It hasn't always been like this [Music] When we first met, we did everything
you know that we were supposed to do. We went to University, got our good grades, got a
corporate job. Working our way up to promotions, advancing our careers, buying apartments. All
this stuff that you were supposed to do. But we always felt that was something missing, since we were younger, since we met, we had this combined vision together. That we didn't want a normal life,
we always wanted something more, and we were always excited about, you know what was out there in
the world. And this vision stuck with us even as we started to work. Build out our networks, you know
we always felt that we someday wanted to make that move. Take that transition out of our home
country. I think this is extremely vital in I mean in all relationships in general, but you can
have a lot of differences. You can be in different phases in life, but as long as you have that common
vision of what you really want to do together. It might not be super clear, but as long as you
see it, they will always present the path. We stuck by it, and we had this vision always, that
we wanted to have an international life. We wanted to be free, from the corporate life, but also free
in the sense that we can move around as we want. And then in 2018, we got this opportunity,
that presented itself, to move to Ireland, to join the tech community, and the International
Finance industry, there in Dublin. I mean I've never been to Dublin before. Heard good things obviously.
We took the leap of faith, and jumped on the opportunity, and all of a sudden we were situated
in a small apartment in Dublin. Leaving everything we had built up in Sweden behind, and it was
not easy. What this gave us, was something unique in the market. Cuz a lot of people they want to
change, they want to see it change, but they very seldom dare to take a risk. What we learned is
trying to be open-minded about things that you don't not know. Maybe path that you don't know, and
when they present themselves to. You dare to take that leap of faith, and seize that opportunity, and
see what it can give you. That's what we did in Ireland, took that opportunity, was actually,
maybe not a step up in a career. But maybe more sideways, but what we learned there is taking
that risk, puts you in a unique position. That a lot of other people, a lot of other workforce
in Sweden, didn't do. Which all of a sudden made us have this International community, got
experience from International companies, and got a more and more of a niche competence and niche
skill set. That is very difficult to get on the market, you need to, have taken that step,
to get that experience. And of course, this comes with sacrifices. We have sacrificed a lot,
we had a comfortable living, we had everything planned. We sacrificed you know not being close
to family, we sacrificed uncertainty of knowing, you know, exactly, well the uncertainty in
general of job security. You can get fired quicker outside Sweden than in Sweden. Same
thing as I tell my team every day, if it was easy, then everyone would do it. It's that struggle
that separates people, and that separates you from living a normal life. So, all these sacrifices,
even it was really really tough, and many times, all the years we stayed there, we still had that
mindset. That we need to trust the process. We're doing, we to trust ourselves, that we're on the right path, and opportunities will present themselves to us, further ahead. What was also very special, was that all of a sudden,
we came from a small community, you know great great people, great friends, everyone we knew in Sweden, family, to a new community, where all of a sudden. We were not the
minority anymore, there were so many like-minded people, that wanted to do the same thing as us. That wanted to have financial freedom, that wanted to see more of the world. Experience more of the world, or
be open-minded. Learn more about the world, so this gave us even more, and forced us even more to
keep on pushing ourselves. And we found other people that helped us push ourselves, toward that
goal. The skill set that we acquired as well is something completely different. The skill set of
being adaptable to other cultures, being adaptable to other workplaces, but also, niche competences as
for instance Irish Tax knowledge, or International Sales knowledge, American Corporate International
Sales knowledge. These things made our profile stick out more and more. What we also learned,
was you need to build your personal brand. The days are gone, where people are loyal and trusting to
the big companies. And you're going to stay and work for that company, your whole life. Today you
need to think about yourself, and we see it a lot, in especially the people I'm recruiting today. The younger generation, that the loyalty and the trust for companies, is not longer there. Especially,
in the Tech community. How do you push that, how do you adapt to that. What we learned, is you
need to build your own brand, you need to build up yourself internally in the company. But also
externally, because I do believe in the future. That there's going to be less and less companies, more
and more gig economy and more and more Freelancers. So, we starting doing that process, while we were
working the corporate life in Ireland. Slowly, but surely, building out our own brand, and what I learned as well, was the importance of actually being vocal. I learned this from the Americans,
working with them. That you need to be vocal about what you want, you need to be clear on this is my
vision, this is what I want to do in my career. And you set those expectations with whoever your
manager is. This helped me a lot in my career, but also a lot in taking ownership of my own life, and
our own life. Manifesting that this is what I want to do, and this is my next step to work that goal. And then
to really break it down. I mean we are not God's gift to humanity. We don't pretend that we
are a lot smarter than other people, or you know have a much bigger skill set, than a lot of people.
When it all comes down to it and this is a fact a lot of people find hard to take, but it all comes
down also to working extremely hard. Trusting that process, trusting that, life is not fair, and you
need to every day, try to build up a little bit of effort, closer to what your goal is. And this effort, compounds over years, over days. The compounding effect, and all of a sudden, standing there, and your profile and
the skill set you have, and the network you have, stands out. Because you push yourself a
little bit more every day, and you try a little bit more harder, and you can only control what you
can control yourself. You can only control what's within your own sphere, you can't control
other people. What I want to say about that, by trusting this process, by having our common vision,
and building all of the time, becoming a little bit better. Being more open-minded to how can we now
take the next step from Ireland out into the world. What that led us to, was building out our LinkedIn
Network, especially our professional Network. To see, okay, what is out there, and after Covid, we saw that,
okay, remote work should be able to work. So a lot of companies started popping off, that you know
gave this possibility, to have this vision of remote work. And this was the way, the networking,
building out our brand, making our profil more unique. Got us the opportunity, to find roles where
we can be contractors today, and have total freedom of how we plan our time. Total freedom of how we
invoice, where we spend our time, as long as we're in the same time zone as our clients. we are fine. But this would not have been possible, if I take that first step from where we were in
our career back in Sweden, to jump into this. We had to take that step in between, to go to Ireland, to
be able to get this Nomad lifestyle, that we have today. We don't take it for granted, we really don't. Many days we forget about it, because we're so busy with always looking forward. Like okay, how
can we now diversify our income streams, you know. how can we start investing in property, what can we
do online, to give us even more freedom, to reach the goals, that we want to have. This has always
been with us all the time. And I think that has been what has pushed us to go further than we ever
thought possible. Now we are all of a sudden in our 30s, and living you know in a suitcase. But we
would not want to have it any other way. Hopefully this inspires you as well, to chase that dream.
Because if you really want it, it's out there. [Music]
