Bali digital nomad

I’ll be back early next week with much more about our time in Bali, but I just wanted to thank everyone who comes to Thrilling Heroics for making 2011 a wonderful year, wish you Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and express my sincerest hopes for a very happy New Year. 2012 is going to rock!

Every week I get a load of great emails in my inbox from readers. A while back, I received this comment from Sam (edited for length):

Man you really inspire me. I read your website at least 3-5 times a week. Since I graduated from high school I’ve always said I wanted to travel the world. Unfortunate obstacles have led me to say ‘#@%& I want to do this’. I want to live my life on my on own terms. I’m saving money now to get started. I want to thank you, keep doing what you’re doing man.

You probably have no idea how frequently you guys make my day, with subject lines like “Wow! This site is incredible!” … “ridiculously inspired.” …and “Thank you for doing what you do.” Your gratitude, appreciation, and feedback are what makes this all worthwhile. I am incredibly excited and humbled any time somebody says that this site or my writing have helped to inspire in any small way.

I receive lots and lots and lots of great questions, and I try to respond to as many as I can. Lots of people who want me to get on Skype and help them with their business ideas. Even people who want me to do some nebulous consulting work with their companies (from small projects to one very large foundation even).

But there just aren’t enough hours in the day! There are simply too many insanely interesting people out there who want to live life on their own terms, or build some cool, useful resource or project and share it with the world. That’s why I started Digital Nomad Academy at the beginning of 2011, as a comprehensive learning center for aspiring online entrepreneurs, where I can focus my time and energy and multiply the benefits many times over to teach, encourage, connect, and support many students all at once. And it certainly has become the focus of my time this year, along with many other incredible collaborators who have generously shared their time as faculty instructors and guest speakers.

I wish I could help every single person who comes to me with questions one-on-one, but I’ve consciously decided to invest my limited time into building something scalable, sustainable, and that will help many hundreds or thousands of students over the next several years (hopefully many more years).

But my faculty and I can only teach you so much. We can give you the business “recipes” if you will, share the techniques and tools that work for us, and connect you to a larger network of like-minded, ambitious people, including successful experts who’ve done it already. But actually building a business that will help provide you with the lifestyle you desire still requires an immense amount of time, effort, and investment that only you can do.

If you’re one of those people who’s been dreaming of starting your own business, quitting your stupid job, and creating a lifestyle you’d really enjoy (hint: ideally, the business part needs to come first), or traveling around the world, but you keep putting it off because of the latest TPS reports that have landed on your desk, this week’s important final exam, or you’ve spent the last 4 months planning the family Christmas celebration, or whatever else keeps you busy… let’s make 2012 the year everything changes.

I’ve put almost all of my energies into DNA this year, to the detriment of most of my other projects. We’ve brought together an incredible community of teachers and of exceptionally bright, motivated students. Many of them have already quit their jobs, started up their own small businesses, started freelancing, gone on short mini-retirements to Europe, moved to the peaceful countryside here in Asia, or set out on epic trans-continental road trips down through Central and South America!

Digital Nomad Academy will continue to provide a stellar learning environment for a long time to come, and as we bring in more and more students, it creates increased opportunity to meet each other, partner with each other, trade services with each other, and together we all improve and build our businesses up. The admission fee is a significant investment, but I believe we will continue to over-deliver by far, and the lifetime value to everyone involved will be priceless.

But I know this is not within everybody’s reach. I’ve heard your requests, and I’ve thought a lot about a financial aid program for the Digital Nomad Academy.

For the holidays I was feeling especially generous and I wanted to do something to give back, after all of you involved here and at DNA have made my year such a fantastic one. I want to help provide a chance for you to join me, my entrepreneurial colleagues, and our amazing students in building a community like none which has ever been seen before.

So, I will be sponsoring two full-ride scholarships, all-expenses paid, to our mentorship and training program at Digital Nomad Academy, so you can come learn directly from me and my all-star cast of faculty and guest experts, and collaborate with our incredible cohort of ambitious students.

What a great way to ring in the new year, right!?

→ Full details and applications for the 2011 Digital Nomad Academy Scholarship Program ←

That’s a $1,500 annual value for two very lucky people. This is a huge opportunity for you, but also for me, and for all of us. 2012 will be a year of explosive growth and improvement inside DNA.

If you want a shot at one of these two seats, absolutely free, all it takes is to get off the sidelines and show us what you’re willing to bring to the table for our student community. Go here to apply.

I hope to get your application, and hope to see you on the inside at Digital Nomad Academy in the New Year.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas. And a happy New Year. Let me know where you’re spending your holidays in the comments below. I’ll be spending mine here on the beach…

tropical island christmas