A Quiet Work

Category: Personal

This is who I am

  • Everything I’ve Built So Far. And Why I’m Not Stopping.

    Everything I’ve Built So Far. And Why I’m Not Stopping.

    There’s a phrase I’ve kept close for a long time.

    Until it’s done, tell no one.

    I’ve mostly honoured it. I built quietly, launched quietly, fixed things quietly. But every now and then a moment comes where the right thing to do is the opposite: stop, look back, and say out loud what’s actually been done.

    This is that post — my whole solopreneur journey so far, in one place. The guide, the products, the music, the channels — and one piece of news.

    Grab a coffee. This one is long on purpose.

    It started with a guide

    I spent three decades in and around the travel industry, watching the same scene repeat itself: a flight gets cancelled, a hotel “walks” a guest, a ferry never leaves — and the traveller standing at the desk loses money for one reason only. Nobody ever told them the rules. The airline knows them. The hotel “mostly” knows them. The traveller is, statistically most of the time, the only one in the conversation who doesn’t, and they’re counting on exactly that.

    So I wrote the rules down.

    The Flight Compensation Guide: How to Turn Travel Chaos Into a Win is a plain-language playbook for when travel goes wrong, on both sides of the Atlantic — EU 261, US DOT rules, overbooking, cancellations, hotel walks, cruise disruptions, and a one-page action plan for the exact moment it all kicks off.

    It went out into the world step by step, the quiet way:

    First on Etsy, last year. That was the proving ground — a digital guide, no middlemen, just the work meeting its first readers. 👉 The Flight Compensation Guide on Etsy

    Then on Gumroad, where the rest of my digital work already lives. 👉 The Flight Compensation Guide on Gumroad

    And now on Amazon — as a real paperback you can keep in the glovebox or the carry-on, and as a Kindle ebook for less than the coffee you’ll buy at the gate. 👉 Paperback · Kindle

    Same book everywhere. Pick the shelf you prefer.

    And if you read it and it helps you — or you can already see how it would — leave an honest review. A book like this lives or dies on its first reviews, and yours genuinely moves the needle. If it doesn’t help you, tell me that too. I’d rather know.

    The tool that started it all

    Before the book there was TRipWin — my answer to an industry of claim companies that take 25–35% of your compensation for sending a letter.

    TRipWin generates a professional, legally sound EU 261 claim letter for you. Free. No commission. You keep 100% of what the airline owes you. It’s still there, still free, and it will stay that way.

    What else is on the shelves

    The guide isn’t alone. Everything I’ve released is still live, still available:

    The 7-Day Emergency Burnout & Financial Reset — a 17-page field manual for the specific kind of collapse where burnout and money crisis feed each other. I priced it at zero, on the honor system, because the people who need it most are by definition the people who can’t pay for it this week. I wrote about that decision here. Nothing has changed: take it, use it, and if it earns you a win, come back and pay what it was worth.

    Your Soul Blueprint — a free numerology reading generated from your birth data, in eleven languages (yes.. 11. And I am a 7 Life Path). Not a template, not a horoscope. Still evolving until I’m satisfied with its final form.

    The Shop — the ethos you can wear or hold. The “Tell No One” Snapback, a Dad Hat, two mugs, and an eco tote bag. For the people who build in silence and let the results make the noise. I have in mind to make personalized items.. like your lucky number. I can get yours based on your DOB and put it on a Dad Hat or Snapback. It would be cool, we all need some good vibes.

    And everything else on Gumroad, where new practical guides land as they get finished.

    The music

    This one I haven’t told properly yet.

    I love music. I always have. When Suno made it possible, I started the practical way — publishing music I held the commercial use for, and feeding it into Akashic Nocturne: a sleep channel tuned to 432 Hz and 528 Hz, with AI-crafted journeys through lost civilisations, deep space, sacred geometry and the knowledge hidden in the dark. New journeys go up weekly. Close your eyes. The records open.

    From there came the Akashic Sounds Lab, now available on Gumroad.

    And while building all of that, something shifted. I started creating music for my soul — music with lyrics, and with it, a musical identity. On Suno I am DiGiD. A palindrome, and inside it, my whole name and my whole identity. All the songs I am publishing are part of an ecosystem that will be translated in another communication tool soon. There is a story that needs to be told.

