GetRight, I'm from Fort Lauderdale Florida and I know *exactly* how you feel.
For me I felt the people in South Florida were slower paced and I felt that living in a beach non-business community held me back, so 2 months ago I moved to Santa Clara, CA. Silicon Valley with a startup.
Its only been 2 months but so far it's been very good emotionally but bad financially.
The good:
1. The people here speak business. I network with people and make friends who are very smart, way smarter than me and understand *exactly* what I'm doing. In Florida I would talk business with friends who didn't care, they just want to go to the beach and get to Happy Hour. They had no drive. I always felt alone.
When you move to a big city its filled with motivated people who are all "Chasing after the golden ring".
I pay to go to a workspace and I see people who work at Google, Facebook, Apple all the time. It does make you feel good to hang with a crowd like this.
2. Being around smart hardworking people has really given me a second wind and pushed me to work harder. Everyday I start working late morning and stop around midnight.
Having a high rent to pay and expenses has lit a fire under my butt to work harder and I've gotten a lot done, its been good inspiration.
3. Lots of great seminars to learn new things in a business city. There's always something happening to go to if you want.
The bad:
1. Money! It is SO expensive to live here. A decent 1 bedroom apartment is like $1,500 in the lower part of Silicon Valley, and its super boring here. When work is over theres nothing to do but walk in the park. Everything here closes around 9-10pm.
And if you want to go in/near San Francisco for more nightlife then its $1,900 for a studio, $2,400/mo for a small 1 bedroom. No parking, no storage.
Prices on Craigslist look lower, but when you arrive you realize the cheaper things are in bad neighborhoods you wouldnt want to live in. And when you come you see there are literally 12 other people looking at the same apartment at the same time as you, so you have to make a great bid to get it. Also the cheaper apartments in cities are crammed together making them cheaper, but you can hear *everything*. I could hear my neighbor snoring, and the other neighbor blowing her nose and hitting the toilet paper roll. It was awful.
2. More Money! in Florida there is no state tax and that is *huge* for me. That saved me a lot of money and headaches from having to file it.
Here in California the taxes are very high.
Also getting an LLC here is very expensive, insurance costs, car & transportation costs.
So with the added costs I pretty much doubled my business costs in exchange for being around hard working smart people who can inspire me. Is it worth it? I dont know yet.
3. Money starts running out! You see the success stories about Silicon Valley but you dont see the people who failed or struggling. I see it often. I've seen a few people living in their cars, or parked a mobile home and secretly living in co-working spaces. Because Im there until very late I see it. Its kind of gross to go to the bathroom and see a "professional" shaving and washing his body in the sink of a professional work space you pay to go to. And sleeping there.
If you look at the parking lot of the work spaces you dont see Bentley's, Rolls, Mercedes, you see 10 year old Toyota corollas, civics, chevys, old beatup cars.
In Florida I saw Bentleys all the time.
I feel like I'm in LA with struggling actors, or in NY with struggling musicians. The news shows you the successes but not the failures, who are way way more.
4. Sometimes you meet people who are big talkers but accomplished nothing. Or they had 1 success 10 years ago and they're still living off it and they can give bad advice. I've met a few and thank god I didnt lose my money investing on their new business ideas, but you can get caught up in it.
5. The crowds, the traffic and waiting in very very long lines for everything. In Florida at the supermarket if there were 3 people ahead of me that would be annoying. Here you can find 8 people ahead of you in line and its no big deal, you get used to being in line for 15 minutes. Standing up on the train for an hour because theres no seats, its not fun.
To be honest I wish I could turn back the clock 3 months, cancel my ticket never come here. Just cancel everything.
If I had to do it over again I would either:
1. Use the money I saved living in Florida and really get cranking while I was there and worked harder to network. And not felt I had to move to where "The big boys play" in order to get moving faster.
With the money I saved I could have rented a bigger place in FL and hired someone to help me cheaper, instead of giving it to more taxes.
or
2. Moved to a smaller-big city like Phoenix, Denver, SLC, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Atlanta, Austin and avoided the big elite cities like NYC or SF. I already know Im not staying in CA because its ridiculously expensive and I'll never be able to buy property here. Whereas in Florida I lived a lot nicer with a lot less stress.
