A growing number of people have decided to ditch the daily grind and live a life more traveled. They call themselves digital nomads and much like the hitchhiking hippies who thumbed their way around the globe well into the 1980s; their world is an open road waiting to be explored.
Advantage Access
Today’s digital nomad has a huge advantage over previous generations of working travelers that can make a life of constant travel more economically sustainable than trying to dig roots back home. The advantage is constant connectivity. From near universal ubiquitous WiFi to always-on mobile data, digital nomads can live in the same Internet environments no matter where they are on Earth.
Access to high speed Internet is the greatest lifestyle game changer since the invention of cheap airline tickets. It, along with If you have a laptop and can find work helping other businesses online, you have the ability to print cheap airline tickets and the chance to earn your way into first class.
“Have laptop will travel”
The second great advantage digital nomads enjoy is how the laptop, tablet, and even cell phone can be used to access and interact with the vast storage and processing power of the Internet. Cloud computing and server-side software (SAAS) running on pocket sized devices have made our means of production completely portable. You can carry yours in your pocket or in a shoulder bag and with it reach out to the entire world. More importantly, you can serve multiple client accounts from virtually anywhere on Earth. An enterprising young traveler might be carrying ten to twenty clients on her back and generating a steady income while on a permanent working vacation.
Home is where the hard drive is
The third great advantage is the acceptance and encouragement of having a shared space to be in, no matter where they are in the world. When previous generations wanted to run away and join the traveling circus, their parents discouraged the decision. Constant travelers, at least in North America, have never received a warm reception and, beyond the life of a traveling salesperson or sailor, there wasn’t much in the way of career opportunities to be found moving from place to place. That’s changed completely. Today’s young person with a sense of wanderlust can easily create gainful employment and find instant support services in virtually any city they visit.
Find a business centre anywhere in the world and take a glance around the coworking space. Many of the people there will be traveling through, using the business centre’s international network of office spaces as destinations. In the co-working spaces, traveling business people find comradery, convenience, and coffee. They also find support services and office infrastructure to help them conduct business. Most importantly, digital nomads meet other people living similar lifestyles who can help with travel, banking, business, and other life-tips.
Business centres also provide virtual offices as a home-base for traveling business persons with mail, telephone, and fax reception services available. Digital nomads can weave services together to form a seamless network to support their businesses. Telsec members are reminded that meeting rooms are easily available around the world through our membership in the Alliance Business Center Network. With the advent of inexpensive travel, living a life moving from place to place and experience to experience is more than appealing, it is entirely possible. As the cost of living increases rapidly and the knowledge economy growing, the nomadic lifestyle is becoming a sounder and sounder choice for young people looking to enjoy themselves while building a career or at least making a steady income.