I sucked at school. I was a C+ average kind of student. I showed up every day but I found the subjects boring and the homework time consuming. I was more interested in socialising and playing sports. I was so bored and uninspired by my schooling education, I dropped out in grade 11...
My school counselors expressed concern and advised me to join the army or get a trade. I refused and said, “I’ll be fine. I’ll work something out.” I was not interested in going to Uni at that time and any idea of a career was far from my mind. At the time I didn’t realise it, but my heart was set for travel and adventure, for this is where I would learn the most about myself and the world - not in yet another sterile and boring classroom for the next 3-4 years of my youthful life.
After a few years doing a variety of part time jobs to fund my rave party hobbies (that's another story), I decided it was time for a change. I was 20. I sold a lot of my stuff, and bought a one way ticket to New Zealand. I have never been into buying return tickets when I travel or go somewhere - short trips have never been my thing - I always preferred the “I’ll work it out” approach. After a year in New Zealand, woofing, going to yoga classes, sitting 10 day silent retreats, hanging out with Hare Krishna's and learning how to indoor plaster, I returned to Australia and had the desire to turn it up even more. University or getting any real career was still far from my mind.
A job teaching English in China fell into my lap and so I found myself in some random city in the middle of China soon after - Again, one way ticket in hand. I stayed in China for a year (getting teaching contracts as easy as pie) It was also the first time I visited Thailand and fell in love with its easy going ways. When I eventually returned to Australia, I was thirsty for knowledge and began attending a health college studying Chinese medicine and reading a lot of books on subjects related to health, psychology, business, Buddhism and medicine.
I was now 24 and this was about time the internet was really picking up speed. I knew then that the internet was the way to being able to create something that would allow people to live anywhere on the planet while working at the same time.
Over the following 6-7 years I lived as a poor and artistically inspired student. I studied anything I felt inspired by, not knowing how it would come together to create a career down the track - but I didn’t care - if I wasn’t interested in the subject, I knew I would do poorly at it, so there was no point studying things that I wasn’t interested in. I bounced around from graphic design, music technology through to religious studies, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and Chinese philosophy.
All through my 20’s I was either a poor traveler or a poor student. Partly formally educated and more so, self educated. I felt no desire for marriage, to have children and I never chased a real job. It was some of the best years of my life and I made a lot of amazing friends and attended some of the most amazing festivals in Australia.
When I hit 30, something in me started shifting. I had popped out of my formal education a few years before with a health degree, majoring in Chinese medicine and a yoga teaching qualification amongst what felt like hundreds of other smaller training and studies. I was teaching yoga part time and operating as a clinical acupuncturist part time. Any amount of wealth still eluded me.
During this whole time, I had my eye on the internet and was involved n a variety of small business experiments. Some worked, most didn’t. I was lucky to have been surrounded by web designers most of my early adult life so I was always learning.
I caught wind of Amazon and the self publishing book industry. I bought a book for $5 about who to self publish your own books and I read it in a day. I thought to myself, “I like books, I have read a lot of books, I have a lot to say after studying all this cool stuff for the last 8-9 years, and now, I know how to publish my own books… I’m going to give this a go!”
For the next 12 months, apart from teaching a few yoga classes per week, I stayed in my house, alone most of the time, and wrote and wrote and wrote. I taught myself how to write and how to self publish. After a few goes at it, I started making money. I kept going and more money came in. It was working, I had created a job for myself and all the knowledge and random skills I had learned in my 20’s was finally coming together.
For the next 2 years I wrote over 10 books and some became best sellers in their genre. I began setting up my website and building a real business online around my work and my education, so I would never have to get a real job ever again. Some time later I caught wind of a “digital nomad” movement happening around the globe - Where young entrepreneur types were setting up and operating a business online so they could travel and live in places like beautiful Thailand.
I realised, after already working online for 2 years, that I could easily become a digital nomads and live overseas. My partner at the time and myself bought a one way ticket to Asia to find other digital nomads to hang out with and setup a completely new lifestyle. And the rest is history.
That was 2014. I’ve been living mostly in Thailand and slow travelling the world for the last 5 years. I haven’t had a real job my whole life. I have hardly any possessions, no house, no car. I have the most amazing lifestyle, live in a magical house in the hills of northern Thailand, have a lot of free time, and I get to hang out with amazing humans from all over the world every day. At any point I could join the circus, become a monk or sing yoga songs all day long.
I share this story not to brag or boast, but as a message to show people that the traditional way of doing things, “Get good grades, go to uni, get a good job, get married, etc.” and following the system that your culture presses on you to follow, is not necessary! That path does not guarantee success or wealth or even happiness. I believe it is an outdated system that doesn’t apply or empower people for this new world.
From my experience, self education has got me further than my formal education and also the willingness to learn new things, utilise technology (its a blessing and not something to be afraid of) and follow your heart will work out for you much better than walking any other path will.
Also, a massive part of it is not to rush into big decisions and to be patient with the journey. Rushing from school, into uni, into a real job and then into marriage all before you’re 24 or so, rarely seems to work out from my observations. If it does or has worked out for you, I congratulate you!
Another critical component of being able to see in new ways is to travel far and wide (one way tickets are recommended). Get out of your own country for a good while and get away from its political noise. It's amazing how insignificant national politics becomes when you go to another country and can see it from a distance.
I have countless friends who teach English online to provide enough to live a basic life in Thailand. It then takes a little vision and effort to generate a side hustle to get you moving into the career and lifestyle of your dreams.
Anything is possible if you can get out of your cultural noise long enough to be able to hear your heart speak and guide you...
(**If you are interested in learning more about the details of how I also branched out into producing video courses from using similar content as in my books, I wrote this quick guide book about a year ago, "How I made $10,000+ selling healing videos courses online". It's available here for free -> http://www.michaelhetherington.com.au/howimadeoffer)
Hari Om
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Michael Hetherington
BHlthSci, Chinese medicine & yoga
Author & Teacher
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