Meeting my tribe changed my view on the world
By following my passion I was able to meet my tribe and transform into the person I am now. To immerse and surround me with likeminded people, is fascinating and mind-boggling at once.
Let me reveal how I found my tribe, during a sailing trip from the Maldives to Phuket, and how I came across Digital Nomads the first time in my life and why I found, and still find them such a great crowd.
You never know what happens when you follow your passion. For me it created a whole lot of new opportunities and changed so many things in my life — I feel really lucky and happy that all that happened to me! I call it my coworking story and it has to do with my passion: Sailing. By following this passion I crossed path with Digital Nomads the first time. On a sailboat, you are able to meet unusual people in an unfamiliar environment and in extraordinary situations, other than usual, and not only that, life is very atypical aboard.
It was key to surround myself with people I can learn from, gain insights and whom I could meet on eye-level. I found my tribe when I first met Digital Nomads, a great bunch of people, and that enabled to transform my life and change my view.
I boarded the first ever Coboat adventure in the Maldives, almost five years ago. Everything was different then, certainly I had a very different perspective on my life and my future, compared to right now. In the beginning I thought it will be another sailing trip, a new crew, another boat, … let’s see what happens, you never know whom you get to know and what it will be like. A sailboat is a tiny little island and space is scarce.
Nine people met on an 82-foot sailing catamaran in the Maldives for its 1600 nautical mile delivery across the Indian ocean. A project by the name of Coboat brought together digital nomads and sailors to sail the ship to Thailand. The initial cause was to deliver the battered catamaran for a complete overhaul in Phuket. The problem was that the catamaran turned out not to be seaworthy as we faced some troubles during our journey. I have never doubted that the ship will make it in one peace, at least for the majority of the journey, but sealing-off the hatches along the way in order to prevent seawater to enter our cabins was a good indicator of the condition of that ship. After all, it turned out to be a lifetime adventure for all the participants. Most of the crew members met only via Facebook or got to know each other aboard the catamaran. Four of the nine crew haven’t had any sailing experience or have never been on a sailing yacht before.
This was the first time when I met Digital Nomads and when I came across individuals who lived a location independent lifestyle. On a sailboat space is limited, people have to team-up, share the chores and contribute to a positive atmosphere. You spend lots of time together and you’ll get to know each other very well. Imagine you have a night shift under a sky full of stars, the bright moon is guiding you along the way and you need to stay awake to steer the ship on the right course, that is the recipe to get to know each other very well. Talking makes the time goes by faster and it is more fun too. On long journeys, it is well possible that you’ll get to know each other very well, too well at times and the atmosphere can easily shift from enjoyable to not bearable. But in our case, a 17-day sailing journey, it was completely amazing. I was so surprised by the positiveness of the participants and their contribution to the awesome atmosphere throughout the entire journey! We met as strangers but left as friends, literally. This is more than I could ask for, it was absolutely one of my best sailing trips so far!
Never the less consistent irritations and failures of the yacht kept us busy and challenged us almost every day. The autopilot, for instance, was broken and we needed to hand-steer the boat over the entire course of the sailing trip, one machine broke, we run out of fuel, we had lost a man at sea in the middle of the ocean (man overboard for real, we found him again, fortunately!), we landed at the Nicobar Islands, a military base at the most southern part of India where it is prohibited to even come close to it, not even mentioning landing, and many more. What a journey, can you imagine?
I would have never thought to find my tribe, my kind of people during a sailing tip and never ever would I have thought to open my own coworking space in less than a year later.
Apart from the huge adventure, it was the digital nomads whom I had the opportunity to meet and to dive into a completely new world to me. That was something I have not discovered before. The many questions I kept asking the nomads have been patiently answered. The people told me openly and freely about their lifestyle, their businesses and what they do to keep them either busy, make them happy or how they earn their living and how profitable it is.
The crew was aces! All these individuals, from different backgrounds, different countries and cultures created the finest atmosphere and we had a fabulous time throughout the entire 17-days sailing trip, even though we had experienced some really tough challenges. I knew I found my tribe! In hindsight, I conclude that the great feeling I had felt was my relieve as a response to the satisfying sense of belonging. It became very clear to me that I want to spend more time amongst this tribe and nomadic, location independent people and I want to learn from them to understand how Digital Nomads support their lifestyle, earn their living, and to understand what is important to them. I quickly realised that this group of people meet usually at some global hotspots and they like to gather in groups, they are very social and sharing is more fun.
After the sailing trip, I could not resist and fully immersed in the nomadic lifestyle to get to know more people of that tribe. I visited hotspots such as Chiang Mai or Bali, I spend one or two months here and there and went to explore different coworking spaces and attended a few conferences and nomad gatherings around the globe. Although I love travelling, being constantly on the move, is not for me. Having a base and travel from there to return and calm down in between is very important to me.
The idea to open up a coliving space was mentioned first during the afore-mentioned sailing trip. One of the crew members shared one of his visions and a dreamt of a coliving space in a castle. That idea never shaped, but Matthias, another crew member, and I have been following up on that idea, finally, about a year later, we were introduced to Bulgaria by a common friend of ours and we quickly gathered six friends to investigate further on a slightly different vision. When we found Bansko the initial coliving idea transformed more into a coworking vision. This ski resort in the Balkans comes with an A+ reputation, very low cost of living and good international flight connections. We were very excited about opening a coworking space in the midst of the Pirin mountain ski resort. I must confess that that idea grew on me very quickly and it brought so much excitement to all of us: To open a space and invite people from all over the world to come and visit our place to work, share and have fun together. Rather then constant travelling, I found this is much more appealing to me. Creating a place where I feel at home, where I can be myself and where people come and share openly. A community with like-minded people who form a group of location independent individuals with an entrepreneurial lifestyle — yes that was what I wanted, deeply!
It’s is hard to tell how everything fell in place exactly but Irina, Matthias and I opened Coworking Bansko on the 15th of December in 2016. The opening ceremony was accompanied by 30+ digital nomads, likeminded people, fellow coworkers and other enthusiasts, as well the mayor of town came to cut the ribbonat our opening ceremony, and he also gave a speech and wished us good luck (he admitted that he didn’t new about coworking and even could not explain it after we told him what we would like to do, on an earlier occasion). It was quite a journey and it was not straight forward, although it was not only fun, we learned a lot along the way.
All that was initiated by following my passion for sailing. Not only I encourage you, I dare you, to follow your passion, go with the flow and let life happen whilst you are busy making plans. “We can only connect the dots in hindsight,” Steve Jobs said, in the current moment we have to trust that the dots connect in the future and keep doing what we are passionate about. You’ll never know where it will carry you and where you will end up, but you’ll never find out if you don’t try.
I hope you find my journey interesting and inspiring and I would love to hear from you what inspired you or if you liked this read and whether you have a story to share? Feel free to post a comment or shoot me a private message.
With gratitude,
Uwe
PS: Coworking Bansko is about to transfer into a co-op model. Check out this article if you are interested to partner up: Let’s Own Coworking Bansko Together
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