After losing all of his real estate property in the United States mortgage crises of 2007, he packed his backpack, sold his truck on Craiglist, and embarked on a 6 month journey to Asia. With only a $3,000 budget, he needed to stay frugal in order to stay alive in the countries of India, Vietnam, and Nepal.
Now, as a digital nomad, Raam documents his journey on his blog and what it’s like living in 3rd world countries. He has lived in a farm, gone inside jungles, rode in crowded trains, and seen firsthand poverty. And although he can’t give every beggar on the street money because he’s trying to survive himself, he is doing what he can to help provide awareness of what’s going on in the rest of the world to as many people as he can. This interview is a way to help Raam spread the word.
The topics that we cover in our conversation are:
- His unconventional back story growing up
- Working 70 to 80 hours a week at his previous job
- Selling his truck on Craigslist literally a few days before heading out
- Sleeping in a $4 per night hotel with cockroaches as guests
- His daily schedule on the other side of the world
- Differences he saw between the United States and India
- Encountering poverty firsthand
- His greatest challenges in his life
- His advice for people who are struggling right now
- Final thoughts
Interview Time: 36:17
The reason I enjoyed talking to Raam was because it was interesting to hear about the life of a nomad and to also hear he how he got to that point from being a businessman. Raam talks in a very calm manner but you can tell that he is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives.
Another thing is that I’ve interviewed people from Australia, Slovakia, and Romania, but something about Nepal makes it just so out there for me. It’s hard to explain. Anyway, I appreciated the chance to talk to Raam about what he’s doing on the other side of the world right now and also to be able to step into his shoes for a moment and see what he has seen so far in 3rd world countries.
Raam Dev is the blogger and creator of Raam Dev. Check his blog when you have time and don’t forget to follow him on Twitter at @raamdev.
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Hulbert, thanks so much for putting together this interview!
I really enjoyed talking with you and I’m looking forward to answering any questions your readers may have for me.
So exciting!!!! I can’t wait to hear this…. but before listening, I have to say Raam is one of my dear friends, one of those great finds in blogosphere, and Hulbert, bravo for tracking him down (for you know, he is an adventurous nomad and his stories are from the far far away parts of the world! On to listening and I shall return with more.
!
Thank you, Farnoosh! You’re too kind.
The work Hulbert is doing here is awesome and I’m really grateful to be listed along side so many other awesome bloggers, including yourself!
I was fortunate to spot out Farnoosh’s retweet on this and I am loving this listen brother… Truly awesome what you’re doing Raam!
Thanks for the heads up on this one Farnoosh…
Patrick
Thank you Patrick!
And YES, thank you so much Farnoosh! Like Hulbert here, you’re such an enabler of awesome connections! I’m losing track of how many awesome people you’ve already connected me with in the short time we’ve known each other!
No problem Raam. Thanks for giving me the time to talk to you despite our huge time differences.
It is amazing how some people can find the strength in a difficult situation and give encouragement to those who might be in a similar situation. Hulbert thank you for taking the time to interview a great man who has overcome some obstacles and found strength in his challenges. Great Post!
Thanks Frank! Raam is a great example who found the strength in a difficult situation to persevere and find other opportunities in life. I am pleased to have had the chance to interview him and share with you guys what he is doing right now. I hope you liked the interview.
Thank you, Frank! I think finding the strength in a difficult situation begins with not accepting defeat when faced with a difficult situation! I always try to remember that time waits for no one and that making the best of any situation is always the best course of action.
Very interesting and well done interview.
Thank you Michael!
Thank you, Michael!
I’m so impressed. What an amazing journey to embark on instead of sitting on the pity pot and collecting unemployment. I wish you the best and look forward to following your journey.
Hi Tess, I totally agree. Instead of just completely dwelling on self-pity after he basically lost his job, Raam saw that as an opportunity and decided to change his life around. I was very impressed with his actions as and admire him for what he is currently doing to help change the world for the better.
Hi Tess, thank you for the kind words! I feel that self-pity only contributes to negativity of a situation, whereas positivity and action always contribute to improving the situation!
A few months after I bought my second property and after I had spent weeks repairing and preparing the units for rental, a water pipe froze and flooded two out of the three floors. I contemplated panicking but I realized that every single day I didn’t take action to solve the problem (which mean starting work on repairing the units again) was one more day wasted that I would be losing rental income.
I’ve applied that thought process to nearly every negative situation I’ve found myself in throughout life. The alternative just doesn’t seem to make any sense!
Hi Raam and Hulbert,
Another interesting interview with someone that is doing something really unique with their lives. Taking a 6-month break to determine what you want to do with your life and to have new experiences takes a lot of courage, so I commend you. It sounds like you have tried so many different avenues, which is a fantastic path for others to learn from. I don’t know if I would be able to handle living so simply (especially the cockroaches part).
