I live on an island. Most of my customers are abroad.

It's a large island, and I'm at the northern end. the biggest city, where I also have some customers, is at the southern end and is too far to drive for a short visit.

It's a cool temperate island, so sunny holidays also require flying.

To cap it off, all my siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews & nieces and one of my children live on the far side of the world from here.

And you ask why I fly?


99% of the time I deal with my customers and colleagues by phone, email, Skype, and video call.
But those dealings are most successful with the ones I've actually met face to face at some point.

To far to swim!!

I quit my job a few months ago and the main reason was to have more time to travel the world for pleasure. (I was an IT/ERP Manager, now run my own business as an independent IT consultant).

I am not sure if it was middle age crisis (I am less than 2 years short of 40), but I thought it ridiculous to do the same thing every day, commute, sit in the office, commute, eat, sleep, commute, sit in the office...etc)

Sure, I could go on holidays, but I hated this feeling of having just come back from a 3 weeks break in Hawaii (Maui--my favorite destination!) and realizing I had to wait another 6 months for the next trip...).

So I took the plunge into self-employment. It's scary, but it was worth it. Now I can travel for a few months each year in total