April, 2007:
The white pristine sands… the perfectly formed waves… the sun reflecting off the surface of the turquoise bay… the beautiful women in tiny bikin-
*Beep*. *Beep*. *Beep*.
I jolt and almost fell on the floor.
I was in a tiny single bed. The room smelled like paint and detergent.
Where am I? What was all that bleeping beeping?
I glance at the bright red display next to the bed. 4:17 am.
I crawl back under the blankets.
Where was I… oh yes… the sun reflecting off the surface of the ocean… a sail boat gliding in the distance… clouds above in perfect formation…
*Beep*. *Beep*. *Beep*.
I reached for the alarm clock to throw it on the ground. But the furious noise came from a little black box next to the clock.
It was a pager.
Wait… if that’s a pager, does that mean I am in a hospital? And if I’m in a hospital, does that mean I am still on call?
I throw my blanket aside. This vacation in my dream now seem like a remote impossibility. I grab my jacket, my stethoscope, and I run into the hospital. The hospital corridor smelled of antiseptic. I walk into ward 8.
A nurse runs up to me.
“Doctor, what took you so long? We need you to fix something.” she says.
“What’s the matter?” I ask.
“This patient…. she got a hair in her eye. What should I do?”
September, 2007:
Did you know that the average professional gets no more than 5 weeks annual leave a year?
I did.
I was a burnt out medical doctor working 100+ work weeks.
I spent 8 years of my life in medical training, and was a specialist training in ophthalmology and occuloplastics.
I was told by my seniors and colleagues that I had a promising career ahead of me, and that I was great at my job.
But I was tired and unhappy.
So I started to examine everything in my life. I asked questions I never asked before. I observed doctors 10-20 years ahead. Their routines amazed me. Wake up at xx:xx. Surgery at yy:yy. Doze off at zz:zz in their quaint 5 bedroom homes with a white picket fence and 2 kids.
“Why do you do this job?” I asked one of my seniors once.
‘Well, compared to doing xyz, I had less on call hours, easier patients, less paperwork… plus the money is pretty good.’
So in 20-25 years, maybe I will make enough money to retire and die.
November, 2007:
I quit.
Done. No more pagers. No more time sheets. No more grand rounds or meetings or kissing ass in hopes for a recommendation letter.
I was free of the rat race.
But was it the right decision? At the time, it certainly did not feel that way. I was ‘trading a respectable paycheck and a highly sought after career to be a bum.’
And a bum I was.
I moved back in with my parents, and made no money for months, while my friends were all moving towards becoming hugely successful doctors with their white picket fences.
October 2008
It’s been almost a year since I quit. For a while, I made no money. But then, through a combination of sheer persistence, tough luck and love, things started to come together.
I learned how to make money online. Alot of amazing things happen when you start having money again, such as no longer needing to live with your parents!
So we moved into a tiny budget basement apartment back in the UK.
Next, I realised that if I keep growing the business, I can free my location and travel the world while continuing to work on the business.
So one day, I theorized that I could experiment with working on the road, fulfilling my dream of world travel.
2009:
I tested out my theory.
January-March: I was horseback riding in the mountains of Panama. I drank fresh hand squeezed orange juice. I started learning Spanish.
I almost got arrested by Panamanian Police.
April/May: I was on a camel’s back in the Sahara Desert. I rode a moped for the first time in my life. I was haggling with skilled Moroccan traders.
August: The 6 month experiment was over. It succeeded. There was alot of fine tuning required, but I decided to fine tune this while traveling for the next 2-3 years and charting about it.
September: I sold everything.I sold everything I owned. It was alot of stuff. We also moved out of our crappy little basement apartment.
October: I was staring at one of the 7 wonders of the world. Mount Everest glared down at me.
I am going to climb that thing some day.
I traveled through China and Tibet.
November: We ventured through Nepal. I was scuba diving with a good friend in the Similans Island, Thailand.
December: My girlfriend quit her day job. We traveled together to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam.
2010:
As I update this – I am in Costa Rica. We have been here for the past 3 weeks. It’s 87 degrees outside. We are rushing to get to the volcanoes after spending the last 12 days on 10 beaches.
This is not a 2 week annual sabbatical or holiday. This is the 24/7 vacation I have been dreaming of. I work while I travel, and now make more money traveling the world than doctors 10 years ahead are earning while working 80 hour work weeks in towns they would never choose to live in.
All it took was that one scary decision I made 2 years ago. And of course, the long months of trials, failures, and tribulations.
The future:
I also know there are alot of people out there who share similar experiences, along my own personal journey.
This is why I decided to take my personal blog to the next level.
Over the next 2 years, I will be doing a world trip through Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, while simultaneously running and growing the business on the road.
In the process, I want to figure out how to teach you to build a sustainable income that affords you to live an exciting life. But more importantly, to help you do what you truly love, work from anywhere you want, live anywhere you want, and do whatever you want.
Like Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kun Do – if you can read my blog and find 1 new useful idea or destination or thing that changes your life… I would be happy with that.
Please drop me an email if you have any specific questions or want to learn more about how you can also live a 24/7 vacation: vince </at/> hongkongwong.com
Pure Vida!
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