**The Reality of Moving to Dubai: A Cautionary Tale**

Moving to Dubai can seem like a dream come true, especially for those looking to escape the stress and monotony of daily life. However, beneath its luxurious façade, Dubai is not all it's cracked up to be. In this article, we'll delve into the harsh realities of moving to Dubai, from its strict laws and regulations to the potential pitfalls that can arise when one's personal demons are triggered by the city's excesses.

**A Place for Those with Discipline**

Dubai is a place for individuals who possess discipline and self-control. If you're someone who struggles with adherence to strict laws and regulations, or if you tend to be a bit of a loose cannon, Dubai may not be the best fit for you. The city's authorities are known to take a firm stance on enforcing its laws, and those who fail to comply can face severe consequences, including jail time.

Furthermore, individuals with a tendency to overspend will also find themselves in a precarious situation. Dubai is an expensive city, and if you're not careful, your financial woes can quickly spiral out of control. The costs of living, transportation, and entertainment can add up quickly, leaving you feeling financially drained and stressed.

**Entrepreneurs Who Fail to Deliver**

On the other hand, entrepreneurs who are struggling to make ends meet or who fail to deliver on their promises may find themselves in a world of trouble when they relocate to Dubai. The city's business landscape is highly competitive, and those who are not making significant income will find it difficult to navigate the challenges that come with living and working there.

**A Place for Younger Individuals**

Dubai is also not the place to be for older individuals looking for a sense of community and balance in their lives. As people age, their priorities tend to shift, and they often look for more relaxed and leisurely pursuits. Dubai's fast-paced lifestyle and emphasis on work may not be conducive to this type of individual.

**Don't Move to Dubai if You're Looking for Escape**

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when considering a move to Dubai is that it will not solve all your problems. In fact, it may actually make them worse in the short term. The city's excesses can amplify negative traits and force you to confront them head-on. If you're looking for an escape from your personal demons or financial woes, Dubai may not be the answer.

**Finding Gratitude in a Place of Excess**

One of the most valuable things I've learned from living in Dubai is the importance of being grateful for what I have. The city has forced me to confront the ugliest parts of society and materialism, and it's been a wake-up call. Seeing wealthy individuals making fools of themselves at nightclubs and beach clubs was a reality check that made me realize where I didn't want to end up.

**The Reality Check**

Dubai is not just a place; it's an experience that can challenge your perceptions and force you to reevaluate your priorities. If you come for a year or two, achieve your goals, and then leave when the time is right, you'll have gained valuable insights into what truly matters in life. The city has taught me this lesson, and I believe it can teach others as well.