But if you can easily afford to pay the prices, then I say go for it. It really does make a difference mentally to be around people who speed you up vs people who slow you down.
hth
For me I felt the people in South Florida were slower paced and I felt that living in a beach non-business community held me back, so 2 months ago I moved to Santa Clara, CA. Silicon Valley with a startup.
Its only been 2 months but so far it's been very good emotionally but bad financially.
The good:
1. The people here speak business. I network with people and make friends who are very smart, way smarter than me and understand *exactly* what I'm doing. In Florida I would talk business with friends who didn't care, they just want to go to the beach and get to Happy Hour. They had no drive. I always felt alone.
When you move to a big city its filled with motivated people who are all "Chasing after the golden ring".
I pay to go to a workspace and I see people who work at Google, Facebook, Apple all the time. It does make you feel good to hang with a crowd like this.
2. Being around smart hardworking people has really given me a second wind and pushed me to work harder. Everyday I start working late morning and stop around midnight.
Having a high rent to pay and expenses has lit a fire under my butt to work harder and I've gotten a lot done, its been good inspiration.
3. Lots of great seminars to learn new things in a business city. There's always something happening to go to if you want.
The bad:
1. Money! It is SO expensive to live here. A decent 1 bedroom apartment is like $1,500 in the lower part of Silicon Valley, and its super boring here. When work is over theres nothing to do but walk in the park. Everything here closes around 9-10pm.
And if you want to go in/near San Francisco for more nightlife then its $1,900 for a studio, $2,400/mo for a small 1 bedroom. No parking, no storage.
Prices on Craigslist look lower, but when you arrive you realize the cheaper things are in bad neighborhoods you wouldnt want to live in. And when you come you see there are literally 12 other people looking at the same apartment at the same time as you, so you have to make a great bid to get it. Also the cheaper apartments in cities are crammed together making them cheaper, but you can hear *everything*. I could hear my neighbor snoring, and the other neighbor blowing her nose and hitting the toilet paper roll. It was awful.
2. More Money! in Florida there is no state tax and that is *huge* for me. That saved me a lot of money and headaches from having to file it.
Here in California the taxes are very high.
Also getting an LLC here is very expensive, insurance costs, car & transportation costs.
So with the added costs I pretty much doubled my business costs in exchange for being around hard working smart people who can inspire me. Is it worth it? I dont know yet.
3. Money starts running out! You see the success stories about Silicon Valley but you dont see the people who failed or struggling. I see it often. I've seen a few people living in their cars, or parked a mobile home and secretly living in co-working spaces. Because Im there until very late I see it. Its kind of gross to go to the bathroom and see a "professional" shaving and washing his body in the sink of a professional work space you pay to go to. And sleeping there.
If you look at the parking lot of the work spaces you dont see Bentley's, Rolls, Mercedes, you see 10 year old Toyota corollas, civics, chevys, old beatup cars.
In Florida I saw Bentleys all the time.
I feel like I'm in LA with struggling actors, or in NY with struggling musicians. The news shows you the successes but not the failures, who are way way more.
4. Sometimes you meet people who are big talkers but accomplished nothing. Or they had 1 success 10 years ago and they're still living off it and they can give bad advice. I've met a few and thank god I didnt lose my money investing on their new business ideas, but you can get caught up in it.
5. The crowds, the traffic and waiting in very very long lines for everything. In Florida at the supermarket if there were 3 people ahead of me that would be annoying. Here you can find 8 people ahead of you in line and its no big deal, you get used to being in line for 15 minutes. Standing up on the train for an hour because theres no seats, its not fun.
To be honest I wish I could turn back the clock 3 months, cancel my ticket never come here. Just cancel everything.
If I had to do it over again I would either:
1. Use the money I saved living in Florida and really get cranking while I was there and worked harder to network. And not felt I had to move to where "The big boys play" in order to get moving faster.
With the money I saved I could have rented a bigger place in FL and hired someone to help me cheaper, instead of giving it to more taxes.
or
2. Moved to a smaller-big city like Phoenix, Denver, SLC, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Atlanta, Austin and avoided the big elite cities like NYC or SF. I already know Im not staying in CA because its ridiculously expensive and I'll never be able to buy property here. Whereas in Florida I lived a lot nicer with a lot less stress.
But if you can easily afford to pay the prices, then I say go for it. It really does make a difference mentally to be around people who speed you up vs people who slow you down.
hth
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