Your fears will keep you safe & hold you back
At some point, we all feel stuck. The job that pays well but means nothing. The purpose we keep waiting to find instead of having the guts to define. Nobody’s going to fix that for you. But you’re not alone in it either.
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WHERE TO FIRST?
Choose Your Adventure
BUSINESS & FREELANCING
How Money-Making Businesses Are Built
10+ years of lessons on turning skills into services, services into products, and freelancing into a career that not only survives but thrives.
DIGITAL NOMAD & REMOTE LIFE
Chasing Your Own Remote Lifestyle
Honest stories from living in Asia since 2014. The freedom, the visa runs, the questionable decisions, and all the chaos in between.
IRONMAN & THE LONG GAME
Training for My First Ironman by 2029
My journey to becoming an Ironman before I turn 40. Race results, training updates, and how endurance training is the cure to my depression.
Hi, I’m Jef van de Graaf
At 26, I sold everything I owned, bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo, and left Canada with nothing but a bicycle.
I cycled across Asia for four years. Built a private English teaching business in Japan from zero to 65 students in eight months. Now I’m training for an Ironman while freelancing for B2B companies from a fourth-floor condo in Chiang Mai.
Here you’ll find my honest stories, business experiments, and hard-won lessons from over a decade navigating the great unknown.
I write about what most people won’t say out loud. The depression, the loneliness, the moments where chasing your dreams feels like another big mistake.
Take this, all of you, and learn from it. For this is my knowledge, which can be passed onto you by reading my Articles.
Conquering My First Triathlon in Riding Mountain, Manitoba
14 January 2026