**Conclusion**

Dubai may not be the place for everyone, but for those who possess discipline, hard work, and a sense of purpose, it can be a transformative experience. While it's not perfect, the city has something to offer, from its rich cultural heritage to its stunning natural beauty. If you're considering making Dubai your new home, remember that it's up to you to make the most of this incredible opportunity.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso today marks roughly the 2-year anniversary since I packed up my life in New Zealand and moved to Dubai to live and work and I thought this was a good time to make this video and kind of reflect on my thoughts after 2 years what I really think of the place what's my experience been like I think that might be helpful for a lot of you who are interested in moving there um and want to know how good it is really cuz they make it out to be this entrepreneurs Paradise some people say it's awful I want to give you my actual thoughts and and my experience so this video is going to be split up into two parts first I'm going to run through some very quick pros and cons um that'll give you a better explanation of what it's actually like living there what I liked about it and what I didn't at the end of it I know for many of you watching this you want you're thinking like do I actually want to move there is this something that I should do or could do and so at the end of the video I'll do a section on who I believe should move to Dubai and who I believe shouldn't and should stay away from it so let's get into a little bit of context on me first um this video might reach some people outside of my core audience so if you're new to the channel my name is leam Motley I'm a 24-year-old entrepreneur I've been doing online business for the past 5 to 6 years and the last 18 months or so it's been focused on building AI businesses and based out of Dubai as well I was born and raised in New Zealand and then 2 years ago August 2022 I moved to Dubai with the the goals of moving from a small place like New Zealand where I was kind of felt like I was becoming a big fish in a small pond or could easily see myself becoming that and getting complacent and I wanted to move to a place that was bigger that would make me feel small again and forc me to grow meet new people also to be more Central geographically if you know where New Zealand is and you can point it out on the map we're right down the bottom and so it's like a 17 hour flight to anywhere you really want to go it's like 24 hours total flight time to go anywhere in Europe so I like to try travel Europe a lot I'm in Serbia right now um on my own for a few weeks up in the up in the mountains and for me I wanted to be a little bit more centrally located in the world rather than being in New Zealand as well and of course there's tax benefits as well so for me in the stage that I was with my businesses having that extra money that was able to go into my pockets to pay rent or to fund the business we could keep pouring all of our all of our money and reinvesting in the business rather than paying 30 40% to the government was really key in in the in the growth of the businesses that I've experienced over the past 2 years so that's a little bit about me I think the core value of this video is really that I'm just a normal person like many of you watching this and I chose to drop everything and move my life over to Dubai and I actually live there many people who go to Dubai they set up their residency they get some of the tax benefits and they pop in for a week or two here and there or maybe a month at a time but they don't actually base themselves there and make that their home and so I've made Dubai my home over the past two years I've had an apartment there throughout the whole thing I've bought a car there I've got a cat there my entire life was based there so what I'm about to share with you these pros and cons are from actually living there for months at a time and being forced to work and live and actually become part of the place so getting into the pros and the good things about Dubai I'm going to make these pretty quick and just read off here cuz it's going to be a lot of faster for you firstly the weather is excellent from I'd say October to March that's when a lot of people start going back all my friends will go to Europe over the summer cuz it's way too hot in Dubai it's like 40° every day and then they'll come back for October November December January February March Etc um that's really perfect weather and if you're from a cold country it will change your life by moving to Dubai um purely based on the weather because it's just like great hot dry um you can go outside go to cafes work outside go to beaches Etc so weather is excellent and that was definitely a big plus for for moving there secondly we have efficiency and convenience so uh for me coming from New Zealand I don't have access to Amazon Prime when I got to Dubai my mind was blown when I realized I could order anything basically and it would arrive at my door within 12 hours so Dubai and Amazon Prime is extremely efficient as an entrepreneur you don't have to go out shopping everything will just be a to deliver right to my door within within a couple hours basically um similarly to that Dubai has an app called Kareem and Kareem is like the everything app for Dubai it has taxis groceries Pharmacy ordering food like uberit it has you can deliver something I can call someone to drop something off across the other side of the city like here's my friend's Charger go take it to him um it's really convenient that everything can basically be taken to your door and that's a special thing about Dubai because not you need a certain size of City for that to be economically viable and I have really been afforded and enjoyed having the access to all of that stuff in my door number four which might be a little bit of a surprise to you is Focus Dubai is actually very conducive to productivity for me I got a lot done in the blocks that I if I would do like one or two months there I would like Drop drinking I would really lock in I didn't have as many distractions as I would anywhere else and so I was able to get up at 6:30 a.m. work until 10:30 11:00 p.m. at night every day for weeks on end and that led to an enormous explosion of growth in my career my YouTube