Digital nomad

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A couple of years ago, I heard the term digital nomad, which is someone who travels and works from a laptop without having a permanent home, and I realized I had been one on and off for almost twenty years. However, for the first several years, it was not with much of the digital as I had limited internet access, and it was before social media. Typically, you work mainly by yourself and only loosely belong to communities.

I mentioned the term to an American from the expat community in the Dominican Republic. He said, “Ha, they finally found a term for it, ah. A digital nomad. That’s like sexing up an unemployed guy with a laptop who knows some technology and a bit of business.” I thought that was hilarious. I have known many people with those characteristics over the years. Some were independently wealthy, and others lived from hand to mouth. It characterizes me more and more, actually.

I have, since 2002, spent most of my time in the Caribbean. In 2015, I obtained a business license with a work permit in the Cayman Islands, and I had big plans. I wanted to set up an online business in a tax-free zone, build a house, move there, and use my office in Santo Domingo for operations. I failed miserably. 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.

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.

For fifteen years, together with broker Raysa Suarez, I worked with real estate in the Dominican Republic. We set up a workspace facility with virtual office services in Santo Domingo, which we closed at the start of the pandemic.