Little Miss Itchy Feet

“Why to look for a specific place to limit yourself to and call home when the whole planet has so much to offer?”, Tudor Tarlev definitely does not want to limit himself. Since the age of 16, he is on an entrepreneurship journey – a nomadic one. “I guess I can call my village in Moldova my home but I am there few days a year.” The rest of the time the “chronic entrepreneur and action lover with 6 start-ups in portfolio and some epic failures” is a self called “change agent” and engaged in positive, sustainable projects all across Europe. I asked Tudor about his lifestyle and his intention to “create remarkable value” – maybe even for YOU:

Tudor: I started my entrepreneurship journey when I was 16, during my college studies in Moldova, as a future business administration guy. After several months there I got the idea that you cannot enjoy and understand the business development side unless you start and grow your own business. The nomad concept came to life in 2011, when I moved from Moldova to Romania and started actively participating in local and regional meet ups in Europe. A simple discovery was made back then: You cannot really aspire and make a global impact company unless you are in the field with your community, getting to know the markets, meeting powerful networks, exploring the cultural background and what moves people, wherever they may be.
Now I am building a social business called Dreamups starting from Austria but the team is pretty much international and nomadic.

(Dreamups started in August 2012, and the platform is meant to work as a library in which everyone can bring their own book / instruction to be shared with peers or/and everyone can take one for reading /making. All instructions in the library are about sustainability and passion driven solutions. The idea is to make solutions available in a simple “do it yourself” format, to be used by local communities and individuals all over the world.)

When and why did you decide to live this kind of nomadic lifestyle? 

Tudor: I can’t call it a decision, it was more a lifestyle formed in time as I was trying to move on, learn and develop my networks. At least now, as I don’t have endless things to care about and I have the freedom to move I would like to explore as much as possible while building something positive for the world.

What are the biggest challenges and biggest chances of a nomadic lifestyle?

Tudor: The biggest challenges may refer to resources – because you don’t have a permanent job and you need to live on something, so either you are good as a freelancer or your start-up is doing well so you can cover your costs.
Another challenge are skills and trust – how do you organize work and progress far from a normal office work, sometimes with people across the ocean?
Social – sometimes it’s hard to integrate within a local community and explore all the opportunities it may have for you.
The secret is to enjoy the flow, trust people and ask yourself every day: What is the value you create for others?

Could you please describe your entrepreneurship journey – the map looks pretty interesting?

Tudor: Well, the map it quite simple to explain – I founded several projects in Moldova, then Romania and now Austria. The rest of the countries were visited more for community projects, conferences, and entrepreneurship research. Some of the countries like Netherlands and Germany are potential environments for future project development. During the next years , the map will be extended dramatically as I plan to explore new countries every year, to live and work within our Dreamups community.

You are currently living in Austria – so has your nomadic lifestyle come to an end, or is it just a break?

Tudor: The exact location is Dreamicon Valley, Siegendorf, about half an hour south to Vienna. Here is the HQ of Dreamups and the place where we will come each 3 months to evaluate and plan our steps for next 3 months. The rest of the time I am on the way to explore life’s opportunities and bring positive impact to the world.

What were your biggest projects, what are you most proud of?

Tudor: One of the best experiences I guess was TEDxChisinau.com, a great team and something that managed to grow and bring results to the local community. Now the project is lead by Elena, I friend of mine from Moldova and they exceeded all the expectations we had in the first team, I like what they do now. The second is my life experience, all the amazing people I met and my bankrupts; all these formed a great value for the future. The last and most exciting one is our new baby called Dreamups – a global platform for people to explore and create sustainable solutions, it’s just mind-blowing and I am looking very much forward to its development.

Could you please describe another new project of yours, the book in more details? 

Tudor: As unemployment will just increase in the future cause of automation and technology development we may come to a moment when people are not needed any more in many industries but there is one place where people with be always needed – their community and family. I envision a time when people will come back to their roots having a much more value driven life, for example producing local food, customized handicrafts and up-cycling art. That’s a great thing to realize we can make use of our skills outside the labour market and still make a living and bring value, this will be the moment when each person can be an artist, a creator. The book called “DO nomads” will be an interactive journey with challenges and tasks to overcome and thus for each reader the experience will be unique. A real time-story featuring other people’s experiences and insights about creating innovations and the way. It’s a journey for 4 years and I hope it will be a piece of art available in 2015. To get a sense of what I am talking about read Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s OK by Federi Pistono or We Are All Artists Now by Seth Godin. In 2013 a co-creation webpage will be available for those who want to be involved.

Thank you, Tudor, keep on inspiring and changing the world!