[Roosh]

Some guy on my blog posted two excellent comments about living abroad and travel. Here's the first:

http://www.rooshv.com/whats-wrong-with-a...ment-30510

Quote:

Great post. Makes me want to have brew with you and soak this in some more. I quit my corporate gig right after I got my Y2K bonus and was banking on the stock market bubble. Six months later I was living in Spain. My initial trip was for 8 weeks, but I stayed for a year. A year later I knew I could never go back to a job like that again (the high paid, lots of hours kind). I felt like I broke out of the matrix and realized that lots of other countries were living it up so much better than we Americans. I tried to break some of my friends out of the matrix, but there were no takers. Its hard to convert people who have been institutionalized for so long. Lots of people I worked with would say, “Oh, I wish I could do that.” Most of them young and single. I would tell them you can, but you can’t do it while paying for that BMW in the driveway at the same time. After a sigh, they would all choose the BMW.

I realize a lot of Americans don’t like hearing that America is not so great in some ways. America is the greatest country in many ways that matter… if you happen to be a country. I grew up comfortable in the knowledge that we had the largest most technically advanced economy, that we had the most powerful military, that we had the best universities, the best hospitals, most material wealth, best movies and TV, and the hottest women, etc, etc, ad nauseum (poor me, I was so naive). After living abroad and over time realizing what I had been missing, but not knowing what to with my life; I had a hard time coming to grips with realization that my wealthy American lifestyle was so lacking compared to my materially humble lifestyle in various other countries. All those great stats that show the USA is #1 just did not translate into a better quality of life for me or most other people, as far as I could tell. It wasn’t an easy transformation. At first I had major TV and junk food withdrawals for months. The side benefit was I literally walked my ass off and lost 3 inches in my jeans. My social life and sex life elevated to a level that is basically unobtainable within the US. Throw on top all I learned and all the great friends I made, there was no way I could just go home and plug back in again.

How could I have been so blind for so long? I was totally indoctrinated by American culture and values that I had grown up with. I saw 2 movies abroad that I skipped in ’90s because I was too busy poring over RFCs for my job while Seinfeld and Friends played in the background. They were Fight Club and Office Space. Ironically two American movies in English in a non-English speaking country. They resonated with me all the more since they validated and put into words the path I had already started.

When I got home after that first trip I noticed a few things. First, how fat everyone was. Seriously, it took me two weeks to cope with that alone. The other thing was how bland and unfulfilling life in America was. And I’m still not over that. I now felt like a foreigner in my own country. I had changed and had experiences that just would not permit me to integrate back into American society to the way I was before. It’s why I no longer live full time in America any more. I have no idea if this is how returning troops feel when they return, but I’m slightly different now and feel slightly foreign and just not being able to connect with friends at home the same as before. This is actually a pretty shitty feeling, but who knew it would happen?

I’ve had the conversation so many times with my stateside compatriots, even the ones I grew up with who have taken the obligatory packaged vacations abroad. It’s like discussing sex with a eunuch. If you haven’t experienced significant time abroad… enough time to look back at America from very different vantage points, you are just not going to understand what some people in this thread already know.

Second comment:

http://www.rooshv.com/6-step-strategy-fo...ment-30521

Quote:

I have to disagree with Tom and Chris. I was living the proverbial American dream in my twenties. I had made it and was a winner, not a loser. I thought, is this as good as it gets? Because I began to feel an ever increasing void, but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So I went abroad for a change of scenery. I’ve been gone for 10 years now and there isn’t any novelty to wear off. For me, it’s about living a fulfilling, interesting and meaningful life. I am nearing the end of my thirties now. This isn’t some youthful flight of fancy, this is my fleeting life. I couldn’t imagine spending my 40s in the US now. Fifteen years ago, I wouldn’t have traded the US for anything, but we live and learn.

Yes, I frequently come back to the states because I have to. Parents’ health issues, friends, etc. And yes, I’ve known people who lived abroad for years and felt they had to go back to the states. I notice real qualitative differences between people like me and people like that. Usually, they never actually overcome their American cultural indoctrination. They usually never truly immerse themselves in the country they are in. Even after years they are still measuring themselves against their peers in America over all this meaningless crap. Often times they are living in an ex-pat bubble spending a good amount of time reminiscing about America and longing to rejoin the corporate hive. I’ve known more than one American who basically went back because their lives were incomplete without American spectator sports. If watching NBA and NFL is your primary reason for being and you are unable to ween yourself off these time sinks that steal the best years of your life then you are institutionalized and irretrievable. Honestly, if you take pride in the thought that America produces the best NBA and NFL players in the world and this factors into your state of emotional well-being then you have issues. If you are living vicariously through a large screen TV you have issues. If you are addicted to video games, you have issues. If you buy Axe deodorant because you saw a commercial, you are in need of serious deprogramming. Just rub some salt on your armpits and get a clue. Good luck to you. This life abroad ain’t for everyone.

Just to round this out. If you want to live abroad you are going to need income and a plan. If this requires going back home for a year or longer to save up and begin to figure out a long term income stream that’s fine. If you want to live abroad and live the life, then you are going to have to become an entrepreneur. Let me reiterate, to live long term outside the US you are gong to have to become an entrepreneur. Which primarily means an entrepreneurial mindset in all your long term thinking. That means being resourceful, creative and doing things you might not have previously considered. You need to get hungry. Don’t hold back, your life is already becoming more interesting. You are going to have to think outside the box to apply all the talents and creativity that your American employer has no use for and probably discourages.

If you haven’t used these assets in a while then it will be tough starting out. Probably very tough. You need to learn to deal with failure and how to recover and persevere. Learn from how reality shreds your best laid plans and continue to improve and execute them. Course correct by learning what not to do. Continue to innovate. You can take short term jobs in a foreign country as a camarero or language professor or maybe even manage a white collar corporate gig. Maybe if you find a town to settle down in, even a bricks and mortar business. However, in my experience if you can make your livelihood online, that will give you the greatest flexibility. Do you have a skill that people will pay for online? Can you write and sell a book like Roosh? Can you build a website that sells advertising?

Basically this all boils down to running your own life on your own terms and not continuing to exist in a soul destroying corporation. No its not easy, it took me years to make real money online. It takes time and you may have to work in corporate fashion for a while or even a long while, but eventually you will begin to exert more and more authority over your own time and what you do with it. Its about taking control of your life and actually living it rather than sacrificing your life so your kids can grow up and train for a white collar career in corporate-dronism at State U.