Are You Where You Live?

I was in a meeting today where there was a lively discussion about vendor selection.  One of the participants quoted someone ( and I wish I could remember who now! ), basically saying that the future of the next generation will largely be determined by where you call home.  Later in that same call, there was a reference made to a potential vendor wherein it was said “They are in Virginia, and when I hear Virginia I think established.”

This is a pretty interesting question to think about.  One of the promises of the Internet is we like to tout is “It doesn’t matter where you live!”  However, I am not sure that is really true.  There are definite cultural biases that play into how you are perceived based on where you live (even if you are not from there originally).  For instance, living in the South for the last few years, there are those here that will not work with people from the Northeast because they don’t trust them.  And I know personally (having grown up there) that people from the Northeast think southerners are ignorant, backwoods hicks.  Incidentally, neither of these stereotypes are true in my experience, but perception is reality in many cases.

That’s interesting, but what is more interesting to me is that I think this question is not so much about biases, but about opportunity.  If you live in Boston or New York or LA or obviously the Valley, there is simply more going on.  There are more people that are going to be like you or have the same interests or have the same passions.  You have a better chance to find new opportunities and meet new people and do interesting things.  You pay a price for it, but I think the advantage is real.

My wife and I have thought about moving, not necessarily for this reason explicitly, but I think certainly implicitly.  Being a part of this conversation today brought all of my thinking of the last few months into sharper focus.  I like it when I get the “aha!” moment in an unexpected place.

The counter to this argument is someone like Tim Ferriss or Chris Guillebeau.  These guys would be who they are, regardless of where they are.  Maybe it’s not a question of where you live, but what you want to become and how that should drive where you live.

Are we a product of where we live?  Or do we make our own reality regardless of where we live?  What do you think?