channel and everything you've kind of seen me doing here number five motivation depending on the kind of person you are seeing wealth everywhere can be motivating and for me I'd be be lying in bed at night in my first apartment um which was kind of a bit out of the city and I would hear on the highway I would hear like a Lamborghini Huracan V10 engines you can like hear the distinct sound of it and you can hear them ripping up and down the highway and it was kind of like wealth is really in your face and I guess that was part of the reason I moved to Dubai was to feel like a small fish in a big pond again number six is safety Dubai in the UAE it's one of the safest places in the world I can it's basically the only place in the world where I can wear my watches or I can wear jewelry and not worry about getting robbed um and you kind of take that for granted you realize that it's whenever you go anywhere else Dubai is just like a an unreasonably safe place and I mean it's very good for women as well when my ex-girlfriend was living with me um she could go to Pates or whatever and I didn't have to worry about where she was if she was safe I knew that she'd be okay number seven is networking yes Dubai May attract some strange characters and people you probably wouldn't want to associate with but I mean I moved to Dubai and I think I'm a good person I try to be a good person in everything I do so therefore other people must come as well just by law of numbers so uh that's what I did find there are some very high level businessmen and and people that you can make friends with depending on your circles and the networks you get into um who can be great friends and great mentors and and people that you want in your life as well so there is a huge potential for networking as it is such a Global Hub because there's people coming in all all the time from the States from Europe on the way through tobali Etc people come to Du buy a lot as a as a stop over and finally number eight is strict drug laws in the UAE so you cannot get anything there if you are caught with anything you're going to jail for a long time and I think that's good for anyone really going there if you want an environment that's conducive to focus and you don't need to have discipline to say no to certain like recreational drugs Dubai is a great place to be because you don't even have the option well you do you probably could like I've never tried but I assume you can get it but if you do you're going to get like put in jail for 10 20 years and that's not what I'm trying to do so now getting into some cons firstly the dating scene I found the dating environment to be uh not great um if you look at the numbers there's actually 70% of the population is male and 30% is female so Lads if you're thinking of moving just know that you're walking into a a sausage fist is probably what they'd call it but there's a lot of competition for a select group of women that live there and I found that just like the certain types of people that Dubai attracts and Men Dubai also attracts a certain type of woman as well so um I found that when I was going on dates they would be kind of trying to get something out of me and coming from New Zealand it was just a complete shock to the system and I'd never really found anyone that I want to date for long term there so if you're looking for love Dubai is probably not the place number two is the lack of community so you don't really have a strong sets of community just for me here being in in Serbia at the moment everyone around here all the kids playing together everyone knows each other they're all like going to dinner with each other there's there's a sense of community here and in many places around the world many even large cities you still have a sense of community where you have your little group of people I found in Dubai there was really none of that and I've identified that as something that's really been missing from my life over the past two years and something I'm looking to get back in the near future so I just know that you're not really going to have you're going to feel very isolated um if you're not careful it if you don't find a good group of friends number three is the lack of nature of course Dubai is built in the middle of a desert there's not much Greenery and if it is it's it's artificially watered grass um for me coming from New Zealand I've nature is a big part of me and that's why I've kind of come to Serbia at the moment to reconnect with nature after after being in Dubai so if you are a person that gets a lot of energy out of being in nature Dubai is probably not for you and it has been a deal breaker for a lot of people even my business partner said no I'm not doing Dubai anymore it doesn't have enough nature for me I need somewhere that's a bit more green and a bit fresher air the the air quality is terrible in Dubai as well which is terrible for your skin and for your health in general so that's why I think you shouldn't be there for too long number four is strict law enforcement on the other side of that strict drug laws which I think is a positive on the other side you also have extremely strict police and for me coming from New Zealand the police there I thought they were scary until I met Dubai Police and I had a couple little run-ins with like traffic incidents and these guys do not like you they are not your friend they kind of coming and and coming to get you to some degree and for me that was very scary knowing that I I was like a one mistake away from getting put in jail and that I wouldn't really have my case heard and it didn't it felt very very risky even though I wasn't doing anything wrong I felt like if I slipped up once I'd be in a whole lot of trouble and could be in prison before I know it number five is the lack of actually rejuvenating Leisure I feel like we go out on the weekends and we go do leisure activities so fuel recharge and blow off steam myself my friends found that in Dubai um there's not you don't you spend a lot of money but you don't actually get much back from that so there's nightclubs there's bars and stuff it's nice but uh for me having traveled to a lot of different countries I could really tell that the leisure in Dubai didn't really give me any kind of recharge feeling number six is the poor business infrastructure in Dubai now this might be