Adventure or Money? and life options for those in their mid 20's. Advice please
07-10-2015, 02:23 PM
Adventure or Money? How about both?
Blueprint for Saving Money, Traveling Abroad, Learning Skills, and Launching Startups:
1. Get Hired Abroad
Get a teaching job in Korea or China. If you prefer stability, Korea. If you prefer adventure, China.
I strongly suggest you try China. You are asking if you should choose money or adventure. If you set your situation up correctly in China, you should be able to save $1000-1500 USD per month while also traveling to unique places every once in a while and experiencing a dramatically foreign culture.
2. Save $1K monthly for 2-3 years, thus saving $24,000-36,000 USD
Once you secure a position and a work visa, set up your life so that you are saving $1K monthly by default. In Korea you should be able to do this with basically only your 20 hours/week job. In China you might have to tutor on the side. At your age I suggest you go to China so that you can learn Mandarin, make local connections, and be able to potentially explore business opportunities.
Again, I strongly suggest China. Specifically cities like Chengdu, Shenzhen, Qingdao, and other rising second tier cities. While you would end up making somewhat less money there than in first tier cities, your cost of living can be dramatically lower.
3. Skill Acquisition
If you did all of this correctly, you should be working a maximum of 30-35 hours per week while saving $1000-1500 USD per month. This is your ideal situation. You use your free time to:
-Get into the best shape of your life
-Learn Mandarin as fluently as possible
-Pick up digital location independent skill sets
-Start business ventures
You will fail at the majority of the business ventures you try, which is why having a 20-30 hour workweek while, by default, saving $1K-1500 USD per month is a very good situation to be in. You will have flexibility to do this while also being young enough to take such risks. If you are in China, you will be able to travel to a lot of unique destinations, as it is a wildly diverse destination.
A lot of people straight up do not have the discipline to learn how to code or do web design, or any other digital skill sets. That's fine, not everyone is cut out for that. However, if you can become fluent in Mandarin in a few years, there is another amazing global business opportunity available.
4. Business Opportunities in Chinese Tourism
Chinese Tourists are Headed Your Way with $264 Billion USD
Go to China, become fluent in Mandarin, and network with as many influential people as possible. If possible, intern or work for tourism companies as well.
While you do this, get to know a niche segment of the Chinese population with specific passions. Let's say it's golf.
Chinese people are crazy about golf. As such, there is a huge segment of the population that loves to play the sport, whether at home or abroad. Many of them will take customized golf trips abroad.
You play golf in China and get connected to lovers of the sport in the country. You get to know the players in the scene and get invited to country club events. You figure out where Chinese tourists are going abroad to play golf and what kind of fees they are paying to do so.
Then you start connecting with golf resorts abroad and telling them that you have an inside connection with Chinese tourists interested in going abroad specifically for the purposes of playing golf. You set up your FIRST golf tour for Chinese tourists as a consultant and entrepreneur at reduced rates.
As you keep setting up these sorts of trips, you become the go-to guy for both Chinese golf tourists and also golf courses abroad - a broker of sorts. Chinese people do not trust many people, so if you are well connected and people trust your feedback, they will be willing to do these sort of tour based on your advice.
Over time you build a venture that is like an Tripadvisor or Agoda for Chinese Golf Tourism specifically. Or wine tourism. Or fashion tourism. Or health/medical tourism. Whatever it is. You become the respected web portal and trip booking platform for that specific space. People start leaving reviews. You become the go-to destination for Chinese tourists to book their trips and you become the go-to destination for golf courses to handle and process inbound Chinese tourist trips.
This is just ONE business model of many different models that can service the 100M+ outbound Chinese tourists that are traveling internationally every year. This market will explode from about $160B USD in 2014 to $264B USD in 2019, projected.
Outbound Chinese Tourism is revolutionizing the travel industry. Everyone is trying to figure out how to get a piece of the action and carve their brand into the Chinese psyche as "the place to visit" but have no idea how to do it. This market is unlike anything they have ever experienced.
If you build this asset you will have created something quite valuable that can someday be purchased and make you a wealthy man.
I am currently working on something that is in this space.
So you ask - should you choose money or adventure?
My answer is that you should do both.
Find a juggernaut global macro trend that few other people seem to understand and ruthlessly execute in that space.
Start looking for a technical partner NOW. Find someone to be your CTO 1-3 years before you actually need them to build a product for you.
