Too often I see articles by bloggers titled “why you should quit your job and move to (insert 3rd world country here)”, often with an accompanying lifestyle porn photo, you know the ones eg. a laptop by a pool.

The sales pitch is usually “it’s cheaper in country x, so work on-line there”, the reality is you have no safety net there, if you’re so sure of your on-line business plans and need to lower your living costs to bootstrap, then why not move in with your parents for a few months first, or crash on a mate’s couch or rent a cheap room in a local house with 5 poor uni students, then put that $2,000 for the flight and overseas living costs into your company, do some on-line courses etc, stay in your home town where there is less to distract you. If you’re bootstrapping there is no need whatsoever to have a beach 50 metres down the road.

Once your company is working well, then head overseas or better still, if you’re young and lacking real world work experience, get some solid experience in, move up the corporate ladder a little, the world isn’t going anywhere, it’ll still be there in 4 years time.

But this isn’t what most people want to hear, they want to see a laptop by the pool, a hammock by the beach and be sold a dream, have their reward now and work for it later, go away for 5 years, make enough money to survive then return home with zero experience. Now, you could learn a lot about on-line marketing, sales and the lot, but how about some office experience, how about paying attention to how companies you’re working for are run, noting this down mentally, most jobs in the world are in offices, get a good dose of reality, face to face with clients, work smart, invest hard, then reap the rewards.

I’m not saying slog out the 9-5 forever, you may be very successful on-line, but if that is your destiny you can do it from home and for much cheaper.

So why my title for this article? Well I’ve spent the last 9 years working smart and getting solid experience, all while working abroad in a first world rich/expensive country. I’ve built several revenue streams and can now branch out and reap my rewards, the reason for the move to Latvia is simple – my partner is from there and we’re living with her family for a month while we’re bootstrapping. How much will one month with the in-laws cost? $0, zero, nothing.

The one thing I’ve learnt over the last 15 years of working is don’t be in such a rush but always be planning and always be doing, be prepared to make mistakes, but be prepared to make sacrifices, moving to live by a beach and set-up your dream company isn’t a sacrifice.

Perhaps you’ll be able to simply pack up, move to paradise and bootstrap by some beach while instagramming life style porn to all your envious friends, but know that there is other ways to achieve your dreams. The key may not be to drop everything and run to paradise, it might actually be to work your butt off from home, then go abroad free like a bird, what is better than working from paradise? Being in paradise and not having to work.

Food for thought.

My Bitcoin address, tips welcome 🙂

12UiXRvH8wwRk5N686akrgtFuqnJZck9WS