Posted: 4/2/23 | April 2nd, 2023
Today is a big day. It marks fifteen years running this website. I posted my first blog entry in early April 2008, after spending over a month bugging friends I met in Vietnam for help with coding. Back then, in the days before WordPress, you had to hand-code everything, and I spent a lot of time figuring out how to move images around, design graphics, create links, and format the site.
I started this blog as a way to get freelance writing gigs so I could afford to keep traveling. I just wanted to put off going corporate for as long as possible. I never thought I’d have a career in travel, but I guess after fifteen years doing so, this counts as a career. I’ve created books, courses, and tours, spoken at conferences, and am quoted in the media. So, I guess I’m kind of an expert in travel? That feels weird to say.
Being a public figure is surreal to me, because, in so many ways, I’m still just a guy who wants to keep traveling. There’s so much of the world I want to see. Sure, I love the business of running a website. It’s a mental challenge I find fascinating. But, to me, it’s still just a way to satisfy my travel addiction and avoid having to work in an office (though, now that I have a team, it’s a more complicated way to avoid the office!).
In the last fifteen years, I’ve seen the internet and travel content creation change dramatically. Digital nomads are no longer weird, and making money online isn’t odd.
“You quit your job? Are you crazy?” isn’t something a lot of people say these days. There’s a lot of positive encouragement for this thing that was once considered so crazy that there must have been something wrong with you if you wanted to do it.
As people are prone to do during milestones like this, I wanted to share some lessons I’ve learned as a grizzled old internet person (because people refer to me as “an OG digital creator” as if I’m 90!).
1. Most people succeed because of luck
Someone’s video goes viral, and suddenly their bakery in Australia has more orders than they know what to do with.
Some people get that lucky interview that opens the door to fame.
Some people just meet that one right person at a conference.
Of course, skill is needed to maintain that success, but a lot of times, luck and timing play a bigger role than people would like to admit. That’s not something you can control. Would I be where I am if I hadn’t started early with a focus on…
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