surprising for you thinking that it's like this Global Hub and there like the place to be and like business should be super like super good and easy to run no the getting bank accounts for your business getting accountants getting legal counsel um bookkeeping any any kind of taking payments by a stripe all this sort of stuff is is really difficult to do in Dubai there's like back doors there's people you got to know um it's hard to get applications um and generally the government steps in and controls a lot of these facilities so that they have I don't know more control over things um for example they don't let you use transfer wise or wise they make you use weo or their own version instead and it's just just garbage so you have inferior Services because it's not a free market because the government steps in so it's that's one of the reasons I'm looking to base my business elsewhere because it's so hard dealing with some of these companies number seven is the High Cost of Living um everything in Dubai when you're there and living is is I don't know 20 30 maybe 40% more expensive than anywhere else your food groceries uh fuel's quite cheap because they've got oil in the in the UAE but uh for example I'd have to pay 20 durhams a lot of the time for an Americo or double espresso 20 durhams is 10 New Zealand dolls which is about seven six or seven six us and for me paying $6 for a coffee is bloody ridiculous but you do get over it eventually and really Dubai wet makes your out to be taxfree well now it has a 9% corporate tax you need to worry about you also have to spend like everywhere I travel I have to use my credit card and that's got a 5% transaction fee on it because I can't use transferwise when I'm traveling so I'm paying 5% on everything I spend on my credit card it's also vat in the UAE there's a bunch of fees that you have to pay every year so it's not actually as taxfree as you think it is and again that's something that's making me reconsider whether or not I want to stay there number eight is one that I'm having to come to terms with recently um and that is your reputation and the impact that being based in Dubai has on your reputation so as a as a online figure now being a YouTube I never thought I'd be on YouTube by the way like this is only a fairly recent thing within the last year and a half or two years um so for me being an online personality or figure Whatever It Is Now by having Dubai associated with me people assume a lot of negative things I get comments of people saying like oh just another Dubai I'm like dude I just live there man but like you have to understand that you get a Association a negative association by the place people don't like it they think it's like terrible for society it's the worst place in the world so you get associated with those negative things and for a businessman that's something that I've been having a fact like is it really worth the negative impact that's having on my personal brand and how people think of me without knowing anything about me and also on the flip side of that you have to consider the dating word if you're considering finding love in this life which I'd say you are being associated with Dubai to some degree at least for my experience of dating females is that when they see that you're from Dubai they either they one of two reactions one they'll go oh like I don't want to be associated with that guy he's from Dubai or he based in Dubai and the other one's like oh he's from Dubai like the good girls are the ones who say like I don't want a part of that and and those are the ones you probably want to go on dates with and and have a long-term relationships or potentially marry and the ones who say oh that's interesting and the ones you wouldn't want to marry long term so you are at risk of scaring away certain people from your life whether that's women or people you're trying to date or whether that's business partners like oh I don't really like that I call it using the wrong bait to catch the wrong fish so the bait that you're putting out is I'm the duai person what kind of of fish is going to come and bite on there basically and it's probably not going to be uh the best best fish in the in the sea at any point so that's a really interesting one I've had to come the Cs with recently number nine is isolation um I was pretty isolated for a while AG in my first year particularly so if you don't come with a support network or you don't have people that you can meet there um it can be quite isolating and that can be a good thing for personal growth having to be with yourself long enough and that's all for the pros and cons what you've been waiting for is whether or not you should move to Dubai so I've got a few different types of people who I think based off my experience I would actually recommend to move there or consider it um so firstly entrepreneurs from small countries like New Zealand who are looking for a challenging environment to grow their business and and really develop personally so I moved at 22 was great for me and I had to go through a lot to get here but I I made it through and I'm better for it um secondly individuals who are making substantial income easy $50,000 or more per month who can actually benefit from the tax savings um thirdly young professionals who are willing to sacrifice community and a vibrant life for their career progression cuz that's basically what I had to do by moving there and sitting there and working all day and not having community and not having nature like you have to sacrifice a lot but you will get some good things out of it if you play it right and number four is those who have friends or support network in Dubai that can mitigate those feelings of isolation and on the flip side of that I wouldn't recommend you moving to Dubai if you are an individual from a large country with ample business opportunities locally EG the United States um secondly those who have trouble adhering to strict laws and regulations so if you are loose cannon you're going to end up in jail so don't come to Dubai if you can't control yourself number three is people who struggle to control their spending as I mentioned it's very expensive at Dubai and if you're not careful you can end up uh digging a big hole for yourself financially uh number four entrepreneurs who are not making significant income kind of the inverse of