My very first on-air interview talking about my upcoming trip to Malaysia and the comparisons and contrasts with Thompson.
Location Independence is my plan.
In my last entry, I explained that I quit my job, I’m going to Malaysia for three months, I have no job there, and that I wasn’t crazy.
It doesn’t mean I’m without a plan.
The beginnings of an idea.
Since my mid-20’s, I’ve always wanted to live anywhere I please, go anywhere I want, and pretty much work from anywhere I want. What I didn’t realize is that this wasn’t some nutty notion I had – other people had the same thoughts as I did. In fact, other people are actually living that dream!
I got a taste of that when I discovered Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss, almost by accident. Ramit, and to a lesser degree, Tim, got me to change the way I thought and take action in my life. Thanks to some of the online courses I purchased from Ramit, I learned about the power of hacking your inner psychology and taking action on achieving a New Rich life. I improved many of my soft skills; this was probably the hugest benefit, because I never realized how little I really knew about how to think, communicate, and convey myself.
The two courses, Success Triggers and How To Talk To Anybody, kicked my butt into gear about how to improve and represent the best parts of myself to a ridiculous degree. In fact, this blog is a testament to that, because I used to be very uncomfortable about opening myself up to others and showing my vulnerability, whether online or offline. Going further, Earn1K helped me to earn $1000 a month. I’m currently tackling Zero To Launch (ZTL), and it’s absolutely eye-opening.
But how does that help me now? I’m actually nowhere near finishing it, since ZTL is more of a long-term ideal. I needed a quick solution.
Enter location independence.
After my research on travel hacking, I stumbled across Location 180 (L180). It was refreshing to see somebody living the life I wanted. Traveling anywhere he wanted and earning income abroad, Sean Ogle was kicking ass and taking names, and he has built himself an amazing community through Location Rebel (LR).
I should know, I bought the course.
The job I quit last week was my first professional foray into copywriting. I learned a lot during my 8 months there, and I know more than ever that I want to be a professional writer. Pro writers are always in demand. They are the foundation for nearly any creative idea. They are at the heart of your marketing campaign. Most of all, I’ve been writing since I was a child and have been cultivating different areas of the written word for years.
When LR promised a decent earning through SEO writing with the freedom to work from anywhere I wanted in the world, Sean called it location independence and I nearly bounced in my chair with glee. Picture that for a moment. It’s kinda weird, right? Okay, moving on.
The map that leads to freedom.
Now that my burning desire had a name (and a logical one, at that), I knew I was on the right path.
Sean and his highly successful community of students in the course offered up blueprints and maps of the choices they made to get to where they are now.
I did some quick calculations based on several LR top performers’ results – many of them were able to achieve monetary results in one month, even while working part-time.
Several months ago, I had mentioned to my employers that I was planning to leave in December. The timeline seemed doable.
However, I felt like something else was missing.
Optimize and accelerate.
When I also came across one of Sean’s L180 articles about earning your first dollar online, I noticed the point of selling your stuff. I have tons of things I no longer need with which I could probably make a decent amount of money. Also, living a zen life with few belongings might actually be a good thing.
I’m also working on my final paid film project. When it’s over, I’ll get paid some more funds from my contract.
The LR community and sites like Upwork would provide the remaining income I’d need through SEO and copywriting. Once my stuff is sold and my film project is over, I can tune up the amount of writing work as needed while I shift my part-time efforts to ZTL and other long-term ventures to increase my multiple income streams.
No matter how I proceed, the overall goal is to achieve location independence and say goodbye to the daily grind of employment.
As a result, I fast-tracked my timeline by booking my flights to Malaysia for the end of November and put in my notice in mid-October. Three weeks later, here I am!
Action step.
This is my action step for this week, and I offer it as a challenge to you as well. Generate income using any of the methods I described above. Whether it’s through selling personal stuff, doing work on the side, or a combination of the two. Don’t just study or research how to do it – use that information and get paid by the end of the week.
Don’t have time? Maybe you don’t want it as much as you think. Reevaluate your personal goals and identify why you would want to do this.
I’m open to conversation – leave a comment below!
And now for a fun welcome!
Move aside, boring news post! I is here with my first actual blog post!
Hello, everybody! I’m Yawhann, but my friends call me Hann. I’m also known online as ChickenBall, ChknBall, and ChknBallistic. Remember when online handles were cool? The Hackers movie in 1995 does.
So, some crazy stuff has happened in my life. Long story short, I met a girl! Eee! Excitement, right? Here’s the rub – she lives in Malaysia. As a result, I’ve decided to start a blog to chronicle my journey from Thompson to Kuala Lumpur. There’s just one teensy catch.