Isn’t it funny how life sometimes gives you exactly what you need? If the mortgage crisis didn’t occur, then you may not have ever had the experiences you are now enjoying. Going from an IT consultant to real-estate to construction, etc means that you have a lot of wisdom and experiences that you can share with others.
Thanks for sharing your story with us. You have such a unique perspective.
Karen
Hi Karen, haha I don’t know if I would have been able to handle the cockroaches part either! I think a life lesson I learned from Raam was that sometimes the greatest misfortunes that happen to us mean that greatest gifts have been handed to us. I saw that when Raam lost everything do to the mortgage crisis, but this event led him to the path of doing something he had always dreamed of and nothing up until then had ever to pushed him to pursue his dream of traveling. Now he is taking the opportunity to live that dream. Good stuff. Thanks for listening Karen.
Hi Karen,
After all the different events in my life, both good and (seemingly) bad, I feel more confident than ever that life does provide us with everything we need. The only thing we need to do is take action by following our instinct and to approach every situation looking for the life lesson we can garner.
One thing learned from being a landlord for six years, and from the mortgage crisis that ended that part of my life, is that emotions and money simply don’t mix. Emotions have their place in life, but mixing them with financial decisions only clouds our judgment and makes it more difficult to make the right decision.
Living simply certainly isn’t for everyone, but I think we can all find things in our life that we don’t need — things that are only in our life because we’ve convinced ourselves that we couldn’t possibly live without them.
I enjoyed the interview you did with Hulbert and I love the work you’re doing on your blog. Thank you!
I found out some problems with this audio, your mic only goes on the right speaker then raam on the left. This is a problem with people with only 1 speaker that works because youd only hear 1 person.
oh and be able to download this interview to my computer would of been great, im on limited bandwidth(meaning im only able to download a certain about of data per month) and when I hit sumbit on my comment it refreshed the page..
good stuff, the 36 minutes was up before i knew itq
Haha, what a neat series of events Matthew. I assumed you were able to listen to the interview?
Raam,
What a fabulous life you’ve had so far. Real estate investing, a start up and IT consulting – no wonder you were working 80 hours per week.
I love that you go with your gut and that it’s your compass. Following your intuition is music to my ears!
Blogging as a huge personal development tool by reviewing your archives — very interesting.
I love that you feel that every day is as great as Friday now that you have such a flexible schedule. What a wonderful feeling that must be. I can see how that would contribute to your creativity.
I’m so impressed that you were able to divest of all your possessions and that you sold your truck to go on this trip.
Thank god you’re not too disgusted by cockroaches – what a I nightmare!
It would break my heart to see all all that poverty and those under nourished children. We don’t realize how lucky and spoiled we are here in the US.
You’re right – we are all so focused on ourselves. The answer is to give to others – take the spot light off our self interests.
Just by doing this interview you’re helping the people you’ve encountered in your travels.
You’ve encountered some mighty big challenges so far in your life – losing the properties you owned and declaring bankruptcy. But, it has definitely affected you in a positive way. I like your perspective – you can overcome your problems and that regardless of what has happened to you others have it worse.
Your blog sounds fascinating. I look forward to reading it.
Thank you, Angela!
I think it’s important to recognize that all of us don’t need to become Mother Teresa to help those poor people — we can start helping them now by making more sustainable choices in our daily lives.
Everyone’s situation is different — some of us have responsibilities that prevent us from traveling the world or dedicating large amounts of time to focusing on helping others. But large amounts of time isn’t required. We make a difference by simply living a more sustainable life — by living a more compassionate life and setting an example for those around us through our own actions.
Time always moves forward. If we do something every day that pushes good energy and good vibes into the ether, we will be making a difference in the long-run.
Hi Angela, I like your comments because they are always like an in-depth analysis of the interview.
It seems like you have gotten a lot from the conversation. Thank you for listening to what Raam had to say and also leaving a wonderful comment!
Such an inspiring interview. Raam, you sound like someone who is living their purpose and I hope your message gets out. Traveling really does wake you up. I am so grateful for everything that I have in my life, but getting out there, like you are, is something I must do more of to stay awake, breath in life and appreciate how others live. I have some nomad friends and they, too, seem to have a deeper understanding of their planet than those of us who stay in one place. If you ever need any help with your mission, I’d love to help in whatever way I can. Happy travels.
Thank you so much, Katie!
Traveling indefinitely certainly forces us to constantly reevaluate our actions and how they’re affecting the world, especially when we’re traveling in areas where people are less fortunate than us!
While I don’t think it’s necessary for everybody to travel, I do think that it’s a fantastic tool for gaining a greater perspective and understanding why we need to be thinking globally. The Internet is really bringing the rest of the world closer together, but there still isn’t anything that has the effect of firsthand experience!
Hey Katie, thanks for your comment. I like what you said here on how traveling wakes you up. It was like a wake up call for me after listening to Raam’s experiences in India. I don’t have any nomad friends like you and I still kind of feel like I’m in a bubble, but I do hope to one day travel to different countries around the world including India and other third world countries so I can broaden my horizon on what it’s like out there.
