I am writing this as much because my current personal trek is leading me to live part-time outside the United States, as I am because of a new era I’ve noticed all around me. While the desire to live in places outside of one’s immediate culture or geographic area may date back to the earliest times of recorded civilization, it has never been as fully accessible to the everyday entrepreneur or small business owner as it is today.
Indeed, we have entered a new era in which entrepreneurs not only yearn for the adventure and romance of living in other places, they may choose to live in multiple places for another reason: diversification of risk, that is, financial risk management.
The events of 2008-2009 made entrepreneurs aware of two facts. First, it proved that the world is so interconnected that when a major power, such as the United States of America, has a financial blow-out, that economic blow-out can rapidly sweep around the globe and disrupt not only financial but also everyday life throughout much of the world.
Second, it proved that change can occur so quickly, and be so disruptive in one’s home country, that the only real economic protection is to be living in and/or have strong business/economic roots in two or more places around the globe.
These two insights combined with the rise of a virtual working style, which is made possible by inexpensive technology that allows business to occur without any centralized location in which those who work together, must physically be located together.
Moreover, technology makes it possible for one person, or a small outsourced team, to leverage small efforts into large results by accessing web-based business tools for growing and expanding one’s business. These are usually accessible by both personal computers and tablets, if not also by smart cellular devices. Therefore, any place on the planet that one can get a quality internet or wi-fi connection, anyone can operate their business.
Aside from a few web-based tools, or portions of them, being blocked in some countries, this means that from a technology perspective, there are no real barriers to where one lives and operates a business, even one that does most of it’s business back in one’s country of origin.
This gives rise to a new global-traveling entrepreneur who can choose to live in multiple places, both within and without their country of citizenship, or entirely outside their origin country.
For reasons that range from the pure adventure of travel and living within other cultures and geographic regions to diversification of financial risk that is better afforded by establishing economic roots in more than one country or region, entrepreneurs are now embracing the new global entrepreneur lifestyle.
J V Crum III is the founder of ConsciousMillionaire.com. As a business coach, speaker, and podcaster, he is sought after for his unique ability to help conscious entrepreneurs, small business owners, and change-agents combine making big profits with making a big difference. Listen to the Conscious Millionaire Podcast, M-F. J V holds an MBA, JD and a MS in Psychology. His best-selling book, “Conscious Millionaire: Grow Your Business by Making a Difference,” is available now.
