0:02
You won the game, right?
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I always win. I win for sure. For sure?
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You always win. I always win. You always
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win. Then who lost again?
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Who lost again? Who is the cheated? Who
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The one game he doesn't get cheated
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because I don't lose. I don't lose, man.
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In 2025, I made a decision that would
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completely change my life. I decided to
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live for 1 year full year as a digital
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nomad in South Africa to learn and
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practice what it really means to live
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this lifestyle. The idea was simple.
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Travel, work online, create content, and
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live free. But the truth is I failed and
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I failed bad. I failed not because of
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lack of motivation, but because of lack
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of planning, financial planning,
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emotional planning, and mental
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preparation. Still, that failure became
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one of the most important experience of
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Huh? This is our video.
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Me child. Me child. My name is João and
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For years I carried this desire to live
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as a digital nomad and make a living
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creating travel content.
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But I didn't want to romanticize it
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easy, okay? Because I need to feel it on
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my own skin. To see how it really works.
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And that's how it start. My first stop
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was Wilderness in the Western Cape, a
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place I will never forget.
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I lived there for 2 months or we can say
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3 months or so. And honestly, at the
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beginning I had no idea what I I doing
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there. I was closed off, shy, and
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thought I can speak English normally.
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But I was feeling like something didn't
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Because the cultural shock was really
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big, super big. See, I grew up with the
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idea that Africa means struggle,
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suffering, constant difficult. But with
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the miss, it was kind of different. It
2:18
was like I was in Africa, okay? Because
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it felt a really unreal. So the night
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that so calm, so beautiful.
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That I used to say sometimes, okay, to
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myself, this feels like a small European
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paradise hiding inside of I used to say
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that because that part of Africa really
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looks like a really mini country
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that belongs to Europe.
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that belongs to Europe. Then I met
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people from South Africa, especially
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Afrikaners because that was the first
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time that I heard about them, which I
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found they are very simple people, very
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work people, and very open and also
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curious people. And I also met the
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travelers from German, Spain, France.
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People who were already living what I
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was still trying to understand how it
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That's where I began to realize how
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travel can expand your view of the
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And don't you wish that you could cry?
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See me, this is all clear.
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>> I did many things for the first time in
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this place. I had him for the first
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time. I saw waterfalls. I climbed. I
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went to local markets and also even I
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physical exercise, okay? Because I was
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surrounded by people who really care
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about their body and mind.
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And that's somehow changed me also.
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After building a relationship with my
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guide to Jeffreys Bay, it was on the
5:07
road that I experienced my first safari.
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Something I never imagined living that
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experience, okay, at that moment. And
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also I met him from Netherlands and Matt
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from France. From Matt I learned to say
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yes more often to things that weren't
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planned. And that yes was what led me to
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Uh-oh, she's coming to me.
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But I have a good view. She's in front
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And from him, I learned more about
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teamwork, okay? Sportsmanship, because
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I'm someone who like to show off when I
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win, because I'm very addicted to those
6:13
table games. And when I win, it's a big
6:16
deal, because I like to show off. But
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from her, she told me sometimes I don't
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need to be like that. I just need to be
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chilling, okay? And and not be like show
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Then I went to Cape Town, another
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volunteer project, another phase.
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On the outside, everything seemed to be
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working perfectly. The thing's about to
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go down. King of Uno.
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Uno, close. It's okay.
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Then you have to say Uno to get it.
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Loser space, loser space. No, you need
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to respect this moment, you understand?
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Winner space, winner space.
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KING OF UNO. NOW YOU HAVE to say Uno to
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Okay, oh, I got the video.
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Now, what's Uno's good or not? No. Ah,
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I would have stayed here. It's more fun
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to go out. I met very experienced
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driver, people who had failed,
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restarted, and learned from their
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mistakes, and finally they made it. And
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I also met someone from Belgium. She
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taught me something about the circle of
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life, which is life isn't perfect, and
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it's okay if things aren't okay. It all
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depend the way that we will take it.
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But here in Cape Town, is also where the
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reality hit really hard. Poor money
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management, online business that didn't
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scale as I was thinking it will,
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anxiety, uncertainty.
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So, that's when I realized traveling
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without planning it's not a freedom,
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I explored Cape Town. I was amazed. I
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saw a lot of beautiful things and I also
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saw a lot of inequality. South Africa is
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a country of extreme contrasts and
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understanding that completely changed
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how I interacted with people. See,
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traveling isn't just about beautiful
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landscape, it's also about understanding
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history of the place, wounds and context
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of the place. By the end of the year, I
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hadn't managed to live as a digital
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nomad the way that I had dreamed.
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But, I left with something more
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important, awareness.
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Today, I'm more prepared, more mature,
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more realistic and this year I'm
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starting again, okay? With more
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strategy, more respect for the process
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and less romanticization of the thing.
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This is not a success story, it's a
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story of trying and maybe it's just the
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first chapter. May God give me a
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strength and walk with me and I hope
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also you guys follow me during this my
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journey around the world which I just
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I really never say black bread.
9:22
You want to pay card?