I quit my job and bought plane tickets already. My last day of work is this Friday and I leave at the end of next month.
Wait, what??
That’s right, I’m already halfway there. So what’s the point of this blog?
Obviously, I want to share my journey with those of you who think what I’m doing might be insane. Of course, I don’t actually care if anybody thinks I’m insane, because it’s my life. Take it or leave it. Set me free. What’s that crap papa, know it all?
That just happened – I quoted Dr. Alban. Yikes. I haven’t heard that song in years.
Yes, I have no job going there. Yes, I have no prospects either. I’m selling pretty much everything I own. I do have a place to stay – several, in fact. My trip is going to last the maximum allotted time I’m allowed to be in Malaysia as a visitor, which is three months. I have enough money to survive on basic living expenses for a month. Still think I’m insane?
People who read blogs love lists. So here’s one for you.
Ten reasons why I’m not insane and things will work out for me in a foreign land
- Malaysian currency is roughly 1/3 the value of Canadian currency. Which means my money will have triple the value. Unless Canada’s dollar tanks even further. Umm… I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.
- I have family in Malaysia. Extended family, mind you, but they’re there. Even if I won’t be able to pay my bills, I’ll never go hungry or cold. Hot, that is. The weather is tropic. You know what I mean.
- I won’t fly Malaysia Airlines. Just kidding. But seriously, that airline can go suck a lemon.
- Malaysia can be a dangerous country, yes. But so can Canada. Terrorists are totally sneaking into our country and causing havoc! Also: wrong place, wrong time. Motor accidents. Drunk drivers. West Nile Virus. Bird Flu. Cancer. Dysentery. There are many things just waiting to kill us in Canada, only we’re blind to it all because we’ve become complacent. Malaysia won’t be any different; I just have to exercise the same kind of caution.
- I read a lot of travel blogs. Sometimes, it’s a smart idea to learn from the mistakes of others. The biggest takeaway is that people generally want to be left alone. This is a common topic among many travel bloggers out there. The world is big. Cultures are numerous. The guns, they hurt. But one constant that ties us all together is that we want to be with people we love, living life without interference from others, and earning money to survive. We’re not all out to get the “evil” tourist armed with a camera. If you treat others with respect, they will too. Just don’t trust people entirely, be nice, and maybe one can make some new friends for life.
- “I have a particular set of skills for dealing with people like you.” Damn, Liam Neeson is the shiz. But seriously, I am quite skilled. I’ve been alive for 37 years and I’ve picked up numerous skills with which I can make money. Worse case scenario, I have to fix computers for ringgit. By the way, ringgit is the name of their currency. Cute, right?
- I’m not completely fluent in Chinese or Malay, but English is a major language there. And as somebody who aspires to be a polyglot, I’ll get a chance to flex my multilingual muscles. Learning experiences FTW!
- I’m personable, or so I’ve been told. As mentioned in the 5th reason above, if you treat others with respect, you’ll get the same in kind. By the way, my CHA is 19, for all you D&D geeks out there. I’m sure I could always convince somebody to kill Jester for me.
- I have a return ticket. If I don’t like it there, I can always leave. And if I have no money left, there’s always the second reason mentioned above. When I come back, I can always stay with my parents and get a job if worse comes to worst.
- Waiting around for life to happen is a good indication that it won’t. I know this from years of saying things like, “Oh, I’m just waiting for the perfect moment,” or, “Yeah, I should really travel someday.” Well, guess what? The perfect moment isn’t going to happen. “Someday” may as well mean “never”. I’m taking a huge leap of faith, but life works out in mysterious ways. Each time I went and did something crazy, it seemed to just work out. So in the words of an athletic shoe company which I shall not name for fear of legal repercussions, just do it!
By the way, I dislike lists. I think I died a little bit inside after writing one. But oh well. Other people apparently love them!
Welcome to the new ChickenBall.com!
After years (!) of limbo, this site has finally been updated to become my personal site.
The roles of YawhannChong.com and ChickenBall.com have been reversed due to my interest in expanding my personal brand through my name. Over the years, I’ve mostly been using ChickenBall, ChknBall, and ChknBallistic for my online pop culture presence. As a result, I decided to make a change to reflect this.
From this point on:
- YawhannChong.com represents my personal brand for all things freelance.
- ChickenBall.com represents my social media presence for all things personal, geeky, and fun.
Serious news posts need to be kept short, so I’ll spare you the boring details and end it here. 🙂