what I said before the cost and effort to relocate to Dubai is not worth the effort um in my opinion there's a lot of admin there's a lot of time it takes there's fees there's all sorts of stuff you need to go through and number five older individuals who are looking for Community love and a balanced life um I know as you get older presumably again I'm before I don't know this for sure but from what I hear from other people and what I expect from myself is that my priorities will change as I get older and the hustle grind culture of my early 20s is going to move over to more like enjoying my life and having good experiences with my friends and finding love and and having a family these kind of things if you want that Dubai is not the place to do it so uh older people generally probably shouldn't shouldn't bother and finally number six you shouldn't move to Dubai if you expecting it to solve all your problems um it's actually probably going to make them worse in the short term and you'll be forced to confront them in a way that they kind of amplify by going to Dubai I feel like money just amplifies your negative traits and so you'll have an opportunity based off that to work through them and become a better person and come out the other side better or you'll get chewed up and sped out by the place and end up worse than you came in and there's actually one more thing that I probably should have added to the pros and I'm makes you really grateful for Dubai for this and that's that it forced me to kind of a loss of innocence for me to some degree but it forced me to get face to face with the ugliest parts of society and materialism and wealth and and how my life could look if I wasn't careful and didn't make more deliberate steps to make sure I went down the right path so I'm talking about being at nightclubs and bars and beach clubs and seeing these men in their 40s or even 50s heading on these young women and doing just like making an absolute fool of themselves and I remember looking at that and just being like man if I am there in 15 years or I guess how long is it going to be 20 25 years I've done something seriously wrong I've majorly up if that's what I look like in the next 20 years so I was able to get some really good negative role models that I was able to see and say that's who I don't want to be and I think that if anything was one of the most valuable things I got out of Dubai um was seeing where I didn't want to end up and I think that's very important for people to have both positive and negative Role Models so it's definitely made me better in a number of ways but personally I am looking at moving out of du in the near future I think I've done my Dash there as are a lot of my friends but I think that's just you come for a year or two or three and you you do your dash you do your work and you get the result you want out of it and then you're free to move on that's kind of how the place goes from what I've seen so Dubai is a great place and I highly recommend some of you to visit check it out maybe move there if it suits you so that's all for this video if you're interested in learning more about how I make my money with the businesses that I run I'll put a video up here that will kind of introduce you to all that um I do some pretty cool stuff in the AI space this might be shown to people who are outside my core audience so yeah that's been all I'll see you in the next oneso today marks roughly the 2-year anniversary since I packed up my life in New Zealand and moved to Dubai to live and work and I thought this was a good time to make this video and kind of reflect on my thoughts after 2 years what I really think of the place what's my experience been like I think that might be helpful for a lot of you who are interested in moving there um and want to know how good it is really cuz they make it out to be this entrepreneurs Paradise some people say it's awful I want to give you my actual thoughts and and my experience so this video is going to be split up into two parts first I'm going to run through some very quick pros and cons um that'll give you a better explanation of what it's actually like living there what I liked about it and what I didn't at the end of it I know for many of you watching this you want you're thinking like do I actually want to move there is this something that I should do or could do and so at the end of the video I'll do a section on who I believe should move to Dubai and who I believe shouldn't and should stay away from it so let's get into a little bit of context on me first um this video might reach some people outside of my core audience so if you're new to the channel my name is leam Motley I'm a 24-year-old entrepreneur I've been doing online business for the past 5 to 6 years and the last 18 months or so it's been focused on building AI businesses and based out of Dubai as well I was born and raised in New Zealand and then 2 years ago August 2022 I moved to Dubai with the the goals of moving from a small place like New Zealand where I was kind of felt like I was becoming a big fish in a small pond or could easily see myself becoming that and getting complacent and I wanted to move to a place that was bigger that would make me feel small again and forc me to grow meet new people also to be more Central geographically if you know where New Zealand is and you can point it out on the map we're right down the bottom and so it's like a 17 hour flight to anywhere you really want to go it's like 24 hours total flight time to go anywhere in Europe so I like to try travel Europe a lot I'm in Serbia right now um on my own for a few weeks up in the up in the mountains and for me I wanted to be a little bit more centrally located in the world rather than being in New Zealand as well and of course there's tax benefits as well so for me in the stage that I was with my businesses having that extra money that was able to go into my pockets to pay rent or to fund the business we could keep pouring all of our all of our money and reinvesting in the business rather than paying 30 40% to the government was really key in in the in the growth of the businesses that I've experienced over the past 2 years so that's a little bit about me I think the core value of this video is really that I'm just a normal person like many of you watching this and I chose to drop everything and move