Successful entrepreneurs can work from anywhere in the world

Just their laptop and a suitcase, jetting off around the globe and claiming that they’re ‘working’. Well, I’ve got news for you. This is the new face of work if you’re a digital entrepreneur. And, if you think about it, it’s not so strange.

The working week as we know it, 9 – 5, Monday to Friday, is from a different era. A time before emails, before social media, before the internet or even mobile phones. Doing things took longer back then. Want the big boss’s feedback? You had to have a meeting, person to person, with all the travel and organisational time that went along with it. Needed some documents signed? Same deal, everything had to be done in real life. Now we’ve got emails and Skype and a million other ways to get the things we need and get them fast. And yet, for most people 9 – 5 is still the norm. In fact, that’s if you’re lucky. The working day has, somehow, become longer. Most people expect to be in the office until 6 or even 7pm.

But a new generation of entrepreneurs are challenging this outdated status quo. By working for yourself, it’s possible to regain some much-needed autonomy over your working week. Companies like Reeboot Life and Remote Year are even capitalising on this new approach to work by facilitating remote workers in their travels – setting them up with itineraries that work around their schedules and helping with the logistics of flight and hotel bookings.

Carl Silverstone, founder of marketing company Alpine Studios, is already ahead of the game on this one, he’s been working remotely for years. Silverstone is a philanthropic digital entrepreneur with a background in working with major charities such as UNICEF, and he explains “Travel is so important - it changes your perspective, which is so important in life and in business.” South East Asia remains a firm favourite for Silverstone today and although he calls London home, you’ll more likely find him on a beach or by the pool, running Alpine Studios and his other successful businesses from a laptop.

This is the future, and sooner or later everyone else is going to catch up – after all, why haul yourself across town for a meeting when you’ve got Skype right there on your laptop? You wouldn’t ask your colleague’s opinion on something by writing them a letter and sending it through the post, so why are you still doing so many other things the old way?

So instead of jealously scrolling through other people’s Instagram feeds of pools and beaches and cold pitchers of ice tea, why not make this your reality too?