Centers of Influence

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This past weekend I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the first time to visit one of my best friends from college.

Put bluntly, it was freakin’ awesome.

From the moment you touch down in the center of Grand Teton National Park, you are immersed in another world.

Herds of elk greet you as you drive down the ice-slicked road from the airport to downtown Jackson.

Stepping out of the car, several white-tailed deer curiously peer from only a few yards away.

The Grand Teton looms above from every direction, reminding you just how small you are.

With 97% of the land protected in Teton County and only the remaining 3% available for private use, the tiny town of a reported 11,000 people is quite the departure from the big cities many of my colleagues (and myself) flocked to after graduation.

Sure, the recreational opportunities are world-class, but choosing to live in the least-populated state in the country doesn’t seem like the right career move post-university.

Why would anyone young and ambitious spend their first years out of school in a resort town the size of a New York City block?

Interestingly, it wasn’t only the stunning mountaintops or world-class skiing that led him and his girlfriend to move there after graduation.

Despite being the least populated in the country, the Equality State boasts more billionaires per capita than anywhere in the U.S.A.

Unsurprisingly, the vacation haven of Jackson Hole is the epicenter of it all.

Sitting at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar or on the ski lift next to you is more likely than not to be someone incredibly successful to listen to, learn from, and help propel you in your career.

If you can afford to live there, you will be constantly surrounded by other people who not only are successful but enjoy many of the same hobbies you do.

The place you live affects more than just your window view in the morning.

It can quite literally change your career, social circle, and lifestyle.

Terminally Clustered

Detroit.

Palo Alto.

N.Y.C.

What do they all have in common? They are the best examples of what academics call, “Agglomeration Economies”.

Like celebs in Jackson Hole, it is common for members of the same industry or groups to cluster. When clustered, we see industry efficiencies improve, greater innovation, and higher economic productivity.

The proximity of auto-makers in Detroit or tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley leads to positive externalities, or benefits, for all.

As a young professional, it is essential to go to those hubs where the industry you desire clusters.

These are going to be the places with the greatest competition, but also the locations with the most career opportunities. Think Nashville for music or D.C. for politics.

Practically every industry you can think of can be found in any one of the big cities within the U.S.

The application of agglomeration economics doesn’t stop in the professional world. The city you live in and the places you frequent will largely define those closest to you: your friends.

Functional Friendships

Up until you leave your hometown, your closest friends are a function of the sports your parents enrolled you in, the clubs you joined, and the schools you attended.

If you went to a high school with 300 other students, you have an incredibly limited sample of potential friends.

For a lucky few, they find lifelong buddies that extend far beyond the day they graduate at 18. Most others discard these friends the minute they enter college.

This may initially seem surprising, but it is really quite simple.

Once you go to college, the pool of prospective friends you could have grows significantly. Now that you are in a very select environment with like-minded individuals, it is far easier to find and choose friends who share similar backgrounds, interests, and ambitions.

College majors, greek life, and hundreds of varying clubs only further streamline this process to find exactly those people you want to spend time with.

After school, everything changes.

Unless you decide to move to the same city as all of your friends or stay in your college town, your network of friends diminishes significantly.

Since moving to California, it’s been much more difficult to maintain relationships with the very people I spent almost every day with back on campus.

Despite all our shared memories, our lack of proximity makes those pre-class coffee chats and impromptu hangouts on Thursday nights impossible.

Similarly, making new friends post-college has been much more difficult than when I was in school. You simply don’t have those built-in mechanisms that make finding new friends easy.

If you do move to a new place, you have to be super intentional about the places you spend your time.

Those locations, whether they be the boxing gym or the nightclub will be where you derive these new buddies.

If you are in a new city, think carefully about what options exist to meet people like yourself and where you are spending your free time.

Your network will derive solely from these places.

Skyscrapers Abound

While urban hubs like Chicago or N.Y.C. might bring the greatest density of jobs and other young people, you might pay the price for it in your lifestyle.

I have a few different friends I have talked to out in NYC who point to the challenges of living in a concrete jungle.

The food is fantastic. The bars are open and packed from dusk to dawn. There are always interesting people to meet.

The problem is it is difficult to escape the city that never sleeps.

Days are spent sitting at the office while nights are spent sitting on the couch. Most weekends are expended in a sweaty, packed bar or on another Netflix series crammed in their tiny apartment.

Options to get out into nature or find a space all to themselves are incredibly limited.

When they do finally have the chance to skip town and leave the busyness of city-dwelling behind for something more serene, they are often subject to hours of traffic or commuting that end up making the retreat more of a hassle than an opportunity to relax.

I think this is a large part of why more Americans are moving to mid-sized hubs like Boise or Tampa which offer both urban dwelling and recreational opportunities.

The lifestyle you lead is dependent on your access to the activities you enjoy.

We all have different preferences when it comes to how we want to live.

The scary part is, that unless you seek out different locations, you may be stuck in a place not best suited to you.

It is doubtful that the town you grew up in or the first place you move to after college is the best one for you to live in.

I can only encourage you to seek out those destinations that may at the moment only seem like a “vacation spot”.

If you want to live somewhere that lights you up, there has never been a better time in history to do so…make it happen!

Transitioning from full-time student to full-time employee has been a big shock.

When I was in college, I could get away with skipping class for another beer at Harry’s or cram all my work into a small part of my week leaving the rest for fun.

Life in the real world is a bit different. My 20 sporadic hours a week of studying have been replaced by 40+ regimented hours in the office.

While I certainly appreciated the flexibility I had at school, there was not much to do in the cornfields of Indiana, especially on my $10 an hour as a Teaching Assistant.

Stepping into the real world gives you both disposable income and a high degree of choice.

If you move someplace where you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor or relax outside of work, it’s not going to be in your best interest to stay for the long haul.

Your physical and mental health will suffer when you aren’t able to do the very things that fire you up in the morning.

Having the opportunity to mountain bike before work or hit a hike afterward has made my life so much richer, despite these activities not costing a dime.

Assuming you are going to spend a significant amount of your days working, it is in your best interest to do so in a location that maximizes the value of the dollars you earn.

This way, when you aren’t working you are living. That is the goal after all, isn’t it?

A Lesson in Economics

To me, choosing where to live is just a big optimization problem.

When I was in college and thought about where I wanted to be after school, I lengthily considered the following three factors: job prospects, recreational opportunities, and community.

I knew that finding the optimal blend of these elements was essential if I was to feel fulfilled professionally, personally, and socially.

The “Jobs” input represents the career opportunities I have in that location and what my compensation/benefits would be.

The “Recreation” category encompassed the activities easily available to me both during the week and on the weekends.

The “Community” input represents the types of individuals I would be most likely to meet and/or be surrounded by.

I knew that if I could determine the optimal mix of these three elements, I could cover 80%+ of what I would need to live in a place where I could quickly develop in my career while enjoying my daily life.

While everyone may weigh these factors differently, at the end of the day, the goal is to find the maximized combination of the three.

I’ll be the first to admit that the equation above is a crude representation lacking other important factors (i.e. cost of living, safety) to consider when picking where to live.

That being said, I would encourage you to try a similar exercise and expand on this idea.

By analyzing the inputs most important to you when determining where to relocate and their relative weights, you can gain a much better perspective on what it is you desire.

When it comes to your professional, personal, and social well-being, where you are matters.

Pick carefully, and you may find your very own Jackson Hole to call, “home”.

-John Henry

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