my life over to Dubai and I actually live there many people who go to Dubai they set up their residency they get some of the tax benefits and they pop in for a week or two here and there or maybe a month at a time but they don't actually base themselves there and make that their home and so I've made Dubai my home over the past two years I've had an apartment there throughout the whole thing I've bought a car there I've got a cat there my entire life was based there so what I'm about to share with you these pros and cons are from actually living there for months at a time and being forced to work and live and actually become part of the place so getting into the pros and the good things about Dubai I'm going to make these pretty quick and just read off here cuz it's going to be a lot of faster for you firstly the weather is excellent from I'd say October to March that's when a lot of people start going back all my friends will go to Europe over the summer cuz it's way too hot in Dubai it's like 40° every day and then they'll come back for October November December January February March Etc um that's really perfect weather and if you're from a cold country it will change your life by moving to Dubai um purely based on the weather because it's just like great hot dry um you can go outside go to cafes work outside go to beaches Etc so weather is excellent and that was definitely a big plus for for moving there secondly we have efficiency and convenience so uh for me coming from New Zealand I don't have access to Amazon Prime when I got to Dubai my mind was blown when I realized I could order anything basically and it would arrive at my door within 12 hours so Dubai and Amazon Prime is extremely efficient as an entrepreneur you don't have to go out shopping everything will just be a to deliver right to my door within within a couple hours basically um similarly to that Dubai has an app called Kareem and Kareem is like the everything app for Dubai it has taxis groceries Pharmacy ordering food like uberit it has you can deliver something I can call someone to drop something off across the other side of the city like here's my friend's Charger go take it to him um it's really convenient that everything can basically be taken to your door and that's a special thing about Dubai because not you need a certain size of City for that to be economically viable and I have really been afforded and enjoyed having the access to all of that stuff in my door number four which might be a little bit of a surprise to you is Focus Dubai is actually very conducive to productivity for me I got a lot done in the blocks that I if I would do like one or two months there I would like Drop drinking I would really lock in I didn't have as many distractions as I would anywhere else and so I was able to get up at 6:30 a.m. work until 10:30 11:00 p.m. at night every day for weeks on end and that led to an enormous explosion of growth in my career my YouTube channel and everything you've kind of seen me doing here number five motivation depending on the kind of person you are seeing wealth everywhere can be motivating and for me I'd be be lying in bed at night in my first apartment um which was kind of a bit out of the city and I would hear on the highway I would hear like a Lamborghini Huracan V10 engines you can like hear the distinct sound of it and you can hear them ripping up and down the highway and it was kind of like wealth is really in your face and I guess that was part of the reason I moved to Dubai was to feel like a small fish in a big pond again number six is safety Dubai in the UAE it's one of the safest places in the world I can it's basically the only place in the world where I can wear my watches or I can wear jewelry and not worry about getting robbed um and you kind of take that for granted you realize that it's whenever you go anywhere else Dubai is just like a an unreasonably safe place and I mean it's very good for women as well when my ex-girlfriend was living with me um she could go to Pates or whatever and I didn't have to worry about where she was if she was safe I knew that she'd be okay number seven is networking yes Dubai May attract some strange characters and people you probably wouldn't want to associate with but I mean I moved to Dubai and I think I'm a good person I try to be a good person in everything I do so therefore other people must come as well just by law of numbers so uh that's what I did find there are some very high level businessmen and and people that you can make friends with depending on your circles and the networks you get into um who can be great friends and great mentors and and people that you want in your life as well so there is a huge potential for networking as it is such a Global Hub because there's people coming in all all the time from the States from Europe on the way through tobali Etc people come to Du buy a lot as a as a stop over and finally number eight is strict drug laws in the UAE so you cannot get anything there if you are caught with anything you're going to jail for a long time and I think that's good for anyone really going there if you want an environment that's conducive to focus and you don't need to have discipline to say no to certain like recreational drugs Dubai is a great place to be because you don't even have the option well you do you probably could like I've never tried but I assume you can get it but if you do you're going to get like put in jail for 10 20 years and that's not what I'm trying to do so now getting into some cons firstly the dating scene I found the dating environment to be uh not great um if you look at the numbers there's actually 70% of the population is male and 30% is female so Lads if you're thinking of moving just know that you're walking into a a sausage fist is probably what they'd call it but there's a lot of competition for a select group of women that live there and I found that just like the certain types of people that Dubai attracts and Men Dubai also attracts a certain type of woman as well so um I found that when I was going on dates they would be kind of trying to get something out of me and coming from New Zealand it was just a complete shock to the system and I'd never really found anyone that I want to date for long term there so if you're looking for love Dubai is probably not the place number two is the lack