🐙 Why I quit the digital nomad life

Hey there, solopreneur!

It's 6 AM in Cyprus. I'm watching the Mediterranean waves crash against ancient harbor walls while assembling a squat rack at my new house I’m settling into.

Two years ago, I would've laughed at the idea of "settling down." I was convinced that working from beachfront cafes and living out of a backpack was peak freedom.

Plot twist: I was completely wrong about what freedom actually means.

Here's the thing about those nomad lifestyle posts you see online:

They're highlight reels. Nobody shows the 2 AM food poisoning, the annoying jet lag, or the anxiety of constant relocation.

Before you chase someone else's dream, you need to deeply understand what actually works for you.

That’s why today, I want to share why I stopped nomading — and how a proper home base benefitted both my business and mental health in wonderful ways I never expected...

Real relationships require years of consistent investment to compound

Think about your closest friendships - the ones where you can sit in comfortable silence or call at 3 AM during a crisis. These weren't built over a two-week coliving experience in Bali.

I learned this the hard way. After a year of nomading, I had collected WhatsApp groups full of "amazing connections" from around the world. But when I actually needed support during a tough launch, I realized these connections were a mile wide and an inch deep.

True relationships compound like index funds. Each shared experience, each vulnerable moment, each showing up when it matters - they all add up over years, not days.

Instead, I was day-trading friendships. Making intense connections that would fizzle out as soon as one of us moved to the next destination.

Your deep work capacity collapses when you're constantly changing environments

Here's an uncomfortable truth: I launched The AI Solopreneur from a "dream" setup in Thailand. Beautiful views, cheap living costs, perfect weather.

Want to know my actual productivity numbers from that time?

Back then:

• 2-3 hours of focused work daily (on a good day)

• Constant context switching from spotty WiFi

The rest was lost to fighting back pain from hunched-over laptop sessions in beach cafes and spending half my mental energy just figuring out basic daily logistics.

Compare that to now:

I consistently hit 6-8 hours of deep work daily in my ergonomic setup, actually shipping major projects instead of just talking about them. Zero time wasted on the basics means I can focus on what matters.

The true cost of nomading far exceeds what most influencers will admit

"But living in Bali is so cheap!" they say on Instagram.

Let's talk real numbers. As a nomad, my monthly expenses included:

• $1000+ on last-minute flights

• $800 on short-term apartment premiums

• $500-1000 extra on eating out (no kitchen setup)

• $500+ on bike or car rentals

Plus countless "small" expenses that somehow always add up to big numbers.

As a tourist, you’ll always walk into extractive “price traps” because you don’t fully understand the local economy.

Even cheap destinations like Bali and Thailand are starting to get more expensive than some European cities.

Want to test if the nomad life is really for you? Start small.

Take a month-long workation somewhere close. You might discover you're chasing a dream that looks better on Instagram than in real life. I wish someone had told me this before I sold everything and bought a one-way ticket.

Changing locations every few months makes sustainable health habits impossible

My "perfect" beach workouts in Thailand lasted exactly two weeks.

Know why? Because real health requires a foundation:

• Consistent sleep schedule

• Reliable access to quality food

• Regular exercise routine / quality gyms

Good luck maintaining any of that when you're crossing time zones monthly, battling food poisoning, jet lag, moldy Thai gyms, and constantly working from ergonomic nightmares.

Most of your mental bandwidth gets wasted on basic life logistics while traveling

From my observations, most people who nomad frequently don’t build anything substantial. The reason?

Well, the math is brutally simple:

80% of mental energy goes to survival basics – researching destinations, finding apartments, and managing visas. That mental gymnastics leaves maybe 20% for actual creation.

People often use travel as an escape from problems that follow them anywhere

Here's something I noticed within myself: Every time I felt stuck or unfulfilled, I'd start browsing Airbnb listings in new countries.

The pattern was clear: I was using location changes as a band-aid for deeper issues.

That emptiness you feel in London? It follows you to Lisbon. That lack of purpose in New York? Still there in Bali. That relationship you're avoiding? Distance doesn't solve it.

If you feel a constant urge to move to new places, ask yourself what you're really running away from. I've learned that geographical solutions rarely fix psychological problems.

A perfect home setup creates more freedom than the ability to work anywhere

Where you live is one of the biggest factors in your happiness - yet most people spend more time researching their next phone than their next home.

Take time to analyze what truly matters to you in a location: Community? Weather? Cost of living? Work opportunities? Make this decision intentionally.

My new strategy is simple but powerful:

Primary Base (Cyprus):

• Full home gym with sea view, Sauna and cold plunge at home

• Ergonomic workspace

• Local entrepreneur community

For winter, I'm planning a second location focused purely on recovery and creativity.

The results speak for themselves. Since settling down:

• Revenue is up 40%

• Actually sleeping 8 hours/night

• Deep work sessions that last hours

But the biggest win for me? Finally building real friendships that don't disappear with the next flight out.

Even If I’ll move again, I will always stay at least 7-8 months per year at my base location.

Here's what I've learned works best:

Plan real vacations. Actual, laptop-closed, phone-off breaks.

You'll find more breakthrough ideas in two weeks of genuine rest than in six months of half-working from beach cafes.

This morning, as I was putting together my new home gym…

I watched digital nomads rolling their suitcases past my building. For the first time, I didn't feel like I was missing out.

Sometimes the boldest move isn't packing your bags – it's planting your flag.

My little shill of the week:

Ole's Bookmarks

The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition (book): With the rise of AI, the generalist era began once more. Your ability to learn skills fast is the single highest point of leverage in your professional career. This book is a great starting point.

Marc Andreessen on Joe Rogan (podcast): If you haven’t watched this yet, do it. Thank me later.

How to Stop Feeling So Frustrated All The Time (podcast): Most entrepreneurs have a disregulated nervous system. This podcast is full of actionable advice how to bounce back, retrain your nervous systems and live a more balanced and energetic life.

People asked me to share more of my opinions, here we go.

Latest edition in my “What I worked on this week” series on Twitter. Having a lot of fun building and writing these.

See you next week 🫡 

Ole

P.S. Please reply if you liked this newsletter edition (or roast me)