The Year in Review 2017

What a great year.

2017 was a year of building foundations for my future. After a turbulent 2016 starting my new life in the Mediterranean, I’ve set myself up for an extremely prosperous 2018.

Today I look back and share some highlights, pics, videos, and learnings from the year.

2017 in review

Jan-March

I get more focused on cash and started writing about passive income. Aside from helping readers profit from matched betting, I encouraged them to get into Bitcoin…and those who followed my advice made 1000%+ their money!

I bought in at $630 a coin. At the time of writing it’s 13.5k.

I also started the year with a long overdue trip to South America, touching down in Colombia for carnival. It became on my favourite countries, and inspired many videos, blog posts, and a podcast.

I wrote city guides for Cartagena, Medellin, and Bogota.

Below are some of the most popular videos I produced.

March-June

I finished the first draft of my new Mexican Pirate book ahead of my June deadline, and began working with a hard editor.

At the time of publishing this article, we are working on the last three chapters. Next phase is copy editing, which will hopefully take 6-8 months.

Considering a potential move to Canada, I booked a flight to check out Quebec and Ontario. I visited and wrote about Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto.

I got lucky with the weather and was left with a very favourable impression. On the trip I also met with my NYC wing Dom Torres and several RVF members and had a blast.

More vids here.

Jun-September

After some hard work saving, a little luck, and crushing it in cryptos, I was able to accelerate my financial plans by a whole year and put on a deposit on my first real estate investment!

Construction should be finished summer 2018 (I hope!). I got a good deal and handsome returns will follow.

I also did a bit more travelling, taking side trips to Czechia, Sicily, and the Greek Islands.

Check out this killer drone shot near Prague.

View this post on Instagram

Great #drone shot of me relaxing in Chribska, northern #czechia.

A post shared by Mark Zolo (@naughtynomad) on Jun 25, 2017 at 12:21am PDT

In September, I also placed in the finals of a singer/songwriter competition.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaYvHnKnQlJ/?taken-by=naughtynomad

Oct-Dec

I competed in my second BJJ competition in Belgrade, Serbia. I once again got my ass kicked, but at least this time I lasted a full round and put up a good fight! It was a great weekend regardless and got to update the Belgrade city guide. Every time I go back to Belgrade I like it more and more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bat_HYdHPlC/

In December I competed in my third BJJ competition and finally secured my first wins. Despite it being a small comp, it felt fucking amazing!

View this post on Instagram

Third times a charm. Finally won my first (and second) competitive #bjj match. Feels good man. #naughtynomad #markzolo #bjjlife #victory #manosphere

A post shared by Mark Zolo (@naughtynomad) on Dec 2, 2017 at 8:00am PST

Later in the month I travelled to Iran (luckily before the protests started). We visited Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran. Despite being a dry country, I didn’t spend a single night sober and got into the underground scene! No doubt there will be a few article published soon on the country.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcwTV4VFoIv/?taken-by=naughtynomad

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcmQdmultXd/?taken-by=naughtynomad

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Country 104: #Iran… Here's a little video of the largest square in the world after Tiananman. #isfahan #esfahan #digitalnomad #travelblogger #persia #wanderlust #Irantravel #naughtynomad

A post shared by Mark Zolo (@naughtynomad) on Dec 13, 2017 at 12:35am PST

I ended the year by returning to Ireland for Christmas to see my family, and reflect and what was a great year.

2017 Stats:

Total Countries visited: 10

New Countries visited: 3 

That puts my ultimate goal for travelling to every country in the world at 104/196 or 53%. 

2018 Preview

I’ve already booked 4 short trips around Europe. I will be revisiting Berlin, Brussels, Valencia and checking out Lisbon for the first time. As for big trips, I’m keeping my options open. I’m waiting on construction to finish on a real estate investment so I need to be flexible.

There I may well be taking a month to train BJJ/MMA in Thailand. North Korea is  potentially on the cards, but the timing may be an issue. As I learned some basic Farsi for my Iran trip, so Afghanistan also beckons.

I also plan on finally realizing the long awaiting sequel to my first book, Naughty Nomad, this time featuring my crazy adventures in war zones dressed as a Mexican Pirate.