Digital nomad

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I have, since 2002, spent most of my time in the Caribbean. In the Cayman Islands, from 2014 to 2017, I wanted to set up an online business in a tax-free zone, build a house and move there. I failed miserably. The first two to three years, 2002-2005, I spent mostly in Cuba, and I luckily didn’t try to set up a business there. Seems I was smarter when I was younger. For fifteen years, I worked with real estate in the Dominican Republic and set up a workspace facility with virtual office services in Santo Domingo, which I closed at the start of the pandemic. Over five years ago, in September 2018, I flew to the Cayman Islands from Santo Domingo via Miami and had some wine on the plane. I decided not to drink on arrival as I needed to solve a complex problem. Without planning it, I have not had one drink since.

In 2015, I obtained a business license with a work permit in the Cayman Islands and started building a house. I had big plans. I would develop an online business in a tax-free zone, move there, and use my office in Santo Domingo for operations. It started to go sour. I could not manage the construction, which finished over two years later than planned, and I never developed the online business. I gave up my business license in the Cayman Islands and sold the house at a huge loss. During the process, I experienced a mental health crisis, starting with anxiety disorder and panic attacks, resulting in a nervous breakdown, followed by a long period of depression, all lasting three to four years. It culminated from a long period where mental illness and problematic drinking increasingly got a hold on me and influenced my personal life and my business.