American entrepreneur Paul Lee chose to move permanently to Thailand following a vacation in the Southeast Asian country. He shared with CNBC Make It how this life-altering decision has brought him greater happiness.
Lee’s e-commerce company brought in about $1 million annually while residing in the US. Despite his accomplishments, he was feeling hopeless and discouraged. Then he went on vacation to Thailand, a nation renowned for its rich culture and sunny beaches.
“I felt so refreshed when I first got to Thailand. I felt like I had a fresh start because everything was unfamiliar to me,” he said to CNBC Make It.
Five months after the trip, in April 2021, Lee decided to permanently relocate the base. Since then, he has been employed in Bangkok as a real estate agent and content creator, earning $150,000 annually—a substantial decrease from his previous income.
“I feel better.”
However, the Georgia-born businessman, 28, has no regrets about the change. He realized that the money he was earning in the US was not giving him the satisfaction he was seeking because of the “very individualistic, very doggish, and very hyper-aggressive” environment he was living in in New York City.
He said, “I had to go through this journey of being poor and becoming quite wealthy to realize all this wealth that I had accumulated didn’t really give me what I wanted and didn’t give me the satisfaction I was looking for.”
“In the end, even though my income isn’t nearly as high as it was in New York City, I am far wealthier in terms of my contentment, my health, and my tranquility,” he continued. “I never succeeded in achieving these things back in the States.”
