Feb 2, 2015 2 min read

The decision to be patient and build self first

In 2013, I decided I need a change in my life.

My job then — while rewarding in terms of money, travel, and prestige — wasn’t going anywhere.

Sean Ogle promised to teach me real skills that would enable me to do rewarding work online, hence being able to work while traveling.

I had a choice: to be patient and build a base. Or to YOLO and book a ticket and go traveling.

It was tempting to screw it and book a ticket around the world and let the stars take care of me.

I could’ve justified that going the instant traveling route means I trusted myself, that I had guts, and most importantly… I would be able to travel NOW.

The alternative was to stay at home first — acquire the skills, learn good habits, and build a business and stable cash flow first.

It was hard to look at backpackers and english teachers seemingly enjoying their traveling while I was being a coward at home…

But I decided to postpone the traveling, thinking the prep would only take me a few months.

Turns out… I would massively underestimate the time it takes to build self-discipline, teach myself to sell, market, and write, and train myself to get on the phone.

Almost every week, my friends and family would ask me — seemingly mocking me — what happened to my plans to go traveling while working (they never really believed it was possible).

It took me 1.5 years…

But today I am in Saigon, Vietnam. I’m staying for a month.

Just because.

It’s 7am and I’m getting my 5 hours of productive work in. Something I could not do with my work habits before.

I have stable cash flow, don’t have to scrimp, and most importantly, don’t have to worry about money.

I have a network of friends here, good people I made friends with (online) during build up time, that respect me for not being just another YOLO backpacker who traded in a poor trajectory for an even worse one.

I decided to be patient and build self first.

And that has made all the difference.

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This is what me in 2013 would’ve felt comforted to hear, that I was making the right decision not to go binge traveling. And I hope it’s inspiring to you, if you’re just getting started.

The most important mindset that sustains this lifestyle is having the ability to add value (and get paid for it), and not feeling entitled to have everything we want, right now.

Also, gratitude for this lifestyle it’s now possible for us to live.