Why Losing My $185K Adventure Cycling Business Was the Best Thing to Happen to Me

From $12K/Month to Homeless: How Google's Helpful Content Update Destroyed My Cycling Blog Business and Accidentally Changed My Life

Remember that adventure cycling blog I started back in 2019? The one that was supposed to fund my nomadic lifestyle with a humble goal of making $1,000 a month while living frugally in Japan?

Well, what a wild ride it's been since then.

After meeting Josh (thanks mate!) and discovering the world of content-driven affiliate income, things exploded. Within 12 months, the site was pulling 150,000 monthly visitors and earning up to $12,000 a month. I was on the verge of selling it for up to $185,000.

Then Google's "Helpful Content" update hit. Traffic vanished. Income dried up. Just like that.

I found myself homeless, sleeping in my car, having poured all my savings into a new startup. Rock bottom doesn't begin to describe it.

But here's the thing - that collapse became the foundation for everything good that followed. Here's what I learned...

The Self-Reliant Lone Wolf Mentality Nearly Broke Me

I used to pride myself on being the lone wolf. The black sheep. The self-proclaimed introvert who valued independence above all else.

I wore solitude like armor. Independence wasn't just a trait; it was my identity. Just me, my thoughts, my bike, my camera, and the open road. No noise. No drama. I equated stillness with clarity and space with freedom.

But when everything fell apart - when my business crumbled, my income vanished, and I lost it all - something unexpected happened…

Friends offered meals. Strangers offered beds. Family reminded me I wasn't a burden. They reached down into the pit and offered me a hand. I couldn't have done it without them.

This is where the myth unraveled. The romanticism of the lone wolf shattered. It's poetic until you're sleeping in your car wondering if you'll make it through the week.

I saw clearly: we are not meant to do this alone.

Moving from independence to interdependence isn't a choice - it's a necessity. We live in an ecosystem. Even when we believe we're going solo, we're unavoidably interconnected.

Every product we use, every road we ride, every idea we think - it's all built on the shoulders of those who came before. Someone built that road you travel down. Someone thought up the bicycle you're riding. The foundations of society were forged by others - and we're still standing on them.

Interdependence is not weakness. It's wisdom.

I still yearn for unknown lands and solitude. There's something about camping alone under a full moon and sitting by the fire listening to silence that allows me to connect with my purest self.

But now, I return from those adventures to share what I've found. To build something with, not just for.

Because I've learned: interdependence isn't the death of freedom. It's its fullest expression.

Rock Bottom Is Where Solid Foundations Are Built

"Castles made of sand fall into the sea, eventually," as Jimi Hendrix sang.

And I had built mine out of ambition, urgency, and illusion. One income stream. Built on borrowed land. Something I didn't even own. My identity was tied to numbers, pageviews, affiliate links, and a business that looked like success... until it wasn't.

What I thought was failure was actually a sacred pause. A divine interruption forcing me to stop chasing and start listening.

This was feedback, not failure. Life saying: "Hey, this path isn't yours anymore." The algorithm didn't kill me - it redirected me to strip away who I thought I had to be and rediscover who I really am.

Rock bottom became the solid ground from which new worlds are built. My ego cracked. And something real began to emerge.

I questioned the game. I questioned the rules I was playing by. Was I building for truth? Or for validation?

It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

I stopped gripping. I stopped controlling. I stopped trying. And I started listening. Started trusting. Started letting go of outcome - and falling back in love with the craft.

And from that silence... I began to rebuild. Not with urgency. Not with ego. But with intention. Brick by brick.

My martial arts journey taught me the sacred power of foundations. Of repetition. Of patience. Of discipline. The basics became my new baseline. And if the baseline is strong, you don't fall as low again.

True power isn't flashy - it's foundational. And if you build from the ground up, with care and truth and time, it becomes second nature. A quiet superpower that hums beneath everything you do.

Because truth doesn't rise from sand. It rises from bedrock. And sometimes, you only find it when everything else has fallen away.

The Adventure Is Within As Much As It Is Out There

I used to think the adventure was only out there - in the mountains, on winding roads, across foreign lands and borders I hadn't yet crossed.

Those outer adventures still matter. They shape us. But what I didn't realize until I lost everything is that the real frontier is internal.

It's the places inside ourselves we've avoided. The thoughts we bury. The truths we hide behind the noise. Adventure out there became a distraction from what I needed to face in here.

But once the distractions were stripped, when there was nothing left to hold on to but presence, I realized: The journey I'd been running from was the one back to myself.

It takes real courage to look in the mirror and not look away. To actually see what's there. And not judge it. But honor it.

The moment I began believing fully - no more doubt, no more safety net - something shifted. I realized the power of belief itself. When we shed the disbeliefs, the fears, the programming, and start living from a place of unconditional love, the universe bends. Things move.

It's like that inner switch gets flipped. Call it alignment. Call it truth. But when you tap into that inner belief, it activates what I refer to as The Success Mechanism from the book Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Your mind is always correcting its course, adjusting to get you where you believe you're meant to go. But it can't lock on if you don't give it a clear target. Your destination isn't out there. It's inside - your self-image, your belief, your purpose.

One day, my mate Kido sent me a message that resonated in the best way. He said: "Most people are just afraid, pure limiting beliefs, afraid to fail, afraid to find out they're not good enough, so they just hide, that's not gonna be me lol, l wanna test myself and also really give it a whirl, none of this half baked bs that I see people doing"

Where We Go From Here

I know you're out there. Somewhere between who you were and who you're becoming.

Maybe you're standing at the edge right now. Maybe you've lost the map, the momentum, the meaning.

I've been there. I've watched the dream collapse beneath me. I've sat in silence with no plan, no path - only a whisper of belief.

I didn't come here to tell you how this ends. I came to tell you how it begins.

Once you align with the truth of who you really are, you move with purpose. From that place, the rules change. The borders vanish. The boundaries dissolve.

A world without limits opens up before you. One where you are not defined by what you've lost, but by what you're ready to step into.

I can't walk it for you. Where we go from here - that's a choice I leave to you.

But if you feel the call, if your soul is restless, if the dream inside you won't die - then go. Into the unknown. With faith. With fire. With grace.

And when you arrive - weathered, awakened, wildly alive - you'll know:

You didn't just survive the storm. You became the sky.