“Left me with new options” – What a brilliant way to look at such a seemingly tough situation (with regard to losing your real estate possessions). Anyone else would have taken a tougher road (think inner critic!)! I am sure that attitude is core to your survival.
It’s great to know you were blogging a few years ago – I started with blogspot years ago too and really I did not take it as seriously as I do now but I do have old posts that I just kept to see, if nothing else, the evolution of my writing. I keep all my archives! I have cleaned up a lot of them but it is what I was thinking and it’s definitely a part of history. Well said!
I loved listening to how you approach creativity, freedom from structure and of course just your voice in general….Good job and great interview, guys!!!!!
Hi Farnoosh, it was admirable that Raam took a journey of exploration after he lost his real estate properties. I believe that sometimes the toughest situations that go through are the times where we find the greatest opportunities in life. It’s also nice to know that both of you guys have been writing for a long time, as I know your archive goes way back too Farnoosh.
Like always, thanks for taking your time to listen to the interview and also providing an awesome comment. Happy 4th of July!
Thank you, Farnoosh!
I think looking at the positive in any situation always leads us to a route that will be beneficial for us in the end! It’s also important not to lose sight of our dreams, even if it seems like those dreams are impossible — we never know what doors may open for us in the future.
Blogging really is an awesome personal development tool, isn’t it? It’s humbling to go back and read stuff we wrote almost a decade ago and I can only imagine how that volume of writing will grow over the course of a lifetime! There’s something to be said about how future generations will be able to look back at stuff their great great grandfathers and grandmothers wrote.
Raam,
I really enjoyed your depiction of the poverty abroad… so true as the perspective of life takes on a whole new angle once you actually see the destitute lifestyle of so many around the globe. Being able to make a difference with selfless service to those in need is a true calling and purpose I think we should all try to harness…
Cheers Raam!
Patrick
Hi Patrick, first of all thanks for stopping by and listening to the interview. I agree that when you travel around the globe, it opens you up to a new perspective of what’s really happening out there. One of the best things we can do to try and help is by spreading the word to others or trying to be of service in any way that we can.
Thank you, Patrick!
I think we all have equal capacity to serve those who are in need — you’re doing that through your personal training and Hulbert is doing that here through enabling others to discover and connect with each other.
The more we think about how we can use our energy to help others — the more we think about how we can have a positive effect on those around us — the more likely we are to contribute to those who are in need.
I’ve been keeping up with Raam and must say; he’s awesome!
I really like that what he blogs about is down to earth – it’s not all “hey look tourist spots!” – it’s a real world trip.
Need to give this a listen, should be excellent
Hey Murlu, yeah exactly. He doesn’t tell people, “Hey look at these tourist spots because they’re cool!” Instead he goes a lot deeper in terms of changing the world. Hope you enjoy the interview man.
Hey Murlu!
Great to see you here!
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Raam you are SO inspiring my man. When you speak I see myself in you if that makes sense. I love the way you want to make a difference and have a big heart. I want to help the third world and thats the big reason why I’m going to become a millionaire.
Its so true, you cant solve everyone’s problem. And you have to think ‘what can i do that will help everybody’. Helping others is so fulfilling and I really admire you for sharing that because I totally believe in that.
I myself am half ghanaian and I visited there in 2007 – I went to a school there and the kids were running up to me like I was a celebrity! I came armed with Haribo sweets (candy) and gave them out, the kids were so grateful I was nearly in tears. Why? Because something so insignificant and small to ME meant so much to THEM.
Its amazing how much of a difference we can make if we stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on helping and solving others!
And Hulbert absolutely – the greatest challenges in our lives are often our greatest gifts. So true man.
Thanks for this quality interview – doing great. You work hard man! Good stuff dude, whats your end goal for this blog or you just do it for fun?
Hey Aaron, thanks man. I’m glad you thought this interview with Raam was inspiring. That’s so cool that you could relate with him. I think what Raam is doing is also awesome. Like him, I believe we can’t do help everybody at once but we can do little things one step at a time to help expose what’s going on to the world to other people. I’m happy I got to interview Raam because that’s what his blog is about. As for my blog, I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen to it in the future. Right now I’m just enjoying the process.
Thanks again for listening Aaron.
Aaron, thank you so much for the kind words and for all the good that you do!
While I love travel, I just can’t see myself as a “travel blogger”. I can’t get myself to write about “the beautiful architecture” and “incredible waterfalls” when I see people suffering on the street and children begging for food. It just doesn’t feel right!
Thank you for sharing the story of the children — it’s really humbling to see how something so seemingly insignificant can have such a huge impact on the lives of others. That’s why I think it’s our human duty to ensure that our actions, at least indirectly, help those who are less fortunate.
Balance is key to life, and right now this world is extremely unbalanced and therefore unsustainable. There are so many people in this world with good hearts that there doesn’t need to be any suffering.