Ever feel stuck in the rat race? Ever feel like your life isn’t going anywhere? Ever see an advertisement for a holiday and think ‘why isn’t life always like that?’.
Well then the answer you seek might just be to become a lifestyle entrepreneur. This is a life decision that could potentially help to make you more fulfilled and help you to experience life more the way it was meant to be lived – not from behind a desk.
But what exactly is a lifestyle entrepreneur? How does one become one? And what are the downsides? Read on and let’s find out if this is the answer you’ve been looking for…
What Is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur
Essentially, the term ‘lifestyle entrepreneur’ refers to anyone who becomes an entrepreneur not for the financial incentives, but rather so that they can enjoy various lifestyle benefits. In other words, they create a business around the lifestyle they want – which normally means keeping their business light and flexible and then operating it from wherever they want in the world. Sometimes it even means creating a fully automated businesses so that they can kick back and relax while the money comes in passively.
The Digital Nomad
In many cases the term lifestyle and entrepreneur will be considered synonymous with ‘digital nomad’. That is to say, that the end goal is to travel the world without having a single ‘base’ of operation and to work from beaches, bars and hotel rooms while exploring in your free time.
This is a lifestyle that is only now really possible thanks to the ubiquity of the internet. These days you can find WiFi almost anywhere in the world, and devices are now light enough and small enough to pack up and take with you anywhere you want to go: which all means that you can turn any spot on the beach or in a bar into your office on the move and no longer need to be pinned to a single spot.
Passive income meanwhile can be generated by selling a digital product (such as an app or an eBook) or by outsourcing and reselling. Get hired to design a website, pay someone less to do it for you, and then just reap the benefits.
The Downsides…
Of course though being a Digital Nomad isn’t for everyone, and there are many reasons that the idea might not appeal to you.
For instance, as a digital nomad you will be giving up a lot of your creature comforts permanently. This means giving up on having a mug of tea in the morning, it means not getting much sleep because you’re in an uncomfortable hotel bed, it means having to wear the same dirty clothes for ages… you get the idea. At the same time it also means you don’t get to have access to your family and friends – you’ll often feel left out and homesick. When a new computer game comes out, or a new film, you probably won’t be able to enjoy it. And while you may be able to work on the move, the lack of routine is going to make it considerably more difficult to progress and grow your salary. Serious romantic relationships will also be difficult to maintain, and in general you’ll probably find that you make a lot of compromises.
Spending lazy days in front of the TV with your partner, blowing your cash on computer games, and lying in bed until 12pm might all be technically ‘vacuous’ and wasteful ways to spend your time – but hey, they can also be very enjoyable and tough to live without.
The Alternative
But there is another way. You see, lifestyle entrepreneur only means that you design the lifestyle you want: it never says what that lifestyle should be and there are really no restrictions here. And there are plenty of other ways you can design your life as an entrepreneur…
For instance, I am not a digital nomad, and yet I would consider myself to be a lifestyle entrepreneur nonetheless. I make my living writing articles and selling mobile applications, and this gives me the freedom and flexibility to work where and how I choose. I’m not motivated by the money, but rather by the whole gamut of benefits that this affords me.
First thing in the morning for instance when my girlfriend goes to work – I instead stay relaxed around the house for 1-2 hours. She has an hour’s commute either way and an hour at lunch, so that means I can relax at home for at least three hours and have no reason to feel at all ‘guilty’ that I’m not doing a whole day’s work.
During this time I will read a book, play on the Xbox, or watch a film. That’s right – if I want to I can watch a film on Netflix every single day. After a while though I will invariably also spend some time washing up while watching YouTube. This might sound like an odd way to use my free time, but it means that the kitchen – and by extension the rest of the house – are always clean and tidy so that there is less to do in the evenings and so that the house is always more pleasant to spend time in.
Then I will hit the gym for an hour, followed by a stint in the sauna and a hot shower. This is incredibly important to me: I’m an avid bodybuilder and it’s only thanks to my career choice that I have the time or energy to keep up this time consuming hobby. As a result of being a lifestyle entrepreneur my house is cleaner, my body is healthier and I spend the day feeling better about myself.
After I’ve done all that, I eventually do get down to some work. When I do that though, I will pick a coffee shop somewhere in London (I live in London) and then spend the day there drinking coffee, meeting strangers and seeing different parts of the city I love. Often I will work for free in the British Library which is a fantastic monument to knowledge and science, other times I’ll go to a museum, or to the Tower of London, or I’ll go and meet a friend on their lunch break and work in their area.
And I do travel too – only I choose to travel ‘little and often’ rather than living my whole life as a globe-hopper. By getting the coach from London I can travel to countries like Belgium, Paris, Germany, Holland and others for around £20. If I work during the journey I can then explore the destination when I get there – and often I’ll go with one of my other entrepreneur friends.
Another bonus for me is that I have a friend who works for an airline company. He can give out free or highly discounted flights to anyone he wants, so that means I can see places further afield – again with my laptop on my lap. There’s nothing to stop me from going to Turkey or Madrid for an afternoon while I work and it doesn’t have to cost me anything.
So as you can see, I live a brilliant lifestyle and it’s thanks to the internet. I’m not a ‘digital nomad’, but rather I’ve designed a lifestyle that suits me… and there’s no reason you can’t do the same.