    And on the practical side of my life there’s TripWin on YouTube — travel rights, compensation, the stuff that puts money back in your pocket.

    Two channels. Two sides of the same person. I’ve stopped pretending that’s a problem.

    The news: I started a new job this week

    There it is.No further details needed.

    I started a new job to sustain myself economically while I keep pushing the things I believe in.

    Some people will read this as a step back. I don’t. Bills exist. My cats eat every day, remarkably indifferent to my publishing schedule. I have no secret vault, no trust fund, no magic trick I can perform to wake up rich tomorrow (…). What I have is work I believe in and the patience to see it through — and patience is not something I lack.

    A job doesn’t end any of this. It funds it.

    On niches, algorithms, and everyone who knows better

    Here’s where I’m supposed to tell you about my niche.

    Every influencer, every AI, every growth guru points the same way: pick one lane, feed the algorithm, optimize for sales, solve your immediate economic issues first and do the meaningful stuff later.

    I’ve heard it all. I understand it. And I don’t care.

    Not because the advice is wrong — for many people it works. But I am not able to follow instructions mechanically, and I’ve stopped apologising for that. I have many interests. Everything I do, I do for a reason. A travel guide and a sleep frequency channel and a numerology reading don’t fit in one niche, and I’m done trying to make them.

    Here’s the thing nobody puts in the growth threads: I need to be good with myself in order to do anything at all. If I can’t put passion into a thing, the thing makes no sense — it will be hollow, and people can smell hollow from a mile away. So I’d rather build slowly, honestly, across everything that matters to me, than build fast in a lane someone else picked.

    If not now, this work will get the recognition it deserves sooner or later. I genuinely believe that. And in the meantime — I know everything is going to be alright.

    Where to find everything

    One list, no fluff:

    If any of it is useful to you, take it. If it’s useful to someone you know, send it to them. That’s the only marketing any of this needs.

    Until it’s done, tell no one.

    It’s done. Now I’m telling everyone.

    — Davide

  • Why I priced my new product at zero.

    Why I priced my new product at zero.

    A note on building things for people who can’t pay you back yet.

    I launched a product this week on Gumroad called The 7-Day Emergency Burnout & Financial Reset. It’s a 17-page field manual for high-performers in collapse — the specific kind of collapse where burnout and financial crisis happen at the same time and feed each other.

    I priced it at zero.

    Not “free with email capture.” Not “free trial.” The slider on the Gumroad page starts at zero and you can drag it as high as you want. The suggested amount is €15. The minimum is nothing. If you put a zero in the box, you get the entire manual, no paywall, no gate, no follow-up email asking for an upgrade.

    I want to explain why, because the decision is less generous than it looks.

    The audience can’t afford €15.

    I wrote this manual because I needed it.

    As I write this, I am staring down a negative bank balance, negotiating with three creditors, and deciding which software subscriptions to cancel so I can survive the month. The manual is a protocol I built for myself, refined into something general enough to be useful to anyone in the same situation. I know the audience because I am the audience.

    And the audience cannot pay €15.

    That is not a marketing hypothesis I am hedging. It is the central, structural fact of the product. The people who most need a 7-day emergency protocol for burnout-plus-money-crisis are, by definition, people who do not have €15 of disposable income this week. Anyone telling them “this product will help you” while charging €15 is making a promise they have already broken at checkout.

    The standard solution to this in digital products is the freemium model: give them Chapter 1, charge for Chapter 2 through 7. I considered it. I rejected it. Day 1 of an emergency protocol is not where the value compounds. The value compounds over the full week. Splitting the manual into a paid back-half would be selling the audience exactly the second half they needed and could not afford.

    So I gave them the whole thing. Pay what you can. Pay nothing.

    The honor system is a structural decision, not a sentimental one.

    The mechanic is simple: download the manual at zero, use it, and if it helps you land a win — a client conversation, a payment plan, a week where you finally slept — come back to the Gumroad page and pay what it was worth to you.

    A few people have asked whether I expect this to work financially. Honest answer: I expect most people who download for free never to come back. That is fine. The honor system is not a clever pricing strategy disguised as generosity. It is a generosity strategy that happens to be the only honest pricing structure for this specific audience.

