How To Live As a Digital Nomad
There’s lots of ways to live as a Digital nomad. Right now I’m traveling around Europe writing about the startup scene and living life out of my backpack. I share my tips and experiences on ways to get into the different startup scenes of Europe and find people to work with.
One that that will easily land you some jobs and get the ball rolling is the ability to understand code and do some programming. There’s discussions around the world that every child should learn how to code. Estonia has already started teaching their first-graders how to code in school. There’s even a festival going down soon in the UK teaching kids how to code. Anyone can easily start t0 develop their coding skills. There’s amazing services like Treehouse, Codecademy and Lynda.com to get your started. You don’t need to know coding either, but it’s a great start if you want to find jobs easily. A good way if you want to get into the app market without knowing code is Fliptopia.
There’s thousands of ways of living like a Digital nomad and hacking parts of your life. One great website to find ways to improve your life in general is Lifehack, here you’ll find life lessons, workout tips, healthy recipes for a life on the go and much much more.
One of the greatest sources of inspiration for me was the guys over at Need/want. Their story is amazing and what they do is truly a source of inspiration for me. They are true entrepreneurs who try things and fail fast. That’s one of the greatest things you can learn. To fail fast and not be afraid of failure. Because failure means that you have a chance to reflect and do it better next time.
The way I funded my travels was by doing what I love, helping people. I’ve been connected to the Startup scene of Stockholm for a while now and I know my way around. We got in contact with Audi unite, a great way to be able to have a car without actually owning one. So we got in touch and saw that what I did and my project could benefit both of us. They would be able to connect to their target group and understand their needs better, and I would be able to get a car for my project.
Where to go?
One great tip is the Nomad List as mentioned before in this article. It’s a site that grades the different cities around the world based on cost of living, internet speed, weather, fun and safety. And then you could always do a Fluky. Just put down a few places you’re interested in and let faith decide the rest.
Sharing economy
We’re moving towards a sharing economy and mass personalization and bigger companies are to slow to cope with the change. That’s why startups are popping up like mushrooms everywhere. They’re fast pace, they listen to their users and they adapt to the changes.
The way people consume is changing. We see companies like Spotify and Uber disrupting whole business segments. Airbnb is making hotels a thing of the past and services like Google drive and Dropbox are all cloudbased and accessible all over the world. Soon there’s no need to own you own computer, or apartment or car. A company that is in the forefront of change is Audi, with their new services like Audi unite and Audi shared fleet for companies and co-working spaces. Places like the Factory, a campus for innovators and founders, in Berlin are already using services like Audi shared fleet for their members.
If you’d like to try the Nomad lifestyle for a year, meet interesting people, travel the world and maybe find what you were born to do. You should definately check out Remote Year. You could also crowdfund your travels and help your backers by offering something that you know. So set up a crowdfunding campaign and sell workshops, lectures or whatever you can offer in order to fund your travels. Here’s a few crowdfunding platforms.
Get jobs
This is one of the easiest, but also one of the hardest things you’ll have to master. How to find new jobs and how to secure your income. But it’s also the most fundamental things you’ll have to do. You have to know how to sell yourself. There’s a few great websites like Modern-Day Nomads or Unicorn Hunt to find some remote jobs. But a common thing to do is to start a blog or a website and share your experiences for others to take part of. It’s also a great way to reflect on what you’re doing and how you could do it better.
Connecting
If you want to connect with other Digital nomads and share stories, experiences and contacts you should definately check out this subreddit.
Another great place to ask questions and to get lots of inspirations and tips is the Digital Nomad Forum. This is a place where you ask a specific question and people from all around the world will try to give their input.
If you want to join a network of Digital nomads and learn how to live as one, you could apply to the Digital Nomad Academy. You’ll get access to hundreds of hours of Q&A’s, a digital library, private forums and lots more.
People to follow
There’s a lot of interesting people to follow and to learn from. One of my personal favourites, Tim Ferris, wrote the four hour work week that changed a lot of peoples lives. There’s a lot of interesting people that you should start following if you want to learn more and avoid mistakes. Check out this list, from The next web, that lists 7 Digital nomads you should follow. Here’s another list of 10 people you should check out made by fizzle.co.
In the end, everything is up to you. Where you spend your time and how likely you are to succeed. There’s no magic trick or secret sauce. Living as a Digital nomad is a mindset. But if you want some great tips and insights that could help you, check out this interview with Ally Basak Russell done by Forbes.
