Article for freelancers: Dream of working while travelling

Dream of working while travelling

By Karel Kosman,
a Freelancer

http://travel-europe.kenax.cz

Get the List of 4,400+ Translation Agencies Now!
No Recurring Membership Fees!

This article of introduction was written for TranslationDirectory.com. Actually, I have to be a little proud that I may have been instrumental in bringing about the creation of TranslationDirectory.com because I hired Serhiy Onoshko, its founder and present CEO, to help me find customers. I asked him to surf the internet and collect for me email addresses of translation agencies and potential translation customers. The rest is history. But it is the beauty of the internet that allowed this relationship to happen. And it is this same internet that has enabled me to realise the dream that I would like to introduce you to.

On http://travel-europe.kenax.cz you will find a general introduction to my dream and what led me to it. Basically to use the freedom that the internet offers to follow my dreams of travelling around the world, while managing my translation agency.

In the days of old when I first started translating, I used to have to commute 45 minutes to the centre of town to deliver a printed translation with a digital copy on floppy disk. I had to own a printer, and if there was something wrong with the disk, as floppies can be unreliable, I had to run home and bring a second copy. This even if I had to deliver only 3 pages.
This obviously irritated me and I began looking for ways to work around this. I must have been the first translator in Prague who proposed the concept of delivering work by modem (before internet, when I would have to call the customer by phone, our modems would connect and I would send the file directly into their computer) and I soon found myself making my rounds around town setting up various translation agencies, just so I wouldn’t have to make the horrible trek every day to the centre via public transportation.

But not long afterwards came internet and I soon found myself dreaming of all the possibilities. One large translation agency, when I was setting up their modem, called me a missionary. Maybe I could inspire you, the translator and reader of this article, to break away from the chains of the desktop and home workstation to take your work to more pleasant environments like I do.

One may have to become a little creative with internet connections, where I use free wifi at local universities or marinas, my mobile phone, roaming dialup, or long term prospects for two-way high speed internet with collapsable satellite dish, but it really is not as difficult as one might originally imagine. When travelling, I always buy a local sim card and ask their tech department to help me hook the internet directly to my computer. If that is not possible, I can transfer zipped files to my pocket computer and send them directly by email from that. There are many ways to skin a cat, as they say.

But the important point is that freelancing, as you do, can be taken a step further. Not only can you consider yourselves faithful environmentalists who do not have to pollute every day by commuting to and from work, and not only do you have the option of living and working in a rural community as opposed to further crowding an already overpopulated city, but you can take your laptop right down to the beach like I do and jump into the ocean for your coffee break.

On my pages I write about my journeys and experiences while travelling, but I also provide technical descriptions of how I accomplish everything (hooking up to the internet, and I built the caravan myself). I will continue to add to these pages as I learn and as I gain more interesting experiences and insights from the places I visit.

I once did a brief study of the word freelancing and where it came from. If my memory serves me correctly, a lance is a spiked metal ball hanging from a chain and which a warrior can swing around to knock down its enemies. Somehow the word was adopted at some point to describe the labour warrior who evades the corporate rat race and manages to carve out a living on specifically negotiated terms. I hope my pages inspire you to use your trade to bring you the greatest freedom, to your benefit.

Thank you,

Karel Kosman