Why do many people who achieve great things choose to maintain physical or legal distance from their home country?
On the surface, this phenomenon may seem to involve betrayal or escape, but from a strategic perspective, there are several fundamental reasons behind it:
Spatial boundaries determine action boundaries.
In places where the regulatory system is opaque, speech is restricted, and property rights lack stable protection, entrepreneurs or innovators face not institutional incentives but institutional uncertainty.
If successful, the state claims ownership; if failed, one goes to prison.
When you move your entity, registration, or even personal identity to a more open legal jurisdiction—such as the Cayman Islands, Dubai, or Singapore—you gain institutional immunity. Many times, distancing from one’s homeland is not due to betrayal but to preserve long-term strategic capabilities.
The financial system determines how big things can get.
Capital is the fuel for a project’s growth, not a reward for doing things well.
The financial systems of most developing economies are closed and highly intertwined with power. In this context, financing often requires political connections and resource acquisition rather than relying solely on business models, technical logic, or market demand.
Outside of your homeland, you can settle using USDT/USDC at any time, connect with international VCs, and even directly map shares onto the blockchain for governance token issuance and trading—this represents a completely different growth model.
Social structure affects tolerance for failure.
Homeland often means a society of acquaintances, identity binding, and class solidification. If you come from an ordinary background, making a mistake in the local environment could tarnish your reputation for life; however, in a new legal jurisdiction with a foreign social structure, you have the right to redefine yourself.
This is crucial for those who aim to achieve great things: without a second chance, there is no long-termism.
Geography is a metaphor for politics.
When you are close to the center, the resources you gain may be more abundant, but you are also more easily monitored, manipulated, and treated as a pawn; when you actively create distance and build a nomadic structure (offshore registration, living in different places, multiple identities), you gain negotiation power, choice, and a safety net.
Achieving great things is not about impulse but about structural advantages. And structure often has to be created geographically.
Leaving does not mean severing ties; distance is for self-preservation.
Looking up at the bright moon, I think of my hometown.
In a foreign land but with my heart in Han, how could I ever forget the land of Yan and Huang?
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