- Pieter Levels makes good cash by creating startups whereas touring the world.
- Levels, a digital nomad, has lived in 40 nations and 150 cities however felt depressed.
With over 40 startups, self-taught software program developer and “indie hacker” Pieter Levels has mentioned he is been in a position to usher in thousands and thousands in income proper from his laptop computer whereas touring the world.
While that sounds glamorous, it wasn’t at all times that method. It began with him feeling like a loser in Asia.
“I used to be making $500 a month or one thing, and I used to be trying on the ceiling considering like, ‘Now I’m 27, I’m a loser,'” he mentioned. “And that is the second I began constructing startups.”
Levels is a digital nomad, an individual who works remotely whereas touring, and mentioned he is lived in 40 nations and 150 cities. While it appears like a perpetual trip, Levels mentioned in a latest episode of the “Lex Fridman Podcast” that he usually felt depressed whereas attempting to ascertain himself and discover success.
“It is romantic, reminiscences of this sort of vagabond, individualistic solo life,” Levels mentioned. “But the factor is, it did not make me pleased.”
A 2018 research evaluating the psychological well being of ex-pats and home US employees discovered that 3 times as many ex-pats reported feeling trapped or depressed as their US-based contributors. Additionally, of the 455 surveyed expats, 25% expressed feeling anxious or nervous — over twice the speed of US-based employees who participated.
But whereas expats benefit from solely having to settle right into a single new surroundings, digital nomads who do not settle in a single spot are continually having to re-adjust to totally different locations.
“You’re touring round, you are hopping from metropolis to metropolis,” Levels mentioned. “You do not have a house anymore. You really feel disrooted.”
Digital nomad and psychologist Carolin Müller beforehand informed Business Insider that it’s “tougher for digital nomads to remain mentally wholesome” due to this fixed feeling of not understanding and feeling understood.
“You’re by no means in a secure tradition,” she mentioned. “You’re at all times altering from one tradition to a different, you are coming and going, and generally you’ve a tradition shock.”
Other digital nomads have expressed comparable tales of battling emotions of isolation and instability on social media. One individual on Reddit described the expertise as “profoundly lonely” and ultimately needed to return dwelling. Another submit mentioned that they developed “sturdy emotions of hysteria and despair” as a result of they missed their household and mates and remoted themselves an excessive amount of.
Levels mentioned that it may be “psychologically taxing” to journey solo with out the consolation of a dependable schedule and guidelines.
“Anything is feasible. You can go wherever. And all people’s like, ‘Oh, that should be tremendous good — freedom. You should be very pleased,'” Levels mentioned. “And it is the other. I do not assume that makes you cheerful, I feel constraints in all probability make you cheerful.”
He mentioned that watching his mates in Holland proceed to do properly with a standard life made him really feel like an “outcast,” particularly since he was not as profitable then. However, Levels assured people who “it is regular, in case you’re younger, that you just really feel like a loser.”
“Because you don’t have anything,” he mentioned. “Probably no cash, you don’t have any enterprise, you don’t have any job but.”
So, his answer was to attempt to earn a living and construct a enterprise — or a number of. In 2014, Levels launched his “12 Startups in 12 Months” mission, the place he would create a startup each month and launch it with Stripe.
“Which is sort of an fascinating solution to cope with despair,” he mentioned. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s discuss it.’ It’s extra like, ‘Let’s go do one thing.'”
While some proved unsuccessful, one in all these startups was Nomad List, which Levels claims now generates $48,000 per thirty days, in accordance with Level’s X bio. Based on a spreadsheet he created with different digital nomads, Nomad List is a web site for digital nomads that gives knowledge about cities world wide, similar to their value of dwelling, web velocity, and security.
And whereas Levels was clear concerning the downsides of being a digital nomad, there are additionally perks, similar to the power to see extra of the world and dwell in areas with decrease value of dwelling.
A decade after launching the positioning — and lots of others, together with PhotoAI — Levels is constant to dwell overseas. Despite the generally isolating feeling, he mentioned that touring from metropolis to metropolis is gorgeous and enjoyable, particularly with the rising group of digital nomads.
“It’s romantic,” he mentioned. “It’s colourful if I take into consideration the reminiscences.”