    The people who come back and pay are paying retrospectively, from a position of recovered cash flow, for value they have already proven to themselves. Those payments will be small. They will be irregular. They will not pay my rent. I know this.

    What the honor system does do is preserve the integrity of the product’s positioning. It says, clearly: the manual is not a lead magnet for a more expensive course. It is not a teaser for a coaching package. It is the actual thing. The complete protocol. If you can pay, pay. If you can’t, take it, use it, and we are even.

    That is the only configuration of this product that does not insult the audience it was built for.

    On building from inside the problem.

    There is a particular kind of dishonesty in the burnout-content market right now. The protocols are written by people in clean Notion templates and green-smoothie kitchens, by coaches whose own collapse was either a long time ago or a marketing biography. The advice is reasonable. The voice is wrong.

    I am not above the situation I am writing about. I am inside it. The manual was drafted on days I could barely get to the desk and edited on days I could. The financial triage chapter was written between actual calls to actual creditors. The “Identity Sentence” exercise in Day 5 — I am the kind of person who handles things in daylight, not at 3am — is mine, not a hypothetical.

    This is not a virtue. It is just the only material I had. But it makes the product specific in a way that polished burnout content rarely is, and it changes what I am willing to charge. You cannot, in good conscience, sell an emergency protocol at a price point that excludes the people in the actual emergency.

    What I expect to happen.

    The metrics I am watching:

    – How many free downloads.

    – How many of those convert to a retrospective payment, and at what average.

    – Whether the honor-system mechanic generates more inbound interest than a standard €15 price would.

    – Whether anyone in the actual target audience writes back to say it helped.

    The honor-system framing is unusual enough on Gumroad that it functions as a piece of content in itself. The story of why the product is priced this way will probably travel further than the product page. That is fine. The story and the product are pointing at the same thing.

    The manual.

    Seven days. Seventeen pages. Pay what you can, or nothing at all.

    → tripwin.gumroad.com/l/qmbrld

    If you are not in the kind of trouble it was written for, share it with someone who is. That is the only marketing it needs.

    Until it’s done, tell no one.

    — Davide

    A field manual for high-performers in collapse. Day 1 starts tonight.

  • Your Soul Blueprint X

    Your Soul Blueprint X

    The frequencies aren’t the only thing I’ve been working on (Akashic Nocturne) Something new just went live: a FREE numerology reading that maps your soul codes, names your current season, and gives you ritual repair practices written specifically for you.

    Not a template. Not a generic horoscope. An actual reading, generated from your birth data and your answers.

    It hits differently.

    Languages available:

    Click here

    Note: Right now I am updating / making changes / evolving this concept / solving the tech issues … until I am satisfied with the final form.

  • Quantum chances and “that girl”

    Quantum chances and “that girl”

    Quantum stuff

    Sometimes life doesn’t move in straight lines… it behaves more like quantum stuff: infinite probabilities, and then – out of nowhere – one impossible event collapses into reality exactly where it shouldn’t be. Two trajectories that were supposed to stay parallel suddenly bend toward each other, and somehow, out of all islands, all seasons, all jobs, these two stubborn frequencies click into sync.​​

    Who’s that girl?

    No, not the Eurythmics’ song from 1983. No.. not even Madonna’s song from the 1987.

    She walked into a world already collapsing under its own bullshit, yet moved as if the rules didn’t fully apply to her. Office-dressed, serious, resting-bitch-face perfectly installed, a human firewall wrapped around a wild, precise fire that only a few ever saw, everything felt charged. Standing next to her felt like watching someone mix mercury with water: two elements that should roll away from each other, yet somehow created strange, unstable shapes full of life.​

    When I learned we’d work together, I didn’t act surprised. In my head, and I’m sure in hers as well, a sentence flashed like a warning and a dare:
    “This is going to be interesting.”

    Spoiler Alert: It was indeed.

    Odyssey (my path to Greece)

    My path to this island started long before she showed up. I landed in Greece in 1996, drawn into tourism like it was the only language my soul really understood. I started in a club for Italians, French, and Greeks, learning to read people, calm storms, and make strangers feel at home.

