One of the stupidest aspirations of online entrepreneurs in the 2020s is wanting to be a “digital nomad”.
Sitting on Bondi Beach, sipping an Alien Nipple (it’s a cocktail, Google it) with your laptop on your knees.
For starters, you can’t see the screen for the bloody sun, there’s sand in your mouse and you really, really shouldn’t post when you’re drunk.
Trust me on that last one.
So bury that thought, along with the backpacking trip to Machu Picchu where you imagine you’ll be building your coaching business along the way.
Trouble is, there’s no frikkin internet up there, you’ll be too knackered to even open your MacBook, and anyway how dare you think about work when you’re in such a sacred place?!
Then you hitch-hike back to Europe to AirB’n’B for a few weeks in that bijou bedsit just off the Champs Elysees. Yeah, that one with 3mbps Wi-Fi, groaning plumbing and a family of sewer rats as co-lodgers. Not to mention the bed-bugs, so let’s not.
This is what the “I can work from anywhere in the world” goons have misunderstood.
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
And “anywhere” is not the same word as “everywhere”.
Here’s what location freedom actually means:
- Pick one bloody lovely place, preferably with few guns and no wars nearby
- Maybe sunny, but definitely civilised. Shops, food, comms with the outside world etc
- Buy the fastest fibre internet connection you can find, and cable your laptop to it
- Get at least two monitors. Three is optimal
- Work like an obsessed maniacal entrepreneur four days a week
- Commit to two years in one place to settle your mind, body and creativity
- Take the long weekends off. Walk, climb, swim. Stay fit and healthy
FYI – I just did that. It’s called Gibraltar. You should check it out.
Love you lots
Jonny