In 2017, Doug Barnard, a college student at the time, took a trip to India with his mom. The experience was so impactful that it eventually inspired him to become a full-time traveler—a path he didn’t know was possible for him.
“Going to India was an eye-opening experience for me. It was the first time I’d been to some place so foreign, so stimulating and for me it was this epiphany that I needed to experience more,” Barnard tells CNBC Make It.
“The most exciting part was talking to the people and seeing how things work. The immersion was what really got me.”
Barnard graduated in 2018 and moved to New York City to work for Walmart. At the time, he earned about $60,000 a year working in the e-commerce sector, and though he didn’t dislike his job, it certainly wasn’t his passion.
“I think a part of me was looking for more meaning in my work,” he says.