    In 2005 I told myself, “Let’s try something different… Mykonos”. The island agreed. It kept me there until 2017, and taught me a choreography of freedom, madness, and delirio season after season. Eventually, the dance ended, and so did my time there.

    Her baptism by fire on the island

    She arrived much later, in 2019, with dreams and hopes. But “reality” had other plans. No one picked her up, and she found herself in a ten square meters room with four beds already taken. No AC, no fan, and food that barely qualified as such. Just enough to keep the body going while the dream kept slipping away like sand through her fingers. She could count only on this inner compass telling her it was worth it, that the discomfort was not a mistake. It was an initiation.

    ​

    A difficult allergy

    When our paths finally crossed, it was like watching two universes collide. I was the socially awkward one, the guy who might show up as Spider-man (or other superheroes) because helping gave me a sense of purpose. She was the office‑armoured warrior whose seriousness hid a molten, dangerous core. We both started from entry‑level roles in the same company and moved up not because we were obedient, but because we were relentless, precise, and deeply allergic to bullshit, like two opposite poles of a magnet – chaos and structure, instinct and planning – repelling and attracting, yet unstoppable when aligned.​

    Lifted up to be used

    Management saw our power and at first lifted us up high, feeding on our sense of responsibility and love for the job. Every time there was a mission impossible, they sent us in – long nights, impossible deadlines, last‑minute fires – and we kept saying “yes” because the teams mattered and integrity mattered. Over time, that over‑delivery turned into an unspoken contract: if we could pull off miracles once, then surely we could be pushed forever.​

    The crime of saying no

    At some point something shifted inside us: the same history of miracles became our inner permission to start saying “no.” No to unsafe expectations, no to sacrificing agents just to protect management’s blatant incompetence, no to pretending everything was fine when everyone could see it was not. Management reacted exactly as fragile systems do: “How dare they say no? How dare they put the agents first, or how dare they expose what we fail even at hiding?”. Her courage became their excuse. My honesty became their threat.

    The Fall From Grace

    The end came without ceremonies, as if years of service, ideas, and victories could be erased with one cold click. I was backstabbed by a system built to allow certain people — usually the least deserving — to minimize others and steal credit, rewarded while hiding their incompetence. Every time I pointed at the obvious, it was reframed as my flaw. Every time she refused to comply blindly or pointed out the truth, she was turned into the scapegoat instead of the mirror. At the end, she was left questioning her future few months after that I was left questioning my worth. Two leaders suddenly unplugged from a system we had helped to keep alive.

    What really made us great

    Distance gave clarity:
    Our teams thrived not because of logos or hierarchy, but because of the stubborn, precise energy between us.
    We knew exactly who did what, how to balance strengths, how to merge polarities into one shared frequency of success.

    Where others predicted conflict, our people experienced harmony — structure meeting improvisation, logic meeting instinct, mercury dancing with water.

    LOST (& found) or Seven Ways to Break Someone Completely.

    After the layoff, I was completely LOST.

    Out of touch from a reality that seemed to follow a checklist titled “Seven Ways to Break Someone Completely.” Until I decided, after 6 months, it was time to fight back even if I wasn’t ready.

    I reached out.. that quantum stuff was kind of saying: “It’s not over yet”. We were both overflowing with ideas, but something essential was missing: that shared field where we complemented each other without needing to over‑explain. I tried to build a new project alone, an AI-native app for travelers dealing with flight delays and cancellations. A system to check eligibility for free and generate the proper escalation letters with a subscription. An Instagram account opened, a Facebook page on its way and trying to make Meta Business Suite works while writing this.

    I built an Etsy shop with fully-ready digital travel-disruption kits while creating static YouTube videos on my channel, where two AIs discuss and critique my work (meta and hilarious) and I wrote, designed, studied, pushed…

    All while working two jobs, barely sleeping, burning out, experiencing real panic when Anthropic disabled my account (Claude) without warning, killing months of work in a second. Not giving up.

    She was somewhere else in space and time, carrying her own questions and scars… but still tuned to the same hidden frequency.​

    Asking for help

    Then came the moment I never expected from myself: I asked her for help.
    No theatrics.
    No long business plans.
    Just a message between the lines, the kind you can read only if you’ve fought the same battles:

    “This is what I’m building. This is why.
    You’re the one who’ll understand without needing the manual.”

