Do You Know Someone Who Has Broken Free?by Simon Black Recently by Simon Black: The Ultimate Self-Reliance Manual
While Mexican President Felipe Calderon debates strategy over transnational crime and narcotrafficking with Barack Obama in Washington, waves of North American college students are beginning to descend upon the Yucatan peninsula for Spring Break ’11. They must have missed the memo from their home governments warning them that heinous death and destruction will await south of the border… or perhaps, intrepid young minds exercised a bit of common sense and figured their biggest risks are sun burns, gonorrhea, or a beer pong tournament gone bad. It goes to show what little credibility the political establishment has, particularly over anyone with an independent streak. As much as I admire independent thinking, though, crowded beaches full of drunk college kids are not my thing, and I’ve moved on to Merida, one of Mexico’s 16th century colonial towns. Since Merida is not a hub of tourism like Tulum or Cancun, there is a much more authentic feel to the town, not to mention it’s much more reasonably priced. Merida also has a thriving expat scene, and as I’ve discussed before, this is one of the great pleasures of traveling constantly: meeting unique, interesting people who have broken free of the standard rat race and chosen to live life by their own rules. For people who haven’t taken this step, but dream of doing so, I know it can be difficult to imagine – what do you do when you’re overseas? How do you earn money? How do you spend your time and fit in with locals? I come across really fascinating examples all the time. Just here in Mexico I’ve met an Austrian who runs a gourmet restaurant, a woman from Singapore who manages property rentals, a delightful young French girl who sings at nightclubs, some Australians who opened a dive shop, etc. Each made a very simple, yet bold choice: “I’m not happy with where I am and what I’m doing, so I’m going to change something.” For people who dream of making the move, it’s easy to fill oneself full of doubt and excuses to not take action. These examples serve as inspiring proof that it not only can be done, it is being done… by people just like you. At Sovereign Man, we think these are important stories to tell, and we’ve recently decided to fund a series of videos on the notion of ‘breaking free’ with our friends over at the Matador Network. You can see the demo video here, and even nominate someone with a great story to be featured in the series. March 5, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Sovereign Man
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