Here’s a true story to help you start your digital nomad adventure: Lukas Sommer shares how he traded his skills to travel the world, and how he found great projects. From Lukas, you can learn how to make your own journey with the help of others on the road.
Can you introduce yourself? Can you tell us your current status?
Hi, my name is Lukas and I am currently traveling the world by exchanging my skills in Web development, design, photography. The journey has taken me from Europe to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Portugal, the Netherlands and now Brazil. Most of the organizations I choose to exchange skills with are sustainability businesses, charities, ecotourism, community projects, etc., which need network professionals but do not have the funds to hire professional organizations or experts. I was born in Germany, but grew up in Portugal, in southern Europe, blessed with a multilingual environment. I studied in Berlin before starting my journey and worked in various institutions and studios. I think this fascination with travel has been with me since I grew up in an immigrant community and when I first set foot on the South American continent ten years ago. Becoming a professional took a few years at a desk before I realized how flexible my job could be. Now I’m in Celera in northeastern Brazil, and on my way, my next exchange is an eco-village in Bahia.
Your ideas about travel and skill exchange are inspiring. Would you like to share them with us?
I decided to trade skills instead of working for money. Even if I do need the money, at least all of the items on my website are skills trading items. It was an experiment that grew out of my downgrading of my previous lifestyle and my perception of being too materialistic and consumerist. This makes me feel like I’m buying less and getting more out of the exchange. I no longer need to work as much as I used to, and I hope this leads to a smaller ecological footprint (if I try to keep flying as little as possible). Basically: I work for room and board, for travel expenses, for novel things I want to learn and vivid experiences I want to have. The surprising result is that if you really lower your expectations to do a good job, the rewards are often surprisingly generous. I’ve learned so much, I’ve made incredible friends along the way, and life has become so much simpler, and working for a nonprofit is really rewarding.
What was the most interesting collaborative project you encountered during your nomadic life?
I worked in Leiden Observatory at Leiden University for a month in October. I received an invitation from Universe Awareness, a non-profit organization that develops educational resources to get kids interested in science. It’s fun to work with a group of people who create the impossible, to create knowledge and broaden horizons, to study our universe and figure out where it all came from. The Leiden Observatory is full of research, from theoretical cosmology to black holes and antimatter. I even get to hang out with a guy who works at CERN.
I also worked for a community recycling network in New Zealand and spent a month building a website on an island near Auckland.
How did you start your nomadic life? What were the challenges of making this decision?
I had an idea for a “resilient institution” during my first long trip, and it evolved into what I do now. That was the first time I saw how difficult it was for people in remote areas to access design and online services. Then I realized that many organizations, especially ngos, non-profit organizations and community projects in developing countries, had a strong need for professional media. After a while I had a plan, but it still took me more than a year to work on the project I was working on. I must admit it took a lot of determination…
How do you discover new opportunities and projects along the way?
I did my research online, but most of it was word of mouth or emails from around the world. Obviously, I’m getting more invitations from places with better Internet connections, so I’m currently researching my route and hoping to cross South America next month. Almost everyone has an idea they want to implement on their own website, so it’s not hard to find new opportunities. But I have to choose who I want to work for on my own terms, because my time is the most valuable cost. I want to make a bigger contribution but I also want to go someplace cool. I think I’ll probably fly to Africa next year, and coming to the United States is one option.
What makes work and travel so appealing to you? What keeps you doing this? What is your biggest reward?
All these experiences gave me more inspiration and new skills. For a long time before that, it felt weird to just travel as a tourist, and most of the time you were just scratching the surface of a culture or a place. It’s about being open: seeing all the wonderful diversity in the world and starting to be empathetic and respectful. I’ve done a lot of incredible things on the road this past year, making friends all over the world in ways that go beyond being a normal tourist.
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What are the biggest challenges of going digital nomad? What do you do with them?
A few, like I just said, I’ve made a lot of friends, but it’s a necessary part of life to have to tell my story to new people over and over again, but it’s also exhausting when you have to do it multiple times a day (like hitchhiking in New Zealand). And who would have thought that the biggest challenge at work would be Internet connectivity? In my experience, 3G networks are usually better than satellite networks in remote locations. Even in the remote mountains of India, I was lucky enough to get email via mobile signal, but it was often erratic and required patience.
What do you think is the weakest aspect of the digital nomad community? What can be improved?
I have been living a nomadic life on my own for over a year now and it is far from over. But to be honest, I haven’t seen many online communities for digital nomads. The Nomad List seems like a good resource and I look forward to seeing more connections in the future. My own advice on what could be improved is: I hope that people who live and work in low cost countries with high salaries in western countries should sometimes think hard about their impact and actively support local communities. It’s an incredible way to live, but if this is going to be a big trend in the future, we should make it sustainable, not just focus on where the Internet is faster and the house is cheaper.
What advice would you give to people who are eager to try what you’re doing?
The higher your expectations, the more likely you are to be disappointed. Be generous and you will always be rewarded. Always carry sunscreen, a kettle, a torch and a Swiss Army knife with you at all times. Then read about my journey at goodthingseverywhere.com 🙂
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If you were forced to end your nomadic life tomorrow — what would you miss most?
Constant challenges, more access to nature outside, poor Internet speeds, never knowing what will happen next…
Interview translated by early in the morning the night finishing the nomadlist.com/stories/bar…