    She understood the why without needing the how.
    And when she commits, she never does it halfway.

    Order, chaos, and magic in the new project

    In the old world, I was often the order in the chaos, the one who turned storms into strategies and last‑minute disasters into processes. This time, as she reminded me, there is magic in the chaos – in not having everything perfectly planned, in experimenting, iterating, allowing something new to be born from apparent disorder, because chaos is also the raw material of creativity and change. Now we’re building something stubborn, raw, and real:
    A project where no one is punished for saying no.
    Where competence is not a threat.
    Where integrity is the baseline, not a liability.

    On the same frequency again

    This new chapter is not shiny or easy; it is made of doubts, debts, sleepless nights, and a lot of trial‑and‑error. Yet, just like in those quantum metaphors, the moment we chose to observe and commit to this shared reality, new possibilities appeared where before there were only fear and exhaustion, like a low‑probability event that still changes everything. Two trajectories that should have drifted apart are entangled again – older, a bit more wounded, but finally free to bend at least a corner of the world toward what we believe in… where there is still order, still chaos, and in between, for us, always, a bit of magic.

    “This is the girl”

    She’s the one who entered my story in the one version of the universe where I needed to break, rebuild, and — finally — ask for help.

    She’s the other polarity in the circuit we’re building now.
    Logic and burnout meeting chaos and magic, not canceling each other, but sparking something new.

    The story is not over.
    Work in progress.

    She is Miss K.
    And we’re ready to roll.

    In this version of the universe, we are exactly where we shouldn’t be, and exactly where we’re meant to be.

    Stay tuned… and SUBSCRIBE!

    Disclaimer: My blog post is a personal narrative that uses these cultural references to set a mood (what legally falls under “freedom of expression” and “quotation” contexts).

    The “Svensson” Ruling (CJEU Case C-466/12):
    In a landmark 2014 ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that embedding a video (or linking to it) that is already freely available to the public on a legitimate website (like YouTube) does not constitute a “communication to the new public.”

  • 53. Another Year, Another Chance, 25 Life Lessons

    53. Another Year, Another Chance, 25 Life Lessons

    “53???!!!! I was 40 few months ago!”

    Today marks another trip around the sun, and while scrolling on my feed I found these “25 Things About Life I wish I had known 10 years ago” (let’s say at least 30.. 10 years for me it kinda feels like “few weeks ago”) and now I find myself in that reflective mood that birthdays tend to bring, while getting ready to go to work. Instead of dwelling on what I haven’t accomplished, I’m choosing to focus on the wisdom that’s been quietly accumulating through the years of juggling multiple jobs, building dreams, and learning to navigate this beautiful mess we call life.

    These lessons aren’t just philosophy—they’re reminders I desperately need to hear myself. Maybe you need to hear some of them too.

    The Ones That Keep Me Going

    “Struggle is good.” This isn’t toxic positivity—it’s truth. Every challenge I’ve faced while working multiple jobs, every late night spent building something meaningful, every moment I’ve wanted to quit but didn’t… these struggles aren’t obstacles. They’re the foundation being laid for something bigger.

    “Exercise daily.” Here’s my reality check moment. Between two jobs and building a business, finding time for the gym feels impossible. But “exercise daily” doesn’t mean two-hour gym sessions. It means taking the stairs. Walking during phone calls. Dancing while I cook. Moving my body because it’s the only one I’ve got, and it needs to carry me through all these dreams I’m chasing.

    “Don’t care about what people think.” Working multiple jobs while pursuing creative projects means constantly explaining myself. Why am I writing about travel when I could focus on one “stable” career? Why am I building something when I already have work? The answer is simple: because this is my life, and their opinions aren’t paying my bills or fulfilling my dreams.

    The Gentle Reminders I Need

    “Rest before you are tired.” This one hits hard. When you’re constantly in survival mode, rest feels like luxury you can’t afford. But I’m learning that rest isn’t earned—it’s essential. Even if it’s just ten minutes with a cup of coffee, watching the sunrise before the day begins.

    “Create something.” Not for legacy or grand purposes, but because creating gives back to yourself. This blog, these words, these connections—they’re proof that even in the midst of chaos, I’m still building something meaningful.