of community so you don't really have a strong sets of community just for me here being in in Serbia at the moment everyone around here all the kids playing together everyone knows each other they're all like going to dinner with each other there's there's a sense of community here and in many places around the world many even large cities you still have a sense of community where you have your little group of people I found in Dubai there was really none of that and I've identified that as something that's really been missing from my life over the past two years and something I'm looking to get back in the near future so I just know that you're not really going to have you're going to feel very isolated um if you're not careful it if you don't find a good group of friends number three is the lack of nature of course Dubai is built in the middle of a desert there's not much Greenery and if it is it's it's artificially watered grass um for me coming from New Zealand I've nature is a big part of me and that's why I've kind of come to Serbia at the moment to reconnect with nature after after being in Dubai so if you are a person that gets a lot of energy out of being in nature Dubai is probably not for you and it has been a deal breaker for a lot of people even my business partner said no I'm not doing Dubai anymore it doesn't have enough nature for me I need somewhere that's a bit more green and a bit fresher air the the air quality is terrible in Dubai as well which is terrible for your skin and for your health in general so that's why I think you shouldn't be there for too long number four is strict law enforcement on the other side of that strict drug laws which I think is a positive on the other side you also have extremely strict police and for me coming from New Zealand the police there I thought they were scary until I met Dubai Police and I had a couple little run-ins with like traffic incidents and these guys do not like you they are not your friend they kind of coming and and coming to get you to some degree and for me that was very scary knowing that I I was like a one mistake away from getting put in jail and that I wouldn't really have my case heard and it didn't it felt very very risky even though I wasn't doing anything wrong I felt like if I slipped up once I'd be in a whole lot of trouble and could be in prison before I know it number five is the lack of actually rejuvenating Leisure I feel like we go out on the weekends and we go do leisure activities so fuel recharge and blow off steam myself my friends found that in Dubai um there's not you don't you spend a lot of money but you don't actually get much back from that so there's nightclubs there's bars and stuff it's nice but uh for me having traveled to a lot of different countries I could really tell that the leisure in Dubai didn't really give me any kind of recharge feeling number six is the poor business infrastructure in Dubai now this might be surprising for you thinking that it's like this Global Hub and there like the place to be and like business should be super like super good and easy to run no the getting bank accounts for your business getting accountants getting legal counsel um bookkeeping any any kind of taking payments by a stripe all this sort of stuff is is really difficult to do in Dubai there's like back doors there's people you got to know um it's hard to get applications um and generally the government steps in and controls a lot of these facilities so that they have I don't know more control over things um for example they don't let you use transfer wise or wise they make you use weo or their own version instead and it's just just garbage so you have inferior Services because it's not a free market because the government steps in so it's that's one of the reasons I'm looking to base my business elsewhere because it's so hard dealing with some of these companies number seven is the High Cost of Living um everything in Dubai when you're there and living is is I don't know 20 30 maybe 40% more expensive than anywhere else your food groceries uh fuel's quite cheap because they've got oil in the in the UAE but uh for example I'd have to pay 20 durhams a lot of the time for an Americo or double espresso 20 durhams is 10 New Zealand dolls which is about seven six or seven six us and for me paying $6 for a coffee is bloody ridiculous but you do get over it eventually and really Dubai wet makes your out to be taxfree well now it has a 9% corporate tax you need to worry about you also have to spend like everywhere I travel I have to use my credit card and that's got a 5% transaction fee on it because I can't use transferwise when I'm traveling so I'm paying 5% on everything I spend on my credit card it's also vat in the UAE there's a bunch of fees that you have to pay every year so it's not actually as taxfree as you think it is and again that's something that's making me reconsider whether or not I want to stay there number eight is one that I'm having to come to terms with recently um and that is your reputation and the impact that being based in Dubai has on your reputation so as a as a online figure now being a YouTube I never thought I'd be on YouTube by the way like this is only a fairly recent thing within the last year and a half or two years um so for me being an online personality or figure Whatever It Is Now by having Dubai associated with me people assume a lot of negative things I get comments of people saying like oh just another Dubai I'm like dude I just live there man but like you have to understand that you get a Association a negative association by the place people don't like it they think it's like terrible for society it's the worst place in the world so you get associated with those negative things and for a businessman that's something that I've been having a fact like is it really worth the negative impact that's having on my personal brand and how people think of me without knowing anything about me and also on the flip side of that you have to consider the dating word if you're considering finding love in this life which I'd say you are being associated with Dubai to some degree at least for my experience of dating females is that when they see that you're from Dubai they either they one of two reactions one they'll go oh like I don't want to be associated with that guy he's from Dubai or he