My journey to Location Independence began out of frustration. Frustration with how wasteful the business world ran, and how poorly most old-school businesses leveraged technology. There may have been a girl involved too. I’ll get to that later.
Several jobs and self-employed businesses made up my work history. They always followed the Standard American Dream 9 to 5 model. Jobs brought with them the same mundane things: the commute, the office space, the far-away promise of retirement someday, the Mondays. My forays into self-employment were not much different, because I was using those models.
At the time of my change, I was a well-paid salesperson at a manufacturer in a field that I loved. What could be wrong? Like most traditional jobs, I had to be there in an office when they wanted me there, and they wanted me there a lot. This left me little time to travel or enjoy life outside of work other than the occasional weekend. I could not find a way to look forward to another 50 years of this life. I knew there was a better way.
Leaving the Office
That corporate sales position got traded for another company as a self-employed contract salesman. I didn’t need to come into the office, but would have to visit various customers all over the state, and pick up new customers along the way. It was in the same field I loved, and a step in the right direction toward my freedom, but still very wasteful in many ways.
If you’ve ever sat in traffic in Los Angeles during rush hour, you know what I mean. If you’ve ever had to drive back and forth all over Los Angeles, you know that rush hour last all day. That’s what I did. This wasn’t an ideal solution.
The face time at customer’s shops was just how things had “always been done” in the industry. I weaned the existing customers off these regular monthly visits. Orders were not affected at all, and I had a lot more free time to spend on things apart from driving.
I would still regularly check on them, but now I only made a quick call or email reminder instead of hoping they’d be there when I made the trek out to their shop. They liked it better too. I was able to spend that extra time getting new customers and increasing sales, with only occasional visits to shops.
(A similar strategy is in Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book The Four-Hour Workweek. I had just never heard of the book at the time, and was only making this up as I went.)
Making Travel Possible
Now that I arranged my work so that I didn’t need to be anywhere in particular, I was able to travel more. I had taken regular vacations to Florida from my home in California. By this point, my intent was to make a permanent move.
Remember the girl I mentioned earlier? Yeah, it’s a long story, but she lived on a different coast when we accidentally met. Remember, life is not all about work, so these things are important.
I was now able to be in Florida for ten days at a time every month. While there, I was able to pick up new business in the state, all while still serving my west coast clients. It was no longer technically vacation, as I was always available by phone or email, but it was now just the life I was making happen.
There were still some obvious inefficiencies with my system, but it was infinitely better than having to be on a particular spot on a map for 75% of my waking hours. Using the internet and email, with only a laptop and a cell phone, I could go virtually anywhere and still make a living doing almost exactly the same job.
The Next Level
After making this up as I went for a year or two, I finally got really smart* and looked around online. It turns out that there are thousands of people using the technology available to us in the 21st century, who are doing a far better job of being Location Independent. I was on the right track, but there are better ways of becoming Location Independent than the stumbling path I took. When I finally found my way here, I learned a tremendous amount, and have made quite a few changes to the way I do things.
really smart* – This is sarcasm for “What I should have done in the first place before stumbling around on my own like a buffoon.”
I started this journey by looking for a way to spend more time living my life, traveling, and enjoying the world instead of sitting at a desk all day. I did make the move to Florida several years ago. We are now working on deciding where to go for longer than extended vacations.
Whether we travel overseas indefinitely or start with exploring North America by RV, we now know that we don’t have to wait for that someday when we retire to live our lives.
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Jim, It’s great to finally hear your story. We are very much alike in that we were starting to nomad before it became a known lifestyle and so our journeys have a very similar path. I think the advantage of being from this era is that we had developed careers and then converted them to being mobile. In many ways this is simpler than many of the younger generation who try to sustain mobility before developing their professional identity. It takes a certain amount of career stability in order to pull off indeterminate nomadism and that’s hard to do when you’re fresh out of school (although not impossible – there are some great people pulling it off) – just tougher.
Carmen´s last blog ..Lifestyle Design for Old Coots
Yes, I think the point is that there are more ways than not to do it. I just knew what I wanted, and had to find a way. I don’t believe in a single path, because I see so many people doing things their own way. I’m glad you liked it, Carmen!
That’s an excellent glimpse into your life and I think the important thing to remember is that we all have to start somewhere! Everybody’s path to Location Independence is different but as long as we take steps in the right direction, there’s nothing to complain about. Nothing happens instantly and the fact that you are already so close to your main goal is definitely reason for celebration!
Earl´s last blog ..Frustration During Travel…What To Do
Thanks Earl. I just keep working toward something, even when I don’t have a map or plan. It all seems to work out as long as I keep going, even when it wasn’t where I thought I would end up. I still would find a way to enjoy instantly, though
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