    “Money isn’t important”—but financial freedom is. There’s a difference between obsessing over money and recognizing that financial stability gives you choices. Every extra shift, every client project, every small step forward is building toward the freedom to choose my time, my projects, my life.

    The Ones That Light the Way Forward

    “Take more risks.” Not reckless ones, but calculated leaps toward the life I want. Starting this blog was a risk. Sharing my experiences is a risk. But playing it safe has never led anyone to extraordinary places.

    “Learn every day.” Sometimes it’s from books, sometimes from mistakes, often from the people around me who are fighting their own battles. Every conversation, every setback, every small victory teaches something.

    “Take action.” This is the big one. The lesson that ties everything together. Dreams without action remain dreams. Plans without execution remain plans. The gap between where I am and where I want to be closes one action at a time.

    What This Year Holds

    I’m not making grand proclamations about complete life overhauls. Instead, I’m committing to small, sustainable changes:

    • Moving my body every single day, even if it’s just for ten minutes
    • Protecting my energy like the finite resource it is
    • Creating consistently, even when I don’t feel inspired
    • Taking calculated risks that align with my values
    • Learning from every experience, especially the difficult ones

    The truth is, I don’t have all the answers. Like Socrates said, “You and I know nothing at all. So we have to keep learning.” But I do know this: every birthday is proof that you’ve survived everything life has thrown at you so far. That’s not nothing. That’s everything.

    Here’s to another year of building, creating, learning, and becoming. Here’s to the messy, imperfect, beautiful journey of figuring it out as we go.

    What lessons are you carrying into your next year?

  • Why I Started ‘A Quiet Work’: My Journey from Burnout to Building My Own Path

    Why I Started ‘A Quiet Work’: My Journey from Burnout to Building My Own Path

    What now?

    For nearly 30 years, I’ve lived and breathed the tourism industry. I’ve managed the chaos, solved the unforeseen problems, and navigated the currents that travelers rarely get to see. I built a career on my expertise and my integrity.

    Recently, following the consequences of standing my ground for what was right while trying to deal with heavy personal losses, I found myself outside of that corporate world, faced with a question that hits hard: What now?

    And the answer became ‘A Quiet Work.’

    This isn’t just a project for me. This is an act of reclaiming my own story. It’s the decision to take three decades of hard-won experience and build something that is truly mine—not for someone else’s bottom line, but for my own stability and on my own terms.

    It’s about moving from a place of constant anxiety about making it to the end of the month, to a place of financial independence, built with my own two hands.

    It’s about taking back control.

    Why is this the right thing to do?

    Because it’s built on values I refused to compromise:

    • Real Value: I’m not selling fluff. I’m packaging my deep, practical knowledge about travel’s real problems—overbookings, cancellations—to genuinely help people navigate situations that cost them time and money.
    • Strength from Struggle: I’m channeling the frustration of my own journey into a solution, not just for myself, but for others who feel lost in the chaos.
    • My Own Terms: This is about building a business where integrity is the foundation. It’s my chance to create the kind of transparent, honest resource I always wished existed.

    Words Remain

    So, that’s my story, and that’s the ‘why’ behind this new beginning.

    But I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. What about you? Are you feeling that same pull to take back control, to build something that truly belongs to you?

    “A Quiet Work” is the foundation of my next chapter, but I hope it can also be a space for anyone who believes in moving forward with quiet determination. This is our place to figure things out.

    We’ll take it one quiet step at a time.

    If this journey resonates with you and you don’t want to miss a single step, the best way to stay connected is by subscribing to the newsletter.

    Leave a comment below or write me to [email protected] and tell me: what’s one thing you’re trying to build for yourself right now and what’s holding you back?

    Guard your energy. Guard your idea.

    Whatever you’re building — protect it.
    Whatever you’re dreaming — don’t explain it.

    “What’s next.”(*)

    Everything.

    Thank you for being here.

    This is not another travel blog.
    It’s a toolkit for quiet builders, obsessed with focus, and real solutions — in travel and in life.

    You’ll find:
    ✦ Insider guides for smart travelers
    ✦ Tools for creators, digital nomads & thinkers
    ✦ True stories from behind the scenes

    (*) The Leftovers Season 1 Episode 6