So the title kind of gives it away …
We are moving to Manila!
After just over a year of living in Davao City, the third largest city in the Philippines south, we have decided to pack up shop and move to the “big smoke” … and wasting no time doing it … I move next week! (Matt will follow a month later)
In a recent post I wrote One Year Revision & Future Planning I mentioned that we wanted to make a move within a year, well it has come a lot sooner than that, with an opportunity to add an additional $4000 AUD a month to our bottom line by moving to Manila, we decided to make the jump now.
Why Location Is Important To Your Success
So I have written a blog post in the past which basically discusses how we cannot change our circumstances by changing our location, here I want to give the opposite viewpoint.
I have a few friends who I mentioned the move to, who kind of discouraged the move by saying such things like … “grass is always greener” etc but it’s not simply about getting bored (it is a little), but it is mainly about continuing to grow as a person and I don’t feel I can get anymore from Davao. I have gotten all I can get from here.
Myself & Matt are still quite young, and I think it is essential for us to meet new people, encounter new ways of doing business and business models, etc.
Reasons We Are Moving To Manila
1. Networking / People
Davao is super sheltered. We have met 4 people over the last year in the entire city, that we get that have helped challenge, grow, and learn from, etc. Pretty low numbers for such a large city and a long term stay. Very keen to meet more interesting people in which both parties can mutually benefit from. Networking should not be underestimated in business.
2. Talent Pool
We hate managing are not good at it. We want to make the business a little less hands on by us. To do this we need smart, ambitious, self initiative people. At risk of being controversial … These people are hard to find here in Davao … most these people move to Manila in search of more money.
3. Getting Too Settled
I feel we have got in a rut here in Davao … same old thing means perhaps productivity is up, but on the flip side, we are not getting challenged or thinking enough outside the box. Perhaps doing more work, but is it the right work?
4. Learning
Essentially it all comes down to wanting to grow and learn.
5. Experience
Myself & Matt have limited corporate experience, so hiring, talking and being in a more corporate environment, could help us just a little to take what we like and adapt it to our business.
6. Opportunities
We have clients that prefer us to be in Manila, due to talent pool, offices, access, etc. The amount of new opportunities that could come our way is exciting, from clients to people we meet.
7. Very Little Risk Involved
We like to live by the “Regret what you don’t do, not what you do” kind of mentality and with this move having very little risk associated, we may as well give it a go. We could be back to our normal lives here in Davao City, if it is a failed experiment.
Thanks Davao City, You Have Been Great
Big thanks to all the people we have met here in Davao City! We have really enjoyed our time here and are very thankful to this wonderful city and the people within it.
Four dudes we have mentioned before, but like to mention again (would just seem wrong not to in a Davao oriented post) … Joe, Justin, John & Damian … super cool, super switched on guys … definitely should connect with them if in town.
And of course to everyone else who have had any sort of connection to us over the last year here, you know who you are 
We are not counting out a return to Davao in the future. We are keeping our place here for the time being so we will see what happens. I do not see our move to Manila lasting long, as we are both not really “big city” folks, plus lets face it, Manila kind of takes the “Lifestyle” out of Lifestyle Business Design 
So there may be a return to this city one day, at this point we are hoping to stick to our plan in the recent blog post, to move to another country in 12 months time.
And of course we will be visiting from time to time.
If you do plan on visiting or moving to Davao City, feel free to hit us up still. We are happy to give suggestions / advice and hook you up with some people we know.
In saying that if you are in Manila or planning on visiting us … let us know! We love meeting new people
So our Davao City chapter of the adventure seems to be coming to close and the new Manila chapter is about to start … I’m excited to see what effects this has both business wise and personally.
Will keep you updated.
Cheers,
John
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