
How I built a business that lets me live on the beach full time - jasonkester
http://www.expatsoftware.com/Articles/guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop.html
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dfsfsfsf
I agree there is nothing remarkable about this, you are simply working...
remotely. I think the cases people have a problem with are the "get rich
quick" schemes that promise a life on the beach with a content website that
delivers very little to the world given that most topics have now been done to
death. Run by people who very much were in the right place at the right time
when Google could be manipulated and there was no competition. People who sell
nothing but a dream off the back of a shaky business model that adds little
value and no longer works.

You've built products, you put the work in and you're generating revenue off
the back of it. It's a model that's been around and it's cool that you don't
have to be tied to an office to deliver it. I don't think anyone should have a
problem with seeing how this works.

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cylinder
You are fortunate to have a set of skills in demand so you can just pick up
gigs. Unfortunately I became a lawyer, which is probably the most useless
thing to study; should have learned HVAC repair or something.

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RugnirViking
You mention that becoming a lawyer is a useless thing. My (very far) removed
perception has been that lawyers are in demand and tend to live relatively
comfortable lives. It seems that many on the web also think so.

Is that generally the case? Or is it usually more parallel to your own
experience?

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majani
From where I stand, it seems like law is lucrative in litigious countries like
the US. Outside of that, law tends to be a really long and hard slog to the
top.

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deanifr
Interesting read. May I suggest another, more detailed post about how you got
started with consulting in the first place (aside from the CTO you mentioned)?
Inspiring story nevertheless.

And Mike D is the man.

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jasonkester
I suppose I had always taken that bit for granted, but it occurs to me that my
first 4 years out of school was working for a Consulting Engineering Firm, so
I was exposed from the start to the whole business development & proposal
writing thing.

I'll have to go back and separate out what I actually learned during that
period, since you're right that it's probably not entirely intuitive.

For the longer gigs, which made up most of my early contract work, it was
mostly just a matter of telling them during the interview process that I'd
prefer to work on a contract rather than salaried basis.

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deanifr
Thanks for your reply

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Nashooo
So, I'd love to start with this. The hardest part for me is finding the time
and motivation to start with in addition to my current employment. Because I
also like my spare time. And it seems as though in order to gain more spare
time I have to put a lot of my spare time in as an investment with the
(likely?) risk of not receiving any extra in return.

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jasonkester
I fought with this for a long time, back when I was working full time and
trying to get things bootstrapped. What worked for me was not trying to force
it.

Rather than set aside and extra couple hours in the morning or after work as
"product building time", I'd just let it happen on its own.

I work in bursts, so I'd get a bug up one evening, get up off the couch and
run with an idea for a few hours. If I didn't finish, and I was still excited
about the idea, I'd do the same thing the next night. I'd sometimes get on a
roll and do this for a couple weeks on end. But other times, I'd run out of
steam and just let it go.

The cool thing about SaaS businesses is that a lot of things run on "Calendar
Time". So once the initial thing is out the door, you can weather a lot of
unmotivation (or screwing off) while your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are
doing their thing behind the scenes.

I took a long term full-time contract at one point when my first kid was born,
and still somehow managed to burst out new features this way in between
changing diapers. There are a lot of hours in the day, most of which go in to
"down time". Don't sweat it too much, and know that you can steal that down
time to use when you're motivated.

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Nashooo
Thank you for this answer!

> your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are doing their thing behind the scenes.

However, I imagine this takes some more work/skill to really pull off than
just letting it do it's thing.

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edgartaor
There's a comment thread of this post here.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14438283](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14438283)