Better yet, learn to code in 1-2 years and build the product yourself.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
-
Blueprint for Saving Money, Traveling Abroad, Learning Skills, and Launching Startups:
1. Get Hired Abroad
Get a teaching job in Korea or China. If you prefer stability, Korea. If you prefer adventure, China.
I strongly suggest you try China. You are asking if you should choose money or adventure. If you set your situation up correctly in China, you should be able to save $1000-1500 USD per month while also traveling to unique places every once in a while and experiencing a dramatically foreign culture.
2. Save $1K monthly for 2-3 years, thus saving $24,000-36,000 USD
Once you secure a position and a work visa, set up your life so that you are saving $1K monthly by default. In Korea you should be able to do this with basically only your 20 hours/week job. In China you might have to tutor on the side. At your age I suggest you go to China so that you can learn Mandarin, make local connections, and be able to potentially explore business opportunities.
Again, I strongly suggest China. Specifically cities like Chengdu, Shenzhen, Qingdao, and other rising second tier cities. While you would end up making somewhat less money there than in first tier cities, your cost of living can be dramatically lower.
3. Skill Acquisition
If you did all of this correctly, you should be working a maximum of 30-35 hours per week while saving $1000-1500 USD per month. This is your ideal situation. You use your free time to:
-Get into the best shape of your life
-Learn Mandarin as fluently as possible
-Pick up digital location independent skill sets
-Start business ventures
You will fail at the majority of the business ventures you try, which is why having a 20-30 hour workweek while, by default, saving $1K-1500 USD per month is a very good situation to be in. You will have flexibility to do this while also being young enough to take such risks. If you are in China, you will be able to travel to a lot of unique destinations, as it is a wildly diverse destination.
A lot of people straight up do not have the discipline to learn how to code or do web design, or any other digital skill sets. That's fine, not everyone is cut out for that. However, if you can become fluent in Mandarin in a few years, there is another amazing global business opportunity available.
4. Business Opportunities in Chinese Tourism
Chinese Tourists are Headed Your Way with $264 Billion USD
Go to China, become fluent in Mandarin, and network with as many influential people as possible. If possible, intern or work for tourism companies as well.
While you do this, get to know a niche segment of the Chinese population with specific passions. Let's say it's golf.
Chinese people are crazy about golf. As such, there is a huge segment of the population that loves to play the sport, whether at home or abroad. Many of them will take customized golf trips abroad.
You play golf in China and get connected to lovers of the sport in the country. You get to know the players in the scene and get invited to country club events. You figure out where Chinese tourists are going abroad to play golf and what kind of fees they are paying to do so.
Then you start connecting with golf resorts abroad and telling them that you have an inside connection with Chinese tourists interested in going abroad specifically for the purposes of playing golf. You set up your FIRST golf tour for Chinese tourists as a consultant and entrepreneur at reduced rates.
As you keep setting up these sorts of trips, you become the go-to guy for both Chinese golf tourists and also golf courses abroad - a broker of sorts. Chinese people do not trust many people, so if you are well connected and people trust your feedback, they will be willing to do these sort of tour based on your advice.
Over time you build a venture that is like an Tripadvisor or Agoda for Chinese Golf Tourism specifically. Or wine tourism. Or fashion tourism. Or health/medical tourism. Whatever it is. You become the respected web portal and trip booking platform for that specific space. People start leaving reviews. You become the go-to destination for Chinese tourists to book their trips and you become the go-to destination for golf courses to handle and process inbound Chinese tourist trips.
This is just ONE business model of many different models that can service the 100M+ outbound Chinese tourists that are traveling internationally every year. This market will explode from about $160B USD in 2014 to $264B USD in 2019, projected.
Outbound Chinese Tourism is revolutionizing the travel industry. Everyone is trying to figure out how to get a piece of the action and carve their brand into the Chinese psyche as "the place to visit" but have no idea how to do it. This market is unlike anything they have ever experienced.
If you build this asset you will have created something quite valuable that can someday be purchased and make you a wealthy man.
I am currently working on something that is in this space.
So you ask - should you choose money or adventure?
My answer is that you should do both.
Find a juggernaut global macro trend that few other people seem to understand and ruthlessly execute in that space.
Start looking for a technical partner NOW. Find someone to be your CTO 1-3 years before you actually need them to build a product for you.
Better yet, learn to code in 1-2 years and build the product yourself.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
-