see what's possible making out from hands, and as I kept digging, I met quite some old masters who spent 30-50 years mastering ONE skill, I was amazed and keep thinking how they know that this is THE thing they want to spend their life with? so I always ask for their stories while taking courses. ( one more fun is I started to make my own clothes too. ) It's been a really humbling experience, and it felt so great making things with my bare hands - it turned out that consuming is not the way to grow. Creating is.
Work-wise, I eliminated most of the parts that I don't enjoy anymore, and I've built a new project — I decided to give back and share what I've learned during the past six years, with all the mistakes I've made and lessons I've learned: how to build things online by writing. ( if I can do it, then anyone can do it! ) I also began to share more about Bitcoin because I've realized that only with the right skills and knowledge can one be truly free, and you can't really buy your way into freedom, you need to earn it.
I still travel sometimes this year, but mainly to learn and see things on the ground or meet the people who I admire or care about.
2024: Back to the Root
Three months passed this year, and I've launched a new course so far, I also noticed that I'm so much happier teaching what I have learned and passing down the knowledge compared with the previous project model — finding out something you enjoy and helpful for others is indeed tricky, but keep trying, don't give up, and you get to learn a lot about yourself from all the experiments.
Other than that, I'm continuing to dig into some traditional crafts and ancient secrets. Now that I have some experience from making clothing, however, I'm no longer satisfied with already-made materials with chemical dyes, and I couldn't find anywhere selling natural dyes ones...so I took a dyeing course last month, and wow, you can even experiment with inventing your own color—all you need is simple tools, herbs or roots, and a kitchen, amazing! With one more skill learned, you can depend less on others, thus more freedom in your creation. 🧪
And what's more fascinating is it led me to discover some other ancient ways of crafts making when I was trying to search for natural fabric to test my new learned skills, I felt I was being guided to the door to unlock thousands years of accumulated wisdom...
The Ugly Side of Being a Nomad
I have found that most nomads only talk about the good sides, but I'd also like to share the ugly ones:
1. It's challenging to engage with many people
Not everyone has as much free time or thinks outside the box as much as you do, so meeting interesting souls could be difficult.
2. Moving around all the time is mentally and physically tiring
Creating a more balanced lifestyle could solve this problem, like having one or more home bases. It's less mentally draining to spend longer amounts of time in a familiar place than to constantly move around.
3. Loneliness
As an Asian female, nomad, and maker, it seems everything I am doing is pretty much against what my home society wants from me. 😂 But I asked myself: Do I want to do what everyone else does? Get a steady job, find a husband, get married, and have kids then wait for retirement then to live my life? The answer was no.
"Only dead fish go with the flow." —Andy Hunt
4. It's hard to sustain long-term relationships
Yes, you might manage to meet some really interesting people, but it's really hard to maintain healthy relationships without being in the same location for long...
Q&A
1. Is living as a nomad for everyone?
I don't think it is for everyone, but it should be a fun experience for those curious minds. And no, you don't work on the beach with your laptop, and you really need to work HARD too, but in your own schedules!
"If you want to be great, walk the rope without a boss and without a net." —Naval
2. Is it worth trying?
Yes, especially if you are young. Try EVERYTHING. I am happy that I took the red pill in my early 20s, as I had nothing to lose but to gain at that time.
3. How can you make money while being on the road?
It depends on your personality and skills. Some people work remotely by creating content, running a business, or even investing; Then again, it's about understanding yourself and finding your ikigai: The Japanese idea of something that gives you a sense of purpose, a reason for living, and nothing feels better than getting paid to do what you enjoy doing!
Takeaway
1. It is not about living the lifestyle; it's about getting control of your life.
I didn't enjoy constantly traveling, nor did I enjoy staying in one place for a long time. I found myself preferring a balance of having a home base, and occasionally out exploring because I can't really focus on doing deep work if I'm on the road all the time, I work best in places where I'm familiar with; Keep traveling around can be quite consuming too if all you do is change places to live and work instead of learning and immersing in the local culture, but then it takes more time and effort; not sure you can really manage to do this, especially from the beginning when you still trying to figure out how to make a living online, but I would recommend finding a place where nurturing your growth later stage, then dig deeper - restrictions set you free too.
It's really a journey to find out what you truly want now that you are
free to choose instead of living the default and unquestioned way.2. These explorations lead to self-awareness.
I am thankful for all these nomadic experiences that made me realize what kind of culture or environment I enjoy living in, what kind of people I enjoy spending time with, and what I CARE about.
Now that I think it doesn't matter whether nomading, writing, or making things, it's all about understanding yourself, then your creation is an expression of your story and
uniqueness.3. Life is about solving problems.
I believe we are here to explore, learn, and build up skills to solve deeper problems while having fun along the way. Part of the fun of being a nomad is constantly solving problems on the road. My adventures made me feel alive, and I loved them—until they got boring…
One of the things I liked the most during the exploration was meeting interesting people, so I am trying another approach now: meeting more self-driven and creative thinkers via the Internet!
4. Choose from within.
It's a BIG world out there! It can be quite confusing to choose where to live at first, and thinking from within would make the choice much easier.
Now, the way I see each country, it's not about GDP, not about the name or reputation, not about politics, but about what I can
learn from.5. Freedom is not the real goal.
Now, after all these years of learning and experimenting, I'm finally free to wake up anytime I like, live anywhere I want, or learn whatever I'm interested in, but actually, I live quite disciplined, but on my own rhyme instead of based on the dates or holidays.
Also, now I'm more admire the people who spend their whole life mastering ONE skill; they are truly exploring what's possible being a human, learning from the past, improving and creating with your hand, then teaching and passing down knowledge for later generations, which led me to realize that freedom is actually not the goal, the real goal is being free to
explore your own potentialities: finding out something you LOVE and happily do it every day till the day you die instead of waiting for retirement.And my journey continues...✨ thanks for reading!
I was a bit hesitant about whether to share this in SN because it's quite personal, but then I saw many people waiting for the Bitcoin price to moon so they could finally start to do what they enjoy or live the life they want—why not be the change? so I'm sharing my own experience and how I escaped the rat race and living my life the way I want, but I'm still continuing to explore what's possible out there!
Footnotes
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I wish SN existed back when I was starting, and that's why I think stackers are really lucky! Even if you are new, you are already getting the same attention as the old stackers. ↩