"The World Is Your Office"
Post on: February 15, 2019
Our current age has presented lots of opportunities which was unheard of and unfathomable until recently – one of which being a Digital Nomad.
Put simply, a digital nomad is a person who harnesses the great strides made in the telecommunication technologies to make a living. And like a modern-day nomad, travels around the world in pursuance of his/her preferred lifestyle and at the same time, eking out a decent living.
“The world is your office” is truly apt as any remote place on earth can be your office. Today you may be clacking your laptop in posh café overlooking the Arabian Sea while tomorrow your “workstation” may be the back of a pickup truck in a shantytown. Your mantra would be: “As long as there is Wi-Fi connection, I will venture forth with my smartphone and laptop.”
8 Reasons to be a Digital Nomad —
1. The world is your marketplace – You do not need to limit your client pool to the confines of your geographical location. With the click of the mouse, you can reach out to your clients around the world… literally. You can be working with a tech company in India, a garment industry in Jakarta or a public school in the villages of Cambodia. The possibilities are endless!
2. See the World and Feel at Home – a nomad travels around the world. Since you can work from any corner of the world, the allure is seeing the splendour of the world while you work. The Niagara Falls, the Taj Mahal or the tropical paradise of Kauai, Hawaii are amongst the places you can visit while working. As the Paul Young song goes, “Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home.” A phrase which although contentious evokes a strong emotion as Home is what one would like it to mean to them.
3. Self-Development — You develop as a person – the world provides you with practical experience which no textbook can offer. While working in a tribe in Africa, an anthropologist discerned the meaning of Ubuntu, a philosophy among African tribes that can be summed up as “I am what I am because of who we all are.” A five minutes experience gave him a whole new perspective of the culture of Africa which he had been researching for the longest time. One grows with edification through such involvement.
4. Save on Office Rental and Office Expenditure — Running an online business means you can save on overheads. In many parts of the world, office rental acts as a deterrent on starting a business and can even amount to a whopping percentage of the business operations! A digital nomad saves on this aspect and can channel it to other means like travels and recreational activities.
5. Freedom to dictate own working hours — Visualise this scenario – you are in Siem Reap and you just received an email that you have to submit an assignment by the end of the day. You set off early and begin your task at 6 a.m. By 10 a.m. a steady flow of work has been done and you take a break to embark on a group tour to the sacred Kulen mountain of Cambodia. It ends at 2 p.m. and you ask the driver to drop you at Pub Street where you resume your work in café sipping cappuccino. At 7 pm, you are through and the nightlife beckons! You walk across to a pub for a refreshing Heineken beer with the satisfaction of completing your work — the day’s work flows according to your terms.
6. Easy accommodation — Ever wanted to wake up to the smell of roses of the meadows in an English cottage? Well, you can! The advent of Airbnb has made it possible. You can encounter the wonderful experiences you’d read in fairy tales come alive — with easy accessibility and affordability too.
7. Less is More – Yes, I am talking about being a minimalist. We cannot suitcase all our luxurious items except for our work essentials like laptop and iPad which are a must. The non-essentials like our worldly possessions can take a back seat. Constant travelling means we learn to live with the barest minimum and declutter our lives.
8. Visiting family and friends – for a digital nomad, work presents an opportunity to visit their relatives all around the world. I am no nomad but I can imagine how wonderful it would be – visiting my relatives in Kerala, dropping by the homes of my sisters who have emigrated to the USA and Britain and a surprise visit to my nephew studying in Melbourne. I can only dream of these escapades being cooped up in my office in Singapore whereas a digital nomad embarks on a globetrotting journey while working… how awesome!
Doesn’t it sound cool to be a digital nomad? But wait! before you jump on the bandwagon, consider a little bit from the opposite perspective too.
You have to be an expert in the field of job that you want to do – be it as a writer, web developer, blogger, language teacher or a digital marketer. Also, be flexible while you’re on the road — sometimes, you have to roll up your sleeves and do menial jobs if the situation warrants.
Furthermore, you have to assimilate into the community and embrace the culture of the land. In a nutshell, resemble the locals. And be prepared for the worst — your laptop could crash when you need it the most or worse still, gets stolen.
Are you dissuaded already? If you really yearn such a lifestyle, you will move mountains to achieve your passion. Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the staircase and still want an office in the uttermost part of the world!
By Shaji Thomas Varughese
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