Sancho Villaseca, a 26-year-old Spanish entrepreneur in Indonesia: “I didn't want to spend my life in vans, so I left everything to open a boxing gym where local kids could smile again.”

Can you imagine leaving everything behind your business, your routine, your apartment in Madrid to start over on a remote island in Indonesia? Swapping the noise of the city for the sound of the waves, vans for a punching bag, and work emails for the laughter of children who used to spend their nights selling bracelets on the street.

For Sancho Villaseca, it's not a fantasy or an improvised spiritual retreat, but rather his new life on Lombok, a neighboring island of Bali, where he created The Little Warriors Project , a charity gym that funds free boxing classes for local children.

There, among rice fields, temples, and wild beaches, Sancho builds something more than a sports center: he creates a second chance for the children and also for himself, after realizing he didn't want to spend his life "among vans."

In this interview with La Vanguardia, the Madrid native explains how he went from being self-employed in Spain to becoming a social entrepreneur in Indonesia, and how boxing became his way of giving back to the world.

You had a small transport company in Madrid and had managed to become independent. What made you leave everything and leave Spain?

The main reason was that I didn't see myself spending time among vans until retirement. It wasn't fulfilling, and even though I had my business and was making a living from it, I felt it wasn't the path I wanted to follow. I saw I still had time and room to maneuver, and I thought, "If I don't try it now, when will I?" I wanted to find another way to live, not just survive. So I decided to stop, look outside the box, and try something different before the routine completely consumed me.

Even so, you were self-employed and had managed to make a living from it. What do you think is going wrong in Spain that makes even young entrepreneurs feel so suffocated?

Now that I look back, I realize that in Spain, you're stuck on a hamster wheel. You think if things aren't going well, it's your fault, that you're not working hard enough, but the system doesn't make it easy. When I went to Australia, I was surprised that being self-employed there is free until you earn about $20,000 a year. In Spain, on the other hand, you start the month with a €300 self-employed fee, €400 for rent, and more than €100 for weekly groceries. You start off in the network. Then you pay for the gym, the phone, the insurance... And of course, it's impossible to get off the ground like that.

I wanted to find another way to live, not just survive.

Sancho Villaseca