25-year-old Aileen Adalid used to be like many of us—pressured by society to land a stable 9-5 job out of university while putting her dreams on the backburner.
However, after a major career and lifestyle choice, Aileen is now able to pursue her dream of traveling the world thanks to her popular travel blog, ‘I Am Aileen‘, which generates $70,000 a year!
At age 15, Aileen did not know what she wanted to do with her life, so her mother enrolled her in the prestigious De La Salle University in Manila under a Bachelor’s in Accountancy.
Following freshman year, Aileen discovered her ‘blood-curdling’ hatred for working with numbers and decided to switch from Accountancy to Business. This decision would ultimately give her the skills to run a successful blog and gain a massive following online.
After graduating university, Aileen accepted the first job she could find and found herself working at Deutsche Bank, earning $300 a month.
Despite being the top performer at her job with a promotion in sight, Aileen was miserable and burnout after one year and kept wondering if this was it. Although she wanted to quit her job, she felt pressured by society to settle for stability and security.
To cope with her stress, Aileen turned to blogging and began gaining a name for herself in the Philippines, as she would often find invitations from establishments and resorts to visit them for free.
In April 2013, Aileen made the life-changing decision to quit her job and pursue her dream of traveling the world and building her own business. Starting off as a digital nomad offering graphic design and SEO management services, Aileen and her friend later launched their own online retail business, Adalid Gear, where they sold outdoor accessories and health aids.
After her online business became stable, Aileen recovered her domain and relaunched it as a travel blog. Although her blog began as a way to simply document her travels to share with family and friends, some of Aileen’s posts began trending online and gaining readers from across the world.
Because of this, Aileen decided to start taking her blog more seriously and began blogging to inspire others that a life of travel is possible no matter one’s life circumstances.
Today Aileen is a successful online entrepreneur, travel writer and vlogger living a sustainable travel lifestyle and making $70,000 a year. To date, she has stepped foot on all seven continents, has written for major publications such as National Geographic and BBC Travel, has won an international blog award for Best Youth Travel Blog, and continues to help aspiring bloggers pursue their dreams of living a nomadic lifestyle!