based in Dubai and the other one's like oh he's from Dubai like the good girls are the ones who say like I don't want a part of that and and those are the ones you probably want to go on dates with and and have a long-term relationships or potentially marry and the ones who say oh that's interesting and the ones you wouldn't want to marry long term so you are at risk of scaring away certain people from your life whether that's women or people you're trying to date or whether that's business partners like oh I don't really like that I call it using the wrong bait to catch the wrong fish so the bait that you're putting out is I'm the duai person what kind of of fish is going to come and bite on there basically and it's probably not going to be uh the best best fish in the in the sea at any point so that's a really interesting one I've had to come the Cs with recently number nine is isolation um I was pretty isolated for a while AG in my first year particularly so if you don't come with a support network or you don't have people that you can meet there um it can be quite isolating and that can be a good thing for personal growth having to be with yourself long enough and that's all for the pros and cons what you've been waiting for is whether or not you should move to Dubai so I've got a few different types of people who I think based off my experience I would actually recommend to move there or consider it um so firstly entrepreneurs from small countries like New Zealand who are looking for a challenging environment to grow their business and and really develop personally so I moved at 22 was great for me and I had to go through a lot to get here but I I made it through and I'm better for it um secondly individuals who are making substantial income easy $50,000 or more per month who can actually benefit from the tax savings um thirdly young professionals who are willing to sacrifice community and a vibrant life for their career progression cuz that's basically what I had to do by moving there and sitting there and working all day and not having community and not having nature like you have to sacrifice a lot but you will get some good things out of it if you play it right and number four is those who have friends or support network in Dubai that can mitigate those feelings of isolation and on the flip side of that I wouldn't recommend you moving to Dubai if you are an individual from a large country with ample business opportunities locally EG the United States um secondly those who have trouble adhering to strict laws and regulations so if you are loose cannon you're going to end up in jail so don't come to Dubai if you can't control yourself number three is people who struggle to control their spending as I mentioned it's very expensive at Dubai and if you're not careful you can end up uh digging a big hole for yourself financially uh number four entrepreneurs who are not making significant income kind of the inverse of what I said before the cost and effort to relocate to Dubai is not worth the effort um in my opinion there's a lot of admin there's a lot of time it takes there's fees there's all sorts of stuff you need to go through and number five older individuals who are looking for Community love and a balanced life um I know as you get older presumably again I'm before I don't know this for sure but from what I hear from other people and what I expect from myself is that my priorities will change as I get older and the hustle grind culture of my early 20s is going to move over to more like enjoying my life and having good experiences with my friends and finding love and and having a family these kind of things if you want that Dubai is not the place to do it so uh older people generally probably shouldn't shouldn't bother and finally number six you shouldn't move to Dubai if you expecting it to solve all your problems um it's actually probably going to make them worse in the short term and you'll be forced to confront them in a way that they kind of amplify by going to Dubai I feel like money just amplifies your negative traits and so you'll have an opportunity based off that to work through them and become a better person and come out the other side better or you'll get chewed up and sped out by the place and end up worse than you came in and there's actually one more thing that I probably should have added to the pros and I'm makes you really grateful for Dubai for this and that's that it forced me to kind of a loss of innocence for me to some degree but it forced me to get face to face with the ugliest parts of society and materialism and wealth and and how my life could look if I wasn't careful and didn't make more deliberate steps to make sure I went down the right path so I'm talking about being at nightclubs and bars and beach clubs and seeing these men in their 40s or even 50s heading on these young women and doing just like making an absolute fool of themselves and I remember looking at that and just being like man if I am there in 15 years or I guess how long is it going to be 20 25 years I've done something seriously wrong I've majorly up if that's what I look like in the next 20 years so I was able to get some really good negative role models that I was able to see and say that's who I don't want to be and I think that if anything was one of the most valuable things I got out of Dubai um was seeing where I didn't want to end up and I think that's very important for people to have both positive and negative Role Models so it's definitely made me better in a number of ways but personally I am looking at moving out of du in the near future I think I've done my Dash there as are a lot of my friends but I think that's just you come for a year or two or three and you you do your dash you do your work and you get the result you want out of it and then you're free to move on that's kind of how the place goes from what I've seen so Dubai is a great place and I highly recommend some of you to visit check it out maybe move there if it suits you so that's all for this video if you're interested in learning more about how I make my money with the businesses that I run I'll put a video up here that will kind of introduce you to all that um I do some pretty cool stuff in the AI space this might be shown to people who are outside my core audience so yeah that's been all I'll see you in the next one