Where to play

“Imagine that you were going to be born 24 hours from now. […] You don’t know whether you’re going to be born black or white. You don’t know whether you’re going to be born male or female. […]. You don’t know whether you’re going to be born in the United States or Afghanistan. In other words, you’re going to participate in 24 hours in what I call the ovarian lottery. It’s the most important event in which you’ll ever participate. It’s going to determine way more than what school you go to, how hard you work, all kinds of things. You’re going to get one ball drawn out of a barrel that probably contains 5.7 billion balls now, and that’s you”. Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Shareholders Meeting in 1997.

As you read this, you are probably evaluating the outcome of your “ovarian lottery” draw. You can’t really change the result. Fortunately, you can still influence elements that will heavily determine your success in life. Where you play is one of them.

Image by Slot Don Pics

We are Marc and Candela, from Barcelona and Valencia respectively. We both moved to Madrid, where educational and professional opportunities were better for us, and worked as management consultants at Bain & Company. After some time, we started to think about the idea of moving to a location that better suited our lifestyle preferences (work-life balance, proximity to the ocean and mountains, higher salaries, etc.).

We are now writing this from Sydney, Australia.

What determines your odds of being successful? Capitalist societies place immense importance on meritocracy as a determinant of advancement but, sadly, this does not paint a complete picture. We place too much emphasis on our willpower to drive change and forget that our external environment has a huge, often overlooked, impact on our chances to progress.

We, humans, are somewhat allergic to the idea that external factors have a bigger influence on our destiny than we give it credit for. So much so, that we ignore that the single, biggest driver of your success in life is the place you are born to.

Are you currently living in the best location (neighbourhood, city, country, continent) for you to thrive, given your preferences and capabilities? Most likely not. Stepping back for a second, you can either try to change your environment or move to a new one. Given the complexity of the former (realistically, the effort and resources required to change it as an individual might be out of reach), the latter is usually a more viable alternative.

We acknowledge there are barriers to moving to a new location (economic, regulatory, physical, and emotional), but do not despair: the prize could be a lifetime of opportunity.

You can break down where to play into (a) how attractive is the market, and (b) the individual strengths that will provide you with a competitive advantage.

a) A good place to start might be to consider a few of the following (this list is not comprehensive, rather what we cared about, so think about what matters most to you):

• Language: Which languages are you fluent in? Try to leverage these to make your life easier
• Economy:
  ○ Job opportunities: Are businesses hiring? Turn on your LinkedIn alerts and scan the market
  ○ Disposable income: Will you be better off financially? What is the average salary in your field? What will be your cost of living? What would be your take-home pay after taxes?
  ○ Currency: Will you be paid in a reliable currency that holds value over time?
• Visa/workforce restrictions: What permissions do you need to work in that market? Check whether businesses sponsor ex-pats
• Family and friends: How long would it take you to fly home in case of an emergency? What is the time difference? How much does it cost to return home? Do you know anyone in your new destination?
• Location: Do you enjoy that particular climate? Does the landscape (e.g. nature/city) suit your interests?
• Culture: Are the key values of that society aligned to yours?
• Healthcare: Can you afford to get sick?
• Safety: Can you walk around safely? Can you trust the authorities?

b) As per your competitive edge, examine which particular skills you possess, and how relevant and unique they are vs. the status quo in the market. Would you label yourself as a scarce resource? Double down on building and communicating your best selling attributes to make yourself more valuable and open doors.

As to how to move to your chosen location, there are a few ways in which you can do it. You can either fly solo and seek for opportunities on your own or, if you work at an international firm, you can try to arrange for an intracompany transfer.

In any case, it is a good idea to test it first: try going on holiday, studying, or applying for an internship. Might be worth checking before committing.

Bear in mind that the outcome of this mental exercise is not the same for everyone; consider what makes sense in your situation. Maybe you are in the right place. Maybe you want to move somewhere else, though not forever. This exercise will be useful to you to the extent that you challenge yourself.

Let us give you an overview of what this process looked like for us.

We weighed up the factors that were key to us and compared all alternatives relative to staying in Madrid:

1. We wanted to leverage the fact that we are fluent in Spanish and English, and therefore we considered places with either of these as native languages
2. The Australian market had a strong and growing economy, and based on job listings there was a shortage of people with the business skills we had developed, which meant we could be in high demand
3. Bain & Company had an office in Sydney, and there were a few working-visa options
4. We are both passionate about being outdoors and having close contact with nature, ocean and forests in particular, which automatically ruled out many desirable but inland areas
5. It is literally on the opposite side of the world to Spain, but technology makes it really easy to communicate nowadays and we had a few friends living there
6. Australia is famous worldwide for its work-life balance
7. Marc had previously been to Australia on holidays and loved it

BINGO!

Was moving to Sydney good for us? We left 3 years ago, and so far so good! We live by the ocean, go on weekly adventure trips to amazing places, have a veggie patch at home, and enjoy a great work-life balance. Average salaries in Sydney are ~110% higher (after tax) than those in Madrid, whereas the average cost of living only increases by ~48% (Sydney vs. Madrid). It is far away from “home”, but we manage to stay in touch and visit from time to time.

Overall, it is working great for us.

With all of this in mind, are you in your ideal location? If the answer is “no”, perhaps it is a good time to give it a thought. Worst case scenario, you go back “home” and have a good story to tell.

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.