Up until now, I’ve written mainly about small, first world problems, because I believe that as much as they are ridiculed and not considered “real problems”, they are still problems.

But this doesn’t stop here, this attitude of “people have it worse in Africa” is destructive. It starts with small issues that we ignore on a daily basis (like tangled headphones), and it goes much further, to the level of disrespect, to a real, serious problem that we have in the first world, the feeling that we don’t know what to do with our lives.

According to Third Way, 45% of college students are dropping out. Another phenomenon is the career changes — statistics show that the frequency of people changing their field of occupation is rising rapidly. In today’s world, we are changing jobs much more frequently — especially the millennial generation.

Both of these factors are indicators to a bigger change — no longer are we looking for the safety and stability of more traditional jobs but now it seems we are looking for something else — a career we are truly passionate about.

The good news is that the world is changing accordingly, and many barriers that used to be out there are disappearing, mainly thanks to technology. 20 years ago, you needed to invest thousands of dollars just to open a store. Today, you can open an online store with a fraction of that money, or you can work from home or, further, you can even get your education online.

Startups are beginning to notice these changes and they are starting to understand that our generation is going to look for much more creative and innovative ways of earning their living, forsaking the old in-company career structure and going for different earning models. I would like to introduce you to a few innovative projects I found.

Crowdholding

Crowdholding is a platform that is all about giving you the opportunity to turn your ideas into future revenue. The system is very simple, a startup on the platform is asking you for ideas or opinions on products in exchange for some of its future revenues. This system will not only make you money but also will allow you to directly influence the products they create and see your ideas become reality. Right now they are in beta stage but they already have 11 startups on the platform and they are adding more all the time.

Fiverr

Fiverr is a platform that allows you to do mini freelance jobs — there are various options like web designing, marketing and even voice acting. Start a gig and start making money from things that you like to do. You can begin with 5$ for a small job but of course, with time and experience you can add bigger projects and get paid more.

Remote OK

For many of us, our real passion is traveling, but we can’t because we have jobs, so we postpone and in many cases we cancel our long term travel plans because of money or career reasons.

In the last few years, there is a growing community of digital nomads, people who are working for companies from home and traveling around the world while getting paid. Remote OK promotes exactly these kinds of jobs. It’s mainly oriented towards software developers, but there are also customer service, marketing, and nontech jobs.

This website might be your opportunity to travel the world without sacrificing your finances or career.

So check out Crowdholding, Fiverr, and Remoteok, and I’m sure they will help many of you to change your lives for the better. Also leave comments, tell me what you think about them and tell me about similar things you know so we can help each other.

I’ll see you next time on the quest to save the first world, have a great day :)