Peter Revels, a self-taught software developer also known as an “indie hacker” who has run more than 40 startups, says he has made millions of dollars from his laptop while traveling the world.
That may sound glamorous, but it wasn't always that way. It started with him feeling like a loser in Asia.
“I was making like $500 a month, and I was looking at the ceiling and thinking, 'I'm 27 and I'm a loser,'” he says. “And that's when I started building my startup.”
Revels is a digital nomad, or someone who travels and works remotely, and says he's lived in 150 cities and 40 countries. While it sounds like he's on a perpetual vacation, Revels said on a recent episode of The Rex Friedman Podcast that he often felt depressed while trying to establish himself and find success.
“I have romanticized memories of this wandering, individualistic life alone,” Revels said, “but the truth is it didn't make me happy.”
A 2018 study comparing the mental health of expatriates and U.S.-based workers found that expatriates were three times more likely to report feeling trapped or depressed than U.S.-based participants. Additionally, of the 455 expatriates surveyed, 25% said they felt anxious or nervous, more than double the rate of U.S.-based workers who participated in the study.
However, expats have the advantage of only having to settle into one new environment, whereas digital nomads who don't settle in one place have to constantly readjust to different locations.
“I've been traveling a lot, jumping from city to city,” Revels said. “I don't have a home anymore. I feel like a rootless person.”
Carolin Müller, a digital nomad and psychologist, previously told Business Insider that “it's hard to stay mentally healthy as a digital nomad” because there are constant moments of feeling misunderstood or misunderstood.
“You're never in a stable culture,” she says. “You're constantly moving from one culture to another, going back and forth, and sometimes you get culture shock.”
Other digital nomads have shared similar stories of feeling lonely and insecure on social media, with one Reddit user describing their experience as “extremely lonely” and leading them to eventually return home. Another said they felt so isolated from family and friends that they began to experience “high levels of anxiety and depression.”
Revels said traveling alone, without the reassurance of a solid schedule and rules, can be “emotionally taxing.”
“You can do anything. You can go anywhere. And people say, 'Oh, freedom is so great. I bet that makes you happy,'” Revels says. “But it's actually the opposite. I don't think it makes you happy. I think restrictions make you happy.”
Revels said seeing his friends in the Netherlands doing well and living normal lives made him feel like an “outcast,” especially since he wasn't as successful at the time. But Revels reassured people that “if you're young, it's normal to feel like a loser.”
“Because you have nothing,” he said. “Probably no money, no business, no job yet.”
His solution was to make some money and start a business, or several. In 2014, Levels launched the “12 Startups in 12 Months” project, with the plan to launch one startup per month with Stripe.
“It's an interesting way of dealing with depression,” he says. “It's not like, 'Oh, let's talk about it,' it's like, 'Let's do something.'”
One such startup, some of which have failed, is Nomad List. According to Levels' X profile, Levels claims that Nomad List is currently bringing in $48,000 a month in revenue. Nomad List is a site for digital nomads based on a spreadsheet he created with other digital nomads, providing data on the cost of living, internet speeds, safety, and more for cities around the world.
Levels also spoke candidly about the downsides of being a digital nomad, but also the benefits, like being able to see more of the world and live in places with a lower cost of living.
A decade after launching this site, PhotoAI and many others, Levels continues to live abroad, and while it can feel lonely at times, he says traveling from city to city is beautiful and fun, especially as the community of digital nomads grows.
“It's romantic,” he said. “It's colorful when you remember.”
