Day 27: Internet Business In Playa Del Carmen
Today I had a mission. There was a tech company running shop right below Chef Alexandra’s place and I was determined to find out what they were doing. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I told Andrea that I was going to go down there and find out what they’re up to. I found it more than coincidental that this crew was right downstairs, renting living space only to convert it into a bullpen style office. It’s very similar to what I do in Toronto.
I had some good breakfast at Chef Alexandra’s place. After finishing and sitting around to talk, I heard a few people leaving the office downstairs. This was my chance to approach them and find out what’s really going on. I ran downstairs and out the front gate to catch up to them. “Hey”, I yelled. “I heard you guys are doing something similar to what I am”, I continued. They stopped and took a good long look at me. I imagine they don’t get approached randomly by strangers who blurt out statements like mine very often. After all, they didn’t have any business sign on their door and they kept their operation pretty low key in the living complex.
Perhaps they were not doing the same thing I was doing. Maybe they were hackers… Regardless, I opened the can and there was no going back. Both guys seemed pretty laid back. The taller gentlemen who appeared to be in his 30s, looked very sharp and focused. I assumed that he was running the operation. I could just tell by the way he carried himself. The other guy seemed younger, probably in his early 20s.”And what do you do”, replied the taller man as he introduced himself. “My name is Dennis”, he said. I then went into my 5 minute elevator pitch.
The question for them was obvious. Why the heck am I running a Toronto based business from Playa Del Carmen? Well number one for the obvious reason, It’s freakin cold in Toronto and I’d rather walk around in Playa with a tank top and still break a sweat. The second reason, I wanted to try out lifestyle design. I wanted to live an exotic life while running my business remotely and taking advantage of what the internet has to offer, so to speak. I mentioned how I read the book, The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. They laughed when I told them that. “Ohh, good old Tim”, replied Dennis. “We do the opposite here, we are pulling in on average, 100 hour work weeks”, he continued. We stood there building a certain level of comfort and rapport with each other but I didn’t want to keep them from going where they were going, so I cut the conversation short.”Come by the office tomorrow morning and we can grab a coffee and talk”, said Dennis. I agreed and we all parted ways.
Amazing! I was upstairs at Chef Alexandra’s place everyday and right below me the whole time was a full blown internet business working away! Welcome to the magic of Playa Del Carmen…
I didn’t really care too much about meeting them earlier in my stay though. It’s better that it didn’t happen that way. The last thing I wanted to do was come down to Playa Del Carmen and hermit myself working on internet business projects, 24 hours a day. That’s for my Toronto life and not here in paradise.
I headed over to Jugolandia for some lunch and then headed over to Starbucks to do some work for a few hours. When I was done my work, I headed back to Chef Alexandra’s place for a few margaritas, work on her website and an early night as I was tired. I can’t wait to find out what these guys are up to in our meeting tomorrow…
